I’ve been home from Rootstech for two days. Of course I caught the obligatory cold during my visit. But, it was on the last day, so it never ruined my fun.
This was my first time attending. I was fortunate to have my friend Pam join me. She and I have been friends for over 30 years, she lives in Colorado and is fairly new to genealogy. Quite an overwhelming experience, that’s for sure.
We arrived on Monday afternoon so we would have all day Tuesday at the FHL (Family History Library). This was my third time at the Library and Pam’s first. Many of us know what a wonderful and inspiring place it is.
We woke up Tuesday morning, had breakfast at JB’s and headed to the library. Pam had a great day and was able to find lots of information in the books about North Carolina marriages. I worked, yet again, on some of my brick wall families and came up empty. I’ll never give up though.
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They might not be in this book, but I will find them eventually
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Pam, hard at work
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| My happy place |
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We were all given the option to check-in to the conference on Tuesday. Boy, was that a process. Two hours in line with hundreds of others. The Rootstech staff really did a great job keeping the line moving, kudos to all of them. We received a nice bag and a flash drive with the syllabus for all the classes.
Day One at Rootstech. We had picked classes to attend so we knew where we needed to go. What we didn’t expect was the long lines for some of the more popular classes. This was the case on all four days of the conference. The other thing we didn’t know, was that we had to pre register for the Lab classes. I guess we missed that in the Welcome to Rootstech emails. Pam and I had quite different agendas, based on our levels of experience. She picked up some great information at her classes. I ended up attending only a couple of classes during the four days because the Labs were full. Lesson learned for next time.
The Expo Hall opened for a sneak preview on Wednesday evening, but we waited until Thursday morning to go there. WOW!! What a wonderful setup. It was like Disneyland for genealogists. All the software and DNA companies had booths. Lots of society, book, charts and many other fun booths. There were classes and demonstrations being held every where. The media hub was full of activity and interviews with the genealogy movers and shakers in the industry were going on a lot of the time.
There were displays all over the Expo Hall.
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| The Legacy staff hard at work |
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I was able to finally meet, face to face, other bloggers & genealogists I’ve been friends with on Facebook for many years. Of course we took photos of the occasion.
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| With Pat Richley-Erickson aka Dear Myrt |
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| Marian Pierre-Louis and Geoff Rasmussen from Legacy Family Tree software |
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| David Robison, Professional Genealogist & author of Old Bones Genealogy of New England blog |
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| Deidre Erin Denton author of Twisted Twigs on Gnarled Branches Genealogy |
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| Laura Wilkinson Hedgecock from our Geneabloggers Tribe Facebook group |
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| Russ Worthington from Monday's with Myrt and author of Family Tree Maker User blog |
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| Jonny Perl - Innovator award winner for the year for his program DNA Painter |
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| Linda Stufflebean - author of Empty Branches on the Family Tree blog |
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| Susan Howard, Facebook friend |
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| Michelle Ganus Taggart author of A Southern Sleuth blog |
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| Randy Seaver, author of Genea-Musings blog and my friend Pam Paxton |
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| Yes, I admit it. I like to collect the ribbons given out at various booths |
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On Friday, as many bloggers as could make it, gathered near the media hub for a group photo. You should have seen us all trying to squeeze together. If you find Thomas McEntee in his colorful shirt in the front row, you’ll see my head just above his. There’s about 40 of us represented here. More bloggers were at the conference, but some couldn’t make it for the photo shoot.
The conference was over on Saturday evening. My friend Pam and I made our plans to have a couple of extra days after the conference. The FHL is closed on Sunday. It was a day we had planned to stay at the hotel so I could share some technology and research tips with her. It couldn’t have been better……it snowed! Being from southern California, I get excited any time I see or am in snow. I apologize to all of you who live in places that have snow, but this was great!!
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| The view from our 8th floor room at the Plaza Hotel |
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| Snow covered street near the Salt Palace where Rootstech was held |
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| Pam & me enjoying the cold weather on our way to Squatters Pub for dinner |
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Our last day was Monday. Neither of us were flying out until late afternoon. So, where did we go? Not difficult to guess. Right back to the FHL. By this time, Pam was really making progress in her tree and finding more and more evidence. Lots of information on the third floor (my favorite – the books).
Takeaway from my first trip to Rootstech. It was a bit overwhelming at first. They do a great job with such a large crowd. There were vendors selling food and drink items, so even if you attended lots of classes, you didn’t go hungry. There was a good variety of classes, but they weren’t always easy to attend, because of the high volume of people. The Expo Hall was, hands down, my favorite part of the entire experience. Meeting up with so many longtime virtual friends was fantastic!
Would I attend again? I think that I would, but with a different agenda. Perhaps just go for a couple of days during the conference and spend the other days going to the Library
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Did you go to Rootstech this year? If so, what was your experience like? Was it your first time, or had you attended before? If you haven’t attended, do you want to in the future?
Stay tuned because I had a BIG breakthrough at the library involving my husband’s great grandfather, John Doller. A blog post about that will be coming up soon.
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
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It was SO FUN to meet you at Rootstech Diane. What a treat! I had a good experience at RT as well. Isn't that Expo hall amazing? You described it perfect as a Disneyland for genealogist.
ReplyDeleteI wish we’d had a chance to sit and talk Michelle. The Expo Hall was really fun. Hopefully you and I will meet again soon and be able to spend some time chatting. Thank you for all your support these past years. It’s really been encouraging to me.
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