Here are some of my
thoughts from my experiences from the last day of RootsTech 2015.
General Session
A.J. Jacobs - Global Family Reunion
The Global Family
Reunion will be held on June 6, 2015 in New York City at the New York Hall of
Science. There will also be online
streaming and branch parties around the world; including one at the Family
History Library in Salt Lake City.
Everyone counts … we are all connected.
The global family is hugely important. It brings history to life, fills
us with gratitude and interconnects us with all human kind. We will be a kinder
world as we deeply realize that we are one big family.
Here is the link to
the Global Family Reunion (GFR) http://globalfamilyreunion.com/
Select "Join the Family" to see how you are connected to the Global
Family Tree. I already know that I am
related to George Walker Bush (on both his father's and his mother's lines) and
the Bushes are already connected in the Global Family Tree. I am still waiting for my email from the GFR
to show all my connectedness.
You can buy tickets
for the event for $20 and 100% goes to the Cure Alzheimer's Fund and the
Alzheimer's Association to fund research. When we lose someone to Alzheimer's
we lose their memories and their history.
Curing Alzheimer's is really about preserving family history!
Donny Osmond
Anybody can do
family history; it is all about stories. When you discover more about your
ancestors, the more you discover about yourself. Most of Donny's history has
been documented. Has ours? If not, why not? Don't you think our
descendants deserve to know about us? It is our responsibility to record our
lives. If we don't document our memories, we will at some point forget them.
Donny indicated that searching his family history has become one of his
favorite hobbies. He was given all of
his mother's research … which spanned decades. What matters most is what lasts
the longest and family lasts the longest. We need to make every "right
now" matter. We need to give our loved ones our time. Check out Donny's app at http://donny.com/
Bringing Families Together
Through Family Reunions - Andi Gooch
I really liked this
session as I have a family reunion session that I present at other
conferences. It was good to see a different take on family reunion
planning. Because RootsTech is a tech
conference the majority of Andi's presentation was tech oriented and she shared
apps and programs that can help in planning a reunion. She shared some programs for collecting
payments electronically that I had not thought of using before. That one
suggestion alone will help me in the family reunions and high school reunion I
am planning. Her topics covered: Themes, Administration, Social Media,
Activities and Master of Ceremonies. You can follow Andi on her blog: http://intothewestfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/
6 Steps to Choreograph Your
Research Across The Internet - Janet Hovorka
I took a lot of
notes on this session to help me in my personal family history research. Here are my overview notes regarding the 6
steps: 1. Know what you are looking at online. 2. Create your own conclusion
tree. 3. Know your search strategies. 4. Use multiple tabs on your screen. 5.
Use timelines. 6. Cite your sources.
Janet's session was recorded and may be available on the RootsTech
website in the future. For more information on this topic, you can follow Janet
on her blog: http://thechartchick.blogspot.com/
EXPO HALL
There were so many
vendors and not enough time to visit each booth. I quickly walked the entire hall on one of my
lunch breaks and on the other breaks I was able to visit about a dozen booths. I probably could have spent 3 days visiting
vendors. It was a hard decision to make
… go to class, visit with new friends, or visit vendors. Even though the conference was already 4 days
long and I was exhausted at the end of each day, there are moments when I think
that it wasn't long enough. I believe
there were something like 200 vendors.
Here is a list of the exhibitors: http://rootstech.org/expo/exhibitors2015
#RootsTech #GlobalFamilyReunion #iamacousin
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