Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Looking for a genealogy event to attend?

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One of the things I love about doing genealogy research is the rich availability of classes to further my education. Thanks to the internet, I’m not limited to classes near me, so the opportunities are abundant. They’re so abundant, in fact, it can be hard to be aware of them and keep track of them.

Enter Conference Keeper. It’s a website whose purpose is to keep you informed of upcoming genealogy events.

I took a look today and was amazed at all the offerings. The events are organized in a variety of ways: by date, by location, virtual events, DNA events, etc. There’s a section for calls for presentations and papers, so if you’re a genealogy speaker, it’s a great place to look for speaking opportunities. And that just skims the surface of what’s available on the website.

If you’re itching to sign up for a genealogy conference,  workshop, or class just peruse Conference Keeper to see your many choices!

Early Bird registration for RootsTech 2024 is open!

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Next year’s RootsTech will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 29 to March 2, 2024. As in the past few years, the conference is also being offered virtually.

That’s five months away, but registration has just opened for both versions of the conference.

As in the past, the virtual conference is free, but you do have to register. Why not register now? Then it will be on your calendar and you can plan around it.

If you’re up for traveling to Salt Lake City, registration is also open for the in-person conference. And right now it’s at an early-bird rate: $99 for a three-day pass and $69 for a one day pass. (I’m not sure what the rate will be going up to.) I’m always amazed and impressed at how inexpensive genealogy conferences tend to be. My professional organization charges $750 to register for its three-day conference!

Why pay $99 plus travel when you can watch from the comfort of your home? I can think of a half dozen reasons off the top of my head:

  • 250+ sessions are offered only in Salt Lake City (though there are 200+ new online sessions).
  • The Expo Hall allows you to learn about genealogy products and services and meet those offering them.
  • You get to really focus on genealogy, rather than trying to wedge it into your day (watching at home is very distracting).
  • You have the opportunity to make friends with other genealogists.
  • You can go to the Family History Library and do your own research!

If you have the budget for it, I encourage you to give attending in person some serious consideration. I attended in 2014, 2016, 2017 (I was a speaker!), 2018, and 2020. (I was a speaker again in 2020…about two weeks later the world shut down). I obviously love this conference, since I keep going back. I’m not planning to go next year, because my priorities have shifted. But I’m sure it will be a terrific conference.

Creating a virtual RootsTech playlist

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It’s that time of year again! The RootsTech conference will be held March 2 to 4, 2023. This year, they’re offering the conference both in-person and virtually. I made the decision not to attend in person, but I did register for the virtual conference and spent a little bit of time this morning putting some sessions onto my playlist. (It’s not too late to register for either option!)

I’m easily overwhelmed by choices and I found the choices of sessions to watch over the last two virtual conferences a little overwhelming. In case you’re the same way, I thought I’d share how I went about creating a playlist for me to watch next week or beyond. (I’m assuming, though I don’t know for sure, that the main stage sessions will be recorded for future watching.)

  1. First, I registered for the conference. (I did that back in January.)
  2. Then I logged into the Rootstech website by clicking on Sign In in the top menu bar.
  3. I clicked RootsTech 2023 in the top menu bar, then Calendar (in the Virtual section). I went through both the Main Stage and Sessions listings, clicking the Add to Playlist button for those sessions I didn’t want to miss.
  4. Then I clicked On Demand in the top menu bar, then Browse the Library. I was pleased to see 2023 sessions listed, though I won’t be able to watch them until the conference starts. I added to my playlist the sessions that caught my fancy.
  5. I didn’t want to have to browse all the offerings, so I clicked on Search the Full Library. Then I put the Filters to work for me. I selected English and 2023 (that narrowed it to 228 classes) and then I used the Search function. I searched for Organizing and got a very manageable 13 results. I selected some of those to add to my playlist.

In less than ten minutes, I added 22 sessions to my playlist. And I noticed that my playlists from 2021 and 2022 are still available!

There are so many learning opportunities at RootsTech. I’m sad not to be attending in person but I am very grateful that RootsTech makes it so easy (and inexpensive–it’s free!) to participate from home.

 

Explore Folklore of the Family at Mid-Continent Public Library Spring Seminar on March 25

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If you live in the Midwest, like I do, you might be excited to learn about the Spring Seminar (theme: Folklore of the Family) being sponsored by the Mid-Continent Public Library (home of the Midwest Genealogy Center) in Independence, Missouri on March 25, 2023. Early-bird pricing of $35 ends tomorrow, February 15. After that, the price goes to $40. That’s such a bargain–and registration includes lunch! Please note that advanced registration is required and registration closes on March 23.

The featured speaker is Gena Philibert-Ortega and the topics she’ll cover include proving (or disproving) family stories, genealogy and the history of food, genealogy-rich ephemera and researching female ancestors. Gena is a respected speaker and writer and a very nice person. I was thrilled to have Gena participate in my How They Do It series back in December 2021, but I haven’t heard her speak in person. I’d really like to go, if I can swing it.

As a special bonus, there’s a musical performance by mother-daughter folk singers Kristin and Lucy Gray Hamilton!

Go the MCPL website learn more about the program and register. If you decide to go, please let me know in the comments if you’d like to meet up!