RootsTech Connect 2021 - Day 2

 

So Day 2 of RootsTech Connect is in the books.  I don't even have the words to describe today... intense, exciting, frustrating, you name it.  

The intense came from all of the information coming at me from the sessions and trying to soak it all up.  Of course the learning was exciting, however!

My frustration came out of my house, rather than the conference.  It seemed that two of my pets were especially needy today.  So every time, I would get going, one of them wanted/needed something.  Or it was meal time and I was hungry.  Or there were incoming phone calls or texts.  Or the neighbor was playing her music so loud that it was thumping just on the other side of the wall where I sat at my desk trying to listen to sessions... and in the 6 years I've lived here, I have never been able to hear my neighbors through that wall.  Just how loud was it?! 

However, I did get through several sessions today, and learned a whole lot.  Especially about things I am not doing, and I should be!  Let me tell you what sessions I watched today.

- Organize your DNA matches in a Diagram with Nicole Dyer

- Learning from U.S. Military Records That Did Not Burn with Margaret M. McMahon

- How to Use U.S. Public Records Sites for Your Family History Research with Alyson Mansfield.

- Find Your Ancestor's Home Using Google Maps with Megan Hillyer

- Adding Maps to Your Family History Analysis with Miles A. Meyer

- Creating YOUR Organizational System with Savannah Larson (3 sessions)

- Brilliant Ways to Use Pinterest for Family History with Valerie S. Elkins

- Several really short sessions (or perhaps they should be called excerpts from an interview) with Heidi Swapp.  I knew who Heidi was from scrapbooking.  Her short sessions were about how pictures can bring us together by reminding us of better times; how important pictures are especially in light of the loss of her son; and that photos are doorways to history.  

- Connect Your Family Using Find-A-Grave with Dana Palmer

The biggest things I learned today:

- Using Pinterest for genealogy research and education.  I mean I have a Genealogy & Family History Board, but when was the last time I looked at it?  Savannah Larson of the Organizational Systems sessions put links in her Pinterest rather than doing handouts for the class.  So I went to my Pinterest and set up sections under my Genealogy and Family History board, added a lot of the links Savannah had shared with us, and organized all of my links.  Now I can find items of interest.  So can you!  Check out my Genealogy & Family History Board on Pinterest. 

- I need to start using a Research Log.  I have never gotten in the habit of using one.  I think I tried once or twice, but never stuck with it.  However, Savannah really got across to me the importance of using one, if only to remind me where I've already searched..  The best part is she showed us how she uses an Excel spreadsheet for hers.  Excel makes it easy to sort the data, i.e., by date, surname, etc.  Excel spreadsheets have been changing my life lately, so I'm going to set this one up, too.

- There is a website that I had never heard of - OnGenealogy.com - that has links to U.S public records sites from across the country.  And they are all free.  You can use these records to track missing family members, add to the social history of your family, find photos of old family homes (I looked up a couple!) and more.  

- I really need to sit down and make some maps.  Luckily Miles Meyer shared his entire slide presentation with us so I can follow along and make some maps of my ancestors' migrations.  He used various map websites, along with Google Maps, and Google Earth.  I've been wanting to learn how to use Google Earth forever.  Well, there's no time like now!

- Also, thanks to Megan Hillyer's session on using Google Maps to find family addresses, I realized that I don't have to travel to see ancestors' homes or home locations.  Google Maps has taken satellite pictures of every piece of land on this earth it seems, so I should be able to look up an address in Ohio or California or Georgia.  You can even snip a picture of the home and save it (giving credit to Google Maps, of course).  

So I tried to take in a lot today, as you can see.  I'm going to be busy with genealogy until the end of my life, obviously.  Lots to do!  It's too bad that real life gets in the way.  

I did get a couple of things done today.  I added TreeVault Cloud Services to my Family Tree Maker 2019.   TreeVault offers Emergency Tree Restore, FTM Connect (an app that brings your family tree to your smart phone), Historical Weather, and Next of Kin, which is where you can designate who your FTM tree goes to once you pass away.  So far, TreeVault is free.  It must have come with the 2019 version of FTM when I bought it, but I never set it up.  I also downloaded FTM Connect to my Android phone so now when I'm away from my desk, I can look people up in my family tree.  

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference.  I don't think it's even going to run the entire day.  But I have my playlist saved, so I will be able to continue watching the sessions and learning.  I plan to do some more tomorrow after some mundane errands I must run.  I'll share more at the end of the day.