So, I had big ideas about blogging each night while at my cool genealogy conference in DC last month. However, time is always scarce when you are attending a conference. And instead of opting for a nightly report, I instead spent that little extra time sleeping....

Having said that, here is a quick short version of the rest of the trip....

Monday: We went to Library of Congress where the United States tries to house all the books ever published in America. It's a pretty cool place! Very restricted though. To do any real research - and even enter the part of the library seen in the movie, National Treasure 2* - you have to get a Researcher's Card (the card on the left. Look how stealthy I was for taking out the researcher's number on the National Archives researcher card on the right! There will be no fraud using my name! HA!)
* It's the part where they are in "special collections."

To get the card, it's quite a pain if you don't have a lot of time. But Jeff, my fellow co-worker, insisted it would be a great idea. So we ran to ANOTHER building just to get the researcher's card so we could browse the collection and feel like we were "in the movie" for the last 20 minutes it was open. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed - something about you can't take pictures of other people or you go to jail - personally I think the guy was exaggerating - but it was a beautiful building and made the historian part of me just drool. (I've included an official picture...)


The next day we had some more great classes...I won't bore you with the details. But I did get to look at some original pension records for my ancestor, Matthew Ward who lived in Crawford County, Illinois. He actually served in two wars - the Mexican War in 1846 and the Civil War in 1863. To the left is a picture of one of the original documents. Cool, huh? Ok, I'm a nerd....

We also visited the Daughters of the American Revolution Library. It's a really pretty library but really not big enough for the collection they now have. I'd also show you a picture, but the DAR are as paranoid as the Federal Government. (which shouldn't surprise some of you!)

After classes on Wednesday, I took the night off and visited my Aunt Laurel and Uncle Darrell Batson in Frederick, Maryland. I took the Metro to the Shady Grove Red line and they took me to a terrific Italian restaurant in Frederick!

Then Uncle Darrell showed me his very cool library he built. (He's in charge of the libraries in Frederick County.) And after almost ruining an old sign they were restoring (DOH!), he showed me his obituary collection for Frederick County. I can't remember how many there are but there are over 250 drawers of obituaries that they started to collect in 1932 from current newspapers and even earlier newspapers. It's very cool!

Thursday was another great day of classes (I know, a broken record), but it also had some excitement! When we left to go get some dinner before ALL of the restaurants in the area closed down before 7pm in the DC metro area (WHY????), there was a torrential downpour that lasted about 20 minutes. I didn't feel like getting soaked for a sub sandwich, so we stayed and finished up some last minute copying of pension and draft records.

Because we were still around, we got to experience the fire alarm going off while in the Research Room. You never want that to happen in the National Archives were all the original records of the Federal Government are housed...luckily it was a false alarm - at least that was what they said. So we spent about 45 minutes waiting to get back inside where our money and possessions were locked up in a locker. Did you know that by law the fire department and homeland security have to show up even if the fire alarm is busted? Yep...good precaution!!

Friday was - you guessed it! - more classes and then the National Institute of Genealogy Research Alumni dinner. We stayed a bit too late at the Archives finishing up more research and headed over to the Hilton/Hyatt/Holiday Inn (yeah, we got a little confused); thus, we were late. Where were the last 4 seats at a table? With the president of the alumni association and the guest speaker. We weren't dressed nicely and we looked quit disheveled. It was truly embarrassing. But alas, they were very kind people and spoke to us anyway. Especially after we told them we worked for the Family History Library. It made us at least interesting and they pumped us for information as well as rumors.

Saturday was the last day of classes and then at noon they gave us our certificate of completion. Yea!! Marj and I felt vindicated and even posed in front of the National Archives scaffolding to prove our achievement.

The rest of the day was for playing...although there wasn't much time. After waiting WAY too long in line, we say the Declaration of Independence and some other cool documents like the Magna Carta housed on the "public" side of the National Archives (you know, the side they ripped off the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure 1).

We also saw a segway tour group - which actually looks very efficient for a big city like DC. The helmets cracked me up though...I also got a good picture of the backside of the Capitol Building at dusk. And that is where I saw my VERY FIRST FIREFLIES!! It was so cool!!! I think that was more exciting then the Capitol building...



We also went to the Jefferson Memorial that was just a stone's throw away from our hotel. As you can see, I'm holding the Washington Memorial. I know, highly original. But it amused us for at least 10 minutes as we tried to get the "perfect picture"


Then I got to see the World War II Memorial for the first time. It was beautiful! And fit in so nicely with the rest of the Mall. The National Park people were not happy because with all the heat people were putting their feet in the fountain and they felt it very disrespectful. I totally agree!

It's a pretty special place to me because my Grandpa George Burnell Batson served in WWII. Also, my Grandma Emily Lang Batson's brother (so my great uncle), Golden Lang, died in a plane crash when he was training to be a fighter pilot. So that war effected my family directly.

It was incredibly hot that afternoon and we sat on some benches to rest a bit. We sat by a WWII veteran, Bob Bridges, and got to talk to him for some time. He was a sweet old man, who lied to get into the service when he was 15 years old to join the war. He ended up making the military his career and served a long time. He told us about some really hard experiences as well as some crazy kid stuff they did in the service. It made me think of Grandpa Batson and his war stories - which he didn't share a lot - but it made me miss him.(Grandpa died in 1988). I think that was my favorite place to visit that day and I got to take lots of great pictures...

The next day we flew home back to reality and Salt Lake City. It was a wonderful visit where I learned a ton of genealogy and even got to discover some stuff about my dead people. And for a professional genealogist, that's like going to Disneyland for a week!!

To end, I think this picture that's is hanging in the lobby of the Mandarin says it all about our experience there at the holtel - kinda cooky and really spooky...
yes, those are FLYING MONKEYS!
(see previous posting)