Skip to main content

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- RootsTech!!

It's Saturday Night -

time for more Genealogy Fun!


Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing with our assignment for us:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

1)  Have you gone to Rootstech? If so which years? 

2)  Describe your experience.

3)  Who was your favorite speaker? 

4)  Did you talk with any genealogy "rock stars"?

5)  What was something you learned that you use over and over?

6)  Describe something you enjoyed in the vendor area.

7)  Do you watch the streamed classes live?

8)  Did you visit the Family History Library?  Describe your experience.

9)  What was your favorite Salt Lake City experience not genealogical related? (A restaurant, a landmark etc.)

10)  What was a pleasant surprise about your visit that you did not expect?

My thanks to reader Jacquie Schattner for creating this list of questions!!

My responses:

1.  Have you gone to Rootstech? If so, what years?  I have only gone once in 2018. I went with my friend, Jacqueline.

2.  Describe your experience. Although I enjoyed being in Salt Lake City and spending time in genealogy sessions, I found the conference to be too big. The first day before the exhibit hall was open, the corridors and halls were so crowded between sessions. Plus, the conference had a new policy to kick everyone out and then check badges going it. That made the halls even more crowded. Once the Exhibit Hall was open, I used it as a shortcut to the classrooms on the other end and avoided both the stairs/escalators and the crowds.

3.  Who was your favorite speaker? There were many great speakers that I heard, but the one I remember most was Jennifer Holik, who did four presentations on researching World War II soldiers. Plus what she was teaching could be used for WWI and Korean War soldiers, too.

4.  Did you talk with any genealogy "rock stars"?  I spoke with Judy G. Russell and Cousin Russ Worthington. I introduced myself to Peggy Clemens Lauritzen and Tierra Cotton-Kellow.

5. What was something you learned that you use over and over?  The information I learned about military research from Jennifer Holik. I especially learned about morning reports and have since used them at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

6. Describe something you enjoyed in the vendor area. The first thing I bought were two LivingDNA kits for myself and my husband. Later I bought a tree-shaped necklace.
  
7.  Do you watch the streamed classes live? Yes, the years that I don’t attend, I watch some of the presentations either live or recorded. 

8.  Did you visit the Family History Library?  Describe your experience.  I did not visit the library on that trip. I had done research earlier in the year during SLIG, and would later research with the California Genealogical Society trip I led in April.

9.  What was your favorite Salt Lake City experience not genealogical related? (A restaurant, a landmark etc.) Not during Rootstech, but Jacqueline and I visited the Conference Center on Temple Square and toured the rooftop gardens. The hall inside for 21,000 people was pretty nice, too. 

10.  What was a pleasant surprise about your visit that you did not expect?  Hanging out with so many wonderful genealogists—all who love the same thing I love.

Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

  1. These are great answers. Surprisingly we both have only gone once and in 2018. Yes, I remember the frustration of badges being scanned. (And for those of you who wonder, I'm not the Jacqueline she went with!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. RootsTech is always a fun experience whether it is for the learning or the camaraderie with fellow genealogists. The halls were terrible in 2018 and the scan to enter every room was difficult, so I can commiserate with you on that! I've attended from 2015-2019, but didn't make it this year. However, NGS in Salt Lake in May is on my calendar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also attended one of Jennifer Holik's sessions in 2018. She had so much great information to share.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to other-than-just family members particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.

If you are family and want to be contacted, contact me at snrylisa @ gmail.com.