Roots Tech 2021 Friday Day 2

For Day 2 I tried to listen to all of the Key Note speakers I missed the day before. There were 24 Key Note speakers and 8 Heritage Highlights which I saw only the second one. My favorite speaker was Sharon Leslie Morgan. Then I added to my Playlist for future viewing in the coming year. Of the 1,000+ sessions within eight different tracks there is quite a variety available. Some are a series of sessions. I choose 127 sessions, which means viewing two or three a week. They do vary in length. It is highly recommended that the overall list be examined prior to such an event. One thing about a virtual conference with so many new components is there is little time during the actual event for organizing. There were not really any structured breaks, so knowing the overall schedule one wants to follow is important. 

I spent a lot of time working in Relative Finder. What I loved about the Relative Finder was finding that I match with Pat Richley-Erickson , Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, David E. Rencher, Thomas MacEntee, Judy G. Russell, Karen Stanbary, CG, Thomas Jay Kemp, Tom Jones, Randy (CA),  Ce Ce Moore and over 46,000 others of the one million plus who attended this historic conference. Surely one of the miracles of this pandemic. This group all connect with me and the Tidd family. Another large group of matches are eleven for the Rounds and Strong families. Many of us hope this feature is available in the future!

Roots Tech 2021 Saturday Day 3

It was certainly a great conference. The last session with Elder and Sister Holland was the best. What a sweet couple and their special family. The entire conference was wonderful. From the Main Stage to the Song Contest excitement filled this experience. There were 1500 songs submitted and one could view the musicians and participate in voting. The Graphics, the staging for the interviews, great transitioning were all key to the flow of the conference. The total number of registrants was over one million and from 226 countries. Be sure to check out the Expo Hall, Discovery and Activity Pages. The Guide Me section is extremely helpful and if you have questions use the Help button.  

To the coordinators and everyone who worked so hard at creating this first class experience, Thank you so very much!

 

Roots Tech Wednesday 24 February 2021

Roots Tech Wednesday 24 February 2021 and Thursday 25 February 2021

Just spent two hours at Roots Tech and did not even get to the exhibit hall! The first keynote speaker was great, but there were Internet difficulties with reception problems. Then I moved on to the view some of the pages. On the first page it shows there are 501,203 participants and a map of the 226 places they are globally from. In the Connections portion there are 267,803 people with a total of 55,838,115 matches having been made. There is a map showing where matches are concentrated. The best surprise was when my youngest daughter showed up as my closest match. I have a total of 300 matches, one close relative, two 3rd cousins, twelve 4th cousins, some 5th cousins and the rest 6th and beyond. There is a map showing all of them being from the United States. Then I just kind of looked over the website and took a tour of the Family History Library to see how things have changed there. I will try later to view the keynote speaker. My final stop was the Song Contest where I listened to twelve artists in three categories perform their songs. They are very talented. I look forward to seeing who the winner is. I submitted three, one for each category. Now to get some rest so I will be ready for a full day tomorrow.

How a Genealogy Conference Happens

Last weekend the Genealogical Council of Oregon held their bi-annual conference in Eugene, Oregon. The two key coordinators for the conference were Connie Lenzen, Conference Chair and Beverly Rice, Program Coordinator. Connie made the arrangements with the facility and kept track of progress in all areas of conference preparations. The conference was held for the third time at Lane Community College, Center for Meeting and Learning. It is a lovely venue and they included a nice lunch as part of the package. They provided site maps and a layout map for the vendor area.