One way to spend your genealogy budget

Do you have a budget for genealogy research? Many of us spend regularly on subscriptions to online databases, such as Ancestry or Findmypast, and that pretty much exhausts our finances. However, as we contemplate this new year, it’s worth considering other ways to invest in our hobby.

Travel may be a wishlist item for most people, but consider the advantages if you can plan travel to a research location around a major genealogy conference. The premier event in the US is RootsTech, but unless you live in the neighbourhood of Salt Lake City, you may be too late to attend this year (Feb 8 to 11). Most nearby hotels are already booked. Think about it for next year (Feb 28 to Mar 3, 2018), and watch for hotel and ticket discounts. The biggest advantage of this conference is that it happens next door to the genealogy mecca, the Family History Library. Meanwhile, you can sample this year’s presentations, some of which will be streamed online.

WDYTYA Live, the biggest genealogy conference in the UK, happens in April, so you may still have time to make arrangements. This one is worth it if you are a beginner, or need a specific publication from a local UK family history society. This year it is in Birmingham, also a plus if you want to do local research there. The conference venue is outside the city, but public transit is good to the city centre where you will find the excellent library.

By Peter Broster (Library of Birmingham) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

There are many more conference events to consider; some are listed here. Watch for events near where you live, or those featuring speakers you admire.

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