The Southern Genealogist's Exchange Society, located in Jacksonville, Florida, has been going strong since the mid-1960s. It was founded by Aurora Shaw, CG. The Society concentrates mainly on southern genealogy, but the society library holds volumes on genealogy in all 50 states and many foreign countries.
One strong point for the society has been its yearly seminars. Our spring seminars have had good success and have included as speakers professional genealogists such as "The Genealogy Guys" podcast's George G. Morgan, guests from Ancestry.com, and local speakers, some of whom come from the society's own membership. The society has also worked with the Jacksonville Public Library's genealogy department in putting on programs.
Not only have I learned a great deal from many of these seminars, I have also benefited in that this is where I have launched my own genealogical speaking endeavor. Now I am getting engagements where I am actually paid money! I don't think that would be happening if I had not started out making presentations to the SGES at meetings and seminars. As time goes by, and I develop more topics for my presentations, I expect that I will head more into the direction of being paid, and paid more as I become more proficient, and more widely known.
You never know what opportunities might open up when you join your local genealogical society.
No comments:
Post a Comment