NGS 2025 Recap

We’re back from Louisville, Kentucky where we attended the NGS 2025 Family History Conference. Between May 23-26, the Geni team could be found in the conference exhibit hall, happily chatting with attendees.

As always, our conference computers were equipped with free access to Geni Pro. We had the pleasure of meeting an enthusiastic user who asked for help to upload his GEDCOM file to Geni. It was a little tricky because he already had an existing tree on Geni. With a little patience, we were able to import all the missing pieces of the tree while minimizing duplication. After several merges, he discovered several second cousins already on Geni. We did the same to his wife’s branch of the family and found more distant cousins for her!

We also had fun talking with attendees who were not yet familiar with collaboration in a shared family tree. It was blast to see their minds blown after seeing relationship paths between the most unexpected people in the World Family Tree. This was also a great opportunity to show off the new fan chart view of the family tree.

The historic city of Louisville was also joy to explore. The team spent a few hours visiting the Cave Hill Cemetery, where some of Louisville’s most notable figures are buried.

We paid a visit to the grave of Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of one of the U.S.’s most famous fast food chicken chains, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sanders died on December 16, 1980 at the age of 90 and was buried in his famous white suite and black western string tie. He is buried with his wife, Claudia, who died on December 31, 1996. The bust on his grave was sculpted by his daughter, Margaret. When we arrived, we saw that visitors had left some ketchup packets at his grave.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville on January 17, 1942 and died on June 3, 2016 at the age of 74. On June 10, 2016, Ali’s funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville and ended at Cave Hill Cemetery, where he was interred in a private ceremony. A public televised memorial was held during the afternoon and was estimated to have been watched by nearly a billion people worldwide. On Ali’s headstone is an inscription of his quote, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room in heaven.”

Before we left, we passed by the graves of Patty and Mildred Hill, who wrote the “Happy Birthday” song. Patty was a kindergarten teacher and Mildred was a composer. While teaching at the Louisville Experimental Kindergarten School, the Hill sisters co-wrote the song “Good Morning to All.” Patty wrote the original lyrics, while Mildred wrote the melody. Later the tune was used for the “Happy Birthday to You” song everyone knows today. In 1996, the sisters were posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.