RootsTech 2020 – Day 2

First thing this morning we enjoyed a breakfast buffet courtesy of the Radisson Hotel. Cheryl and I had no idea that the hotel provides breakfast to all guests attending RootsTech. What a great perk!

My first mission today was to finally meet with Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective. Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective. My first mission today was to finally meet with Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective. We have been trying to connect since last year, when Maureen was unable to attend RootsTech due to an injury. She was able to confirm that the picture of the young child, was in fact, a boy. It’s the only proof of the short life of William A. Seeley, Jr., the only son of William and Catherine Seeley, my husband’s great-grandmother. Born around 1865, he died sometime before his tenth birthday. I was also able to create a photo timeline of Katherine Pearl Seeley, youngest daughter of William and Catherine, Scott’s grandmother, which is helping to confirm the whereabouts of the family during the years 1860-1880..

My 9:30 session was “After the Scan – Online Preservation You Can Find”, presented by Amberly Beck. She gave some great tips on best practices for sharing photos on social media as well as tips on making sure your work is available in perpetuity. I guess I really should go back and rescan my family collection as TIFF files. (Not a project I look forward to though.) I never thought about creating online albums of all the photos we have. I can see the value of that – not everybody reads my blog (why not?!!) so an online

Next up, “The Story of You in Family Search” presented by Michelle Barber. I thought this talk would be more focused on using the features of the Family Search website, something I have not explored very much. I did learn about a few features, particularly the tools on the mobile app where you can see a map of ancestors movement (if they are already in your tree on the website.) There are some great activities to get family involved on the website as well.

Lunch was back in our hotel courtesy of Cheryl – microwaved bowls of beans and rice. We decided we would stay at the Radisson again in the future after we made use of the microwave in the very comfortable Guest Computer Lab.

I rushed off to Room 150 for my 1:30 class. Too bad that’s where my 3:00 class would be! Oops! Made it to Lisa Alzo’s presentation “Family History eBooks: Your Blueprint for Success” with seconds to spare. Got one of the last seats! I’ve taken three writing classes with Lisa (well, really two and half. I really need to get back and finish the last class, “Selling the Story.”) Lisa never disappoints. I learned some great tips about formatting work for the ePub format. (I know, I know…another project!) I’m super excited that she is now offering individual writing coaching. I began writing the story of Catherine C. Fitzallen, “Opulent in Aliases” with the support of Lisa’s the Write Stuff courses, I’m looking forward to sharing my revised work with her.

My last class of the day was “Old German Handwriting: Not as Awful as You Think” with Karynne Moses. I have some familiarity with this but, oy! it is tricky!! Karynne allowed us to photograph her slides which was great because she had some really good examples we could try and decipher. She advised that practicing forming the letters would actually help us in determining which letter is which, so I’m going to try that.