Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Favorite RootsTech Connect 2021 Moment, Experience, Session, Feature

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night again -

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings:

1) Did you attend the free and virtual RootsTech Connect 2021 this week?  What was your favorite moment, experience, session, and/or feature?

2)  Put it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

Here is mine:

Yes, I registered for RootsTech and spent a few hours perusing the Exhibit Hall and viewing some pre-recorded sessions.

My favorite session was from Tom Jones “Using Indirect and Negative Evidence to Prove Unrecorded Events”. He explained with examples the difference between indirect and negative evidence. His examples were simple enough that intermediate genealogists will get it. I plan to put the YouTube link into my handout lessons on evidence.

I enjoyed using Relatives at RootsTech and seeing how I am related to other genealogists. The website claims I have 29,211 relatives, but most are way past 4^th cousins and I tend to match other genealogist friends in the 10-12^th cousin range. I have not done my own genealogy back that far, so really, it’s just fun. I do have one second cousin, who I know, three 3^rd cousins, and 2 fourth cousins. I wrote a message to the 3^rd and 4^th cousins to ask if they would like to share. We’ll see if they see the message. I found no relatives in Germany who share ancestry on my father’s side. The site told me to add more relatives. I did match people in Germany but they were likely Americans who now live in Germany.

I went to the Exhibit Hall and viewed the four presentations from ArkivDigital. I’m ready to try out the website, but wished the FamilySearch Library in Oakland was open, where they have access to the site. So, because it’s closed and ArkivDigital had a one-month sale, for about $33 I’m going to try out the site. I have used Swedish records before but they were black and white images from Genline (which Ancestry bought and now have on their website in the World account). Perhaps I can get some color images during this month.

I did make a playlist of all of the sessions that looked interesting, but I have no idea how many I have. I watch one this morning that was only two and half minutes! Boy did I feel cheated (even though it was free). These sessions will be part of presentations to watch each week, along with some from NGS and FGS I still need to watch.

I did not miss the huge crowds, but I think the Exhibit Hall would be much more fun in person.

Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.