Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Going to RootsTech? Here’s your survival guide

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RootsTech 2019–the giant genealogy conference in Salt Lake City sponsored by Family Search–is just around the corner, February 27 to March 2. Alas, I’m not attending this year. I’ve decided to spend those dollars on a research trip instead.

I’ve attended four RootsTech conferences (2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018) and even spoke at the 2017 conference. I really enjoy RootsTech because of the great keynote speeches and classes and the opportunity to learn about new services and products in the Expo. I also like meeting up with blog readers and doing research at the Family History Library while I’m in Salt Lake.

So, yes, I really like RootsTech, but I admit that it is exhausting. Last year there were some 17,000 attendees and there were some really long lines. I’m not much for crowds, so I have to be sure and schedule down time during the conference.

The folks who organize RootsTech have created a Survival Guide to RootsTech 2019. If you’re going, I encourage you to check it out. Here are a few things you can do now to make the conference easier once you’re there:

  • Download the RootsTech app (or update it if it’s already on your phone from a previous year)
  • Select the classes you think you’ll want to take
  • Watch the Road to RootsTech video series, which shows behind-the-scenes peek at the planning for the event. I admire their transparency. In episode 1 they addressed the complaints about lines at the 2018 conference and how they’re addressing that problem in 2019. (No more badge scanning!)

I’m sure I’ll have serious FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) this year as I look at social media during the conference, but some of the conference will be available to those of us who aren’t there.

  • Free Live Stream. Each day of the conference five or six sessions will be streamed live, free of charge.  You can view the Streaming Schedule in advance and then on the day just go to rootstech.org to watch.
  • This year, they’re offering a Virtual Pass for $129 that gives you access to 18 classes for a full year after the conference, starting 10-15 days after it ends. (If you’re attending RootsTech in person, you can buy the Virtual Pass as an add on to your conference registration for $79.)

If you’re going, I hope you have an amazing time. It sounds like the organizers are working hard to make the conference less overwhelming and less exhausting, which is fantastic.

I’m sorry I won’t get a chance to meet any readers of this blog at RootsTech, but I will be attending the NGS conference May 8 to 11 in St. Charles, Missouri. So perhaps we can meet there!

My RootsTech in pictures

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I had a great time at RootsTech and returned home to a lot of catching up to do (as well as client appointments for my organizing business), so I thought today I’d share some photos of my RootsTech experience, rather than writing a long post. I promise at least one substantive blog post on the content of some of the sessions I attended.

Being at a conference with tens of thousands of other people isn’t exactly my cup of tea. But the educational offerings make it worth it for me.

I created a collage of some representative photos. Explanations will appear below the collage.

 

Here are some of the highlights:

The good

My dear friend, Shannon Wilkinson, who has been getting into genealogy research over the last couple of years, joined me at RootsTech, which made the whole event even more fun for me. We shared a lovely room at The Peery Hotel, two blocks from the convention center. It was a fraction of the price of the conference hotels! Before the first general session, the awesome emcee, Jason Hewlett, asked us all to snap a selfie with the person next to us and make a funny face, then post it on social media. The top center photo is the selfie Shannon and I made. It’s one of many photos of the two of laughing that we’ve taken over the years.

A genius at Family Search created an app that allowed attendees to see how many cousins they had who were also attending RootsTech, based on the Family Search family tree. With one simple login and a touch of the button, I was able to see that I had 300 cousins (the closest being a sixth cousin) in attendance! The photo on the bottom left shows the stats on that project conference-wide.

All the keynotes were fantastic. On Thursday we heard Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York who had an inspirational message about listening to others and about following your dreams. Shannon snapped the great picture on the  middle left. The large photo he’s standing in front of is the first photo he took of strangers. On Friday, we heard the inspirational words of former Olympic figure skater Scott Hamilton. His positivity is absolutely contagious. (No photo because the person sitting in front of me had big hair.)

On Saturday, we heard Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University and the TV show Finding Your Roots, who did not disappoint. (That’s him in the center right of the collage.) His eloquence and enthusiasm for genealogy, DNA, and teaching young people about DNA and genealogy (in his Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings program) was motivating and inspiring. Also on Saturday, we also had the opportunity to hear the beautiful Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade perform. It was a special treat to hear her perform the Oscar-winning song, “Remember Me,” (from the movie Coco) for the first time in front of a live audience. The next night she performed it (albeit in a different way) on the Oscar broadcast! Note: All the keynote talks, as well as some major sessions, were recorded and are available to watch at this link.

I am so happy I was able to take advantage of the conference being in Salt Lake City to spend a few hours looking at microfilm at the Family History Library. The bottom center photo in the collage is just one of the many aisles of microfilm storage. Amazing!

The bad

The aforementioned crowds definitely took the luster off the event for me. I snapped the photo on the top left from above as people streamed toward lunch after a session. This year, our name tags were scanned before we could enter a session. That led to long, tedious lines and difficulties passing through hallways. I hope they reconsider that. Many people had difficulty getting into talks–they stood in line for more than an hour in some cases, only to be turned away. I didn’t experience that, but I wasn’t trying to attend the popular DNA sessions. I also had no problems registering (I literally had a wait of about 30 seconds) while others waited in line up to three hours.

The ugly?

On my way out of a restaurant the day I was leaving, I encountered this gentleman who explained me that he was part of an Urban Chariot Race team called Disney Princesses. I asked him if I could take a picture of him (I couldn’t resist!) and he struck a pose. There he is on the bottom right of the collage.

Seriously, if you have a chance to attend RootsTech next year and you’re not completely opposed to crowds, I heartily recommend it!

Exercising my microfilm muscle

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I headed to Salt Lake City this morning to attended RootsTech. I landed at 11:30 a.m., dropped my suitcase off at my hotel and made a bee-line for the Family History Library. I had a list of things to look up and I was raring to go.

Just a few days ago, I had come across an index to deed books for Hopkins County, Kentucky, covering 1807-1939. Both the index and the deed books themselves are available at the Family History Library. But only the index has been digitized; the books themselves (with the exception of a couple) are available only on microfilm.

I was so happy to find the index right before, rather than right after, I was going to be in Salt Lake City! So today, I looked up the microfilm numbers, found the six rolls of microfilm (I didn’t realize I was supposed to limit myself to five at a time) and took up residence at the microfilm reader. At first, I was uncertain and slow. But by the third reel, I was a microfilm ninja!

At the Family History Library, in order to get a copy of the document you find on microfilm, you take the microfilm spool, along with the take-up reel, and carry them to a scanning machine. This way you’re saving your place on the film.

I was intimidated at the prospect of scanning from microfilm using unfamiliar software, but the staff member gave me a patient lesson (she used a pointer to point at the screen!) and after getting help just once, I was able to do it on my own the next eleven documents. It’s a little more complicated than it sounds because you have to zoom in and out, straighten pages and adjust the brightness. I felt so empowered!

I found some great stuff in those deed books and though I was a bit bleery eyed four hours later when I’d made it through all my lookups, it was well worth the effort. I’m grateful that I seldom have to use microfilm. Searching and browsing digital copies of documents and downloading with a single click is so much easier. But I always like it when I gain an appreciation for all the work that pre-internet genealogists went through.

It was a great start to my RootsTech week!

2018 RootsTech livestream schedule

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I’m excited that I’m attending RootsTech, but for those who can’t make it, RootsTech is livestreaming a small selection of the keynotes and breakout sessions at next week’s conference.

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

Wednesday, February 28

9:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m. | Family History in 5 Minutes a Day
Speaker: Deborah Gamble

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | DNA–One Family, One World
Speaker: David Nicholson

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Organizing and Preserving Photograph Collections
Speaker: Ari Wilkins

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Finding the Answers: The Basics of WWII Research
Speaker: Jennifer Holik

4:30 a.m.–5:30 a.m. | Wednesday General Session and Innovation Showcase
Speaker: Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International

Thursday, March 1

8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m. | Thursday General Session
Speaker: Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | MyHeritage DNA 101: From Test to Results
Speaker: Yaniv Erlich

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Google Photos: Collect, Organize, Preserve, and Share
Speaker: Michelle Goodrum

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Unlocking Roman Catholic Records
Speaker: Brian Donovan

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | A Gift of Life: Who’s Writing Your Story?
Speaker: Deborah Abbott

Friday, March 2

8:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m. | Friday General Session
Speaker: Scott Hamilton

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. | findmypast’s British and Irish Hidden Gems
Speaker: Myko Clelland

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Finding the Right DNA Test for You
Speaker: Jim Brewster

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | How Not to Leave Your Genealogy Behind
Speakers: Amy Johnson Crow and Curt Witcher

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Finding Elusive Records at FamilySearch
Speaker: Robert Kehrer

Saturday, March 3

8:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m. | Saturday General Session
Speakers: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Natalia Lafourcade

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Civil Registration Indexes of England and Wales
Speaker: Audrey Collins

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Advancing Your Genealogy Research with DNA
Speaker: Anna Swayne

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Pain in the Access: More Web for Your Genealogy
Speaker: Curt Witcher

That’s a lot of free information available to you! I heartily encourage to attend as many of these talks as you can, from the comfort of your computer, tablet or phone. In my experience, RootsTech presentations are top notch.