Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Genealogy Jamboree is virtual this year!

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The Southern California Genealogical Society Genealogy Jamboree starts this week! (I don’t know why I haven’t blogged about this year’s Jamboree, but I appreciate a comment from reader Rebecca Stanley mentioning it.) This is always such a robust conference and this year it’s even more so: There are two days for DNA topics and two days for the Genealogy Jamboree, which focuses on traditional genealogy. And it’s virtual this year, so you don’t have to travel to southern California to attend.

The Genetic Genealogy conference will be held June 4 & 5. The Genealogy Jamboree will be held June 11 & 12. Each conference consists of six live lectures that you can attend live or access the recording later. In addition, there will be 20 Genetic Genealogy and 50 Genealogy Jamboree recorded sessions. That’s a lot of learning opportunities Here’s the schedule for both conferences.

There are two levels of registration. If you purchase the Standard Registration for Genetic Genealogy ($190), you have access to 10 recordings. The Standard Registration for the Genealogy Jamboree ($175 for non-members) gives you access to 30 recordings. You can watch recordings until October 2021.

Alternatively, you can purchase the Plus Registration for each conference and have access to the live presentations plus all the recorded sessions for that conference. The Plus Registration for the Genetic Genealogy conference is $260 for non-members and gives you access to 20 recorded sessions. The Plus Registration for the Genealogy Jamboree is $275 for non-members and gives you access to 50 recorded sessions. You’ll get a $20 discount for registering for both conferences and SCGS members receive a $20 to $30 discount, depending on the package.

Again, you can access the entire schedule here.

And here’s an exciting addition: On Monday, June 7 and Wednesday, June 9 several live presentations are being offered free of charge in a program called JamboFree. (These sessions are not recorded.) You simply have to complete a free registration (or log in with your SCGS login) to get access.

There’s lots of information available on the website. This page is a good place to start if you’d like to learn more.

I attended the Jamboree in person back in 2015 and was really impressed by the professionalism of the whole event. I’m confident the virtual event will be equally well done!

 

How to watch RootsTech Connect

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As you may know, the 2021 all-virtual RootsTech conference (dubbed RootsTech Connect this year), is going on right now. I have not been able to watch much of it yet, despite it being on my calendar for months. But I have explored the website a little bit and I’m blown away with the learning opportunities.

The great news is that most of the sessions will be available to watch until next year’s RootsTech in March 2022 (which is scheduled to be held in person). You can watch as many sessions as you want now. They’re available on demand. Live keynotes are available on a schedule. My understanding is that the keynotes will be available to watch after the conference.

But there are features that are probably going to be available only during the conference (that is, through Saturday). They include:

  • Chat, where you can interact with like-minded genealogists
  • Relatives at RootsTech, where you can see how many people who are registered for the conference are related to you through the Family Search tree. So far, I have 37,376 relatives attending the conference! (A quick tip: I found that when I clicked on “See Your Relatives” using Safari, I got an error message. But it works just fine in Chrome and Firefox.)
  • Searching for your friends who are attending see how you might be related (my dear friend and podcast co-host, Shannon Wilkinson, and are 9th cousins once removed!)

(I don’t know for a fact that these will be going away after the conference, but I don’t want to take any chances.)

There are lots of ways to approach participating in RootsTech, but here’s what I suggest (and this is what I plan to do this weekend when I’ll have more time):

  1. Go to the Rootstech website.
  2. Login to your Family Search account (or create one if you don’t already have one).
  3. Click on Menu, then Relatives at RootsTech to find your relatives and see how you’re related. If you want, send relatives a message either by clicking on Send a Message under their name or through the little Connect box at the bottom of the home screen.
  4. Click on Guide Me for some suggestions on what you might want to watch or if you’re feeling confused, watch the Website Tutorial by clicking the button near the top of the screen.
  5. Alternatively, if you know what you want to watch, click on Sessions and search or browse for sessions.
  6. Add sessions to your Playlist, so you watch them at your leisure.
  7. Join a chat room by clicking on Connect, then Chat Rooms. Click on the little magnifying glass to search for a particular group or interest.
  8. Explore the Virtual Expo Hall. You can browse or search for particular vendors.

The whole thing is free of charge and it’s an opportunity you don’t want to miss. I have always been blown away by how well organized RootsTech is. This RootsTech Connect conference takes it to another level.

I want to be clear, because my emails indicate there is some confusion, that I am not affiliated with RootsTech. I’ve been a speaker twice and I’m an enthusiastic  attendee, but otherwise I have nothing to do this amazing conference. I just want to make sure my readers are making the most of it!

 

 

 

 

RootsTech 2021 will be virtual (and free!)

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Have you heard the news? RootsTech has announced that next year’s conference–rebranded RootsTech Connect for 2021–will be entirely virtual. To be held February 25 to 27, 2021, has a wonderful global vibe. Perhaps the best part in terms of inclusivity? It will be free of charge! You can read details of the announcement here on the RootsTech website. And you can register on the spot with a little bot in the right corner of the screen. It took me less than a minute to register.

So what does this virtual conference look like? The organizers say it will be unlike any virtual genealogy conference.

RootsTech Connect is different than any other virtual event—no boring speakers or falling asleep at your computer screen. Rather, enjoy dozens of inspirational learning sessions, uplifting messages from celebrity keynote speakers, and hands-on activities to help you celebrate your heritage all year long.

I’m intrigued, especially by the hands-on activities! I know the capabilities of the smart people who organize this conference and I am confident they can pull it off. I’m delighted that content will be available for viewing for a year after the conference. (I don’t know if that’s selected content, as usual, or if it will be all the content.)

This multi-cultural video, on the RootsTech landing page, made me feel great.

Since everything is so uncertain right now in this world of COVID, I am so happy to know what’s happening with RootsTech. It’s on my calendar and I can’t wait to attend! How about you?  Have you/will you sign up?

NGS 2020 virtual family history conference recordings available for purchase

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The National Genealogical Society made some serious lemonade when it figured out what to deal with their conference, which was to be held in May in Salt Lake City, in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. Rather than cancelling it, they made it virtual. As I understand it, this is what they did. (It’s relevant today because you can now purchase recordings of the presentations that would have been made at the conference.)

Registrants for the conference could watch five featured presentations live. Well, sort of live, on May 20. The presentations from Judy Russell, Blaine Bettinger, Elizabeth Shown Mills, Thomas Wright Jones and storyteller and re-enactor Stephanie Raff, were pre-recorded (to prevent technical snafus) and streamed on May 20. The presenters monitored the live chat during the streaming of their recorded presentations so that registrants had a more live, conference-like experience.

There were also three sponsored sessions that were presented as part of the live event on May 20. And another 18 sponsored bonus sessions were recorded.

See this page for a list of the NGS Live! presentations and sponsored presentations.

The rest of the conference presenters–a total of 85 presentations–recorded their lectures, which will be available for streaming. See this page for a list of those presentations.

If you’re interested in watching the NGS lectures, there are three streaming packages available. They all include the 26 above-mentioned featured presentations and bonus sessions and the syllabus.

  • Light package: Your choice of 10 sessions, plus the 26 additional sessions for $150 for NGS members/$185 for non-members.
  • Full package: Your choice of 20 sessions, plus the 26 additional sessions, for $215 for members/$250 for non-members.
  • The Works: Your choice of 45 sessions, plus the additional 26 sessions, for $395 for members/$430 for non-members.

These are available for purchase now; you can choose your OnDemand sessions on June 15 and on July 1, the OnDemand sessions will be released. Once purchased, the subscriptions run from 1 July 2020 to 15 May 2021.

I applaud the ingenuity of the conference planners! They managed to make the content available for the registrants as well as those hadn’t been planning to attend the conference. The presenters still had the chance to create their content for an audience. And I love that people can choose from among all the classes.

I’ve attended the NGS conference twice and both times the classes I took were top notch. I think this is a great opportunity to learn some great stuff at your own pace.