Yesterday I forgot to tell you about the catchy song created for Roots Tech. Have a listen.
Day two was spent watching the Keynotes, and you can find all the Keynote addresses HERE on the Main Stage, and the rest of the day was spent filling up on education.
There are so many great education sessions (3727 to be exact), but I want to tell you about a couple that I found very interesting.
The two that I watched from D. Joshua Taylor were Tracing Descendants: An Essential Strategy to Solve Your Brickwall and Closets, Attics, & Basements: Finding Family History at Home.
Tracing Descendants: An Essential Strategy to Solve Your Brickwall gave some tips on how you can look at descendants in different ways, which could give you new clues to solving brickwall problems. Often we get stuck on our direct ancestors and don’t look at that FAN club (family, associates, and neighbors) for answers. One aspect that I hadn’t really thought of is the “maiden aunt” and how their wills might offer clues about family members. Because they don’t have direct descendants, they might leave items in their wills to nieces and nephews, which can lead to learning the names of family members. This might also provide clues to a family connection and, ultimately contacts that might have information and photos about your own family.
Closets, Attics, & Basements: Finding Family History at Home This isn’t a new subject, but I still like learning what people have around their house. My family didn’t have a family bible or diary, but some folks are that lucky. But I especially enjoyed the part about furniture and family recipes.
If you’re into DNA like I am, then I know you’ll enjoy any or all of the eleven sessions given by Diahan Southard on DNA. You can find them all HERE.
I’ve known Diahan for many years, and I always enjoy the engaging and humorous way she presents her topics, and you won’t be disappointed.
Virtual Expo Hall
I encourage you to explore the Expo Hall.
Ancestry’s own Crista Cowan has her daily RootsTech recaps on Facebook that are so helpful to learn about what they have presented so far during RootsTech, and you can find those here. Be sure to check out the main stage presentation Ancestry gave that included Ancestry Stories and their new scanning tool available on their app. I can’t wait until they are available for Android in the coming days. So if you own an iPhone, then you’ll have this update on your app already available on your smartphone.
If you do have an Ancestry Story to share or a comment on your experience with the new scanning tool, please send them to me HERE . I’d love to hear what you think.
Don’t have the Ancestry app. You can learn more HERE.
One of my favorite vendors is Vivid-Pix (a Bronze Sponsor for RootsTech), and they have so much to see. If you have their product RESTORE, you can learn more about what this product can do for your photos. Check out their presentations HERE.
Vivid-Pix also has a new scanning station that you might want to learn about. It’s called Memory Station. This scanner helps you scan the photos, and it can be bundled with the RESTORE program (save $20 when you do that), so you can easily use the software on the photos you just scanned. I like how you can scan several photos at the same time, and it detects the multiple photos, and they are cropped into those individual photos.
It’s now day three, and there will be more to learn with it ending with the closing sessions. Happy hunting.