IAJGS2019 Cleveland, OH

It is summer again, so I must be at the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies annual conference.  This year it is in Cleveland.  It is my seventh conference, and each one has been fascinating in a different way.  My first conference, in Paris (France), was almost overwhelming.  I didn't know anyone and there were at least a hundred sessions to choose from, all of them interesting.  I learned so much and by the end of the week, I knew a lot more about how to do my research and had met a few people who were interested in the same areas that I was.
This conference is exciting but in different ways.  I don't have as much trouble choosing sessions to attend, as I have heard many of the introductory track topics before.  I now know many attendees from all over and carve out times to meet them at meals, or over a drink somewhere.  There are also events that are not formally part of the schedule but are organized every year for folks with interest in a topic, like the Bloggers lunch, or the Volhynia Researchers dinner.  And, of course, this year is different because I am also a speaker at the conference for the first time. (My topic is this blog as a research tool!).
In addition to hearing about new data that is available, and new projects to improve service from JewishGen.org, I heard updates on projects from the Hungarian and Ukraine Special Interest Groups.  Those are the areas that I am most interested in for my research.  There was a useful talk on Hungarian names and deconflicting people with the same name.  Two professors from Case Western U gave talks, one on Jewish influence on American Popular Music (this is the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after all), and one on the nature and consequences of Jewish migration.  Both very thought-provoking subjects. One particularly useful talk was about historical maps and how to find and use them in your research. 
As usual, when I travel, I check to see if I have any cousins in the area that I can contact.  I was in luck this trip as there was a cousin on my maternal grandfather's side of the family with whom I had exchanged e-mails a few years ago, but never met.  We got together and spent a lot of time exchanging information and telling family stories.  I'll tell more about that in another post.  For now, since I am beat and I have to present my talk tomorrow, I'm going to bed.