*It was pointed out to me that it is really the 3rd day of RootsTech. That is accurate. But it is Day 4 of “my” RootsTech experience, as that is the number of days we have been here in Salt Lake City.
As is usually the case by day 3, we are starting to get “session-fatigue.” Cheryl and I only went to one class each this morning and then we spent the remainder of the day in the Expo Hall.
I learned some great tips at “FamilySearch: Hidden Tools.” The presenter, Darris Williams did a great job, stepping us through the familysearch.org website, showing us where to find and how to use certain tools. Since I was at the back of the room, I really appreciated that he downloaded his entire PowerPoint to the RootsTech app as I really couldn’t see the screen all that well. I was able to follow the presentation on my phone and take notes on my iPad. (What a tech nerd!)
Our plan for the day was to explore the Expo Hall after the first session since we weren’t going to the keynote and then attend sessions at 1:30 and 3:00. Nope. After getting some important questions answered and specific tasks accomplished, we went back to the room for some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Thanks again Cheryl, for the snacks!) We rethought our plan. Since tomorrow is Family Discovery Day, the Expo Hall will be packed with families and kids. We still had questions to ask certain vendors, so we thought it best to “take care of business” today.
at the Archival Methods booth
which meant we BOTH attended RootsTech for free!!
We really had fun making virtual visits to our homelands. I visited Green Street in London (left pic above) the home of my fourth great-grandfather, Lazarus Samuel in 1851. Cheryl (right pic above) “went” to Chester, England, her great-grandfather, Edward Chester Howard.
In the pictures below, you can see us receiving our DNA in the form of Jelly Belly jelly beans. The purpose was to demonstrate what percent of your DNA comes from specific ancestors. That’s me in the picture on the right.
We got a lot of questions answered. Like, “Hey Ancestry! Why do I keep getting duplicates on my tree?” “Why is there an alert on my Revolutionary War patriot, Nathaniel Cheney?” “How do I merge people with two different names?” “Why did my Family Search app just start randomly adding people to my tree and now I have 4,138 relatives here at the conference?” (Those were Cheryl’s questions. Guess how many relatives I have here at the conference? That’s right, a big fat ZERO!)
I was able to get tips on how to use the My Heritage site more effectively, some resources I might be able to utilize in Vienna this summer (if the Corona Virus doesn’t screw up our trip!) But by far, the best stop was at the ShotBox booth. I have been wanting this since I first saw their Kickstarter six years ago. I finally made a pretty good facsimile a couple years ago using a file folder box. Click here for a link to the blog post where I gave directions on how to make one.
The price was a bit out of my league the last two years I saw it displayed at RootsTech. But…this year…such a deal! I couldn’t refuse. Besides, if I get good pictures of my dollhouse miniatures, they will sell better on eBay someday, making me more than enough money to pay for the Shotbox!
In a few minutes, we are heading out to for the evening’s entertainment, comedian Ryan Hamilton. Whoops!! Didn’t get to the Family History Library. Oh well, we still have tomorrow.
Who We Are and How We Got This Way 