Family history across the seas

I’ve done the serious and the sightseeing… now it’s time for a quick synopsis of my explorations of the Expo Hall.

Last week I mentioned how the bloggers had a privileged tour of the Hall before Thursday’s Keynote Speeches. From then on it was busy, busy. I had looked at many of the companies’ websites, prepared a checklist, and highlighted a map of booths I didn’t want to miss and that worked well.

Find My Past and the Irish

I confess I didn’t spend time listening to the mini-presentations in the Expo Hall as there never seemed to be enough time. I do have membership with most of the big geneaproviders so have a good idea of where they’re at. However I did come along to hear the Find My Past speaker telling us what they were planning for Irish records, and let me tell you, they will have us dancing jigs when they arrive. I’ve been with FMP since way back, and totally enamoured of their recent Friday releases. It’s plain they don’t intend letting their game down.

Here is a copy of the slide which they showed listing upcoming Irish resources in coming months (and yes, I did ask permission to use it). Just imagine what might be in there for the Irish diaspora.

Loved their badges with Kiss me, my ancestors were Irish/English/Scottish/Immigrants etc.

Quirky but enlightening

I had Write Meaning on my checklist and was lucky enough to find Nancy Douglas free, thanks to a mistake I made with scheduling. Nancy gave me a specific piece of text to handwrite in cursive, plus a couple of images to draw (I am so not an artist). She then analysed my writing and drawings using her experience as a certified handwriting analyst. Initially I was a bit nervous but the experience was very positive, though with a couple of family surprises. It was well worth my $US20 investment. The business also offers the opportunity to have your ancestor’s writing analysed which I think would be both fun and helpful – just need to find something I am certain they personally wrote…for those who could write.

Thanks Nancy for a fascinating interview.

Education

I wanted to look at three stands: Board for Certification of Genealogists, the University of Strathclyde, and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. I know friends who are doing NIGS units but no one so far who’s doing Strathclyde’s program. At present I’m not in a position to commit to any of these – family obligations – but I will be giving them some serious thought.

I was also interested in the Association of Personal Historians – another to consider.

DNA

I decided to purchase an Ancestry DNA kit while I was in the Expo Hall and have returned it, as I believe we can’t yet get them opin Oz. Apparently the results will be ready in 6-8 weeks. It will be interesting to see how it compares with my Family Tree DNA tests. I hope it was worth the sacrifice of not buying that nice coat from Macy’s <smile>.

You can read what I wrote about my RootsTech/FGS genetic genealogy learning here on the Worldwide Genealogy blog.

StoryWorth

Of course I’ve already mentioned StoryWorth and what a pleasure it was to meet the team, especially Hope with whom I’d been in email contact. I’ve got my other half signed up with their program. I think it’s an easy way to get answers to questions in bite-sized chunks.

Books and resources

I promised myself “no books”, after all I’m trying to declutter, but there were a few I couldn’t resist. I bought Zapping the Grandma Gap (Janet Hovorka), Mind Maps for Genealogy (Ron Arons), and Maureen Taylor’s Family Photo Detective. I could have bought the latter as an e-book but my photo books are among my most-used resources so I went for a hard copy.

I just had to check out Eneclann which publishes great Irish books and CDs, more and more of which are available as downloadable e-books once purchased.

Genimates

Lisa Louisa Cooke from Genealogy Gems was on my visiting list and she kindly agreed to be photographed with me. I had already been to a couple of sessions she presented.

Of course I had to visit with Alan and Alona at Unlock the Past Cruises.

The Media Hub was in the midst of the Expo activity and there always seemed to be a genimate to wave to. Thanks Thomas MacEntee for my fab ribbons!

And the (free) Soda Fountain had great lemonade to wet one’s whistle, and was always popular.

Fun

One of the American traditions, which doesn’t happen in Australia, is the supply of ribbons and buttons to add to one’s bling. It might look a bit silly from the outside but is good fun.

The Geneabloggers’ beads, provided in 2015 by Dear MYRTLE and Cousin Russ, got comments from lots of people and made it easy to identify fellow bloggers. I was surprised how small a drop we were in the ocean of attendees. I was tickled to bits when a coincidental conversation revealed the lady had read my Worldwide Genealogy post thanks to Randy Seaver’s Best of the Geneablogs 18-24 January 2015.

The Aussies contributed their own bling to the event with people taking Aussie stickers, koalas, tourist pins, and pens/keyrings with Aboriginal patterns. The recipients were really surprised and enjoyed sharing a bit of Down Under.

All over, red rover

That’s a wrap from me for Roots Tech. There’s so much more I could share but other commitments are calling. Don’t forget to check out the RootsTech Video Archive and consider purchasing a couple of FGS audio recordings (click through the 51 options). I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Randy Seaver, blogger extraordinaire at Genea-Musings, is keeping, and updating, a consolidated list of all blog posts relating to this record-breaking event. Thanks Randy for making it so much easier for us all to check our people’s experiences and learn from them.

It was such a lot of fun, especially catching up with my genimates, and meeting new ones.