RootsTech2014 Who's going?

So, I am excited!  How about you?  This will be my third trip to one of the greatest events for Genealogists and Techie wannabes.  Each time I come back learning more of the Tech side to help with the genealogy.  It's always a great rush to rub elbows with all (over 4000 last year) these folks that think like me.

I'm hoping that some of the developers I met last year have fine tuned their products so I can actually use them.  I keep thinking of Map-N-Tour http://mapntour.com/ .  Last year they had a product that was promoting 3D genealogy with google earth.  Pretty cool.  It took one line and showed the earth with the pedigree linking to each location.  WONDERFUL!  I can't wait to use that to bring genealogy to the kids and have them be excited.

Each of the genealogy companies; Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, FindMyPast, FamilySearch will also be there with the newest and best.  All with freebies too, maybe that will help you decide to attend also.  The vendors are all great, genealogists love the vendors. Facial recognition software was BIG last year, several companies all had something just a bit different, all those photos you have that you can't tell who those people are, well these can help you with that.  Vendors with books, programs to help you along.  DNA is also a big seller.  This is helping break down those brick wall we all come against in our search for ancestors.

Anyone going?  I'm hoping to catch up with you there.  Drop me a line............ Hope to see you there!

Casting PBS's "Genealogy Roadshow" : RealityWanted.com: Reality TV, Game Show, Talk Show, News - All Things Unscripted Social Network Casting Community

Just in and how great!  This might be the answer to some peoples problem.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to share this or not.  But I decided this was a great opportunity for all, so here it is:

Below is most of the link but click on it to get more details.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT YOUR FAMILY'S HISTORY? 

The groundbreaking Documentary Series “Genealogy Roadshow” will be in AUSTIN, NASHVILLE, SAN FRANCISCO, and Detroit reuniting families with long lost relatives, and answering questions about their past, their history, and their lineage.

Do you have a Family mystery you would like solved?

Is there a missing piece or person in your family tree you’ve always wondered about?

Do you believe you might be connected in some way to our Nation’s rich history, folk lore, our founding fathers, or a famous person?

Check out the link below for more information.

Casting PBS's "Genealogy Roadshow" : RealityWanted.com: Reality TV, Game Show, Talk Show, News - All Things Unscripted Social Network Casting Community

FamilyTreeDNA Tech tip of the day

Last Tuesday I watched Relative Roots's Elise Friedman's first of three webinars on DNA.  This first one was on Y-DNA. Has anyone done a DNA study? 

 I had been able to grab my father's brother dna for a sample (this was just a cheek swab), and it matched what I was able to obtain from the SMGF (Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation) of my father's results once I had something to match it with (this being my uncle's).  The Y-DNA follows the male line for those of you new to the subject.  The premise is that the male line should be the same as it goes further back in history. So when you have your test done with enough markers (these are A C G T and the repeats) getting a Test with 12 markers will give you many matches, but the Test with 67 markers limits the results to within about 8 generations.  Some of the haplotypes like my father's side is a very common one.  R1b seems to be the group out of Great Britian.  My daughter, Allison Bigelow was a bit concerned when her husband's results came back with the same group, R1b1a2. It seems like every male in Great Britian is this one.  Anyone with this haplogroup and is a Bigelow or a Newman, please contact me.



I have read many books, attended seminars and have actually talked to the FamilyTree DNA folks at RootsTech twice, just one more reason to attend and they usually have some kind of a discount.  The webinar was interactive at times, Elise would ask the audience a question and she gave the answers as we went along.  This webinar really made it very clear. It was just over 2 hours long and the time rather flew.  Well worth the $10 I paid for this episode.


 Next week, April 16th  is mtDNA which follows the mother's side.  Now this one is a fun to try and follow.  You need to be very careful with your pedigree chart on this, because you are following mother to mother to mother all the way up the tree.  On my mother's tree there were nine mother's maiden names to follow  I am trying to get to number ten.  Scottish research is fun because they do follow distinct naming patterns first daughter gets the mother's mother's name, first son gets the father's father's name and this helps make it easier to follow the tree up and Family Search has most of the Old Parochial Register's online at https://familysearch.org/  for free or you could check on the ScotlandsPeople site at http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.  This is a paid site but you get the actual copy of the parish Register. These are the extracted records from Scottish Churches.  You still need to double check these tho'.  So if you have Scottish roots give this a try.



The third episode is the Family Finder which is an automal test. This means that the results are from both parents.  This was great for me. My maternal grandfather was an only son and he didn't have any sons.  If I wanted to match some of my Wright line in Scotland I needed to do this test.  Well, two weeks after my mother's results was posted to the site I received an email from a man in Scotland.  I had my gedcom (this is a pedigree) on the site so everyone who matches and see where at.  So after checking both trees we found that my mother's father's If you were doing Y-DNA or mtDNA this wouldn't have been picked up, only through the FamilyFinder or autosomal testing.  SO, I can hardly wait for April 23 to hear more about this one.  I might have missed something.

Anyway, if you are interested in what you have read here.  Please see Relative Roots at http://www.relativeroots.net/webinars/ to sign up and hear more about this subject.  The more you know the easier it makes it.  Actually I am taking all three of the webinar series so there was a discount of $25 for all three.  These are offered throughout the year, so don't miss out.

There are many testing companies you can choose from.  I like FamilyTreeDNA, but 23 and me, and Ancestry.com also do this.  Have some fun and break down a few brick walls with finding that ancestor's match.  Good luck with your searches.

FamilyTreeDNA  http://www.familytreedna.com/
23 and me          https://www.23andme.com/

Day 3 of RootsTech2013

As I fly out of Salt Lake City, Utah to go back home, I am still thinking on all I have learned so far.  I was really impressed with the 3D visualization of family direct line on a Google Earth platform.  I am hoping that MapNTour gets this going.  I really want it to demonstrate to the younger generation that genealogy is pretty cool, but I need places other than the US and UK and they are in the process of getting those geocodes for other countries. When they are up and running I'll let you know. Pretty cool tho'.

Are any of you using Evernote for your record/note taking?  I'm just getting started and could use some tips if any of you would like to share.  I have seen it used during RootsTech and had some help from a fellow patron of the Family History Library.  Thanks Liz Stratton from Ohio!  I've started making my folders on areas and families but haven't decided to put them in family or areas folders or both.  Any ideas on how you use the folders?

Saturday's keynote speakers were more lighthearted as we were just a bit overwhelmed by all that we were exposed to during the past few days.  

Our first speaker of the day was David Pouge from the New York Times, he chatted about how technology has changed and how we need to do the same.  There were some very interesting apps shown, some were to make music from your smartphone.  One of them was Ocarina, when installed it puts four holes on your screen and you blow into the mic and out pops music.  They even have sheet music for you to download to play.  You might want to download this one and kinda blow your kids minds that you have something they just think is pretty cool.  Also, if you like parodies, you might like to download David's YouTube versions.  His I want an IPhone is great.  http://youtu.be/GZCDVpB63g4

The next speaker was to be Gilad Japhet, founder and CEO of MyHeritage.com.  Unfortunately is father passed away.  Condolences to his family.  They instead brought in James L Tanner who is an avid MyHeritage user and has his own blog; Genealogys Star, Jim told us about he has done using the software.  I know from my own experience it is a wonderful tool, I am constantly getting matches from every line I have on there.   If you have family outside of the United States, this is the software you need.  It has a very strong Eastern Europe following as well as Worldwide.  So there is something there for everyone.  Give it a try, there is a free version to trial or you can keep it at that level. I liked it so much I went for the premium version.  

My first class that day was with Elaine Collins talking about successful strategies for searching on FindMyPast whether in the US or UK versions.  Love listening to the accents and different spin on words they have to make our "American" language sparkle.  Brilliant as usual Elaine.  Loved your talk.

Barry Elwell gave a talk on 10 habits of a successful genealogist that actually ended up to be 25. He also was going to give us his book in a pdf form on the same topic.  If he'll let me I will post a link for you at a later time.

I decided to forgo the last class as I was sure I would be taking home the IPad they were giving away at the end of the show. For this one you must be present to win after running around for the past 2 day gathering signatures and talking to the companies (no problem there) and getting their freebies, then dropping it off at the help desk and anxiously awaiting 3pm on Saturday. The drawing was held in the demo theater section, imagine all those souls thinking "pick mine", hundreds of us gathering in a small area.  If you were not there when your name was called, sorry about your luck, so you see why we were all there.  Prizes from gift subscriptions by Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, Archives.com, a 7 day stay at the Plaza (I love the Plaza and it just happens to be right next door to the library), printers, and the IPad finally.  SO masses of us gathered around in hopes of taking home the big one.  I would have been happy with the Plaza one.  Instead of prizes of any sort, most of us took home the wonderful ideas, programs to try and a knowledge base to build on.  I invite any reading this because you like family history and use technology to better facilitate your research to attend next years event.  Mark your Calendars for February 6-8, 2014.  I am sure you will have an amazing experience. Hope to see you there next year!

This was just a small portion of the people awaiting for that Ipad!  

2nd Day attending RootsTech2013

Day 2 of RootsTech 2013 relived!

I can still feel the energy that was buzzing from the attendees!  It was really awesome!  People from all walks of life, ages, shapes and some even on their scooters.  Nothing keeps a real genealogist  down. Mothers with babies even attended, none of them in my classes or I might have felt differently, but hey, it's all relative right!

We started the day off with words of wisdom from Jyl Pattee about discovering your WOW!  Basically what that means is don't wait to do it because no one else will do it.  Create, Capture, Archive and Share!  You can use Instagram, Blog, Scrapbook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, etc.  What matters is that you share what's happening, it will document yourself as you live your life.  Have fun and let me know how you share your WOW!

My first class this day was "Research Ties" tracking your research with an online research log, by Jill Crandell.  Jill has a developed her own Research logs that work really well for the genealogist because it was the ongoing personal logs that she developed to work best.  It has a free two week trial and the subscription will be reasonable.  She wasn't sure as of the time of the event but check out her website and try it for yourself.  I like the idea of whatever online machine I am using I can pull up my logs, as long as the institute of choice has WiFi.  Here's her site: http://researchties.com/ , you can read her blog and learn more.  Have a look and fun with it.
 
Next was Crowdsourcing.  Now this I didn't know just what the topic was but since I'm trying to gather information along the way from friends and family to get my research done, I thought this might be resourceful.  Well, I did learn quite a bit.  Most of what I've already been doing.  I use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blogs, Forums, the Research Wiki at familysearch.org (if you don't know about this one, check it out or contact me and I'll share how to use it), rootschat, world genweb, and breadcrumb trail to just name a few.  You can use Timeline or concept boards to help you formulate your ideas or strategies.  If you use familysearch.org and have noticed that you no longer have the forum, will there is  page on the site for Research assistance from the great staff at the Family History Library, you can't get any better than that!  Love those people and so helpful.

Then it was time for some vendor viewing.  Gotta tell ya, some really great stuff was on exhibit, conceptual products, and must have and take home stuff.  Got my RootsMagic 6 with the book for $20.  So very cool and so many new items, came home to the hotel and uploaded it right away.  Of course not enough time to play with it, but looks very nice.  All the biggies were there, FindMyPast.com or uk, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, MyHeritage.com and a bunch of others.  There were vendors for classes in Genealogy, crafty stuff, making stories on film/video, books, etc.  Of course my cousin had her booth there and was extremely busy talking up Malta, she was chatting with the acquiry staff for all the big names, Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage and Archives to procure her masses of indexes, documents etc on the Maltese people who wandered all over the world it appears.  Visit her blog to learn more about Malta with +Malta Made at http://backtomalta.blogspot.com/.


Notice I didn't say anything about eating.  There is way too much to see and do for lunch. They do give you 1.5 hours for the lunch break but again, too much to see.  So, off to my next class I went.  This time it was "Using your Android Device for Genealogy and Family History" by David Lifferth.  Way too much to share on that one.  All I can say is there really is an app for that!  You name it,it can be found to help you out: video phone calls, gps, book readers, camera, MIFI, calender, travel planner, ancestory.com has an app along with myheritage.com, gedstar pro, telgen, familytree, relationship finder, there even is an app for Japanese genealogy.  How cool is that!

 More views of the vending area, you can see the people all over the place. I wasn't the only one without lunch.  Lots of freebies to pickup also.  Coming home with lots of pens, stickies, and free charts also.  Hey did you order YOUR FREE chart from TenGenChart.com?  Really cool chart in the round!

The last session was on the Blog Blitz with Lisa Louise Cooke.  Most important on that talk was make sure you have a RSS feeder on your site.  Hope you all can see mine and it is working.  Please let me know if it isn't.  And if you didn't know, Google Reader and iGoogle are going away, not sure on when.

From there it was off for dinner ( I do eat occasionally) and then the library.  Found more stuff on my Scottish lines.  Gotta love it!  I also did what I found refer to as my elimination of records, which means I didn't find what I was looking for but didn't dwell on it.  Always positive here.  There are more lines and more dead folk to find.

Review of my adventures at RootsTech

RootsTech2013


Lets start with the first day of the three day event.  Wow!  Can you imagine over 6700 adults and 2000 teens all attending a Genealogy Convention for the weekend?  Well it started today.

The day started out with the opening session.  You might wonder what is so great about this, let me tell you.  The attendees came in all ages, sizes and some came in their motorized carts.  Most had tablets, pads, smart phones in hand.  Technology was at it's height.  Apparently we took out their wireless, since it was very sketchy at most times.

First off, the event had it's own app with the schedule, and downloadable syllabus, speakers and exhibitors all on it.  You could even set up your daily schedule so you knew where to go at a glance.  Really pretty neat!  Registration I believe went very well, some might complain but with the volume of people coming through it flowed.  My cousin was able to set up her exhibit the night before when we picked up our registration packet.  +Malta Made  was back in the services area right next door to TenGenChart.com

As you can see the charts are pretty cool, they are a 10 generation circular configuration done from a gedcom you upload your self on the website.  It can then be printed off at Staples or on the sites listed onsite.  Very cool. I got my very own and I love it.  Hope it makes it home safely.



The opening speaker on Thursday was Dennis Brimhall of FamilySearch who was hosting this shindig.  Very motivational, key words were: "What would our Great Grandchildren wish we had done?".  Makes you kind of think differently of what we can and should do.  There was over 6700 registered attendees and over 2000 teens registered for Saturday's event to teach the kids how to do genealogy.  There were more walk-ins each day.  Masses of genealogists everywhere, all sharing ideas, families, recaps of what we liked or disliked (very few of those) of the classes we had attended.  We had attendance from  49 states, 17 countries and 10,000 were attending via live streaming.  Wow!  The Best of RootsTech 2013 will be shown at 16 Family History Fairs throughout the world adding another 4000 people.  We were told that there are now over 3.2 billion names online, and that there is now an Italian indexing program going on with the Italian Government to index there records, very cool for those of us that are researching there.  Did you know that 40% of the world's people don't really exist because there are no records of them.  In some third world countries there no birth, marriage or death records, so there is no record they existed.  Kind of sad really.

Next we had Syd Lierberman who told us how to tell stories and how to think of getting those stories out there.  The stories are our links to people and how that in telling the stories you then think again about that person in the story and when you share that story you make the person real to whoever is hearing it.  Very touching.  What stories are you telling?  What stories can you tell to your children, grandchildren?  Make your stories of your ancestors come alive with the next generations to come.



D. Joshua Taylor, late of Ancestry.com, now working with FindMyPast.com had words to get us to get the next generation interested using today's technology.  We need to start getting ourselves using Apps and visual adds to get the kids interested in what we have been so passionate about.  The photo to the right tells us that we need to know that the world is doing: 140 characters or less, have 51 followers per user, 175 million tweets a day, 40% of users watch but don't tweet, 163 billion total tweets, 50% of users are mobile and 1 million new accounts each day if you can't read it. The UK is using Teach with Twig, an award-winning online resource for teaching science, math and geography with over 1500 outstanding films, matched to the curriculum.  Kids want accessible adventures but affordable, so video games of genealogy is cool.  Oregon Trail of the 1980/1990's is still pretty cool.  We also need to be thinking of our next audience for genealogy is Mexico, China, India, Philippines, and Vietnam since this where our large numbers of immigrants are coming from.  How's your translation?




For the first session there was 14 sessions to choose from, I decided to do "The Future of Genealogy" hosted by Thomas MacEntee and the panels consisted of the biggies in Genealogy: Lisa Louise Cooke, Daniel Horowitz, Dick Eastman, Alan Philips, Dear Myrtle, and Josh Taylor.  The things that stood out were: richer data is coming, people need to change to advance - not the "always done things this way so why change"  which gets us nowhere, Archives are changing the hours they are open and more is online, and  DNA is getting bigger and is a way to break down those brick walls.



My next class missed because I was tied up in talking with the vendors.  Crazy things going on in the world of genealogy and tools we can use.  I especially liked the Map nTour exhibit.  They do things with Google Earth that make 3-D wonders.  Imagine a 9 generation pedigree in 3D starting at the birth place of each of the ancestors going up into space.  IT is so Cool!  I want it now!  Keep an eye out for the 3D images coming in the next six months they told me.  I can hardly wait.  http://mapntour.com/.

I didn't eat lunch, but visited as many of the vendors as I could.  The next class I took was one on Evernote.  Transform your note taking and remember everything with Evernote.  I learned of this last year and started using it but then forgot about it and forgot how to use it.  Boy was I missing out.  This product is great for the genealogist.  As I exited this class that was held in a pod of like 6 classes and we were to the end of it.  This is what I saw, no chance of getting anywhere fast.  Felt like a herd of cattle all trying to get to our next session quickly.  That one was Content Planning for Bloggers taught by Tonia Kendrick who had taught the Evernote Class.  Lots of goodies there, so hope you all will enjoy some of what I learned.  I will end this post with my herding of genealogist photo.  You will see that we come in all ages, sizes and physical abilities, saw some with their motorized scooters - more power to them.

Blog Blitz Workshop

What an experience!

I am at  RootsTech2013 and this is my second time to attend the annual event., I am still overwhelmed with all the new data there is out there.  I have learned so much and will be sharing that information with you in the following posts.  Today I am creating this in my Lisa Louise Cooke's Blog Blitz Workshop.

I am attending this conference with my cousin Carmen Borg or +Malta Made  who is manning her exhibit on her business Malta FamilyTree Maker with the help of her husband Al Wojcik.  It has been an exciting few days here at the conference.