SLIG 2018 - Day 1

So I've been so excited all of January to get to come to the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) this year! I have friends I get to see (and some meet for the first time in person), get to do a bit of personal research, and get to take a GREAT class that I am using as a personal litmus test of my genealogy skills - the Advanced Practicum. DUN DUN DUN.

Getting here was fairly easy. I had a super early flight, so I took a little nap between midnight and 245, finished packing, and got picked up at 4am. I loaded myself and Scooter into my mom's car (she and dad are taking care of him this week) and got dropped off at the airport. Super easy. Had to wait for food to open up but otherwise no problem.

Got to Las Vegas (for some reason I thought I was going to Phoenix both going to and coming back from SLC) for a short stop and I thought I wouldn't have to get off the plane. Alas, since ALL the flight attendants were getting off to change planes, so did I! I had no idea you could gamble at 6:30am in the Las Vegas airport. Though my luck is poor, so I didn't even try.

Made it early into SLC, picked up my bag, and started the trek across the airport to get the light rail into town, the Trax. I convinced myself I could do this. Ticket bought, loaded myself up, saw at least one other genealogist, and made it to the hotel, all before it started to snow. :)

I was even able to make it to the Family History Library for some research before lunch. Though I'll admit, for as little time as I have to do personal research, I didn't plan very well. I have a list of film not yet digitized that I want to look at for a variety of projects, but it isn't organized well. So I started in on the Germany records: one film is digitized but only viewable at the FHL or a FHC. I tried that first, thinking it would be easy, as I had an index to the records on that film. NOPE. Between the handwriting and the different sections of the film for different towns, I never found that indexed record.

By lunchtime, I gave up! Got a great meal at Caffe Molise about a block away from the library and a great conversation with a friend I met at GRIP (Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh) five years ago now (ER MAH GERD). So I came back to the library literally fueled to research.

I ended up on the first basement floor, the international films floor. I found a likely looking microfilm reader, pulled up a second indexed record for a film that wasn't digitized, and went to work.

This time I had more luck: I had previously found an indexed record for the baptism of Maria Anna TRAUB, daughter of Stephen TRAUB and Katherina in Klingenmünster, Germany, about 10 kilometers from where I think she died as the wife of Georg Jacob BRUNCK in Oberotterbach.

I found some more records in Klingenmünster, but then I remembered that one of the classes I was taking on Tech Day (Saturday) was going to be "write as you go...."