Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Making good use of my time at the Family History Library

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An aisle of microfilm at the Family History Library

I leave for Salt Lake City on Wednesday, to attend the RootsTech conference. I arrive noonish and have decided to spend the afternoon and early evening at the Family History Library. I’m finding myself wishing I’d opted to go a day early to research, but I didn’t, so I’m trying to make good use of the fairly narrow window of time at the library.

I’m really fortunate because professional genealogist and Organize Your Family History reader Maria Tello has offered to meet me at the library and get me oriented and off to the right start. Thank you, Maria!

I’m looking to keep myself focused on one nuclear family; I have some questions I’d like to get answered. But I don’t want to have such tunnel vision that I might miss out on opportunities to learn about other families.

I’m wondering if any of my readers have any advice for me. I bet I’ll be there five hours or so. I’ll have my laptop. Is there anything you think I should bring along? Anything at the library that is not to be missed? Any pitfalls to try to avoid? I’ve been there once before, when I attended RootsTech in 2014. I remember being unfocused and overwhelmed and hope it will be different this time!

Also, if you’re attending RootsTech and would like to meet up, please comment here or send me a note from the Contact page. I’ve always had such a great time meeting readers!

A final note: Tuesday I’ll be posting my next installment of my How They Do It series. Keep an eye out!

RootsTech’s livestream schedule

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RootsTech has announced its schedule of sessions being streamed from next week’s conference. If you can’t make it to Salt Lake City, you can at least watch some of the keynotes and breakout sessions. (Alas, my session on Friday morning, Go Paperless: Digitize & Streamline Your Research, isn’t one of them.)

Here’s the schedule. The sessions will be streamed live on the RootsTech homepage and then afterward recordings will be posted on the website for a limited time.

Visit the Sessions page on the RootsTech website for descriptions of each of these sessions.

Wednesday, February 8

9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | Innovator Summit General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Liz Wiseman

10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m. | Industry Trends and Outlook
Speakers: Craig Bott and Guest Panel

11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Innovation—Best Practices and Applications
Speaker: Cydni Tetro

Thursday, February 9

8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Jonathan and Drew Scott

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Getting Started in Genealogy
Speaker: Kelli Bergheimer

12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. | DNA: The Glue That Holds Families Together
Speaker: Diahan Southard

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | DNA Matching on MyHeritage
Speaker: Dana Drutman

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Jewish Genealogy: Where to Look and What’s Available
Speaker: Lara Diamond

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Family History Is Anything but Boring
Speakers: Crystal Farish and Rhonna Farrer

Friday, February 10

8:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Levar Burton, Special Guest Panel

10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. | RootsTech Innovator Showdown Finals

12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. | Mothers, Daughters, Wives: tracing Female Lines
Speaker: Judy Russell

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Censational Census Strategies
Speaker: Mary Kircher Roddy

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Big 4: Comparing Ancestry, findmypast, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage
Speaker: Sunny Morton

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Cross the Atlantic with Religious Records
Speaker: Jen Baldwin

Saturday, February 11

8:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Cece Moore, Buddy Valastro

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Journaling Principles That Work
Speaker: Steve Reed

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Don’t Just Be a Searcher, Be a Researcher
Speaker: Crista Cowan

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Creating Google Alerts for Your Genealogy
Speaker: Katherine R. Wilson

That’s a lot of free information! I hope you can take advantage of it.

Early-bird registration for RootsTech 2017 about to expire

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rootstech2017If you’re planning to attend RootsTech 2017, the giant conference where genealogy meets technology, now’s the time to register. Until Friday, you can get the early-bird discount of $159 for the four-day conference registration. It’s being held February 8-11, 2017 in Salt Lake City. To me, $159 is a huge bargain (but then again, I routinely pay $600 or $700 to register for conferences for professional organizers).

Here’s the link to register. Before you register, you can browse the class selection and see which of the over 200 breakout sessions appeal to you. The keynote speakers haven’t been announced yet, but in the years I’ve attended there have been some big names, like Laura Bush, Ree Drummond and Donny Osmond.  The expo hall is huge.

This will be my third year attending RootsTech. I missed last year and I’m anxious to go back. I go to a good number of genealogy conferences, both large and small. RootsTech is special to me for a few reasons:

  • The huge number of genealogy enthusiasts who attend (there have been more than 10,000 attending the years I’ve gone)
  • The vast selection of excellent learning opportunities, between the keynotes and the breakout sessions
  • The fact that it’s helpful to beginners and advanced genealogists alike
  • The access to all the latest genealogy products at the expo hall
  • There’s musical entertainment (this year it’s the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing music of Rogers and Hammerstein)
  • How well organized it is (amazingly well organized)

I’m particularly excited this year because I’m co-presenting one of the sessions (Go Paperless: Digitize and Streamline Your Research). So if you’re attending, please let me know. I’d love to meet you and even see your friendly face in the audience!

The registration prices goes up to $189 on Friday, October 14. (I’m not clear what time that happens, but to be safe, I’d suggest registering today or tomorrow.)

I’m speaking at RootsTech 2017!

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rootstech2017I’m both delighted and nervous to announce that my speaker proposal to co-present at RootsTech 2017 was accepted!

I will be presenting with the amazing Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap. Our talk is titled “Go Paperless: Streamline and Digitize Your Research.” Brooks is the guru of all things paperless–he has amazing knowledge about the process of scanning and digitizing. I’m bringing my organizing and genealogy know-how to the table.

Brooks is a terrific speaker (and knows how to create a great PowerPoint) and I’m  confident we’ll create a fun and informative presentation. I’m really looking foward to it.

RootsTech will be held February 8 to 17 in Salt Lake City. This will be my third year attending and my first presenting. Registration is now open! Until October 14, you can register for the full conference for $159, a $100 savings over the regular price. (The price goes up to $189 on October 14.)

Are you attending? Speaking? Leave a comment here or shoot me an email and let’s meet up!