My Beloved Rootstech

I sign up for the annual Rootstech genealogy conference in September, and then I can't wait until it begins in February.  I maneuver trips to avoid it, and I clear my work schedule so I can attend the entire four days of the conference, from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. each day.  I have attended eight of the 10 years that Rootstech conferences have been held. 

 Rootstech is one of the largest genealogy conferences in the world, with more than 15,000 attendees.  It has hundreds of classes, and I rush from one to the next, fascinated.  Some of my favorite classes this year were "Obituaries" (about the trove of family history information found in obituaries), "3 Cool Cases Solved--How to Identify Your Photos" (about the improving AI technology in Google searches, including facial recognition), and a hands-on lab titled, "Using Ancestry DNA to Make Family History Discoveries."

Steve Rockwood (my third cousin) is the director of Family Search, which sponsors Rootstech.  Since this is Rootstech's 10th anniversary, he gave a fascinating talk on how far the union of technology and genealogy have come in the last ten years, and what's coming up.

 I also enjoyed hearing Gilad Japhet speak.  He is the Israeli founder of My Heritage, one of the four major genealogy DNA and family record sites.  He told about My Heritage's new tool to easily colorize old black and white photos.

Part of the excitement of Rootstech is exploring the booths, where I find new genealogy products, such as this excellent magazine and website.  This year, I kept a running list of genealogy skills to master and projects to complete when I got home.  My list ran to 35!