This post was originally commenced last Tuesday evening and was entitled Whilrwind Wednesday, and intended for publication on Wednesday, June 16.  But it turned out to be a much more hectic week than I ever could have imagined and I couldn’t get back to this until just now!

And by now, everybody with a computer has written about the SoCal Genealogy Society’s 41st Annual Jamboree which I attended in Burbank.  It was, as we used to say at Albuquerque’s Van Buren Junior High School, a blast!   The following folks made it a special treat for me: (in random order)

Ruth Himan, Thomas MacEntee, Miriam Midkiff, Kathryn Doyle, Lisa Louise Cooke, the footnoteMaven, Becky Wiseman, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Elyse Doerflinger, Denise Levenick, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Maureen Taylor, Steve Danko, Randy Seaver, Amy Coffin, Gini Webb, Cheryl Palmer, Susan Kitchens, Ron Arons, George Morgan, Drew Smith, Janet Hovorka, Susi Pentico, A.C. Ivory, [and deepest apologies to anyone I saw there and left out here!].

Here’s some of what went on  there:

• Becky Wiseman performed a great Act of Genealogical Kindness by taking me to  Rose Hill Cemetery in Whittier, California, to visit my grandmother’s grave. [See Nana's 100th Anniversary for the back story].  We spent considerable time out there (with Becky doing most of the legwork up and down the hills!)  but were unable to locate the grave precisely.  We began to suspect that there was no headstone, which was later confirmed by the person at the information booth at the gate.  Now this is a true mystery to me.  Family members recall that a headstone was ordered and some even claim to have seen it on a subsequent visit. So I don;t know what happened, But be assured you’ll be informed whne we get the full story!
• Maureen Taylor gave a very informative presentation on what she calls “the Revolutionary War Generation.”  She previewed her new book, The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation (with David Allen Lambert; Kent State University Press, 2010) [available for pre-order now on Amazon.com; release date July 1, 2010].  Did you realize that there were people participated in the Revolutionary War who lived long enough to have their photographs taken?  Well, there were, and of course Maureen has tracked down many of their pictures!  Maureen and one of her children hung out in the GeneaBloggers Lounge for awhile on the last day of Jamboree and she was kind enough to spend a few minutes looking at on of my ancient photos.
• Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak gave the Saturday banquet address about tracing Michelle Obama’s ancestry.   Completely fascinating and it gave me a few ideas about both process and sources.
• Lisa Louise Cooke was on the Bloggers Summit panel with me, Thomas MacEntee,  Schelly Talalay Dardashti, and Kathryn Doyle. She did a live version of her podcast alter on featuring Muareen Taylor, Suzanne Russo Adams of Ancestry.com who worked on Who Do You Think You Are? and Friday night keynoter actor and historian Chris Haley (yes, nephew of . . . ). Chris is quite the character and he rose to the occasions both at Friday dinner and on Lisa’s show!  Later, Lisa interviewed me for a podcast sometime this summer.
• Denise Levenick and Amy Coffin, in addition to being their wonderfully personable selves, took a major role in welcoming bloggers and putting together the welcome “kit.”
• Ron Arons was selling his new book, Wanted! U.S. Criminal Records.  Coincidentally, I had used the book just days before Jamboree and as a result had found and ordered two sets of records.

And there were many other highlights!  Spending time with people I don’t see in  person very often and meeting others . . . a great weekend!

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