SLIG Jealousy

Salt Lake from hotel in 2013

So the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) is occurring this coming week. If you’re like me and are friends on Facebook of people that are attending, you’ve been seeing lots of posts about people flying out to Salt Lake and meeting with friends in the Family History Library (FHL) or going out to eat with them various places around Salt Lake. I’ve been to Salt Lake a couple times and can even picture where the various places are and what they look like. However, I’ve only ever had the chance to attend SLIG once, so how am I feeling reading these posts? Jealous.

For myself and the others that are feeling this way, we need to put things into perspective. We’ll have another chance to get there at some point. In the meantime, let’s remember a few disadvantages of SLIG:

·      It’s cold there in January!

·      The flights can be turbulent in winter

·      One word: “Inversion” (for those that don’t know this word, it’s like smog on steroids)

·      Snow

·      Places are a bit crowded

Parking lot didn't look crowded that morning!

Have I convinced you yet? Well, in the meantime, I’m going to think of the advantages of staying right here at home:

·      Less travel means more time to research

·      More and more items are going online

·      There are plenty of people in Salt Lake one could ask for a quick look-up

·      It’s cheaper to pay those people than to fly out myself for those one or two items!

·      One can always rent the films one needs to the local Family History Center

Just a few of those films...can I reach into the picture?

But, but, it seems like everybody is there… all those films in the FHL… all that good food… all that fun… great classes…. Okay, so I’ve not wholly convinced myself yet, but I’ll keep on working on it. In the meantime, let’s get back to seeing what great finds each of us can come up with as we sit here and mourn we can’t travel to every genealogy event…