Program Details
WHEN: Oct 17, 2026
TIME: 9:00 am - 4:45 pm
IDAHO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING & SEMINAR
All are welcome to join us for this opportunity to get together, share genealogical experiences, and learn from genealogy-related presentations. Continental breakfast, lunch, and snacks are included.
Following the Society’s business meeting (open to both members and non-members), you can sit back and enjoy the following presentations:
Railroads and Their Role in Idaho’s Development
Alan Hochhalter, President of the Canyon County Historical Society, will provide a brief history of railroads in Idaho and explain how they played a role in the development and population of the State.
Alan Hochhalter is an Idaho native from the Nampa area with an engineering degree from the University of Idaho who spent 37 years working in Seattle and returned to Nampa in 2011, where he joined the Canyon County Historical Society and started volunteering as his way to contribute something to the community. He is the current President of that society as well as a docent at the 1903 Nampa Train Depot in Nampa.
The Greatest Sentence Every Written: Idaho and America250
How does the Declaration of Independence relate to modern Idaho? From the Founding Fathers through Abraham Lincoln, to the founding of our State in 1890, to the current era, the Battle for Liberty continues!
Speaker David Leroy is an attorney, former Idaho Lieutenant Governor, and former Idaho Attorney General. He frequently conducts public talks focusing on regional politics, high-profile criminal trials, and Abraham Lincoln's role in the creation of Idaho. He is a renowned, self-taught Abraham Lincoln historian, and he has helped supply and curate the massive Lincoln collections displayed at the Idaho State Museum and the Idaho State Archives in Boise.
From Anecdote to Evidence: Fact-Checking My Great-Grandmother’s Story
This is author and local historian Rick Just’s personal research journey about how he challenged family narrative in researching and writing his historical novel about the impacts of the Morrisite War on his great-grandmother. He used research tools from digitized newspapers to artificial intelligence to uncover facts hidden from family members for 150 years. The presentation focuses on concrete, replicable strategies that genealogists can adapt to examine their own family narratives without losing the voices that created them.
Rick Just is a native Idahoan who grew up on a ranch along the Blackfoot River. He has written more than a dozen books focusing on Idaho history. His most recent books are A Kid’s Guide to Boise; Fearless: Farris Lind, The Man Behind the Skunk; and The Idaho Conversion Kit. His website—rickjust.com—features a daily history blog called Speaking of Idaho.