For 2011, the DGS Annual Gathering will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 23rd/24th/25th September 2011. Salt Lake City is located on the edge of the beautiful Wasatch Ridge of the Rocky Mountains, and was home to the Winter Olympics in 2002.

Salt Lake City provides a unique location, since it is the home of the Family History Library, the largest genealogical library in the world. The Library's collection includes over 2.4 million rolls of microfilm, on 5 floors. We are offering seminars on various aspects of family history research, conducted by specialists in their field. There will also be time to use the Library's wonderful facilities to further your own research, if you wish. All this will be in addition to the traditional program of presentations by DGS members.

The headquarters hotel for the event will be the Salt Lake City Plaza Hotel, which is next door to the Family History Library, and right on Temple Square. For more info on the hotel, please visit their web site at http://www.plaza-hotel.com/. You can also view the Salt Lake City Visitor's Guide site at http://www.visitsaltlake.com/visit/.

This will be another very special event and we are very grateful to our North American Secretary, Karen Dalton Preston, for undertaking to be the gathering organiser.

The fourth Newsletter of the series leading up to the Gathering was emailed August 1st. We are very pleased to report that there are now 63 people that have subscribed to the Gathering Newsletter, and 35 attendees that have registered and pre-paid for the Gathering. We will have Daltons from Australia, England and the US in attendance, so it should be a wonderful Gathering!

The following list summarizes the updated information in this Newsletter:

Below is an updated Schedule of Events and Speakers:

Friday morning/afternoon, September 23rd

Hotel and Conference Registration

Friday evening, September 23rd

Open evening - Restaurant recommendations will be given

Saturday morning, September 24th

Continental breakfast

Saturday morning, September 24th

Presentation: Getting the most from the Family History Library - Stan Lindaas

Saturday afternoon, September 24th

Family History Library research or Walking Tour

Saturday evening, September 24th

Gathering Banquet

Sunday morning, September 25th

Tabernacle Choir performance* & Brunch

Sunday afternoon, September 25th

Presentations:

Melanie Crain - "Sons, Brothers or Cousins?" - What the Records tell us about the first Daltons in Albemarle County, Virginia.

Cathy Negrycz - "In Search of Group D's ‘Adam’"

Rodney Dalton - "The Story of the Dalton Family in Utah"

Chris Pomery - "Dalton DNA Project Update"

Sunday evening, September 25th

Casual dinner

Entertainment for Gathering Banquet: Clive Romney - Performing authentic American folk music with traditional instruments. About Clive

Please note that all of the Gathering events and presentations will take place in the Hotel, with the exception of the Sunday night casual dinner, which will be held in a nearby restaurant.

*More about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Please contact Karen Preston if you are interested in attending the Sunday night casual dinner.

We will be broadcasting the 2011 Gathering for all of those DGS Members that could not attend the event in Salt Lake City. As with previous Gatherings and AGMs, there will be a web page that will work for computers, smart phones and iPads.You can set your web browser Bookmark or favorites to this link or copy & paste this address: http://www.daltondatabank.org/videoLiveSLC.html

In order to have the best possible experience in viewing the Gathering on-line, we recommend that you have access to at least a 1.5 megabit per second Internet connection (DSL / Cable or high-speed wireless).

We have arranged for a guided walking tour of downtown Salt Lake City for those not interested in doing Library research on Saturday.

The tour will be coordinated by John and Shauna Dalton Hart. Shauna and John were Assistant Directors of Church Hosting for the LDS Church in the Public Affairs Department for three years, and have hosted people from around the world.

The tour will begin at approximately 10:00 AM and will finish around 1:00 PM.

As some of our Dalton relatives were among the first members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that came to Utah in 1847, this tour is a "walking history" of the Dalton surname. We will tour the Historic thirty-five acres of Temple Square, Utah's number one tourist attraction. Some of the sights to be visited on our private tour will include: The North and South Visitor Centers, Historic Tabernacle, Assembly Hall, the grounds of Temple Square with its beautiful gardens, historic Beehive House (first home of Brigham Young with all the historic furnishings), Church History Museum, and the magnificent Conference Center that seats 21,000 persons. The Tour will be augmented by docents that specialize in knowledge of each location. An à la carte luncheon at the Beehive House ($15 to $18 per person) will also be made available.

The tour is free, but you will be responsible for your luncheon costs. If you or your spouse / partner are interested in the Tour, please contact Karen Preston by email.

As part of the Gathering, we will be holding a Silent Auction, in which attendees can bid on various Dalton-themed items.

The first Silent Auction item is a set of eight heavy crystal, deeply-etched champagne flutes, replete with a Dalton Crest. These clear flutes would also make a lovely presentation for deserts as well. The flutes are approximately 8¾ inches (222.25 mm) tall, and hold 8 oz. (236 ml) each.

We can arrange for shipment of the items direct to your home, should you be the highest bidder on these unique glasses.

Dalton Flutes

We have added a second set of Silent Auction items — Limited-edition Commemorative Plates celebrating the 2011 Gathering.

This handsome plate is trimmed in Sterling Silver, and measures 10½ inches (26.67 cm) in diameter. Imprinted on the reverse is "Dalton Genealogical Society Salt Lake City".

There will be a total of 6 Plates available in the Silent Auction. Each Plate includes a stand so that you can proudly display it in your home or office.

The Plates will be available as individual items, so that as many members as possible will have an opportunity to own one of these "instant keepsakes". Each Plate is individually boxed, so that you can hand-carry or pack this treasure for your return journey.

Commemorative Dalton Plates

We have provided two methods for Registration and pre-payment for the Gathering. The DGS North America Store and a downloadable PDF file which you can complete and send by post with your payment. Please note that you will be responsible for paying any additional room charges at check out time.

We can no longer offer room bookings for the Conference.

Anyone registering after August 15th will be charged a 10% increase.

I. The DGS North America Store

The 2011 DGS Gathering Store is now available! You can go to the Store here. For those people that may not be familiar or comfortable with using an on-line Store, we have prepared a tutorial on how to use the facility.

The store accepts US, Canadian, Australian & New Zealand Dollars, Euros and Pound Sterling for the Gathering event. You can use a number of Credit Cards (American Express, Discover, Visa, MasterCard/EuroCard, Visa/Delta/Electron, Switch/Maestro) and many bank debit cards. The Store also accepts payment from PayPal accounts. For payments by check or money order, please use the Postal Form below.

A few notes about the on-line Store:

    1. Security features protect your information are embedded into the Store
    2. We will not share any of the information you provide
    3. By creating an account on the Store, you will be able to book any additional events as they are added to the Gathering

II. Postal Form

For those attendees that do not wish to utilize the on-line Store, we have provided a Registration Form. You will need to download the PDF Form to your computer, complete all of the information and send the Form and a check in US Dollars to Karen Dalton Preston, North American Secretary by postal mail. The Form and your check must be received no later than August 15th, 2011. Your check should me made out to the Dalton Genealogical Society North America.

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REGISTRATIONS AFTER AUGUST 15TH, 2011 WILL BE SUBJECT TO A 10% PRICE INCREASE!

Transportation

When we have a list of attendees and their arrival dates and times, transportation to and from the airport will be coordinated. It is our goal to alleviate the need for car rental or taxi fares to the Gathering. In order to accomplish this goal, it will be important to let us know if you will be flying into Salt Lake City and the airline you will be using.

As we approach the Gathering event, we will contact registered attendees and collect your arrival information. The Hotel has a limited number of vans, so some may experience a short wait at the airport, or may have to use a taxi if your arrival is at an off time.

An important note to those who will be arriving by car -- parking for hotel guests is $5.00 a day; it is considerably more for those who will not be staying at the Hotel. If you are planning on extending your stay, we recommend that you consider arranging a hire car with this in mind.

Salt Lake City Map

Click on the map to see an enlarged version or download the map as a PDF.

The blue designation on the map indicates the free tram service for downtown Salt Lake City.

The red squares are the stops on the tram.

The gold designation indicates tram service that requires a fare payment.

Here is a link to Google Maps with travel information for our International attendees.