Inventing the Future, as a Community, Keynote RootsTech 2012 Jay Verkler

The first event of RootsTech 2012 was the keynote presentation “Inventing the Future, as a Community” by Jay Verkler, outgoing CEO of FamilySearch. Jay Verkler has led FamilySearch for ten years and has recently been replaced by Dennis Brimhall. During the time he led FamilySearch many innovations in technology have been implemented at FamilySearch. He has reached out to other companies to encourage new developments and collaboration.

 I first heard Jay Verkler speak at the NGS Conference in 2010 and was further impressed with him at RootTech 2011, the first RootsTech Conference. He has been a pioneer in getting technology connected with genealogical research.

Jay Verkler’s keynote presentation was multi-media and he gave credit to many others who helped him create it.  It can be viewed at RootsTech.org and there was a great article about it in The Church News. The The Ancestry Insider had a blog post giving more information about RootsTech reviews in The Church News.

Jay Verkler introduced the subject by giving background information about the population of the world and telling how we must collaborate to preserve family history information. He introduced Robert Gardner and David Barney from Google who briefly told us about new metadata that has been developed to optimize historical and genealogical searches. He introduced the CEO of BrightSolid, Chris van der Kuyl,  and the CEO of Archives.com, Matthew Monahan. Both of these men expressed the importance of collaboration. There was a dramatization of collaboration between a FamilySearch researcher, a BrightSolid customer in Sweden, a Facebook user in America. The presentation finished with a vignette of a student in 2060 who was researching her family history. This was an inspiring presentation and made me grateful to have access to all the wonderful tools and possibilities for genealogical research.  In conclusion Jay Verkler was presented a “To Turn the Hearts Award” by FamilySearch. He richly deserves this award.

RootsTech 2012 and FamilySearch Family Tree

I had the privilege of attending RootsTech again this year. It was a wonderful experience and I want to write about it in my blog. This will be good for my reference even if no one else ever reads this blog. There have been plenty of bloggers who have written about RootsTech. There were official bloggers who reported about it and I have read some of what they wrote. I especially like the Ancestry Insider blogs. He has written many interesting and informative things about RootsTech.

There are also Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers , Randy Seaver at Geneamusings, Lisa Louise Cooke at Genealogy Gems Blog, Amy Coffin at We Tree, Pat Erickson at Dear Myrtle and others.

The best resource is the RootsTech Web site itself. Videos of many of the conferences are on this site. You can watch the actual seminars. Saturday I watched the RootsTech seminar by Ron Tanner about Family Search’s Family Tree. I did not see this live because it was the same time as the Devotional for Family History Consultants where Paul Koelliker was the speaker.

Actually I heard Ron Tanner speak on the new Family Tree on Saturday morning at the Riverton Saturday Seminar and then came home and watched his presentation at RootsTech online. They were not the same, just the same subject. I am really excited and happy that Family Tree is going to be available. I was very impressed with what I saw. I think it will be easier to use than New Family Search and that it will be more professional. People will be more hesitant to change things. I really like the addition of source citations. Hurrah for Family Search Family Tree!

Family Skeleton

"If you can't get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance"
-George Bernard Shaw

I like this quote. I am currently taking Genealogy 1000, the beginning class at Salt Lake Community College. It is an online class and has been very interesting. In this class we are counselled to research our family history so we can "put flesh and bones on the family skeletons." I am thankful there are so many resources today to help me do this.

Riverton Family History Library

On Saturday April 16, 2010 I attended the Saturday Seminar at the Riverton Family History Library. The key note speaker was Tim Cross who spoke about ways for ward family history consultants to introduce members to New Family Search and to pique their interest in family history. He introduced me to Tree Seek where family tree charts can be printed out for no cost. Tree Seek links to your New Family Search account and takes the information for the pdf charts from your database in New Family Search. I applied what I learned on Sunday April 17 by printing off some of my own charts. I taught my husband how to do it (for practice) and then I went to a ward member's house and got her signed up for New Family Search and helped her print off a nine-generation chart.

At the Riverton Saturday Seminar I also attended a class on English Research taught by Raymon Naisbitt and a class on New England Research taught by Jason B. Harrison. These presentations were very interesting and I am excited to do research in England and New England as I have time.

Home Movies

We have been talking about converting home movies to DVD format. I discovered this interesting web site Center for Home Movies.  There is a lot of good information. I think it might be fun to have a Home Movie Day.

Mission Possible Part 2 November 2010

The reporting session of Mission Possible was held on November 4, 2010.
I was pleased that so many of the sisters had success with their missions.

Mission #1 -- Several sisters reported how they are organizing their documents and other memorabilia. There is a good method for organizing your hard drive for genealogy research on You Tube. It is from Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems.

Organize Your Hard Drive

Mission #2 -- The sister who had this mission had saved her genealogy information digitally with Personal Ancestral File years ago. Her computer had crashed and she had lost it all. It was in the days when back-up and recovery systems were not as good as now. She is starting over again with Roots Magic. Fortunately she has her hard copies and though it might be tedious, she can transfer her information to Roots Magic and also New Family Search.

Mission #3 -- The sister who completed this mission enjoyed seeing all that is available on New Family Search. She said it took a long time because she has dial-up Internet service. Probably we should take a group of sisters to the Family Search Center in Riverton and introduce them to New Family Search there using the computers that are available there.

Mission #4 -- The sister who completed this mission wrote a ten-page report about her grandmother. She found much interesting information from an aunt who lives in Nauvoo and wants to follow up and learn more about other ancestors. Her report on her grandmother was very interesting.

Mission #5 -- Thanks to this sister and her husband we had two yummy desserts for refreshments, an apple cobbler and a cherry loaf. Both were prized family recipes.

Mission #6 --This mission was "Display Your Heritage" and we heard a very interesting report of how this sister inherited her grandmother's china and how she displays it in her home.

Mission #7 -- The sister who started doing Family Search Indexing went gungho! She has given a lot of service throughout the month and learned many things about the program and is a great resource to the rest of us.

Mission #8 -- This mission was to create an Internet blog. The sister who had this assignment was not able to create a blog but she is involved in many other family history projects.

Mission #9  -- This was a photography mission. Maybe we can do more with this project at another time in Relief Society.

Mission # 10 -- This sister reported on watching several TV programs about family history. She reviewed several episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? and Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Mission Possible -- 4th Ward Relief Society October 2010

NOTE: The Mission Possible missions are designed to be projects that will turn “the hearts of the children to their fathers” and to be things that will strengthen families. Some of them require computer access and some computer skills. Some do not. Before you accept your mission you will be given the opportunity to trade missions or accept another mission, if necessary. It is expected that you will spend about four hours over the next month working on your mission and that you will report your experiences at the next Relief Society meeting. It is also expected that we will help each other and provide resources for everyone to work on their mission.

Family History Mission #1
Take time to gather ALL your genealogy papers, documents, photos, books, outlines, etc. Organize them and file them. OR Get a cardboard box. Then follow the instructions given by President Packer as written in “Your Family History: Getting Started,” Ensign Aug 2003, 12-17.

Family History Mission #2
Digitize your Family History records if you have not already done so. Use Personal Ancestral File (free from Family Search) or use one of the Certified Products shown on the New Family Search web site.
Examples are Legacy, Roots Magic, Ancestral Quest, FamilyInsight, Gaia Family Tree, Genetree
If you already have your Family History digitized, spend four hours reviewing and updating your information.

Family History Mission #3
Register for New Family Search if you have not already done so. Once you are registered spend four or more hours reviewing the information about your ancestors. Check for accuracy. Investigate whether other family members are researching your family history and contact them to collaborate.

Family History Mission #4
Choose one of your ancestors and write a history about them and their life. Include all important dates, names and places. Give citations for your sources. This can be as long or as short as you desire. Imagine that you or your child is giving a talk about this person.

Family History Mission #5
Promote food traditions. Take a traditional family recipe and learn to prepare this food. Serve it to your family. If you are already doing this on a regular basis, then teach a child, grandchild, niece or nephew how to prepare an old family recipe so that the family tradition will continue into the next generations.

Family History Mission #6
Display your heritage or your personal history. Use a shadow box or a frame to display photographs or artifacts from your family. Beware of bright sunlight and use copies if necessary or display only on special occasions. Another option is to learn how to preserve fabrics, antiques, etc. and take steps to protect valuable family heirlooms. Create labels and inventories so that your children know the history of your family treasures.

Family History Mission #7
Register to volunteer with Family Search Indexing and complete three or four batches. You will help make genealogical information available for researchers and you will gain valuable research skills that will help you when you desire to research these documents for your ancestors. Go to http://www.familysearch.org/eng/indexing/frameset_indexing.asp to get started or ask a family history consultant to visit you in your home and help you. If you are already an indexer, complete at least four batches in the next month.

Family History Mission #8
Make an Internet Blog. This can be a family news blog, a research blog, an educational blog, or a blog to co-ordinate research. If you already have a blog, you may choose to update it.

Family History Mission #9
Organize your photographs. Make sure all photos are labeled. Convert old photos and slides to digital format. Make scrapbooks. Attach digital images to your ancestors in your digital genealogy software. Decide which part of this project you are going to spend four hours on in the next month and get started.

Family History Mission #10
Be a film critic. Watch at least four genealogy TV or Internet programs and review them for our group next month. Suggestions are:

NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/

PBS’s Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/

BYU’s Generations Project http://www.byutv.org/thegenerationsproject/Episodes/

Roots Television http://www.rootstelevision.com/