Going to NERGC?

Well, I've decided it's time for me to attend my first genealogy conference. After dithering about it for a couple of weeks, I finally registered for the 13th New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC 2015), a bare hour before the Early Bird discount expired. So in mid-April I'll be headed to Providence, Rhode Island.

Rhode Island is the only New England state I've never visited, but I do have some ancestral connections there. Although my Woodward line originally came from England to Taunton, Massachusetts, my 7th-great-grandfather Thomas Woodward moved to Smithfield, Rhode Island, where all his children were born, so I'm rather hoping I might find some forebears in the local cemeteries while I'm there.

I haven't decided yet which sessions I want to attend, but I've got my eye on "Creating Maine Towns: How the Wilderness was Tamed", "Newest Sources for Vermont Research: Online, In Print, and Original Records", and a couple of sessions on French-Canadian research. I hope to meet some fellow genea-bloggers there!

Now to plan my route from Virginia ... going up the Eastern Shore and then following I-95 would certainly be the most direct, but do I really want to go straight through the middle of New York City? (No, I really don't. And I've driven up the Eastern Shore twice and swore I'd never do it again...)