RootsTech

February has been a lot more mild than January; It is still cold, however.

We decided to attend RootsTech in Salt Lake City - the largest Genealogical Conference ever. We have had family history on our list of post-mission activities and decided this would get us started again, if not overwhelmed.

Feb 8 (Wed)

We left Logan just after noon and checked in to the Little America about 2 pm. We took the Trax two stops to City Creek Center then walked down to the Salt Palace for the conference. The registration line was so long they said we could go to our classes first and register later.

RootdTech 2017

My first session was "How will DNA continue to disrupt our industry", a panel discussion on the effect of DNA testing on genealogical research. I then went to "Family History on the Go - Family Search Mobile Applications" where I learned more about the apps "Family Tree" and "Memories". Diane went to the session "Records Created at Death" (morbid, I know), but she learned about many different records created at death. She then attended "Mothers, Daughters, Wives: Tracing Female Lines" to learn about finding women in the records. We finally registered, ate at the City Creek food court, then returned to our hotel for the night. It's almost like spring here in Salt Lake - daffodils are out.

Feb 9 (Thu)

We got up early, took the Trax to City Creek Center and ate breakfast at the food court. We got to the Salt Palace in time to get good seats for the General Session. The MC for the session was comedian Jason Hewlett. He actually made me laugh (with clean humor).

Jason Hewlett

 Steve Rockwood, CEO of Family Search talked to us about memories of food passed to us over generations. One of theirs was Rocky Road (unless you were allergic to the nuts, then it was smooth road).

Lockwood family recipe

 We then heard from Drew and Jonathan Scott - The Property Brothers who told us about their family and growing up. They traded off talking a mile-a-minute with no break in between. We really enjoyed it.

Property brothers first job - making coat hangers 

We really enjoyed their attitude about family

We had four sessions today. I went to sessions about different companies doing DNA testing, fixing relationship problems in Family Search, finding ancestors in Church History records, and tips of searching for records online. Two of the sessions we attended together. We finally got our DNA test kits so we can find out which group of monkeys we come from. Actually the tests are only valid for about 5-6 generations. In the evening we attended a performance of the Tabernacle Choir in the Conference Center. Oscar Hammerstein III (grandson of the lyricist) was the guest so all of the music was from Oscar & Hammerstein musicals. We couldn't take pictures during the concert, but I was able to get one of them rehearsing.

Tabernacle Choir in the Conference Center

 Feb 10 (Fri)

The General Session today was on African American Heritage. We heard from Kenyatta Berry, who focuses on African American slave ancestral research and DNA. We saw a film about a man that was able to trace his linage to Ghana through DNA testing and traveled there to meet his relatives. Our featured speaker was LeVar Burton, known for his role as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: Next Generation and before that as Kunta Kinte in Roots.

LeVar Burton

The music was performed by a choir from the Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake.

Calvary Baptist Church choir

We had four more sessions today. I attended sessions about Scandinavian research, photos and stories in documents, how DNA works, and more on Mormon Pioneer research. Meanwhile, Diane attended sessions on Oscar Hammerstein II, keeping your information safe, the Big 4 on-line genealogy companies, and records for the Mormon Pioneers (with me).

Can you find Diane in this session?

Tonight they had a cultural program in the exposition hall. We were able to find something to eat and watched the performance while we ate. They had groups from Africa, Ireland, and South America. (They were actually from here, but descendants from those other cultures).

African drummers and dancers

Irish high-steppers

Dancers from the Andes

 They even had a small jazz combo in the exposition hall.

Jazz anyone?

 During the show we got a FaceTime call from Hanna - It was her 19th birthday. We were able to use technology to watch her open her presents in Indiana. We live in a marvelous age.

Grandma FaceTiming with Hanna on her birthday

 We then went to visit Ken and Kate in their new home. It looks like they have a lot of room and live in a nice neighborhood (at least it looked that way in the dark).

Ken and Kate in their new home

 Feb 11 (Sat)

Last day of the conference. We have been using the Trax to travel to and from our hotel and the Salt Palace. It is very convenient, besides, it's free (being in the center of Salt Lake).

Here comes our ride

 The General Session was more about food. We heard from Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss. Again it was very family oriented as he told us about his start in the baking business. He now owns several bakeries and has several television programs.

Buddy Valastro - Thee Cake Boss

 We only went to two sessions today. I had one on the art of storytelling and another on finding recent relatives where the records are not yet available. Diane attended a session on copyrights then attended with me on recent records. Between the sessions each day we would walk through the exhibition hall where there were displays from many companies working in genealogy (as well as free candy).

Exhibition hall

 While walking down the main hallway I heard my name. It was Mike Hunsaker, who lived right behind us when we were growing up. I really enjoyed catching up on his family. Mike was actually Doug's age.

Paul with Mike Hunsaker

 Since the Cake Boss was visiting RootsTech they had a cake decorating contest. There were cakes in four categories, birthday cakes, wedding cakes, holiday cakes, and graduation cakes. The winner of the "People's Choice" award received a professional oven and dishwasher.

No, Diane didn't even enter the contest

 My favorite was a cake that reminded me of spring.

Too good to eat

 The winner of the stove was a Halloween Haunted House. The Cake Boss said it came down to the taste of the cake for choosing the winner. This was the judges choice and the peoples choice.

The winner

We were able to go across the street to City Creek Center. We did a lot of our eating there (it was cheaper), but we also found some gluten-free food in the Salt Palice.

Let's go to Deseret Book

In the evening we had the Closing Event with the results of the cake decorating contest. It was presented between performances of  two a cappella groups from BYU, Vocal Point (male group) and Noteworthy (female group). We really enjoyed the performance.

Vocal Point

Noteworthy

We returned to Logan, getting there about 9 pm. We really enjoyed the experience of RootTech 2017. There was a good feeling about the whole conference and it was very well managed. We'll see if we go again next year.