RootsTech 2020 4 day pass Giveaway

As an Ambassador for RootsTech  2020 I have the privilege of giving one of my followers a pass covering the registration for all 4 days of the conference. This just covers the cost of registration. 

To enter just tell me in a single paragraph why you would like to attend the conference.

Fill in this form which requires you to leave your email address. 
All contact details will be deleted after this closes and the winner has accepted.

The closing date is 23 December 2019 at 1700 GMT.

The winner will be announced on this blog and may be drawn and/or announced on Mondays with Myrt on 23 December 2019 or shortly thereafter.

RootsTech London Review Day 1 (Part One)

My RootsTech Experience

I was so busy at the conference that I had no time to sit down and write a post. If you follow me and others on Twitter or watched the live stream you will have got a taste of the conference.

Having been to RootsTech in Salt Lake City twice I already knew that the experience was going to be full-on even before the conference started and it certainly was an experience I would not have wanted to miss.

The first evening I was invited to join some of my antipodean friends and others I had not previously met including the winner of my RootsTech London registration pass Rosemary McKenzie.

Here are a few candid photos I took that evening

The first day started with an Ancestry breakfast meeting but I only took one photo and it did not flatter so not sharing.
We were told about the upcoming programmes they had sponsored entitled Ant & Dec's DNA Journey which were shown this week on ITV and will be repeated for those in the UK this Friday and Saturday and are also on the ITV hub.

There was one class before the keynote session and I decided to attend the talk by Myko Clelland entitled Beyond the British Census. This was my takeaway message from this presentation. We can use these records but not in isolation.

The break before the keynote gave me time to catch up with some friends from WikiTree and grab a drink. Then we were off to the first keynote of the conference welcomed by Steve Rockwood and introduced by Nick Barratt was Dan Snow.

I was part of a group interviewing both Nick Barratt 

and Dan Snow and will share some of what I recorded in my next post.

RootsTech London Next Week

Will You Be There?

I have not posted for a while but wanted to update any of you who are still "sitting on the fence" about attending.

I also want to be sure that those who are coming or who are too far away to attend in person know more about what is going on and what they can see on the live stream. 

Here are the keynote speakers and the entertainment for the Friday evening.  

You can find the various passes on this page including free access to the exhibition hall  

You can find the free livestream schedule at this page

You can also purchase a Premium virtual pass and see what it includes


As well as the big companies there will be local family history societies in the exhibition hall. I am a member of a few.  
Hampshire Genealogical Society will be there launching their updated website.
They told me that the website is now much easier to navigate and has a search function that helps you find information, this includes both the Research Centre catalogue and online shop which offers the Hampshire Village Booklet range.
For HGS members, online databases include Home Guard Names in the Hampshire Record Office, Monumental Inscriptions – Small Churchyards andMuster Roll of the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment.To mark the launch they're adding the Wills Beneficiary Index.
All their information is compiled from work done by the volunteers over the last 45 years. There are many more indexes and datasets to come!

Looking forward to meeting friends and making new ones.

Don't forget to download the app

The maps of the ExCeL venue and of the exhibition hall are now loaded into the app. You'll see an icon that says 'Map' and that's where these PDFs are located.

Keynote Speakers RootsTech London

We know that Donny Osmond is going to be the keynote on Saturday but who else is coming to keynote on Thursday and Friday?

So who do we have here Dan Snow, Steve Rockwood, Nick Barratt and Donny Osmond.

You can read more about them all here

The Winner of my RootsTech London 3 day pass Draw is.....

I am pleased to announce that my winner of a 3-day pass for RootsTech London is Rosemary McKenzie.

She will be visiting from Australia and loves RootsTech in SLC, USA and now wants to see how it's done in London.

I know there is quite a contingent coming from Australia and Rosemary tells me she will announce that she has won on the Downunder Genies at RootsTech 
London FB page.

RootsTech London 3 day pass Draw

Could you be a winner

Enter now for the chance to win a RootsTech London 3 day registration.

The first time I went to RootsTech in Salt Lake City I was lucky enough to be a winner and had my registration refunded. So whether you have already registered or are planning on registering it is well worth entering.

I went to Diahan Southard's presentation in 2018 and she is coming from the United States to present in London (it is her in the photo).

To see what she is presenting and the current list of presentations check out this page.

Donny Osmond was a great speaker at RootsTech in 2015 (I was lucky enough to be in the audience) and I am sure he will go down well with those old enough to remember him in the UK. Does that include you?

To enter the draw for the 3-day pass please complete this form.

Please note that the information collected for this will be retained until the draw has taken place in August. The winner will be announced both on this blog and on the Mondays with Myrt webinar. 

Closing date for entries is 00:00 GMT/UTC Monday 5th August 2019 any entries after this will not be entered into the draw.

I may use your comments in later blog posts about RootsTech or when announcing the winner. Personal details such as email addresses will not be shared and will only be used for notifying the winner. 

RootsTech London 2019 Announcement

The first keynote speaker has been announced today and you can register to attend here.

Will you be there to listen to his story. He was one of the keynote speakers at RootsTech 2015 the first conference I managed to attend and was a hit with the audience. 

You may need to be prepared to join in with a song or two.

You may already be aware of his Welsh roots as he was on the first BBC Wales TV programme Coming Home in 2007.

Last month I had a chance to meet up with many of my fellow Guild of One Name Studies members who will be ambassadors for RootsTech London and here is a photograph of us at the Guild 40th anniversary conference in Leicester.

This is only a fraction of the members of the Guild who will be involved with this event as many of the members will be involved in giving presentations at the event.

Stay tuned for more posts.

I look forward to meeting you there.

RootTech Salt Lake City Review

A Review from Afar and Why you should come to RootsTech London

When it was announced that RootsTech was coming to London this October I made the decision that this year I would watch from home and post on Facebook and Twitter during the conference.

How about you join me in London in October you can register here, then maybe you can see one of these.

Last year I had a busy week at RootsTech and made lots of memories before, during and after the conference. One place I can recommend is a restaurant/bar called Zest, if you have allergies or dietary restrictions it is the place to go, and where I ate 3 times last year.  

But it is not just the great food that I missed this year. I love the interaction with other genealogists making new friends and catching up with old ones.

Last year the rooms and hallways in the conference centre were full and crowded. From what others have said this year with a smaller attendance and larger rooms these problems were hopefully eliminated.

There is a lovely video review available here. 

Or if you would like to read the daily blog reviews take a look here.

If you missed any of the live-streamed videos they are available here.

You can purchase a virtual pass for other recorded sessions here.

My 2 favourite sessions of those I managed to see this year were Myko Clelland's Uncovering Family Stories with British and Irish Historic Newspapers and Janet Horvorka's Heirloom, Documentation or Junk: What to Keep or Toss.

The older we get the more we need to think about what others will do with what we have collected and will they be able to access the important information. Creating the stories to pass on to the next generation, those things that they will treasure, because they have particular importance to the family.

The older generation may not be here as long as you may think and with them go those unrecorded memories. Particularly relevant to me as I know what it is to no longer have parents to ask about their experiences, and even their siblings are going, soon I will be the older generation.

I hope to share more about my visit to Salt Lake Last Year and hope it will "whet your appetite" for this year's RootsTech event in London.

RootsTech London Exclusive Pricing

Are You Coming?

This October RootsTech is coming to London and registration is now open with exclusive pricing during RootsTech in Salt Lake City.

If you want find out more and take advantage of this take a look here

RootsTech 2019 Free Live Stream Schedule

Are you planning on watching Live?

If like me you are unable to attend the RootsTech 2019 conference in person this February/March. 

You may be one of the many #NotAtRootsTech that enjoy watching the Live Stream.

So the schedule is published but these are the times in Salt Lake City. 

Do You know what time it will be where you are?

I don't have the time to convert for everyone but as I live in the U.K. and we are on G.M.T. I am going to convert the times to this. Hopefully, this will make it easier for you, my readers, as well as me.

Wednesday 27th February

• 16:30 What’s New at FamilySearch?
• 18:00 Hear Them Sing! Social History and Family Narrative 
• 20:30 Uncovering Family Stories with British and Irish Historic Newspapers (Sponsored by Findmypast) 
• 22:00 Connecting Your DNA Matches
• 23:30 Wednesday General Session and Opening Event 

Thursday 28th February 

• 15:00 Making the Leap—Becoming a Professional Genealogist (Power Hour)
• 16:30 Finally! German Church Records and How to Use Them on FamilySearch 
• 18:00 Thursday General Session: Patricia Heaton 
• 20:30 What You Don’t Know about Ancestry (Sponsored by Ancestry) 
• 22:00 “Jumping the Broom,” Oil, Inheritance, and African American Marriage in the South 
• 23:30 Perilous Assumptions: Revisiting Those First Finds

Friday 1st March

• 15:00 Why and How to Put Yourself into Your Family History (Power Hour) 
• 16:30 Essential Considerations for DNA Evidence 
• 18:00 Friday General Session: Saroo Brierley 
• 20:30 Getting the Most Out of Billions of Records on MyHeritage SuperSearch (Sponsored by MyHeritage) 
• 22:00 Discover Your Japanese Ancestors 
• 23:30 The Research Road Map: Your Path to Success 

Saturday 2nd March

• 15:00 Trace the Story of Immigrant Ancestors in 3 Steps (Power Hour) 
• 16:30 Examining Your DNA Matches with DNA Painter 
• 18:00 Saturday General Session: Jake Shimabukuro 
• 20:30 Leading with Science at 23andMe (Sponsored by 23andMe) 
• 22:00 The Silent Language of the Stones: Reading Gravestones through Symbols and Carvings 

I have also put them on a Google Calendar