This morning the wind blew us from the hotel to the Salt Palace Convention Center. We are expecting 80 mph. winds tonight and heavy snow. Thank goodness we aren’t leaving until Tuesday. By then, all should be well. Always planning for disaster, Cheryl and I went to the little market in the Hyatt Regency hotel and stocked up for breakfasts and lunch for the next two days. If employees can’t get to work tomorrow and the restaurants are closed, we are all set.
Of course, as usual, I had to go to the Ladies Room before we went into the conference. Cheryl waited outside while I went in. I opened an interior door and walked right in… to the janitor’s closet! Oopsie.
Our brains are a little fried today, and we weren’t super enthusiastic about any of the morning sessions. We chose to skip the keynote, which was being recorded anyway, in order to avoid being in a huge room with 10,000 people! We decided to get the answers to some of the nagging questions from some vendors in the Expo Hall.
Our first stop was at the MyHeritage booth, where I chatted with Paul, to get the definitive answer on why Jewish is an ethnicity as well as a religion. Click the video to hear what he had to say. The sound is not great – lots of background noise. But you might be able to get the gist of it.
Cheryl went off to resolve the question of exactly what documentation she needs to finalize for her application to the Mayflower Society and why there was a hold on her application to the Daughters of the American Revolution.
I stopped by the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) booth to find out more about the Holman’s acceptance into the SAR. Yes, Holman folks, if you did not know already, John Holman (Bill Sr.’s brother), applied in the 1950s. I don’t have my data with me, so forgive me if I have the date wrong.
Anyway, I’m not trying to get the family kicked out of the SAR, but my research shows that Uncle John’s application was approved on the basis of the Revolutionary War patriot being traced to the Winchester line. From what I can recall, Elizabeth Lucinda Winchester was a step-mother, so my question to the SAR rep was how was the application approved on that basis? I thought it had to be bloodline. The SAR rep’s response was that back when the application was submitted, in the pre-computer days, people’s applications were not fact checked as thoroughly as they are today. Perhaps John added Elizabeth as a mother, not a step-mother. I need to go back and look at the actual application again to figure this out. But don’t worry, Holman peeps! The SAR guy said we can’t get kicked out. Once you’re in, you’re in!
A few months ago, I won a year’s subscription to Artifcts, a website that I best describe as a virtual museum for your stuff. I was so excited about having a place to catalog and share stories about our heirlooms that would be easily accessible to everyone. But then I thought, what if I do all this work and they go out of business? So, I did nothing. Today, I stopped at their booth and asked that question. I was nice about it. I started by saying, “I don’t want to jinx your business, but what happens if…” Kelly Nickerson and her husband couldn’t have been nicer. She explained if the unforeseen happened, we would be able to download all our content. In fact, I can download my content as a PDF whenever I want. And, if I wanted to print a book containing the stories of all our items, that’s easily done as well. My concerns resolved, I’m eager to get started putting my Virtual Family Museum together.
As we were walking through the Expo Hall, the screen at the MyHeritage classroom booth caught my eye. It read: SEPHARDIC GENETIC DISEASES. While doing research for my book, I found some information stating the auto-immune disease my mother suffered from was prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews. Sadly, I missed the whole talk—the presenter was just wrapping up. I decided to wait and ask if she knew anything about a connection between Pemphigus and Jews. The presenter, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, was happy to answer my question. I knew of Schelly, who manages the widely read FB group, Tracing the Tribe, but I didn’t know she’s been working at MyHeritage for 18 years! Schelly told me that Sephardic Jews were genetically predisposed to Pemphigus, a skin disease that causes painful blisters. My mom suffered with them on her scalp and inside her mouth. Schelly couldn’t shed any light on whether my mom, an Askenazi Jew, would have a predisposition, but she was going to see if she could find out anything. Schelly also shared a lot of information about a large group of Sephardic Jews in northern Arizona (or was it New Mexico? I can’t remember!) that have been greatly affected by pemphigus and also have the BRCA-1 gene for breast cancer. If you have 6 minutes and 24 seconds and want to hear what she said, click the video below.
We had some time to kill before the 3:00 session, so we walked through the area where a lot of activities were going on for Family Discovery Day. Kids were learning how to write in cursive, use a quill pen, and even a typewriter! Cheryl and I each filled out a leaf and placed them on the “Family Tree” to honor our grandmothers.
Cheryl had more work to do in preparation for our visit to the Family History Library, so she went back to the room and I headed to my very last presentation.
An Archivist’s Guide to Preserving and Managing Your Family Treasures
As the self-appointed curator of our family “museum,” I need to be more educated on this topic. I also need to actually put some of the things I learn into practice before some of our heirlooms are totally ruined! The presenter, Katharine Andrew, did an amazing job, especially considering it was her first presentation ever at RootsTech! Here are some of the key things I learned:
- Myth busted: Using gloves when working with paper is actually not advised unless working with very old materials. When you wear gloves, you lose some tactile ability, making it more likely you will rip the paper.
- Avoid newspaper contact with ANYTHING! It’s quite toxic to anything it comes into contact with.
- Non glare glass actually harms the items it’s protecting. Instead, use ultraviolet resistant glass.
- Nitrate film , produced from 1888 to 1940, is a real fire hazard.
- Don’t store alcohol in delicate crystal decanters for a long time—the alcohol weakens the glass.
It was a very helpful presentation, and I was glad I attended. Katharine gave me a suggestion on how to clean an embroidery sampler that has yellow spots on it: make a solution of baking soda and lots of warm water, then apply to yellow areas with the cotton ball. Hope it works!
And that was it. The conference was over. I opened the door to walk back to the hotel and was almost blown back in by the wind! The snow was falling straight across and the slush was already accumulating on the ground. I pushed my way against the wind and made it safely inside the Radisson within a couple of minutes.
It is now two hours later, and the sun is setting. The snow has stopped, and the wind has calmed. They say the storm could pick up again. Will the sun come out tomorrow??
Who We Are and How We Got This Way 