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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of February 26-March 4, 2018

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week.

Genealogy
The main event for me this week was attending RootsTech 2018. It was in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Salt Palace and put on by FamilySearch. I roomed with my friend, Jacqueline. I had previously not attended because of its size. Over 14,000 people pre-registered for this conference. And crowds there were. But I decided to come this one time in order to meet in person several people who were coming from out of the country or from the east coast. Besides classes, I managed to get many photos with genealogy friends from far and wide.
Melinda Culpon, Hilary Gadsby, and me
I especially decided to attend RootsTech to meet Hilary in person. She is English but lives in Wales. I have participated in several DearMyrtle study groups with her. 

I met several more DearMyrtle participants:

True Lewis and me

Dave Robison

Russ Worthington (Cousin Russ)
Randy Seaver and me
Also a few more wonderful people I had not met before:

Jill Ball of Australia, from whom I won the RootsTech registration

Linda Stufflebean, who also writes blogs and does Randy Seaver's SNGF

My favorite things about RootsTech:
1. Keynote speaker, Scott Hamilton. His story very inspirational and I doubt there was a dry eye in the auditorium.

2. Favorite presenter. Actually I have two: Peggy Clemens Lauritzen and Jennifer Holik. I had never heard their presentations before.

Peggy’s presentation on migrations was both informative and she presented it in a lively style. I just wanted to hug her (which I did the next day when I met her in person).
Peggy and me
Jennifer gave four presentations on World War II research and I was able to hear three of them. Her presentation was excellent and wanted everyone to research and write the stories of our veteran ancestors. She specializes in researching fallen soldiers so their stories can be told and not forgotten.

3. Exhibition Hall. The companies selling DNA were the winners. They all had sales and long lines to buy the kits. I purchased two kits from Living DNA. I also bought three books: Genealogist’s Handbook for New England Research and Guide to Genealogical Writing from the New England Historical and Genealogical Society booth. I also bought Jim Beidler’s new book The Family Tree Historical Newspaper Guide. I had submitted an example to him and I’m mentioned in the book on page 144. I went to many of the booths to learn about their products and sampled some good chocolate.

Even though I don’t like crowds, I did have a good time at RootsTech. I made the most of the situation, choosing classes that weren’t super popular, so there weren’t as many crowds trying to get seats (choosing classes in the big ballrooms was helpful). I also learned how to maneuver through the exhibition hall to get to some of the classrooms where there were less people. A couple of the days, I spent lunch in my hotel room, so I could recharge for the rest of the day.

Exhibition Hall

Crowds between classes
No work was done on my portfolio, but I did meet with my certification discussion group this week. We discussed the article about Wills in the Helen Leary book North Carolina Genealogy.

Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

  1. Thanks for posting the RootsTech photos. 14,000 people . . .

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, and was about 5000 more on Saturday--Family Day.

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  2. Thank you for mentioning my WWII programs. So happy you enjoyed them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I learned quite a lot, and from your books, too. Thank you for your dedication to this field.

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