Fun Day at the Omaha Public Library

Some readers of LongLostRelatives.net are aware that 2011 has marked the beginning of my genealogy speaking "career." While I have done public speaking and training workshops for many years, hitting the genealogy speaking circuit presented something new and challenging - and a lot of fun!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of sharing my passion for genealogy blogging with fellow genealogists at the W. Dale Clark Library in Omaha. My friends and I arrived at the library early, so we were able to spend time in the genealogy room and get a quick tour of the available resources from Karen, one of the volunteers from the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society (GOGS).

Could it be magic?

The first thing that caught my eye was the card catalog of Omaha area obituaries. There was one in particular that I was looking for, so I pulled out the drawer and set it down on the table. Somehow, the drawer of hundreds of index cards opened up and the obituary that was staring me directly in the face was for my second cousin! Was magician Criss Angel in the room?

Fellow genealogists know that quite often these moments of synchronicity just happen. What is even more amusing to me is that my very first blog post was an "obituary wanted" for this man's mother. That blog post is the first example in my blogging presentation about how to use your blog to locate long lost cousins. At that moment, I knew it was going to be a great day.

Susan and Evelyn
Cousins? Quite Likely!

After getting a lay of the land of all of the wonderful genealogy resources at the library, we headed for the conference room where I would be speaking. I was approached by a delightful woman who introduced herself, and I knew her immediately from a comment she had left on my blog last year.

She is Evelyn Pecht, and our Pecht families both hail from the same area in Pennsylvania. Now that we've met, I have no doubt that we will kick up our efforts to find out if we are, indeed, cousins. Since this is a unique surname and the families lived in the same vicinity, I'm guessing there's a very good chance we're related. Attending genealogy events doesn't get any better than this! Even if we're not cousins, I'm thrilled to have met Evelyn - I really enjoyed our brief conversation and look forward to getting together again.

All I can really say about my presentation is that I had a great time. The audience was attentive, seemed interested and open to the concept of blogging and asked very good questions! I enjoyed visiting with everyone who stayed to chat and ask questions afterward.

A very special thank you goes out to Martha Grenzeback, Librarian at OPL, who organizes these events and made arrangements for me to speak yesterday. She gets five gold stars!

Genealogy Resources at the W. Dale Clark Library in Omaha

The one thing that I forgot to do was to get my Omaha Public library card, since the Lincoln and Omaha libraries have reciprocity with one another. That is an amazing service and I thank both library systems for making this available to readers and researchers in both communities. I am looking forward to my next research trip to the W. Dale Clark Library this fall - when I'll come prepared with my notes, netbook and "To Do" list!

To learn more about the genealogy resources and events at OPL, click here.

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My friends and I had a great lunch afterwards at Stokes in the Old Market, and no trip to Omaha is complete without stopping at the Baker's Candy Factory in Greenwood. It was great fun for a Girls Day Out!

Thanks again, Martha, OPL, and what I hope will be a new group of genealogy bloggers!