Sue Walde, Helen Eliason and Joanne Wetmore pose proudly with their recently published book, “Early Stillaguamish Schools.” For sale at the conference.

More than 300 of us were treated to a full day of everything genealogy — from DNA to Catholics and coroners (no, not together — separate classes!). We were all over the map, including learning about historical maps, Swedish, Maryland and Michigan research. Oh, the places we went together!

A crowd waits patiently to talk to CeCe after her presentation.

CeCe Moore, today’s keynoter, took us on quite an adventure into the world of Autosomal DNA during three plenary sessions. She packed so much information into them, she ran over her scheduled time slot. Responding to the crowd’s cheers of “Keep going!,” she graciously complied. Her personal stories and case studies were particularly interesting and heartwarming, bringing home the importance of being on the cusp of this developing science. If you haven’t purchased a ticket to Friday night’s banquet, you’re out of luck unless the Help Desk has a few from those unable to attend. CeCe will be talking about “Making History with Genetic Genealogy.” She’ll share behind-the-scenes experiences and research in her role in using DNA to solve family mysteries.

In addition to today’s three main sessions with CeCe, we were able to choose an additional morning and afternoon class. It was difficult to choose from the array of topics, but I finally settled on Lisa Oberg‘s “Catholic Catechism: Researching Your Catholic Ancestors” and Michael Strauss‘s “Historical Maps: The World at Your Fingertips.” Great choices! Michael’s class was so popular, we had to move to a larger room to accommodate the crowd!

Tomorrow’s going to be great fun! It’s “Dress Like Your Ancestor” day. You can still register for the day. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. We’re waiting for you!