10th Anniversary RootsTech 2020 Day 1 and more news

RootsTech started today and this year is the 10th anniversary of the conference which started in 2011.

I was fortunate to be able to attend for the first time 5 years ago in 2015 and again in 2018. I had intended to go this year but have not left the UK.

In a short while the first Keynote Steve Rockwood CEO of Family Search will take to the stage to recap the last ten years. 

You can view it here

Here he is in London last October. 

He will also be making an announcement.

RootsTech is coming back to London! 5 – 7 November at the ExCeL. Take advantage of exclusive early bird pricing and get your 3-day pass for only £79 or a 1-day pass for only £39. Register here     

RootsTech 2020 News and Winner Announcement

Keynote Speakers for 

Friday, February 28, 11 a.m. 

White House Photographer David Kennerly to Keynote RootsTech 2020

and 

Saturday, February 29, 11 a.m.

Dallas Cowboys' Emmitt Smith to Keynote RootsTech 2020

Take a look at the links to find out more about the 2 keynote speaker that have been announced and don't forget to register if you have not yet registered.

One person who has managed to register for free is 

The Winner of my 4 day pass

Graham Walter

When asked why he wanted to attend RootsTech 2020 this is what he said

"It's a good time to catch up with fellow genies and celebrate 10 years of Rootstech. Also many interesting classes to take..."

Thank you to everyone who entered and those who didn't win don't forget that others may still have contests running and take a look at Conference Keeper.

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

BLOGIVERSARY

ELEVEN YEARS

Today marks the eleventh anniversary of this blog.

Over the years it has changed direction and this year all of my posts have been about RootsTech.

The first part of next year will probably be the same as February is not far away. 

Today I want to update you on the other keynote speakers which have been announced and the sessions which those of us not at RootsTech 2019 can watch live.

The Keynote speaker for Thursday, February 28, 2019 is the  Emmy Award-Winning Actress Patricia Heaton.

The Keynote speaker for Saturday, March 2, 2019 is the Well-known Ukulele Master Musician Jake Shimabukuro.

See my previous post for the keynote on Friday, March 1, 2019.

The schedule for the live streaming is out and you can check it out here

I also want to highlight another event which is purely online.

This takes place January 11-14, 2019.

Are you a member of WikiTree?

Have you got images you could add to your WikiTree profiles?

Are you going to join in with the first Scan A Thon?

Want to find out more take a look here.

If you want help with ideas on how to scan or what to scan then look out for my upcoming post at  GeneaBloggersTRIBE

RootsTech 2019 Salt Lake City Keynote Speakers

Who is lined up?

If you want to know who will be on the main stage at RootTech SLC next year then take a look.

Steve Rockwood is a familiar face who I got to speak to last year. It appears that we may share a common ancestor as I have relatives who were mormon pioneers.

However, I was not familiar with the Friday keynote speaker having not seen the film based on his story.

Have a look here to find out more about him.

RootTech 2019 Salt Lake City Video Contest

Would you like to win in a trip

for two to your ancestral homeland!

I am fortunate that I can visit the locations where my family have lived as I have not found anyone who was an immigrant.

However other relatives have emigrated to countries across the world. If you are a descendant of someone who was an immigrant you may be living thousands of miles from where they were born.

If you were to win this contest that trip to their homeland could become a reality.

My husband's ancestor lived in this house which we visited.

What does Connect. Belong. mean to you?

Tell your story, and share how you connect and belong through video.

Submit your entry on this page.

RootsTech 2019 SLC Registration Winner

And the winner is?

Before I announce who has won let me share something which my winner and anyone going or even watching online needs to have on their smartphone.

You can find out more about the app here.

The app will help you to navigate the event and connect with others. Also check out this video series called Roads to RootsTech.

My winner this year said that going to RootsTech would be a dream vacation for her. She also said that "I have always loved family history and learning, but I know that there are so many new tools I do not know about". 

She plans to stay with family so this will also be a chance to catch up with them which is a real bonus.

This will be her first attendance at a RootsTech conference and I hope she has a great time.

Her name is Jeanne Lunt.

As I am unable to attend in person this year can I ask that everyone makes her welcome and if you know me say hello from me.

RootsTech 2019 News

With RootsTech coming to London in October 2019 preparations are well underway. Last week the call went out for those who may be planning to attend. If you think you could be a Presenter or would like to be an Ambassador here is your chance Sign up to be a Presenter or Ambassador here.

If you read my previous post regarding RootsTech 2019 you will know that I am an Ambassador and have a free pass for one lucky person.

If you are planning to attend RootsTech 2019 in Salt Lake City and would like the opportunity to win a free registration only (you pay for your own accommodation and transport ). Then follow this link, to answer a couple of short questions about why you would like to attend and whether this would be your first RootsTech conference, leave your name and contact email. (as last year all information will be deleted after the winner has been drawn other than that required to maintain contact with the winner) If you are a winner, but not a blogger, I will be happy to publish your feedback from the event, particularly if it was the first time you were able to attend. 
Good Luck everyone.
I will be closing the entries on Monday 19th November 2018 at 12:00 GMT/UTC.
Winner will be announced later that same day.

RootsTech 2019

RootsTech 2019 News

I am a bit late with some of this news but will include the links here just in case you have not seen them elsewhere.

I will be continuing my series about my experience earlier this year at RootsTech 2018 so keep an eye on the blog for more.

If you have never managed to attend this conference and wonder why others continue to attend every year then take a look at this page.

If you want more information or alternative pricing take a look here.

The earlybird pricing ends next week (12 October) so make sure you get in and register soon if you don't want to miss out on a good price.  

As I am a RootsTech Ambassador for the second year I will have a free pass for one lucky person. If you have already registered and win you will get a refund so don't delay your registration.

Finally as I am attending 3 conferences in the UK in 2019 I am not expecting to make it to the Salt Lake event this year. 

However, if you want a RootsTech experience and cannot make it to the United States one of the events I will be attending is RootsTech London which is in October next year (so you have a whole year to save up for it).

If you have ancestors from the UK you may want to make this a family trip in more ways than one.

Salt Lake City Trip - Day1

Welcome to the first of my posts from Salt Lake City where I am connecting with Genealogy friend old and new gathering for this years RootsTech Conference which started on Wednesday, 28th February 2018.

 

Pre-flight breakfast at the airport

                                                                                       

The plane from Manchester, England to New York

This first day got off to a great start I met up with Tahitia McCabe, Roger Moffat and his wife Lisa Christensen at breakfast and we had a great geneachat.

Next, I joined in with the weekly webinar Mondays with Myrt which was broadcast live from the third floor of the Family History Library,

Laura Hedgecock, Jill Ball and Hilary Gadsby.

Photograph courtesy of Jill Ball aka GeniAus

We discussed the GeneaBloggers Tribe and explained more about what some of us do. Jill and I, assisted by Laura, are responsible for highlighting newly registered blogs with a Welcome post. Laura is responsible for ensuring the Welcome post gets on the website and schedules the post, each new member receives a notification that their blog will be highlighted on a particular day.
Please watch the webinar which you can find on Dear Myrtle's blog.

Most of the group then walked over to the cafeteria in the Church Office Building for lunch.

After lunch, it was time to do some research so I returned to the Family History Library and down to B2 the British Isles Floor. Some of the items I have added to the Family Search Family Tree are only available to view in the library or at a Family History Centre. I accessed and downloaded a few images of interest. One item I had not realised had been digitized was the settlement examination for my ancestor Louisa Richards which I have discussed on my family blog.

Upon returning to my room I freshened up for dinner. For several years now Jill Ball has organised a meal for those attending RootsTech who live in countries which are members of the Commonwealth.
I thought I had taken some photographs. When I arrived most of the others were there at the Blue Lemon. Jill has uploaded this to YouTube but not everyone is in this slideshow. I was told the one I was in was not in focus.
This was the only time I went to this restaurant this visit as I was not around the following day when others met for lunch. This is a popular eating place for the genealogy crowd.

I returned to my hotel and started to write this post but was not getting very far as I nodded off more than once. 
Off to bed ready to meet up with Laura, Jenny and Lara in the morning.

View from my room at The Radisson Hotel

Rootstech Ambassadors interview Steve Rockwood

In this interview I am the Ambassador who connects with Steve Rockwood using Relatives at RootsTech that was discussed in the opening session on the Livestream from RootsTech on Wednesday 28 February 2018.

I also had a connection with a 5th cousin once removed. Ancestry DNA is giving attendees badges with places on them, this is an example, and asking us to find someone else with that same place on their badge. You then go together to collect your prize which is determined by a marble roll. When I was on my way to a talk on Wednesday I found my match. She was from Canterbury, England and the wife of the presenter I was about to watch. That is not all as I recognised the name of the person giving out the prizes and he confirmed that he was indeed the person showing on the Relatives at RootsTech app.