Dear Tanja,

Thank you for registering for the NGS Virtual Family History Conference which gives you access to both NGS 2020 Live! and NGS 2020 On-Demand! The information below will assist with your preparation and includes helpful information about the syllabus, testing information, the program, and on-demand conference recordings. 

Testing for NGS 2020 Live! 

On 18 May, Playback Now will send an email to registrants with testing instructions to access NGS 2020 Live!, a reminder email on 19 May, and a “Join Us” email about 30 minutes before the event starts. Check your spam folder to ensure you don’t miss it. With your registration package, you will be able to stream the event directly to your computer or portable device on 20 May 2020. You will be able to view the featured speakers’ presentations on-demand beginning 1 July 2020. 

NGS 2020 Live! Program

A full-day event is scheduled for Wednesday, 20 May from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (EDT), featuring opening remarks from NGS President Ben Spratling and Executive Director Matt Menashes; our lunch speaker award-winning storyteller, Stephanie Raff; the NGS Awards program; and exciting presentations from Thomas W. Jones, Judy G. Russell, Elizabeth Shown Mills, and Blaine T. Bettinger. All lectures will have online chat during the session and a short Q&A after each session. Prizes will be awarded throughout the NGS 2020 Live! event.

Ancestry, FamilySearch, and FamilyTreeDNA will also present some of their newest recommendations for best results using their databases.

NGS 2020 Live! presentations will include:

• Validating Unsourced Online Information
  Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, FASG, FNGS, FUGA

• Breaker Boys and Spinner Girls: Child Labor Laws and Their Records
  Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL

• What’s New on Ancestry with Crista Cowan

• Echoes of the Women Who Have Gone Before—Celebrating Women’s Suffrage 
  Steffani Raff

• What’s New on FamilySearch with Ron Tanner, FamilySearch International 

• Turning Witnesses into Evidence
  Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA

• DNA Testing—It’s Not Just Ethnicity with Janine Cloud, FamilyTreeDNA

• What If? Learning About DNA Through Case Studies
  Blaine T. Bettinger, PhD, JD

NGS 2020 On-Demand!

Develop exceptional genealogy skills with a highly comprehensive set of on-demand webinars from NGS’s expert conference speakers. The on-demand recordings will be available for viewing 1 July 2020 through 15 May 2021. Playback Now will contact you in June to submit the sessions you select for your on-demand lectures. Check the NGS website for a full list of sessions.

Syllabus

The virtual conference syllabus is now available online for NGS 2020 Live! and NGS 2020 On-Demand! registrants. The syllabus highlights the major points of each lecture as submitted by the speaker and is often referenced during the sessions. Please note that capturing, transmitting, or redistributing syllabus materials from either the full syllabus or the individual syllabus items or the bulk of the material presented in a session infringes on the intellectual property rights of the speakers. As a registrant, you may print one copy for your own personal use but may not share any syllabus materials. You must request permission in writing from individual speakers for anything beyond your personal use and reference.

Exhibitors are a critical part of what makes our genealogical community thrive. Their creativity, devotion, and investment in offering new ways to offer us education and information enables us to learn more about our families. Please support them by reviewing their advertisements in the back of your electronic syllabus.