RootsTech 2017 Schedule
Subject to change
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Many records are created when someone dies. We will discuss death certificates, death registers, probate records which include wills, letters of administration, heir proofs, estate distribution records and many more. We will also discuss casket makers records, sexton's records, church records, funeral home records, newspaper notifications, etc.
To enable attendees to preserve their family photos and memories through basic knowledge of scanning, file restoration, and the storage of both digital files and physical photographic materials.
This class is endorsed by Pictureline
Feeling overwhelmed with research in the big city. Juliana shares tips that will help you pin down your ancestors in cities—large and small.
My mom was adopted from an unwed mother’s home in Seattle, Washington. Come learn how we were able to use a combination of genetic and genealogical tools to connect with our biological family, and how it has affected our lives. Leave with concrete ideas on how to apply these same methods to your own personal genetic genealogy endeavors, weather you are looking for your father, or your 3X Great Grandfather.
Once we have identified the origin of our immigrant ancestors, we are faced with the task of continuing our research in an unfamiliar language. This presentation will show you how to use tools at your fingertips to decipher those records. While a complete, flawless translation may be outside our current expertise, we can apply basic genealogical methodology to obtain the key facts in foreign language records. Focusing on records available from FamilySearch, this presentation will show how to identify common elements, perform a transliteration of the text and use online resources to translate into a meaningful document.
The Genealogical Proof Standard says to resolve conflicts in data... but like so many things that sound good, it's easier said than done. What exactly are we supposed to do when we encounter conflicting evidence? What are the basic types of evidence conflicts and the methods - and tips and tricks - we can use to resolve them?
Writing on the back of a print is an easy way to identify what’s in a photo. But how do you identify a digital file? The answer is metadata: editable information that stays with a digital image no matter where it travels. Captions, keywords, search terms, family names, dates, and copyright information can all be added to a digital photo, and it’s not hard to do! This class will explain in a fun, non-techy fashion, using clear visual examples, how to find and add captions and other metadata to your digital photos no matter what computer, platform, or software you’re using.
Scotland is a world leader when it comes to preserving their national history and national memory. Archivists all over the country are working to conserve, preserve, digitize and make available records that can be used for genealogical research. This lecture will assist you in learning where you might find information on your Scots ancestor that will help you to fill in their story and add to your understanding of their social history. There comes a time when you have done all of the online researching you can do using the standard databases. In this workshop you will learn of lesser known databases to assist in breaking through your brick walls. These include: • FindMyPast • Deceased Online • British Newspaper Archives • Emigration Databases • Military Databases • Poor Law Records • Medieval Ancestry • Local, Offline resources
Frequently, multiple people in an extended family are researching the same ancestral line. Societies sponsor research projects where multiple volunteers participate and contribute to the work. This class will demonstrate how the multi-user feature of ResearchTies will assist in streamlining a coordinated research effort. All researchers work from the same research log, contributing their effort to the same goals and “to do” lists. When any researcher completes a search and links in a document, all participants have access to it. Learn how to share the work and work together!
Two sisters, one adopted and one not, discuss the underlying concepts of genealogy for adoptees and their families. Come learn the difference between nature and nurture genealogy. The adoptee’s biological “nature” family history, enhanced by careful use of DNA testing, can fill in blanks where records can’t and help adoptees better understand their biological origin. The adoptive family’s history can help explain the formative “nurture” foundation of an adoptee’s life and create connections with adoptive family members and the adoptive family narrative. Using best practices, family history can be a powerful tool in binding adoptive families and in helping adoptees learn about and make peace with their individual life story.
Where is DNA heading? A panel of DNA experts (CeCe Moore, Angie Bush and Dr. Scott Woodward) explore the changes happening that will disrupt the way that we use DNA and its impacts on genealogy. The experts will come from a range of backgrounds in DNA, genetics, forensics, and genealogy. This lineup will share insights on experience, challenges, and market direction. Scott Fisher (ExtremeGenes.com - Syndicated Radio Show) will moderate this conversation about innovation, strategies and changes in the future of DNA.
25 million digitized and searchable free books are at your fingertips at Google Books. Learn how to make the most of this goldmine chock full of historical data! You’ll discover the best techniques for finding fully digitized book FAST, and search secrets for locating genealogical data. Learn to capitalize on and translate the foreign language volumes from your ancestor's homeland. Then we’ll go beyond the obvious and track down maps, images, photos and more. Google Guru Lisa Louise Cooke will help make you a Google Books master, and you'll find yourself using this valuable tool nearly every day.
As humans, our life’s memories are intended to be cherished. The idea of legacy as “art ” is a powerful one worth having; art being a physical work that is appreciated for its beauty, creativity and imagination.
In other words, how we cherish our life’s memories, matters. And you get to elevate the beauty of life’s memories to art status.
In a year when Snapchat usage is at an all-time high, and shared memories are soon erased, let’s step back to appreciate a different perspective on generations of everyday moments and memories. These moments don’t purposely disappear, but we instead create from life’s memories heirlooms for our future generations.
During this session, you'll learn some ways that family photos and albums can be transformed into masterpieces, using online technology and resources, and how these works of art leave a lasting legacy for generations to come.
Now it is even easier to maintain your family history on the go with FamilySearch mobile apps. The mobile app provides users the ability to engage in small family history “micro tasks” that gives users simple tasks to weekly participate with your family.
Our family history isn't complete without the stories of the women of our families. But all too often they're the ones who just aren't there: not in the records, not in the censuses, not on juries, not in the voting booth. Yet despite the limited public existence of women under the law, there are many records left by, about or relevant to our female ancestors. Learn how to find the mothers, daughters, wives in your lines through their own records and the records of their menfolk.
Genealogists compare information such as age, occupation, religion, residence, names of family members and signatures to help determine if two records refer to the same individual. This can be useful in locating individuals in specific records, and in distinguishing men of the same name.
Exceptional, spiritual experiences, that change families, forever can be had in your family history center, when you enable Spirit led personal family history experiences to be the center of everything you do. Learn how to create sacred family experiences that will invite the Spirit of Elijah into the lives of all who visit.
In this session, attendees will learn how to process and organize information relevant to their genealogical research, including paper documents, digital files, and email. The session will discuss how to organize paper using either binders or folders, and the basics of preserving unique documents. Attendees will learn an organizational system for naming digital folders and files, as well as the process of synchronizing those files across multiple devices and backing up the files to a cloud service. Attendees will learn how to quickly process their email inbox, using unsubscribing, deleting, filtering, forwarding, and saving to other systems.
Have you identified ancestors who fought in the Civil War? Have you looked at their documents with an eye towards determining kinship? How about their actual story? Your ancestors part in this definitive part of American history both on the battle field changed their lives and likely theirs. Learn how to discover the story.
This class will take some of the guesswork out of documenting your freedmen ancestors. You will learn where and how to access Freedmen's Bureau records and how the groundwork laid in researching prior to this time period enables you to more easily locate your ancestor and other related family members in Freedmen's Bureau records. You will learn how to identify ancestors who were emancipated. You will also see the importance of researching the family who had enslaved the instructor's family. We will see examples of different record types, and we will discuss the reasons why your ancestor may not appear among these records.
Learn about the main repositories for Jewish Genealogy available on the cloud. This program will illustrate how to search efficiently in different Jewish (JewishGen, GesherGalicia, JRI-Poland and Jewish Genealogy Societies like IGRA and IGS) and not-so Jewish (FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage) databases, to find the information you are looking for; even if you don't know it existed. Daniel will also help you overcome the barrier of the language with a basic lesson of Hebrew, focusing the tombstones terminology and how to translate efficiently to English; as many of the Jewish repositories available are only in Hebrew. If you have Jewish ancestors, you suspect you have a Jewish ancestor or you only want your daughter to marry a nice Jewish doctor; you cannot miss this informative lecture that will show you there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Sponsored by MyHeritage
This is a program designed to help you locate your ancestors’ naturalization records and unlock the secrets of those records. In 1906, the United States took control of the naturalization process. Although one could still be naturalized in state court, the paperwork filled out by the applicant for citizenship was now uniform and contained questions calling for much more detailed biographical information. It’s in the answers to the detailed questions that we are able to find out a great deal more about the immigrant and the members of his family. Learn to locate and access these records and follow up on the results.
It is estimated that over one third of people on earth do not have written records, many of these people are in Africa. This presentation discusses recent work by FamilySearch to collect and preserve genealogical information from the oral traditions of ethnic groups in Africa. FamilySearch has interviewed over 16,000 people worldwide, and the participants have shared their history and up to 15 generations of genealogy. This has resulted in over 7 million genealogical records preserved and published for use. Interviewers have been recruited, and then trained to identify and interview ethnic groups in Africa which have deep oral genealogy. A number of challenges have had to be overcome in capturing and processing this information. This oral history and oral genealogy will be the primary, perhaps only, source of information about ancestors for the future generations of their people.
Once upon a time Irish genealogy was considered impossible, but all that has changed. True, its still difficult, but thanks to the work of archives and libraries in Ireland, and findmypast.com, there are now over 140 million records online. They include traditional sources like civil records of birth, death and marriage, census records and church registers. But they also include census substitutes like the land valuation records and tax records. Moreover entirely new classes of records have been trail-blazed in Ireland, like magistrate court registers, rebel and military records, and much more. These sources can be difficult to use. So this lecture will describe and explain so users can get the most of what is available. But it is also time now to take stock. Where do we need to go to finally make Irish genealogy achievable for all. Brian will give a sneak peak of what's planned by findmypast.com, and also address the remaining challenges to access our historic records.
