FGS 2013 Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Federation of Genealogical Societies’ 2013 Conference is quickly approaching. As most of you know, this year the conference is in Fort Wayne! It will be held August 21-24 at the Grand Wayne Convention Center, which is just a block away from the Allen County Public Library (ACPL). On top of the great lectures, workshops and luncheons, this year’s conference features extended research hours at The Genealogy Center at ACPL.

Conference details and registration are available online at https://www.fgsconference.org. The deadline for the Early Bird Discount is July 1st. Make sure to purchase your tickets to luncheons (especially the IGS luncheon), workshops and special events early to guarantee your spot.

If you would like a print brochure or need some for your local society or library, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/bjhaeok.

The Society Showcase is a great, affordable way for societies to highlight what they offer. FGS Member Societies can reserve a table in the Exhibit Hall for only $25. These tables are for promotional purposes and selling memberships and may not be used for other sales. Learn more about the Society Showcase at https://www.fgsconference.org/exhibits/society-showcase/. If your society would like to sell other items, there are still 1 booth available in the Exhibit Hall (https://www.fgsconference.org/exhibits/).

Society Publicity Contest – FGS Member Societies are also eligible to win a free conference registration to FGS 2014 in San Antonio, Texas if they help publicize FGS 2013 in print and online publications. You can find graphics and articles to use in society publications at https://www.fgsconference.org/media/society-publicity-contest/. You’ll also want to make sure you fill out the contest form and let us know each time your society publicizes the conference in order to be entered to win.

Indiana Librarians will be excited to learn that all conference sessions qualify for LEUs. Librarians’ Day is Tuesday, August 20 with sessions for librarians who serve genealogists. Visit https://www.fgsconference.org/program/librarians-day/ to find out more.

The FGS 2013 Publicity Committee would appreciate your help spreading the word about the conference to your local societies and fellow genealogists.

We hope to see you in Fort Wayne in August!

Tina Lyons
FGS 2013 Publicity Chair
conferencepublicity@fgs.org

- Submitted by Don Counts, TSGS President

Family Reunions and y-DNA

Going to St. Louis this month.

My WEST Family Surname Group # 5 will hold their annual family reunion this year in St. Louis.  Those in attendance will be related to each other proven by matches in their y-DNA.  Many of us have found the documentation of records to confirm the y-DNA results.  In many cases it was the y-DNA that confirmed the documentation.

Our group used FamilyTreeDNA for our testing... Group #5 is still the largest of 39 groups of West families with 19 individuals.  Below is a table of the current status of the West Surname Project.

Number of Y-DNA participants	339
Test kits returned	311
Y-DNA results posted to web page	310
Number of Family groups identified by DNA	39

We now have Y-DNA results for 310 WEST-surname males, identifying 113 unrelated WEST lines. We are a very diverse genetic group. Our surname was adopted many times by people in different locations. As more WEST's participate in the project, the benefit to all WEST researchers increases. 

With so many West families being unrelated, it makes it more difficult to find cousins and very hard to find ancestors.  There are many tools to help us in our research... the more we can use the better chances we will have to break down "brick walls" and to find new cousins to help us research records in courthouses and libraries.  We have been able to resolve many long standing questions for researchers in our line of the West's and we are beginning to coordinate and focus our research more to solve other mysteries concerning our family history.

Our West family reunion is a great opportunity to get together in person and discuss approaches to zero in on issues that we can attack at different levels & directions.

If you have not yet tried DNA testing, check it out... you may be very much surprised at what you might learn.  Long-time TSGS member Chris Myers just recently took a y-DNA test.  Let us all wish him success in what he might learn!

- Compiled by JGWest (AKA: Nate Flynn, the Librarian)