A Belated Thank You to Fort Walton Beach

Northwest Florida
Daily News,
October 24, 2015
(verbal permission
to post given
by Lynn at the
Daily News)

Who said you can't go "home" again?  Last week I was in Florida, where I lived for six years and went to junior high and high school, to celebrate my aunt's 90th and my father's 80th birthdays.  Before all the family members arrived for our mini reunion, I was privileged to give a presentation on using newspapers for genealogy at the LDS Church in Fort Walton Beach.  (I actually lived in Niceville and then Villa Tasso, but they're all really close to each other.) 

Elder and Sister Legge, the directors of the FamilySearch Center at the church, were absolutely wonderful hosts and took care of everything.  They arranged for publicity for my talk ahead of time, and an article about it was published in the front section of the local newspaper!

The Legges had warned me they weren't sure how many people would attend, as they don't have many genealogical speakers give talks there often.  They ended up having to move the talk to a larger room because of the number of people who responded.

The group gave me a very warm welcome and asked thoughtful questions throughout my talk.  Most of the attendees had not been using newspapers in their research, and it was great to see how enthusiastic they quickly became about the possibilities.  And we even had a small "reception" afterward, as many people had brought tasty snacks such as homemade bread, chocolate chip cookies, and fresh fruit.

So this is a big "thank you" to the Legges and everyone who attended my talk.  It felt very special to go "home" and be treated almost as a celebrity.