My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has our assignment tonight. We’re to:  1)  'Twas the week before RootsTech 2025, and all through the house, the genealogists were checking their RootsTech schedule.  What classes are you looking forward to watching online (for FREE) or attending in person?  Here's mine: I will be at RootsTech, arriving early Wednesday morning. I will spend the day at the FamilySearch Library, then check in at RootsTech in the late afternoon. I am staying at the Hilton Hotel with my roommate, Jacqueline. She’s the one who loves attending RootsTech. I find the crowds a bit too much. My plan is to attend a few classes, but mostly hang out in the exhibit hall either at the BCG booth or the NGS booth. I will wear a mask in class and in the halls between classes. These are the classes I would like to attend. Thursday, Mar 6 “Finding Your World War I or W...

I have completed one hundred fifty-six (156) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I spent the week in Salt Lake City at RootsTech and the FamilySearch Library. Genealogy Blog Writing : Gone Too Soon: Nell Hutson Johnston Dead at 31 Year s . For week 9 of the 52 Ancestors, I wrote about my great-grandmother who died in 1919 at a very young age. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Best RootsTech 2023 Experience . I wrote about my experience attending RootsTech in person. I wrote several extra posts this week as I am attempting to write about a woman family member each day for Women’s History Month. I will attempt to a post each day. My Mother Loved Crafts Nana Was the Fun Grandmother My Grandma was a Seamstress Lorene was a World Traveler and I have Letters to Document it Aunt June’s High School Activities Documented by Newspapers Meetings/Discussion Groups Because of my trip to Salt Lake City, I did not attend many meetings. Monday was busy. I started the Monday...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Here’s our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings: Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.  1)  Did you attend the RootsTech 2023 conference this weekend in-person in Salt Lake City or virtually in your genealogy cave on the computer?  What one keynote talk, class session, or Expo Hall feature impressed you the most? Here's mine: Although I paid for an in-person registration to RootsTech and was here in Salt Lake City, I attended no presentations. I worked two stints in the Board for the Certification of Genealogists’ booth where lots of people stopped by to view the portfolios and ask questions. Being that we are in Utah, a lot of the queries were from students and graduates of BYU Provo and Idaho. After each stint, I walked around the exhibit hall checking out some of the booths. Lo...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1)  The RootsTech 2022 Virtual Conference was Thursday through Saturday (March 3-5) this week.  Did you register and attend classes?  Did you watch the Keynote talks?  Did you visit the virtual Expo Hall?  What was your favorite experience? Here’s mine: I registered for RootsTech with the idea of viewing the presentations, but ended up having other activities that took up my time. I watched no live presentations and viewed seven videos on Thursday and Saturday. I have collected links to others that I will watch in the future.  Many of the presentations are basic or intermediate level, but I view subjects I’m interested in to get tips on possible sources to use in my own presentations. These presentations often give me ideas on how to improve or create my own. I also checked out the RootsTech Relatives. Of the 31,625 r...

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 oth...

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 r...

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 se...