Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Favorite Online Class At RootsTech 2026

  From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  RootsTech 2026 just finished today.  Did you watch any classes online?

2) Which online class was your favorite, perhaps the most informative, most helpful, or most entertaining, for you?

3)  Share your selected online class in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook or other social media post.  Please leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

Here's mine:

I attended RootsTech 2026 online Wednesday night and the next three days, as I have done every year.  This year, I did not do a summary each day on this blog.  I have not gotten much sleep the last few days, and with classes as late as 10 or 11 PM, I just haven't had the energy to write blog posts also.  

I took fewer classes this time because every year, I get overwhelmed and never go back to my notes and complete any research that I was so excited about after taking the classes.  I also never go back and watch any of the classes I missed, so I wanted to try a little more laid back, easier pace this year.  I have to say the ones I attended were, for the most part, great classes.  So it is going to be hard for me to just pick one favorite!

But pick I did.  My favorite class was New to German Genealogy? Start Here! by Katherine Schober.  I take a beginner German genealogy class every year because I am still chasing my biggest brick wall, my 2nd great-grandfather, George W. Schwalls, Sr.  I never make any progress.  However this class was different.  Katherine took her time and explained step by step how to proceed in finding out what town and state (or province) your German ancestor was from.  She gave us tons of resources to use.  I learned a lot, and I was not overwhelmed this time around.  I have already taken her advice and did a search on Newspapers.com for any reference to George, and I have a second action item on my list that she suggested.  I can't believe I was off and running before the conference was even over!

I must also give a shout out, though, to my most fun class.  It was Gravestone Symbols from A to Z by Cathy Wallace.  Cathy made this topic so entertaining, catchy and easy to remember, by using the ABC song to go over all the things you may see in a cemetery from an anchor to Zzzz's from a sleeping baby statue.  While I have seen most of these symbols before, Cathy made it stick in my head and showed me a couple unknown to me.  

Satur- I mean, Sunday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Favorite RootsTech 2025 Class

  From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday  Sunday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  'Twas the week of RootsTech 2025, and all through the house, the genealogists were checking their RootsTech schedule.  What class did  you absolutely love this week?

2) Tell us about your favorite RootsTech 2025 class in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

Here's mine:

I was NOT ready to write a blog post about this last night.  I was exhausted, and I stayed up until midnight for my last class... and the technology still wasn't working.  I gave up and went to bed.

But it's a new day today.  I caught up on some house chores, took my mom to lunch, and then took a three hour nap!  I'm recharged!

For those of you that missed them, I summarized my days at RootsTech 2025 here:

    * RootsTech 2025 - Day 1

    * RootsTech 2025 - Day 2

    * RootsTech 2025 - Day 3

(By the way, Randy Seaver recognized my posts about RootsTech 2025 on his Genea-Musings blog as one of the best Genea-Blogs of the week!  I am full of happy and pride right now!)

My favorite class would be  AI-Powered Transcription of Handwritten Documents: Tools and Techniques with Nicole Dyer.  She explained using different artificial intelligence platforms and large language models (LLMs) to transcribe old handwritten and printed documents.  I am so excited to try this out!

My next favorite class would be How Can Artificial Intelligence Assist Family Historians by Andrew Redfern.  I loved this class.  Andrew explained things so clearly, gave great live examples, and made AI less scary. 

Another conference in the books. I have a long to-do list, both on paper and in my head, of things I want to look into or try that I heard about at RootsTech 2025.  I will be super busy for awhile!

RootsTech 2025 - Day 3

Day 3 and the last day of the RootsTech 2025 Conference is over.  This was a light day for me, and I'm kind of glad because I am TIRED!! 

  * The first class of my day was Document Analysis: Digging into the Details by Angela Packer McGhie. Based on the principles in the book, Genealogy Standard, Angela used a great example and walked us through assessing the reliability and accuracy of documents we encounter in our research. 

  * My next class is one I was really excited to see, AI-Powered Transcription of Handwritten Documents: Tools and Techniques with Nicole Dyer.  This class was great!  It was all I hoped for and more.  As I have said several times over the last couple of days, I am wanting to used AI to transcribe documents I have in my possession in order to share those documents on my blog.  Nicole went over several platforms and Large Language Models (LLMs) to demonstrate how to use them. She also gave us tips on improving transcription accuracy, ideas for effective prompting techniques, and how to correct minor errors in the transcriptions.  Also, she didn't only go over handwritten documents; she used examples of printed documents as well. I use a lot of newspaper clippings on my blog, so this is just what I needed.  I am looking forward to trying out this tool in the next few days. 

  * My afternoon class was Learning to Use AI Tools: Taking Your Prompting Skills to the Next Level by Steve Little. Unfortunately this one did not go so well for me.  When I pulled up the video, it would not play, even after refreshing the page several times. Then the chat exploded because everyone was having the same problem. Eventually someone with FamilySearch entered the chat and said their engineers had been notified and were working on a solution.  After a couple more minutes, someone realized that if you went to the Storied class scheduled at the same time, it was actually Steve doing the above class!  So by the time I got over there, it was 15 minutes in, and I was pretty lost from there on out.  I will definitely have to re-watch this one from the beginning after the conference!  I will say that Steve was very enthusiastic and straightforward, so I am sure I will enjoy the class the second time around.

  * My 5 p.m. class got rescheduled to midnight tonight (um, tomorrow morning). So I guess I'll be doing another RootsTech post tomorrow.  

  * The last thing I watched today was the RootsTech 2025 - General Session 1 - Rachel Platten and Steve Rockwood.  This was a replay of the Keynote from the Day 1 of RootsTech.  Of course, I loved Christa Cowan's talk, though I had heard most of it in her class. I was disappointed that Rachel Platten wasn't there in person, but the video worked great, and she was very sweet.  The father and daughter singing duo are amazingly talented, and their voices were so pure and sweet.  Overall, it was a good start (or in my case, end) to the conference.

RootsTech 2025 - Day 2

 Day 2 of the RootsTech 2025 Conference is in the books.  

I had signed up for 10 classes for today; two more than yesterday. 

    *  My "first" class of the day actually began at midnight! (However, for me, that was the end of a long yesterday!)  This class was Sea to Shining Sea: How to Research in Every U.S. State presented by Andrew Koch.  It was a short class - only about 25 minutes, - but it was chock full of information, i.e., how and when states were formed; maps marked with the year the states joined the union; and reminders to find out the vital record privacy restrictions for a state you're researching in, and what states did their own census.

    *  After I awoke this morning, my first class of the day began at 10 a.m. with Mindy Taylor presenting Analyzing Evidence: A Research Game Changer.  Let me just quote the class description here, as it was a heavy class:

    If conclusions in genealogy are rarely 100% certain, how do you know your genealogical conclusions are as correct as possible? How much evidence do you need? If two sources say different things, how can you decide which source is most likely correct? Come learn how to analyze and correlate sources, information, and evidence using generally recognized principles. Analyzing the evidence will help you look for original records, alert you to errors, and strengthen the credibility of your conclusions so you can be confident in your genealogical research results.

Wow.  A ton of information early in the morning.  It was a really good class.  Mindy explains things well and used great examples from her own family research.  It gave me lots to think about how I go about coming to conclusions in my own research.  For example, an ancestor's birth date can be listed as several different dates.  This class made me think I need to document how I came to my own conclusion(s) when weighing different pieces of information and deeming one to be correct.  More importantly, that I need to explain my conclusion and how I got there, as if explaining it to a friend who has never done research.  

    * At 11:30 a.m., I attended the RootsTech Innovation and Tech Forum 2025.  Leaders from several companies, Adobe, Family Scribe, Storied, MyHeritage, Remento, and Ancestry, spoke on new innovations and features they have or are releasing shortly.  I am going to look into Adobe Express since it is free.  I am also going to take a look at Remento.  They send prompts for your relatives to share stories about their lives via video and then Remento puts them into a book with a QR code that will take you to the video your loved one recorded. Sounds very interesting.  I am also definitely going to take advantage of Ancestry's feature, Recognize Ancestors, that allows you to upload photos with people in them who are unknown to you.  Ancestry will compare that photo with the millions on their site and perhaps make a identification for you!  I'm very excited about trying it out.  

  * My first afternoon class was A Deep Dive into the US Census Records by Miles A. Meyer.  This class was chock full of information, and Mr. Meyer is a good and knowledgeable speaker. To be honest, I am going to have to watch this class again after RootsTech.

  * The next class was Getting Started Part 5: Searching Smarter: Making the Most of Your Time and Resources by Dr. Sarah Reed and Kristina Kaufman from BYU. Let me just say it - I tend to fall down rabbit holes very frequently when I am researching.  Especially using Ancestry hints... I just jump from one person to the next.  So I thought this beginner class on making the most of my time would be good for me.  The class leaned heavily on the use of a research log, which is really what saves time and headaches.  I have never used one.  Every year I tell myself I'm going to begin utilizing them, and I never do.  And guess what?  I end up searching the same record in the same place multiple times. Or I hunt for a piece of information only to discover that I already have it.  I save obituaries from Ancestry only to find that I have already downloaded that exact obituary and have just never tied it to my person in Family Tree Maker.  So, yes, I know I need to start using a research log.  May this be the year!

- In between classes this evening, I managed to find a sample online of a research log in Excel.  I was able to tweak it some, and I hope I will use it.  

    * The book, Genealogy Standards, was the basis for my next class, The Importance of Developing Research Plans, by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson. It covered the importance of developing research plans, which is an essential step in meeting the Genealogical Proof Standard: "reasonable exhaustive search." The examples she used went deep and were very thorough.  

  * My next class was Telling Stories with DNA: Case Studies from PBS' Finding Your Roots by none other than the Genetic Genealogist herself, CeCe Moore.  Of course this was one of my favorite sessions! This season, for the first time, Henry Louis Gates Jr will be in the guest seat and find out the identity of his 2nd great-grandfather.  CeCe went through the process of how she discovered the identify using DNA.  It took 12 years of research to get the answer Henry Louis Gates had wanted to know his entire life. This episode airs on April 8, 2025.  I can't wait to see it!

  * Following CeCe was a short little information presentation called Navigating the Mayflower Families Silver Books: A Guide for Genealogists by Bonnie Wade Mucia.  I did not even know these books existed.  The General Society of Mayflower Descendants publishes a series of 44 books called the Mayflower Families Silver Books, a compilation of descendants of the original Mayflower passengers for 4-5 generations.  I have already ordered the volume containing my Mayflower ancestor, Stephen Hopkins.  

  * Next was Davina Wilcock (with her divine English accent) presenting Considering Other Record Sets and Resources.  She encouraged her students to branch out and not look for records in just one location - which I am very guilty of doing.  She gave examples of other places to search such as churches, museums, libraries, trade unions, etc.  While I know not everything has been microfilmed or is online, I do get lazy and just sit at my computer doing searches on Ancestry. I need to branch out.

* My last class for the day was Navigating German Genealogy Research by Stephen Wendt. This was a short presentation but it was full of maps, dates, and examples.  I have German ancestors, including my elusive 2nd great-grandfather, George Schwalls Sr, who evidently did not want anyone in his new country to know where he was from!  I have yet to find the information on any record, and I have been searching off and on for YEARS. I have a friend who swears he was a spy.  LOL.

So another full day of learning.  I noticed today that a lot more of the instructors included a copy of their slides for download, in addition to the class syllabus/handout.  That was great.  

I have a light day tomorrow with only five classes.  But I have a two page list so far of things I want to do or check out.   

RootsTech 2025 - Day 1

 The RootsTech 2025 Conference started today in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a huge conference with thousands of people attending in person and even more thousands watching classes, presentations online for free, not to mention shopping in the Expo Hall.  The online choice became available in 2020 during the pandemic, and I have always attended this way.  It is way more economical for me, and due to my circumstances, it is just nicer to be able to participate from home.

I had signed up for a total of 8 classes today.  The beauty of RootsTech is all of the classes/presentations will be available after the conference ends.  I believe they are available for a year.  So I can go back later and watch all the ones I missed.  I have already gone through and downloaded the handout/syllabus available for all the classes I have interest in, including the in person only classes. 

I was able to watch all of my scheduled classes today.  I left space in my schedule to get lunch for Mom and me and feeding the cats.  Let me tell you a little about the classes I attended today:

    * First thing this morning (8:30 am!), I listened to Robyn N. Smith's two part presentation entitled, Mining the Census, Are You Finding Every Clue? Part I and Part II.  This was a very informative class, and I am now ashamed of all of the information I have been missing on the census.   

    * My next class/presentation was by Alice Childs, entitled Intersecting Lines: Pedigree Collapse Helps Identify an Ancestor's Parents.  Ms. Childs went over a case study of finding the parents of a client's ancestor. I have pedigree collapse in my family tree; probably all of us do, and I was hoping to learn how to work with that situation. The information on how the DNA can expose the pedigree collapse was interesting and hopefully useful to me one day.

    * My last morning class was with the enthusiastic and amazing Diahan Southard, How Does DNA fit into Your Family Story? Identity. Connection. Answers. Diahan is always great to listen to, and I learn something every time I do.  Today I learned that just because someone is on your DNA match list, does not necessarily mean I am related to them.  People can have DNA just from a location; she used the example of Ireland.  If your ancestors were from Ireland, they may have just Ireland DNA and not necessarily DNA from your family.  Soooo interesting.  I had no idea!

    * After lunch, I picked back up with Kathryn Grant's Best Practices for Working in FamilySearch's Shared Family Tree.  Kathryn has a very soothing voice and she explains things well. While I have not participated in shared family trees, it did help me understand the mindset required.  

    * My next session was with my favorite girl, Christa Cowan of Ancestry.com, and her What's New at Ancestry in 2025.  Christa announced the new Ancestry Network in Pro Tools in which you can branch out and include friends, church members, neighbors and any other person our ancestors may have come in contact with, in order to enrich their stories.  Christa also told some wonderful personal stories today, tying in the idea of using Ancestry Network to enhance our research.  She spoke of her favorite thing on Ancestry.com - the card catalog.  I take a lot of the classes Ancestry.com offers with Christa, and I always enjoy her presentations and never leave without learning something.

    * My first evening class was Mark Thompson's Learn Genealogy Faster and Easier with Artificial Intelligence.  There are several AI classes being shared at RootsTech this year, and I wanted to get involved and learn how to use it. The biggest thing I took away from this session was that while AI can be very helpful and get us a lot of information quickly, it is imperative that we VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY.  

    * My last class for Thursday was another AI class, How Can Artificial Intelligence Assist Family Historians by Andrew Redfern.  I loved this class.  Andrew explains things so clearly, gave great live examples, and made AI less scary.  I am most excited about using AI to do transcribing of old documents. I put it off because let's face it, the handwritings back then were terrible; a lot of times they are bad copies, thus hard to read; and it takes a lot of my time to go letter by letter to figure out every single word!  I can see AI completely streamlining this process for me so I can share these documents more on this blog. 

I also checked out the Expo Hall.  I made note of a couple of items I may purchase; signed up for a couple of giveaways; and found an Etsy store (Family Tree templates) full of fun genealogy-related products like shirts, tote bags, and so much more!.  

At the end of the day, I was reminded to check on my RootsTech Relatives.  I have 50,296 relatives signed up! The top match is my 2nd cousin, 1x removed on my Tapley line, who I know (waving at Paula!).  My second match is a 3rd cousin, who I do not know personally, but I do know we are related on my Claxton line, and I know exactly how!

It's been a long day, but I am actually not finished yet. I have a class at midnight!  Since that is technically tomorrow, I will tell you about it then!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your RootsTech 2025 Plans

 From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  'Twas the week before RootsTech 2025, and all through the house, the genealogists were checking their RootsTech schedule.  What classes are you looking forward to watching online (for FREE) or attending in-person?

2) Tell us about your plans for RootsTech 2025 in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

Here's mine:

Earlier this week, I picked out 22 classes to watch online during RootsTech, which is Thursday, March 6 through Saturday, March 8, 2025.  That is 9 classes on Thursday, 10 classes on Friday, and 4 classes on Saturday.  RootsTech holds classes almost 24 hours a day during the conference! I have already warned my mother that I will be locked in my office for three days and will only come out to eat, sleep and feed my cats.  

I did sign up for three AI classes (all times are ET):

(1)  Thursday, 6:30 pm - Learn Genealogy Faster and Easier with Artificial Intelligence.  This class is for beginners, which I am a beginner with AI.

(2)  Thursday, 9:15 pm - How Can Artificial Intelligence Assist Family Historians

(3) Saturday, 11:30 am - AI-Powered Transcription of Handwritten Documents: Tools and Techniques

I also signed up for three Census-related classes:

(1) Thursday, 8 a.m. - Mining the Census, Are you Finding Every Clue? Part I 

(2) Thursday, 9 a.m. - Mining the Census, Are You Finding Every Clue? Part 2

(3) Friday, 2:15 p.m. - A Deep Dive into the US Census Records

The rest of my classes pertain to DNA (2 classes), sources, and just general research.  

My head will be reeling after all of that.  The great thing is that any I fall asleep during or can't fit into my schedule will be be available on the RootsTech site after the conference.  

This is the only genealogy conference I get to attend since it is available online. I look forward to it every year, and I always learn something.  I have already taken advantage of "Relatives at RootsTech," which led me to extend some of my lines back a couple of generations and helped me touch base with a cousin I haven't met yet.  Now we are making plans to meet and visit cemeteries.  That's always a good time to me!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - RootsTech 2022

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  The RootsTech 2022 Virtual Conference was Thursday through Saturday (March 3rd-5th) this week.  Did you register and attend classes?  Did you watch the Keynote talks? Did you visit the virtual Expo Hall?  What was your favorite experience?

(2)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, in a post on Facebook, or on Twitter.  

Here's mine:

I registered for RootsTech 2022 months ago since I attended last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I took two days of vacation time for this.  I participated all three days, only taking bathroom and meal breaks.  I guess that's why I didn't write a blog post about the experience.  

I checked out RootsTech Relatives prior to the conference starting.  I have 44,981 relatives there; I only looked at maybe 10-12 of those!  The closest cousin match I had is a 2nd cousin, 2x removed.  That's pretty good!  Turns out, after checking with a cousin on Facebook, who turned out to be this person's aunt, that I am acquainted with her mother, uncle, and aunts already.  I had one 3rd cousin connection that I already know!  We met in person for the first time in December!  Then I had several 3rd cousins, 1x and 2x removed.  I researched a few of them, and sent messages, hoping to make connections.  I haven't heard back from anyone  yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  

Looking at the relationships between these cousin matches and myself, I have found some information I did not have and am busily working on extending my family tree!  I rarely use FamilySearch so I've been missing out.

The only Main Stage items I watched were "Ancestry For All" and "The 1950 U.S Census and You."  The Ancestry.com video made me very excited for the things they are working on, and the great things ahead for users.  I am especially interested in the partnership between Ancestry and Photomyne that will allow users to upload pictures, negatives, historical documents, etc. to the galleries of our ancestors for FREE.  Hearing about the 1950 census (and the handwriting recognition technology!) and seeing Crista Cowan's enthusiasm for the release has me getting more excited every day!  This will be the first census that my mother will be included in the enumeration.  I'm looking forward to getting a peek at where she and her parents were in 1950.  

I added many videos and classes to my Playlist.  I did watch a lot of them.  Luckily, I have more time to watch all of them!  Some of the ones I watched were:

    - "Tarheels:  Genealogy in Colonial Virginia and the North Carolinian backcountry" by Jonah Ryan            Barnes  

    - "Maximizing Messages" by Michelle Patient (messages to cousin matches!)

    - "What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022, Part 1" by Diahan Southard  (Looking forward to             watching Parts 2 and 3 also.)

    - "No Time? Try Five Minute Family History  Ideas" by Taralyn Parker

    - "A Call to Arms Part 1. Researching Revolutionary War Ancestors" by Melanie McComb 

I also visited the Expo Hall, though I did not explore it as much as I probably should have.  I chatted with a Family Tree Maker customer service rep about the companion manual for FTM2019.  I also watched the videos they had about the software, and I learned some very cool things this software will do that I was not even aware of!  It's the little things that are so exciting.  I visited Ancestry in the Expo Hall and watched some of their videos.  I also plan to visit Photomyne's "booth" and watch the videos they have posted there.  

This opportunity to attend RootsTech from my own home for FREE has been the best gift of the pandemic for me.  Otherwise, I would not be able to attend.  I thoroughly enjoy most of the classes, and I learned so much that my head was spinning at the end.  So I cannot say that I had one favorite experience, but I can say that I discovered two new teachers/presenters that I loved and hope to see again.  

    - First is Taralyn Parker.  I watched three of her presentations.  The above mentioned Five Minute Family History Ideas, but also "Power of the Post: Making Connections through Social Media," and, my favorite, "Finding Your Cousins on Instagram."  Taralyn is full of enthusiasm and it shows.  She explains things well. and she is full of great ideas.  Her energy was awesome.  I had joined Instagram years ago, but rarely used it.  She got me excited to sit down and learn out to use it, the purpose of hashtags, and how to participate on the app fully.  

    - Next is Jonah Ryan Barnes.  I watched two of his presentations at this year's RootsTech: The one mentioned above about researching in Colonial Virginia and North Carolina and the other was "Cracking the Internet: Stop Bumbling and Start Searching like a Pro."  (His wife, Charlotte, helped him on the last one.)  Jonah is FULL of energy.  He talks fast but he's understandable.  That is a huge help in squeezing in all the information he needs to share in 20 minutes.  He's funny.  His hints and tips for searching the Internet like a pro were great!  

Luckily, most of the classes shared a handout, syllabus, or copies of their Power Point slides with the attendees.  I saved all of those so I can refer to them as needed.

I am most looking forward to working with my DNA results more and figuring out how I'm related to my matches.  This will lead me to use DNA Painter, which I heard great things about at this conference.  I want to try out the new Ancestry feature for enhancing photographs.  I want to continue to use Instagram and Facebook to try to find new cousins.  I want to research my Revolutionary War ancestors.  I want to finish watching all the classes I didn't get to the last three days...

My goodness, I already thought I don't have enough time to try and do all the genealogy things I want, but I REALLY do not have enough time now!  There are not enough hours in the day... plus real life interferes... What are the chances of my becoming independently wealthy?  Then I could stay home and do genealogy all the time... A girl can wish, can't she?

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Favorite RootsTech Connect 2021 Moment, Experience, Session and/or Feature

 From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  Did you attend the free and virtual RootsTech Connect 2021 conference this week?  What was your favorite moment, experience, session, and/or feature?

(2)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook.  

Here's mine:

As you all know, yes, I did attend RootsTech Connect 2021 virtually the last few days.  I'm going to combine this Saturday Night Fun Post with my Day 3 post about the conference.

Real Life started seeping back in today, so I didn't get to view as many sessions as I would have liked.  However, the ones I did see were fantastic!  Here's what I watched:

- Sensitive Subjects: Writing About the Hard Stuff with Ronda Lauritzen.  I loved this session.  First of all, she had the perfect voice to cover this material, all soft and whispery.  Second of all, she made excellent points and really handled a tough subject well.  The biggest thought I took away from her session is to examine your motive when delivering news you've discovered in your researching.

- Useful Tools for Finding German Ancestors with Dana Palmer.  When I am ever get 'brave' enough to try to research where my brick wall ancestor, George W. Schwalls, Sr., came from in Germany, this session will be what I refer back to to help me read those German records.  She provided excellent samples of the different types of print you'll find there.  

- Capture Physical Photos with Google Photo Scan with Chad Dike.  I will tell you right now that this very short session changed my life.  I love Google.  I use so many of their programs.  However, I did not know they have a photo scanning software!  I have already scanned so many pictures just sitting here this afternoon.  It is so much faster than my printer/scanner!  Google Photo Scan uses four points to scan your pictures into four parts that it stitches together and gets rid of any glare!  You don't even see it stitching, and I swear in many instances, the scanned photo looks better than the original!  Then you can go to photos.google.com (which is where I back up my phone photos) and these scans will be there.  You can download them to your desktop.  You can put in a description for every photo.  You can change the date so that they are put in order.  Plus you can add where the picture was taken, if you know.  It is amazing.  So this session wins "Most Useful" from this conference!

- Finding Your German Ancestor, Parts 1 and 2, with Richard Lynn Walker.  This presentation was very in depth and full of sources you can use to research your German ancestor.  He tells you exactly what you will need to find where in Germany your ancestor came from (information I'm still working on for George).  He explains where records are kept in Germany, and he gives many, many ideas and sites for finding the information you want and need.  I will be referring to his handouts constantly when I start that research adventure.  

I guess my favorite moment from RootsTech Connect 2021 was just getting in there and seeing what all was offered.  I was able to bounce from my Playlist to the Expo Hall to the Relative Connect to back to my Playlist without missing anything.  It was well done.  My only suggestion would have been that when you're picking your sessions, you had to click on it to read the description.  Then when you tried to go back to where you were, it took you all the way back to the top of the list.  This was frustrating and time consuming.  I was trying to cram in as much as possible!

Unfortunately I didn't get to have any experiences.  I didn't know about the Desktop Diner get together.  The Relative Connect was neat, but I only heard from one person.  And I was too busy watching sessions to contact anyone myself.  

My favorite session... oh gosh, that is hard.  I loved so many of them.  The best presenter was Savannah Larson of the Creating YOUR Organizational System sessions (3 parts).  One of my favorite sessions was Revealing Your Mother's Ancestors and Where They Came From by Roberta Estes.  She did a wonderful, easy-to-follow presentation on mitochondrial DNA, and it put me on fire to find my adopted great-grandmother's biological mother.  Along with that, What Do I do with Cousin Matches? with Beth Taylor was equally informative.  She made me want to make a spreadsheet.  

My favorite feature of RootsTech Connect was The Playlist page.  I loved being able to see my chosen sessions in one place and not run the risk of missing any of them.

I hope they will keep a virtual part of the conference in the years to come.  For those, like me, who cannot make it to Salt Lake City, it is a lifeline to help us take part.

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.

RootsTech Connect 2021 - Day 1

 Yes!  I finally made it to RootsTech!  It took a pandemic, but I made it!  LOL

This is just one example of why I don't mind this pandemic so much.  I can attend a genealogy convention from the comfort of my own home. Keynote speakers can be heard with no interruptions from people coming and going from the room.  There are 18 pages of classes (sessions) being offered!  There is NO way I would get to see even a 1/4 of them if I was there in person!  Plus these sessions will be available online until right before RootsTech 2022!!  So I can take my time viewing them, taking notes, and then maybe viewing them again!  There is a virtual Expo Hall where you can "visit" the vendors, see what they have to offer, and buy if you wish.  (Can't get all the cool free pens, candy, or sunglasses, but that's a small price to pay!)  

Can you tell I'm loving this?!

So I wanted to share a little about the first day of the convention.  Now, it actually started at 11PM on Wednesday night, but the only thing I got done after 11PM was choosing the sessions I wanted to watch and adding them to my Playlist.  (YES!  You have your own playlist so you won't forget anything you really wanted to see.  And you don't have to keep searching over and over for that session you really wanted to watch next!)  

I'll be honest.  I wasn't that interested in nor did I have enough time to watch many of the keynote speakers.  I did watch Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s session, "Finding Resilience with Ancestry and Henry Louis Gates, Jr." (though I missed the first 15 minutes!), and it was a great talk.  The most moving moment he shared from his PBS show, "Finding Your Roots," was when the show researched Queen Latifah's roots.  That moment when she saw that her enslaved ancestor was set free by her owner in 1792 - that was powerful.  As Queen Latifah said, "One person CAN make a difference."  That one person, Mary Lot, changed everything for her family line.  WOW!

I watched a lot of sessions.  I lost count.  I tried to stick with a theme (like all Ancestry.com videos in a row).  I pretty much stuck to that.  Some sessions were really quick, only 2-4 minutes, and some lasted 20 or 25 minutes. Here's most of them:

- Quick Ancestry Search Tips with Christa Cowan, Corporate Genealogist with Ancestry.com

- Using the Ancestry Card Catalog with Christa Cowan

- Tips for Messaging Members on Ancestry with Christa Cowan

- Why Should I use the Ancestry Mobile App? with Pete Lasko and Liam Molloy of Ancestry

- Research Tips: United States Records with Bob Taylor

- Research Tips:  Vital Records

- Research Tips:  Develop Search Skills 

- Research Tips: Newspapers

- Research Tips: England Research Basis

- Revealing your Mother's Ancestors and Where They Came From with Roberta Estes

- What Do I Do with Cousin Matches? with Beth Taylor

Some of the greatest things I learned today:

The 1950 census will be released by the U.S. Government in April of 2022!!

That I need to use the Ancestry mobile app more often.  I've had it on successive phones for years, but rarely use it.  It has some cool features.  For instance, when you visit a relative and they show you family pictures, you can just take a picture of those photos with your phone and upload them right to the Ancestry.com app!  No more having to "borrow" their pictures to scan or waiting for them to one day maybe make copies for you!  

How having my mother's mitochondrial DNA tested at FamilyTreeDNA could lead us to finding who her adopted grandmother's mother was!  The best part?  My mother has already tested with FamilyTreeDNA!  The research and hard work that must be done to make this a reality is overwhelming.  I wish I knew and could afford to have Genetic Genealogist Cece Moore come in and save the day!  

Something I learned today that I HAVE to do:

Make my own spreadsheet of my DNA matches in order to keep track and organize them to the max!

Is it any wonder I'm tired?  Plus this explains why I'm not getting around to posting this until 1AM the NEXT day!  No matter the time, I just had to share!!  

I'll give you the rundown of Friday's adventures tomorrow  tonight!!