Headed to SLIG

It's official: I'm finally registered for SLIG 2016. That's the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, the "week-long intensive educational experience" presented annually by the Utah Genealogical Association. The program will be celebrating its twenty first year with this upcoming session—and I intend to be there to celebrate with them!

While registration for this January event opened a few months ago—and though the event is still almost three months in the future—the course I wanted to take was completely sold out by the time I headed to the registration page. So now you understand why I say I'm "finally" registered.

It was only thanks to immediately grabbing that waiting list option that I eventually found my way in—and actually, I hardly expected to see the email telling me I made it off the waiting list and onto the pending-registration list. (The joyful bearer of that news has become my new best friend—and it doesn't hurt that good-thoughts-generator to realize she has the same name as my sister.)

I'll be taking the genetic genealogy course with Blaine Bettinger—The Genetic Genealogist for those who read his blog—which probably explains why the rush to sign up for his class. In addition, the class will have assists from team members CeCe Moore (blogging at Your Genetic Genealogist) and Angie Bush, who recently presented a day-long seminar for a genealogical society near my home.

Yes, I realize I've already spent hours in conference sessions and seminars on this topic, but I'm hoping this focused, hands-on week will help with progress on my specific research goals. Remember those bi-monthly tallies I keep doing? The ones bemoaning my inability to find connections with my matrilineal mystery exact-match cousin (not to mention those other nine-hundred-plus autosomal matches)? Yeah, that's the stuff I'll be peppering my instructors with, over that week in January.

Of course, I'm not going to just sit still and put all my genetic genealogy learning on hold until then. There's so much to learn, so much to do. Besides, you think I can wait until January for answers I might uncover sooner? I'm operating on the theory that what I learn now will leave room—and time—for me to advance even further, once I get a face to face audience with the ones most likely to know the rest of the answers to my questions.