Rootstech 2014

One genealogical conference that tries to push the boundaries and provide something a little different is Rootstech, on this week in Salt Lake City. It's not just about family history, it's about how to utilise technology in undertaking family history. There are plenty of sessions that look fascinating for one-place studies, and some of the technological tools are of course useful for other facets of your life.

Some sessions are being streamed for free online during the conference, so if the timing works for your timezone you can see some quality presentations at a great price (those presentations should also be recorded and available to view on the Rootstech website after the event). It looks like they have chosen sessions with a broad appeal for online streaming. I'll be trying to catch Intro to DNA for Genealogists, Do It Yourself Photo Restoration, and Information Overload, how about you?

If you're a one-place studier who is attending in person, some sessions you might want to add to your schedule are:

Putting Your Ancestors in Historical Perspective: Extracting Stories from Military Records on Ancestry.com and Fold3 with Anne Mitchell

Unfortunately none of those are being streamed, but you can view outlines for them at https://web.archive.org/web/20180527185425/https://www.rootstech.org/about/syllabus-materials/.

Let us know any great tips you pick up from Rootstech!

Alex Coles

TAGS : Tips

1 Comment

Persis Kehr

February 27, 2014

One issue I had not seen addressed at RootsTech before was the problem of bequeathing our family history. This was touched on by several presenters. As the president of a small local genealogical society I deal with this problem. Many of our mostly elderly members worry what will become of the records they have so painstaking compiled after they die. They know their children and grandchildren have no interest in genealogy presently, and fear they will fail to develop an interest sufficient to want to inherit and pass on the family history that will be theirs. How does one ensure that one’s records do not simply end up in a dumpster when the grandchildren empty out the family home and sell it?

This happens! I visit flea markets where huge boxes of antique photos linger in forlorn anonymity-nobody wants them and nobody knows who they are. A friend was walking down the street one day and happened to pass the house of an elderly neighbor who had recently passed away. The trash bins in front of the house were filled with old photo albums and even the family Bible! The children had no interest in these precious items. My friend rescued them, went online, looked up a distant cousin of the deceased, and shipped her the collection. How many other such treasures are never rescued?

I am about to join your society and hope to carry out a one place study of my own. It concerns the village my great grandfather settled in and where he started a new industry that eventually employed as much as 40% of the town over succeeding decades. The company was sold after his death, and because it was not publicly traded there are next to no records of it and its employees. These would have been fascinating records, but they were not preserved-a sad example of an important part of a town’s identity not surviving. The old plant still stands and my grandfather’s office looks much as it did in the old pictures we have of him sitting there at his desk. However, when you ask young people in town today about the plant, they haven’t a clue about what went on there, even if their own parents or grandparents worked at the plant.

The problem of how to make sure we are not forgotten and that the history we compile is not lost is one we all need to consider and plan for. I hope there will be further discussion of this issue in the history and genealogical communities. I could surely use some suggestions, and so could many of my genealogy buddies.

Will be registering for your wonderful society soon. Heard about you through Kirsty’s Legacy Family Trees webinar-am so glad I found you all!

Persis Kehr

February 27, 2014

One issue I had not seen addressed at RootsTech before was the problem of bequeathing our family history. This was touched on by several presenters. As the president of a small local genealogical society I deal with this problem. Many of our mostly elderly members worry what will become of the records they have so painstaking compiled after they die. They know their children and grandchildren have no interest in genealogy presently, and fear they will fail to develop an interest sufficient to want to inherit and pass on the family history that will be theirs. How does one ensure that one’s records do not simply end up in a dumpster when the grandchildren empty out the family home and sell it?

This happens! I visit flea markets where huge boxes of antique photos linger in forlorn anonymity-nobody wants them and nobody knows who they are. A friend was walking down the street one day and happened to pass the house of an elderly neighbor who had recently passed away. The trash bins in front of the house were filled with old photo albums and even the family Bible! The children had no interest in these precious items. My friend rescued them, went online, looked up a distant cousin of the deceased, and shipped her the collection. How many other such treasures are never rescued?

I am about to join your society and hope to carry out a one place study of my own. It concerns the village my great grandfather settled in and where he started a new industry that eventually employed as much as 40% of the town over succeeding decades. The company was sold after his death, and because it was not publicly traded there are next to no records of it and its employees. These would have been fascinating records, but they were not preserved-a sad example of an important part of a town’s identity not surviving. The old plant still stands and my grandfather’s office looks much as it did in the old pictures we have of him sitting there at his desk. However, when you ask young people in town today about the plant, they haven’t a clue about what went on there, even if their own parents or grandparents worked at the plant.

The problem of how to make sure we are not forgotten and that the history we compile is not lost is one we all need to consider and plan for. I hope there will be further discussion of this issue in the history and genealogical communities. I could surely use some suggestions, and so could many of my genealogy buddies.

Will be registering for your wonderful society soon. Heard about you through Kirsty’s Legacy Family Trees webinar-am so glad I found you all!

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Persis Kehr

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