Our Family ChartMasters Heirloom Family Tree

Our Family Tree, by Family Chartmasters

Quite a few years ago, in 2011, I met Janet Hvorka of the Family Chartmasters at the Southern California Genealogy Society Jamboree in Burbank, California.  She had a lovely booth all set up with lots of family trees, and we admired them and dreamed about ordering one someday.  We looked at their pretty fan charts, and ancestor charts with photos, and just couldn't decide. Time went by…

In 2013 I met Janet Hvorka at her lovely booth again at the RootsTech genealogy conference in Salt Lake City.  This time we ooohed and ahhhhed over more new family tree charts and dreamed a bit more about having a nice tree to display on the wall.  There were big charts with lots of generations, all sizes and shapes, and even some that looked like real trees.  Our daughter was getting married so we decided to wait so we could put the happy couple on a future family tree.  Time went by…

In 2015 Janet Hvorka was at the New England Regional Genealogy Conference (NERGC)  in Providence Rhode Island, with her lovely booth and even more charts and trees.  She showed us all the new layouts and designs for family trees and multigeneration charts.  We were very excited because the happy couple, my daughter and son-in-law, were expecting our first grandchild.  We discussed a possible tree with Janet, and she explained how we could show all the ancestors, and our descendants on a family tree.  Wow!  We decided to wait until the baby was born so we could include the new name on the chart.  Time went by…

NERGC is a biennial conference, so this year at Springfield, Massachusetts we toured the vendor hall and – you guessed it – we bumped into Janet Hvorka and her lovely Family Chartmaster booth again.  Years had passed since we first thought of this possible family tree,  and even though the vendor hall had several other vendors selling custom charts, and even though our grandbaby is now almost two years old WE DID IT!  We gave Janet a down payment on a large wall chart with our family tree!  It was a new kind of tree (drawn like a real tree), just like the 19th century tree charts I have admired in the past (click here to see a HASKELL family tree I photographed at the NEHGS library in Boston:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/02/haskell-family-tree.html )

Well, you know me by now.  NERGC was in April, and it is now July.  Time went by…  as we considered all our options and finally submitted our GEDCOM file to Janet.  Then FamilyChartmasters got to work finagling all the generations and names into a free form tree with my ancestors on the right side branches, and Vincent’s ancestors on the left, and our descendants down in the roots.  We worked via email with a very patient and skillful employee named Christine.

Over the next few weeks Christine took our email suggestions and tweaked branches, added generations, and squeezed in hundreds of names.  The final result was wonderful!

Between email, this little booklet and the website
we were able to work with FamilyChartmasters to design
our family tree

We had the chart professionally framed and it hangs in our family room.  At a family birthday party last weekend everyone had fun finding their branch on the tree, or even finding their own name!  I don’t know if you can see in the photo because of the glare on the glass, but each leaf is not only labeled with a name, but the name of the country or state is on the leaf, too.  There are nine generations in the branches, and our grandchild is down below!

Thanks Janet, Christine and everyone at Family Chartmasters!  I would recommend their family trees to anyone who would like to hang a chart in their home. The process was easy, and well worth the time, affordable, and provided us with a real family heirloom.  We all love the final result!

The Family Chartmasters website:  https://familychartmasters.com/ 

Family Chartmasters at Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/FamilyChartMasters/

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Our Family ChartMasters Heirloom Family Tree", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 24, 2017, (https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/07/our-familychartmasters-heirloom-family.html: accessed [access date]). 

The Hessian Soldier Episode Continues

Last year at RootsTech 2013 I had a wonderful time learning new things in the exhibit hall, and in the classrooms and lectures.  But some of the best learning moments were outside of the planned activities of the conference.  The usual schmoozing, hugging and hanging out with genealogist friends and blogging buddies is fun, but at RootsTech there was more than just social exchanges.  Some of the invitations I had to hang out on the air with Dear Myrt, meet up with friends at the famous Family History Library, and discuss technology with the innovators were RootsTech moments that don’t happen at other conference.

One of those moments that just seems to go on and on, and even continued on at RootsTech 2014 while I wasn’t even there!  This is what I call “The Hessian Soldier Episode”.   This episode started last year as a side comment about an ancestor, and that little comment took on a life of its own.  While being interviewed by Dear Myrt last February, I casually mentioned that it was my first trip to Salt Lake City and I was going to take advantage of the chance to use the famous Family History library.  My original plan was to mine the resources for Spanish records to look up my husband’s family tree, but I also figured that there might be some German records for my Hessian soldier ancestor.

After my interview, I was halfway OUT the door when Myrt called me back to continue the discussion.  It seems that Barry Kline, her photographer, was interested in Hessian research, and so was a viewer named Judy Holcombe Smith.   We had a great second discussion of the Hessians and the Johannes Schwalm Society.  Two days later I found the journals of the JSHA on the shelves of the FHL and we also found records about Judy’s ancestor, Anthony Schoppe.  I emailed these images to Judy.  The discussion of Hessians continued at “Mondays with Myrt” for a few weeks.

Over the past year I’ve been asked many times about this Hessian Soldier research.  This is not an area I have a lot of expertise in researching, but because of Dear Myrt’s show, the story spread.  Someone stopped me in the halls of the NERGC conference in April last year to talk about Hessians.  Another person got me talking about Hessians in the stacks of the NEHGS library in Boston last summer.  And then RootsTech 2014 rolled around…

I wasn’t at RootsTech 2014, nor was I in Salt Lake City last week during the conference, but I was so surprised to hear that Hessian story mentioned by Lisa Alzo during her talk on Friday February 7^th.  She had emailed me about this story and asked for photos many months earlier, but I had completely forgotten it was going to be used in this lecture. And then email poured in from friends telling me to watch Dear Myrt’s RootsTech 2014 classes because the Hessian story was discussed twice!  Yes, the story was repeated during both her classes on Thursday  February 6^th and Friday February 7th.  I’ll post the links below.

This little story started out as a passing comment and then grew and grew.  I hope that along the way it was valuable to Barry Kline, Myrt’s viewer Judy Holcombe Smith, and anyone else who had never heard of the Johannes Schwalm Society.  Perhaps a few people found more information on their Hessian ancestors, or confirmed that their ancestor did belong to one of these regiments.

It also got me thinking about family stories.  They all start out years and years ago, and are passed on through the generations.  Finally someone takes that story and does the research to confirm the who, what, where and when at the root of the tale.  That’s probably not the end of the story because most researchers take the myth and the truth and continue passing on it on, through articles, reports, blogs, books, and social media.

Good luck with your family traditions and myths.  They are probably true!  And they’ll continue being passed around, just like “The Hessian Soldier Episode”.

Thank you to Lisa Alzo, Dear Myrtle and Russ Worthington for mentioning this story at RootsTech 2014.

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To go along with all the serendipity in this story,  today on "On Point" on National Public Radio, there will be a story on "Crowdsourcing and the New Genealogy Boom".  Guests will be journalist J. J. Jacobs, Judy Russell "The Legal Genealogist", and Spencer Wells, geneticist of the Genographic Project.  Listen live online at 11am or on the air, or catch the archived version:
 http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/02/13/genealogy-family-tree-cousins

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For the truly curious:

Lisa Alzo “Tweets, Links, Pins and Posts: Break Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Social Media”

RootsTech 2014

https://rootstech.org/about/videos/?id=3168208980001  (check minutes 32:15 to 35:15)

The following two classes are from RootsTech 2014, on YouTube (not the RootsTech website):

Hangouts on Air – The Panelists View (Thursday)  (check minutes 40:30 – 43:30)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-z4sudgBec

Hangouts on Air – The Panelists View (Friday)   (check minutes 7:10 – 9:20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkdQy4nMLV8

The original “Mondays with Myrt” 18 March 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D11HuZpTq3c

To see the Hessian soldier story tune in to about 18:00 minutes, and after I tell the story I almost walk out of the interview booth at 20:20 minutes, but Myrt calls me back to collaborate on the air with Barry Kline and viewers!  (18:00 – 27:00)

The Johannes Schwalm Historical Association (Hessian Soldier Research)    http://www.jsha.org/

UPDATE:  added 17 February 2014
A database sent in by a reader (see the comments below)
http://lagis.online.uni-marburg.de/en/subjects/index/sn/hetrina

UPDATE: added 21 February 2014
sent in by reader Skip Murray (see the comments below)
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/index.htm
 

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-hessian-soldier-episode-continues.html 

Copyright ©2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

New England GeneaBloggers RootsTech Bash

UPDATE:   This event has been cancelled 

Can’t make it to RootsTech 2014 in Salt Lake City?  Some of the biggest presentations at this genealogy conference will be live streamed at https://rootstech.org/ on the weekend of February 6, 7 and 8.   Immediately following the conference, there will be an exciting event “RootsTech Genealogy Blogger After Party” at the home of Dear Myrtle.   Many of your favorite bloggers will be there, fresh from the excitement of the event. 

Since many of your favorite New England Genealogy Bloggers will not be able to be in Salt Lake City that weekend, we are gathering at my home in New Hampshire for our own bash.  We’ll watch some of the videos of the conference, chat, socialize and believe it or… we will meet up with the bloggers at Myrt’s house, too!

You will be able to see the bloggers online at both events.  The New England GeneaBloggers will be asking the attendees about RootsTech, and the bloggers in Salt Lake City will be able to converse online with the New Englanders.  It should be a fun and informative hour of exchange, and we'll all learn a lot about the latest genealogy news and upcoming technology.  It will be one big virtual on-line party! 

How will this magic happen? Through a Google+ Hang Out On Air we will live stream from my living room, and from Myrtle’s living room, right into your living room, iPad, mobile device, laptop or where ever you would like to watch, too.  There will be an archived version of this event, too.

If you would like to watch the “Blogger After Party and Blogger Bash” live stay tuned here at this blog for an announcement with the URL (web address) of where to tune in.  You will need to have a Google+ account set up ahead of time.  I’ll post complete instructions on how to tune in.   If you aren't available to watch live (8:30 pm Eastern Time on Saturday, 8 February 2014) there will be an archived version available later.

http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-england-geneabloggers-rootstech-bash.html 

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Using Bump for Genealogy Files

How many times have you been somewhere when someone says, “Can you send me that photo?” or “Can you send me that file?”  Usually you reply something along the lines of “Sure, I’ll put it in Dropbox” or “I’ll email it to you later”.   The impatient friends will drop everything and ask for your email or phone number and spend a few minutes typing away to transfer something to you immediately, or gathering your contact info to send files.  This sometimes involves several tries as you figure out the best way to get the information back and forth.

Imagine just bumping your phones together to transfer contact information, photos, documents, video or audio files.  Yes, bumping is just like a fist bump.  Or imagine that you can then download everything from your phone to your computer just by bumping your phone to the space bar on your keyboard.   Better, yet, don’t just imagine this- you can do it now!

When Bump started a few years ago, it was just for sharing contact information and photos.  But in February it expanded to documents including spreadsheets, text files, word processing files, email messages or PDF files.   This app is free, requires no set up or password.  You just choose the files, bump and confirm your transfer.  For using computers, go to http://bu.mp and for smart phones you need to download the free application.

I found that WiFi works better than a phone connection, but I’ve been using my phone connection almost exclusively “in the field” and have had no problems other than speed issues.   I’ve shared family photos with family, contact info (good for exchanging full size files later), and documents back and forth from devices with other people, and then to my computer when I get home.  I wish I had known more about Bump when I was at RootsTech or NERGC.

You can use this app as a virtual business card, just bump phones with people you meet at archives, conferences, society meetings.  No need to collect paper anymore.  Contact information is instantly shared this way.  Well, we have to wait until all genealogists start carrying smart phones first!

According to Dick Eastman “the app is limited to a total of 30 megabytes in file transfers”.  I tried downloading a large photo file from my computer to my phone, and it reduced the file considerably.  This is a good app for smart phone photos, but not vice versa, unless you are in a pinch.

Bump  http://bu.mp

Dick Eastman

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/02/turn-your-phone-into-a-flash-drive.html?cid=6a00d8341c767353ef017ee89983fa970d

A tutorial on how to use Bump

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57569555-285/use-bump-to-share-files-between-your-phone-and-computer/

Read about a genealogist who is already using Bump

http://www.4yourfamilystory.com/1/post/2012/01/lets-get-happy-and-bump-at-rootstech.html

Disclosure:  I was not compensated by Bump Technologies in any way for reviewing the app or website.

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/using-bump-for-genealogy-files.html
 

Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Discoveries from RootsTech 2013

 

The speaker's bag (yellow) and the regular
conference goer bag on the right (blue)

1. I discovered that every conference goer receives one of these cool RootsTech bags.   But I also learned to pack light since it's a long day and all the goodies you collect at the Expo will magically and exponentially weigh more by about 5pm.

2. I learned some new vocabulary, and my favorite new word is “Geneajaunt”- from Australian genealogist Jill Ball.

3. And I learned even more new vocabulary, like “Flying monkeys”- a collective term for all of Thomas MacEntee’s bloggers and followers.  Another “new to me” moment.

4. I saw David Pogue live on stage and learned that he is much more than just a geeky technology writer (he is also a pianist, composer, comic as seen in this video of his keynote address at www.rootstech.org on Saturday, March 23^rd at 8:30am  )

ZUCA rolling bag

5.  I discovered the wonderful ZÜCA bag while waiting in line for a session to start.  The woman who owned it raved about it, and showed me all the features.  It is the ultimate gadget for genealogists at http://www.zuca.com/  This expensive rolling travel bag also comes in a carry-on size, too (but it’s even more expensive).   It is very light (aluminum) and has a built in seat for waiting in those long lines, or to support a second load piled on top.  This bag is perfect for the long walks in Salt Lake City between your hotel, the Family History Library and the convention center, or to carry all your stuff during the day.  I saw two people using this bag at RootsTech.  Beware - It costs as much as a new mobile device! But it is super cool.  These are the things you learn while waiting in lines…

6. I learned that there are battery phone cases and capacitor chargers to extend the life of your mobile devices at conferences, in the FHL, on the plane with a capacitor that stores energy for hours, or a super capacitor that stores enough energy for days at a time.  The battery mobile phone cases double the life of your regular phone battery and the capacitor chargers (also called external battery chargers) can be used on your laptop or tablet.   Thank you to Jill Ball from Australia and Marie Doughan from Scotland for introducing these to me.  They used them on those long airplane trips to RootsTech.

7. I also learned about the value of Blogger beads- You must wear them everywhere- to the FHL, to restaurants, around town to spark conversation (speak up at the first raised eyebrow) and be prepared with a ten second "elevator" speech and business cards with your URL.   These beads are not just a fun accessory; they are a powerful media tool.  The blogger bead subtle advertising is so successful that I am going to supply beads at NERGC 2013 in Manchester.

8. Be prepared to hug in the oddest places. Suddenly a complete stranger will come up to you in the restroom, or the elevator, or when you have your mouth full at breakfast and introduce themselves as a blog fan, Twitter follower, or Facebook friend.

9. Also be prepared to act like a complete fool and gush like a groupie when you find out you are sitting next to Cyndi Howell of cyndislist.com or MaureenTaylor, the “Photo Detective”.  More hugs usually follow this encounter, too.

10. I learned that even when you fly across country to a national convention, there will always be a New England Yankee, or someone who lived briefly in your state, or someone with New England roots sitting right next to you at a session, or at the same table at the luncheons. This happened to me at all three luncheons, every session and even at the keynotes. Even at the FHL because it was busy and every table was full. A gentleman sitting right next to me at the NGS luncheon lived on Alexander Road, Londonderry, NH in the 1980s!   Strangers from New England introduced themselves even on the street waiting to cross at the lights because apparently I have some sort of accent when I pronounce the word “car”…

11. Another important lesson- If you want to enjoy an adult beverage, be prepared to walk away from Temple Square to other hotels and restaurants. It is still possible to enjoy a lovely evening at the Roof with Pellegrino as the only bubbly in your glass.

12. I discovered the joy of belonging to the Geneabloggers community!  Many, many times my fellow Geneabloggers have helped me solve technical problems on my blog, or helped me stop sploggers, or even gently suggested edits and corrections.  I've also made cousin connections with dozens of Geneabloggers, and shared lineage information.  We find time to share meals, cheer each other on before presentations, and support the newbies.  

At RootsTech I found time, even with a busy schedule, to return the Geneablogger karma.  I filled in on a panel that needed an additional genealogist, I found information at the FHL for someone who commented on Dear Myrtle’s HOA video show, and I was able to steer several other bloggers towards good resources for New England research at the Family History Library.  What goes around comes around.  And it’s fun, too!

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A NH Yankee at Day Three of RootsTech 2013

David Pogue, Keynote Speaker on the last day of RootsTech

All I can say is “Wow!” you need to watch the video of David Pogue at the keynote session. Even I need to find time to watch this video because his fast paced, hilarious talk had me laughing so hard I missed several of his informative bits. Thousands of genealogists are suddenly learning to play the ocarina with their iPhone. If you want to be in on this inside joke click this link www.rootstech.org 

Blogger James Tanner from the blog "Genealogy's Star" 

Of course, I was feeling sympathetic for James Tanner, who was filling in for Gilad Japhet of the MyHeritage website as the second keynote speaker.  What an act to follow at the last moment! However, his talk was also fast paced, informative and gently humorous. It was full of the kind of announcements that make keynotes memorable. He was great! Kudos to a fellow blogger for pulling off a great follow up.  His message about new developments at MyHeritage.com was even more powerful coming from a blogger, than from the company CEO.

The last day of RootsTech was full of ambivalence. Do I spend more time chatting up vendors? Do I rush off to a session? Do I meet up with friends I won't see again for another few years? Do I search out bloggers I haven't hugged yet? Well, I managed to squeeze in all of these activities before 3 pm  by tweeting my location, and checking Facebook statuses. Using a mobile device helped, even with spotty connections around the Salt Palace Convention Center.

Sonia Meza and her translator, Debbie Shurtz Gertler

We had our most emotional moment at RootsTech when attending Sonia Meza Morales’s presentation on “Finding Spanish Records from your Sofa”.  Sonia had come all the way from Madrid, Spain to present this lecture, and two other presentations given at the Family History Library.  Her talks at the library were well attended, but at RootsTech the room was barely half full.  Knowing that the Western and Southwestern parts of the United States are highly populated with Hispanic citizens, she was quite sad that they were not represented proportionately at the conference. The attendees were a sea of white and English speaking faces. Why? Her spontaneous plea for more genealogy involvement, collaboration and education with the Hispanic community was the one emotional moment that touched me the most this weekend.  I hope to stay in contact with Sonia after RootsTech and work on this problem.  We'll meet up with her in Madrid, hopefully in May.

Even though we needed to pack up (we had to check out at 4am for our flight home) and sleep, we walked down to the Radisson so we could enjoy an adult beverage and maybe say a few goodbyes to fellow bloggers. This was a great idea, and we met up with so many old and new friends who were finally just taking time to RELAX. I even had a chance to meet a few new genie friends like Tonia Kendrick, Drew Smith and Cyndi Howell.  Another important lesson learned at RootsTech- never miss a chance to chat up other genealogists, even if you are tired!

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Catch me on video three times!

If you didn't get enough RootsTech from the live streaming video available at www.rootstech.org you can catch even more by watching Yours Truly on these three videos taped in Salt Lake City last week.

Dear Myrtle interviewing bloggers at the FHL
Temple Square is barely visible outside the windows

1. Dear Myrtle's Google + hangout  (HOA, Hangout On Air)  "Monday's with Myrt" taped on March 18th at the big Family History Library in Salt Lake City, a few days before the RootsTech 2013 conference.  Click here to see "Dear Myrtle, Live at RootsTech":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D11HuZpTq3c

A.C. Ivory, Yours Truly and Jill Ball in the Media Hub at RootsTech

2. An interview with Jill Ball for her "Geniaus" blog in Australia, taped in the "fish bowl" of the RootsTech Expo on Thursday, March 21st:
http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2013/03/heather-at-rootstech.html

The Genealogists Gadget Bag panel live on stage at RootsTech

3. The "Genealogist's Gadget Bag", a panel discussion hosted by Jill Ball of Australia,
taped on Thursday, March 21st at 3pm live on stage as part of the first day at RootsTech 2013:
www.rootstech.org

For a great review and writeup on this panel discussion of genealogy gadgets, see "What's in your gadget bag?" on the Family Recorder blog by Audrey Collins of the U.K. at this link: http://thefamilyrecorder.blogspot.com/2013/03/rootstech-whats-in-your-gadget-bag.html

Enjoy!  And catch more video at www.rootstech.org and on the many blogs written last week and still being written as bloggers return home to catch up on their writing...

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Friends at RootsTech 2013

My first day in Salt Lake City, and I met up with lots of friends

at Dear Myrtle's interviews at the Family History Library

Sonia Meza, a genealogist from Spain, gave a talk at the 

Family History Library with her translator Debbie Shurtz Gertler

Sonia's blog is "Red de Antepasados"

The RootsTech Genealogy Gadget Gang

Jill Ball, the Australian "Geniaus", Marie Doughan from Scotland, Yours Truly and A. C. Ivory

Catch our act at this link: 

http://rootstech.org/?start=23142&end=25882&id=G18&video=2243194494001

At the Billion Graves booth with their

blogger, Lisa Moncur (check out her great blog post at

http://blog.billiongraves.com/2013/03/wow-moments/ )

Linda Seaver, Yours Truly, Randy Seaver, 

New Hampshire genealogist Laura Prescott, Kevin Grooms and 

the Man of the Hour, Thomas MacEntee (celebrating his 50th birthday)

Dear Myrtle and Mr. Myrt

Alona Tester of Gould Genealogy in Australia

On the last afternoon I bumped into Audrey Collins from the United Kingdom,

blogger at the National Archives

I finally found Eric Jelle "GenDocs Wetpaint" in the Expo on a computer

Cyndi Howell of Cyndislist.com

Genealogists and bloggers relaxing after the end of RootsTech

It's amazing to go all the way to Utah from New Hampshire, and find so many friends to hang out with, to discuss genealogy, to try out new technologies and have fun with for a few days!  Please try out the links to see if you like their websites and blogs.

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A NH Yankee at Day Two of RootsTech 2013

Here I am at Day Two of RootsTech.  There were two keynote speakers today.  The first speaker was not as interesting to me today as the presenters yesterday.  Jyl Pattee is a popular blogger with a very nice message about family, and she demonstrated how to use technology to preserve family memories and stories.  Nice and sweet, but her methods were all things that have been blogged about and demonstrated before.  I was very surprised that she was a keynote speaker over other presenters who had messages that were more cutting edge and ground breaking. Perhaps her celebrity won out over other choices for speaker? I had never heard of her before, but I surmise she was a "big deal" for RootsTech.

Speaker two was an improvement.  Tim Sullivan had a balanced message about Ancestry.com, recognizing the shortfalls of some pedigrees submitted to the website, as well as admitting that the presence of these family trees is a valuable lesson in genealogy for all who use the website.  He also made several breaking announcements you can hear in the archived version of the video. I won't rehash his entire talk here, since you can see it for yourself, but the main announcements were a new iOS app 4.1 for Ancestry on iPhone and iPad devices (he explained that 1/3 of users now arrive at the website via mobile devices), $99 DNA tests, $100 million to digitize documents over the next four years, and a collaboration with FamilySearch to digitize 140 million US Probate records.  It was a great message, and the perfect place to break the great news to the genealogy community.

David Lambert from the
New England Historic Genealogical Society

The rest of the day was spent in smaller presentations, including hearing David Lambert of NEHGS at his talk on "Creating a Virtual New England Community Archive",  Thomas MacEntee at "Backing up Genealogy Data", and Amy Johnson Crow in "Turning Google Street View into a Time Machine with HistoryPin and WhatWasThere".  Then a few hours at the Family History Library, cramming in a last research session.

Thomas MacEntee hosted a huge birthday party for himself at the Radisson, and it was a "Who's Who" of genealogy bloggers, genealogists and genealogy company representatives. Thomas was the Man of the Hour and everyone in attendance had a great time!  We were sorry to leave early and crawl into bed (but not before posting this to my blog!)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A New Hampshire Yankee at Day One of RootsTech 2013

Our day began very early with a private bloggers tour of the Expo before the keynote speech.  We learned several very interesting facts, for example, new product announcements and the fact that the billionth indexer for Family Search might happen this weekend during the Roots Tech convention.  There are 6,800 preregistered attendees, and an additional 1900 youth who will attend the Saturday sessions.  These conference goers represent 49 states (no one from Delaware!), and over 17 foreign countries.

The keynote speakers were introduced by Shipley Munson from Family Search- Dennis Brimhall the president of Family Search, Syd Lieberman the storyteller, and D. Josh Taylor from FindmyPast.com 

I don't think I could do justice to the wonderful stories we heard from these three gentlemen, so you should tune into www.rootstech.org and hear them for your self on the archived versions of the webcast. 

For lunch we attended the New England Historic Genealogical Society presentation by David Lambert on "Tales from the Reference Desk".  If you have heard this hilarious presentation before, go again!  I heard Dave give this talk at the NERGC 2011 in Springfield, and he didn't repeat a single story, and this time the stories were even funnier.  These are comic queries David Lambert  and the staff hears from patrons at the NEHGS library or to his "Online Genealogist" column at www.americanancestors.org 

Jill Ball kindly invited me to sit with her in the Expo Hall media hub, and her husband Robert tried to calm my nerves before our panel presentation!  It worked! Jill also interviewed me on video for about ten minutes in the booth, and you can see this video at her blog http://geniaus.blogspot.com/ 

Jill Ball, Marie Dougan, Yours Truly and A.C. Ivory at the 3pm panel on technology, gadgets and genealogy

You can catch the archived version of this event at www.rootstech.org 

Jill displays her high tech travel bag which is

pickpocket proof, knife proof, and even has a pocket

which can prevent thieves from stealing your identity from

the RFD chips on your passports and credit cards.

Exhausted Genealogy Bloggers gathered to collapse 

at the Cyber Cafe at the end of Day One at RootsTech 2013.

Your Truly, Susan Kitchens, Becky Wiseman and Denise Olsen

Our day was not over, because there was a social event at the Leonardo Museum

followed by a concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  

A very long, but productive and wonderful day! 

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A Thank You to the Family History Community

Our awesome view of the choir from our 2nd row seats!

I just arrived back in the hotel from a wonderful "mini concert" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  We arrived late, and were ushered seats in the SECOND ROW!  Wow!  I thought we were attending a rehearsal of the choir, but to my surprise it was a special RootsTech presentation of a concert titled "Land that I Love- the Immigration of Irving Berlin".

According to the program, it was a thank you concert to the genealogical community for participating in the 1940 US Census indexing program.  "For all who participated in that massive effort, we offer sincere and heartfelt thanks. And now Family Search would like to extend another invitation.  Seventy one percent of all immigrants to the United States from 1892 to 1954 entered through the port of New York.  There are close to 100 million records that need to be indexed....Won't you join the cause and help to remember those from your families for whom America became the "Land that I Love?"

Of course, after this appeal, and when the massive choir began to sing "God Bless America" tears ran down my cheeks with emotion.  It was a very emotional moment for me, and most of the audience.  I do hope that if you helped with the census indexing you are continuing to index the US Immigration and Naturalization records.  If you if you haven't tried indexing, this is a wonderfully easy way to give back to the genealogy community.

This concert will be broadcast on TV across the USA and internationally.  Go to http://mormontabernaclechoir.org/ to find the local listing for your area.

Go to familysearch.org/immigration to learn how you can get involved.

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Attend RootsTech Virtually

If you can't be at RootsTech 2013 in Salt Lake City, you can attend virtually by going to rootstech.org and clicking on the live streaming webcast window on the home page.  Here is the schedule of live streaming broadcasts.  These should be archived later, and available for viewing at the same website, just like last year. 

Caveat- this is extremely addictive, especially if you have another window open running with the live Twitter feed for the #rootstech hashtags, or for the Facebook comments of the genealogists in attendance.   This is how I spent three days last year, and was convinced that I just HAD to be in Salt Lake City this year....

SURPRISE!  Yours Truly, Heather Rojo, will be one of the panelists at the 3pm session (Mountain time) of the Panel discussion "The Genealogist's Gadget Bag".  Don't miss it! 

Times are listed in Mountain Standard Time

Thursday, March 21

8:30 AM (Mountain)	Keynote – Dennis Brimhall, Syd Lieberman, and Josh Taylor
11:00 AM (Mountain)	The Future of Genealogy – Panel
1:45 PM (Mountain)	Tell It Again (Story@Home) – Kim Weitkamp
3:00 PM (Mountain)	The Genealogists Gadget Bag – Panel
4:15 PM (Mountain)	Finding the Obscure and Elusive: Geographic Information on the Web – James Tanner

Friday, March 22

8:30 AM (Mountain)	Keynote – Jyl Pattee and Tim Sullivan
9:45 AM (Mountain)	Researching Ancestors Online – Laura Prescott
11:00 AM (Mountain)	FamilySearch Family Tree – Ron Tanner
1:45 PM (Mountain)	Google Search...and Beyond – Dave Barney
3:00 PM (Mountain)	From Paper Piles to Digital Files – Valerie Elkins

Saturday, March 23

8:30 AM (Mountain)	Keynote – David Pogue and Gilad Japhet
9:45 AM (Mountain)	Using Technology to Solve Research Problems – Karen Clifford
11:00 AM (Mountain)	Digital Storytelling: More Than Bullet Points – Denise Olson

A New Hampshire Yankee at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City

The entrance to the Family History Library 

in Temple Square, Salt Lake City

The front desk inside the library has this marvelous mural

and several volunteers jumped up to greet us at the door.

We were given "newbie" name tags and library maps to help us start out.

We also saw an orientation video (there are tours available, too)

Look at all the friendly, familiar faces on the third floor!

Yours Truly, Dear Myrtle, Jill Ball, Thomas MacEntee

Lisa Alzo , Dianne Miller from Flip-Pal and Lisa from Billion Graves

It was a lot of fun to finally meet up with Jill Ball,

author of the Geniaus blog from Australia

Dear Myrtle and I getting ready for the Monday's with Myrtle live hangout 

Dear Myrtle's interview is at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D11HuZpTq3c 

During the two hour live show she interviewed bloggers and vendors who will be at RootsTech later this week, a major conference held across the block at the Salt Palace Convention Center. 

Yours Truly can be seen in the interview between minutes 12:00 and 27:15, even though I almost escaped out the door earlier, I was called back in to talk with Myrt and Barry Kline about researching a Hessian soldier ancestor… 

Geneabloggers ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to Thomas MacEntee

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo