FamilySearch Announces RootsTech Keynote Speaker

RootsTech by FamilySearch is honored to announce its first keynote speaker, president and founder of the Dred Scott Foundation and great-great-granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott, Lynne M. Jackson.

A remarkable woman, Lynne Jackson will take the RootsTech main stage on Friday, March 1, 2024, to speak on the importance of remembering and connecting with ancestors, touching upon the story of her great-great-grandparents, Dred and Harriet Scott, and how their legacy has shaped her life.

RootsTech, the world’s largest genealogy conference, is 29 Feb to 02 Mar 2024. Experience this amazing event in person (Salt Lake City, UT) or online. To sign up for this free event, click here.

RootsTech 2024 Registration Open Now

Registration to RootsTech 2024 is open! rootstech.org The major event will be held February 29 – March 2, 2024, both in-person in Salt Lake City, Utah and virtually.  The first 1,000 registrants will receive a special limited-edition pin! 

RootsTech is the premier event to celebrate your heritage and other meaningful connections through a deeper understanding of family history and genealogy. Discover your story at RootsTech 2024!  For more information, visit the Rootstech website.

RootsTech 2024 Registration Opens Next Week

RootsTech 2024 will be held February 29 – March 2, 2024, both in-person in Salt Lake City Utah and virtually.  Registration opens September 18 at rootstech.org. The first 1,000 registrants will receive a special limited-edition pin! 

RootsTech is the premier event to celebrate your heritage and other meaningful connections through a deeper understanding of family history and genealogy. Discover your story at RootsTech 2024!  For more information, visit the Rootstech website.

Free Webinars Coming This Week

Special Notice: Free Webinars Coming This Week
Hello GFO E-News Subscribers, Please pardon this extra email. We received this late word, and it’s so valuable we wanted you to know. RootsTech, the stellar genealogy conference happening this week in Salt Lake City, is offering you the chance to watch some of their lectures free in live video streams from your own computer. If you can’t make it to next week’s RootsTech, you can still watch live streams of key speakers this coming Wednesday through Sunday! (Feb. 26-29) There’s a chance to hear Blaine Bettinger, Judy Russell, Crista Cowan, and more.
Live Stream Schedule
Even better, they’re even offering most of their handouts free for anyone to download. The handouts are amazing-filled with so much information.
Just click on the lecture list, then click on the lecture and look for the “Syllabus” symbol for the handout.
Just remember to tune in on time! And don’t forget that the presentaions are on Mountain time–one hour difference from Pacific.

Serendipity Friday, February 20, 2015

Serendipity Friday, February 20, 2015

Sharing some bits and pieces brought home from RootsTech 2015 last week:



Going to be in Indiana this summer?  The Indiana Historical Society is holding their annual Midwestern Roots conference on 1-2 August in Indianapolis. Advance notice:  the dates will be 15-16 July in 2016, also in Indianapolis.  Google it to learn the details.

FamilySearch Apps…. did you realize you can have a whole family of genealogy apps on your phone from FamilySearch? And of course they’re free. FamilySearch has partnered with many companies to offer to you their services. Companies like Ancestry,  Billion Graves, FamilyTree DNA,  Find A Grave, Find My Past, Fold 3, Kinpoint, Genealogy Bank, My Heritage, NEHGS, RootsMagic and Legacy and several more. Such a nice deal.  Stay tuned towww.familysearch.org/partneraccess. (If only I had a smart phone….. I’m in the dwindling army of those with dumb phones.)

The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services has a genealogy program. Who would have thought? If you are seeking records between 1906 and 1951, you might want to click towww.uscis.gov/genealogy. 

The BYU Family History Library (http://sites.lib/byu.edu/familyhistory) offers you direct links to research sources. For instance, under Digital Archives, there are links to all fifty U.S. state archives. Another link is for Libraries & Historical Societies and there is one for Periodicals & Newspapers. How will you know that there is nothing there for you unless you go looking??

Here’s a fun one: Text in a Bottle (www.TextinaBottle.com). Set up a free account on this website and you can send very special messages to friends and family. I say “special” for the message pops from a bottle and unrolls for the recipient to read. And you can post-date these messages to come tomorrow, next month or long into the future. Great to go through your birthday calendar and have birthday messages all done and ready to be sent!!

Anybody but me ever do a book using Ancestry’s MyCanvas? And remember how bummed we were to hear that Ancestry was discontinuing this service? Well, as you might have guessed would happen did happen. Now it’s MyCanvas by Alexander’s and is still reachable from a link at Ancestry or directly atwww.mycanvas.com.  Sigh. All is not lost.

Ancestor Cloud (www.ancestorcloud.com) is another new opportunity I learned about at RootsTech 2015. Their blurb reads:  “AncestorCloud is a global marketplace of passionate researchers that work together to solve their research problems. Whether you’re stuck and need a records lookup, local photograph, translation, research help, or anything else, AncestorCloud is the online community for you.” Here’s how it works. Click to the website and create a profile. Then type into the box what you are wanting and how much you’re willing to pay for the help. When somebody responds, offering to help you, that amount is deposited in their online-money account built into the website and then they can use it to “buy” help they need. Pretty cool idea, really.

Whenever I’m in Salt Lake City, I try to attend the “Music & The Spoken Word,”  the live half hour broadcast on Temple Square. Before RootsTech, I was lucky! Lloyd D. Newell always gives an inspirational and non-denominational message and this time his message centered around Broadway musical star Idina Menzel. She realized that in her performances on stage that she might not hit every note correctly every single time. But that’s life and that’s okay. Lloyd Newell ended his remarks that Sunday with this:  “We are all far more than the notes we hit….or fail to hit. Perhaps we should define ourselves not by what we are today but by what we can be, by what we aspire to be. Wherever those aspirations are leading us, let us accept that success can happen over time, little by little. With this perspective, our mistakes and shortcomings can teach us instead of condemn us. In reality, this is what it means to do our best.”