Saturday, February 14, 2015

RootsTech 2015 - Day 4


This morning, before I logged on to RootsTech 2015 to watch their live streaming, I checked in with Dear Myrt’s AmbushCAM—little five minute interviews with attendees—and I had seven to watch -

Myrt's AmbushCAM: Thursday #1 - Rosemary Morgan from London Roots Research www.londonrootsresearch.blogspot.co.uk

Myrt's AmbushCAM: Thursday #2 - Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi's List www.CyndisList.com

Myrt's AmbushCAM: Thursday #3 - Jeff Haddon, founder of History Lines www.Historylines.com

Myrt's AmbushCAM: Thursday #4 - Wiki Chicks www.Wiki-Chicks.wiki

Myrt's AmbushCAM: Thursday #5 - A. J. Jacobs of Global Family Reunion www.GlobalFamilyReunion.com

Myrt's AmbushCAM: Thursday #6 - Tim Firkowski of The Genealogy Assistant
www.thegenealogyassistant.com

Myrt's AmbushCAM: Thursday #7 - Bernice Alexander Bennett, Sherri Camp, Shelley Murphy, and Angela Y Walton-Raji from the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society www.aahgs.org

It’s best to watch all of these interviews at Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Not to be late for the RootsTech 2015 live streaming session, I scurried to get ready for my day of taking in the keynote speakers, and to see who would win the Innovator Summit at 12:00, my local time. I had a few minutes to spare, so I checked out the Facebook page and found that some people were complaining about not receiving the first part of the live streaming session yesterday, but I didn’t have any difficulty. Today, I did have a bit of a problem, even after refreshing, but eventually got back on the site.

I watched the Innovator Summit Challenge Event http://rootstech.challengepost.com, and it was conducted something like Dragon’s Den, a television show in Canada http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden, where the prizes were given by the voting of the audience and judges. There were 51 new ideas presented, and the final four were ArgusSearch, GenMarketplace, Lucidpress, and the winner – StoryWorth.

Because of technical difficulties, mine or theirs, I missed most of the keynote speech today, but did get a chance to watch Thomas MacEntee on Research Toolbox, and Ring Your Ancestor Back to the Future by Anne Leishman.

Tomorrow will be the last day for RootsTech. The day will start at 10:30 (local time), and, as usual, will be worth watching.

See you tomorrow!


Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-09-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Friday, February 13, 2015

RootsTech 2015 - Day 3

I had a busy day keeping up to snuff with everything going on with RootsTech 2015.

Dick Eastman, in his blog post, http://blog.eogn.com/2015/02/11/the-innovation-summit-and-the-first-day-of-the-fgs-conference-in-salt-lake-city, wrote a very good summary of The Innovation Summit and the First Day of the FGS Conference, which was held on Wednesday.

He heard Nathan Furr, PhD, talk about his new book, The Innovator’s Method (Harvard Business Review Press, September 2014). Dick was also present for Curt Witcher, Senior Manager for Special Collections at Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and his talk about how we should think of the society we belong to, and how we can help to push it into the 21st century.

Jill Ball presented two RootsTech videoblogs summarizing her day at RootsTech, and she talked about the Media Supper as well as people that she met through her blog, http://geniaus.blogspot.com.

I listened to the keynote talks given by Dennis Brimhall. He discussed the “museum of me” in the new Discovery venue over at the Family History Library. He also talked about what collaboration has gone over the past year, and the indexing project that they are now embarked on, which will index all Mexican religious and civil vital records by this year, with their partnership with Ancestry.

I also took in the following talks - Josh Taylor, 30 Pieces of Tech I Can't Live Without; Karen Auman's You've Mastered the Census and Basic Search, What Next?; and What's New at FamilySearch by Devin Ashby.

All of the talks have been good so far: the speakers are enthusiastic, and I will guarantee that you will get something out of each talk.

Tomorrow's RootsTech will present the Innovator Summit Challenge Event in which they will choose the best new website. The announcement is due to take place at 10:30 a.m., local time.

This general session starts at 8:30 in the morning (local time), and the sessions will be on the main page at https://rootstech.org


Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-09-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

RootsTech 2015 - Day 2

This is the first official day of Rootstech 2015, starting with three keynote speakers. They are -
  • Dennis Brimhall, Chief Executive Officer, Family Search International. Currently, he is Managing Director of the Family History Department for the LDS Church.
  • Mike Mallin is the Chief Product Officer at MyHeritage. He is responsible for leading product strategy and product management.
  • Tan Le is the founder and CEO of Emotiv Lifesciences, a bioinformatics company that developed a breakthrough interface technology for digital media taking inputs directly from the brain.
This general session starts at 8:30 in the morning (local time), and the sessions will be on the main page at https://rootstech.org


Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-09-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Red Deer (Alberta) Residents in 1913

I know this project is over, but the Red Deer Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society has put online the names of people who lived in that city in 1913, so that is why I decided to spotlight it today.

The project is the Centennial Family Project, and it asks the question - Are you a descendant of a person who lived in Red Deer (area) in 1913?

If you check the Surnames and Families of 1913 website at http://rdgensoc.ab.ca/SurnamesFamiliesof1913.pdf you may be able to find your ancestors.

The website of the Red Deer Branch is at http://rdgensoc.ab.ca


Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-09-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

News Flash! - RootsTech 2015 live streaming schedule now available

Andrew Hatchett from User2User Live! community on Google+ has just found the schedule for RootsTech 2015 live streaming events.

Live streaming starts tomorrow, and the schedule is at
http://www.rootstech.org/streaming-help?lang=eng

Thank you, Andy!

I will be watching. Will you?


Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-09-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

RootsTech 2015 - Day 1

So far, there has been two live videos from RootsTech 2015 at Salt Lake City, and they were -

Dear Myrt’s Mondays with Myrt – This was a 2-hour long video hosted on Monday by Dear Myrt from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Some of her guests were Hilary Gadsby from Wales, who blogs at The Edge of Snowdonia; Jill Ball from Australia, who blogs at GeniAus; and Michael Leclerc, who works and blogs for Mocavo. She also interviews David Pugmire from FamilySearch, who directs this year's Innovator Summit, which is to be held today at RootsTech 2015.

The second video was from Jill Ball, recapping Mondays With Myrt with her pictures that she took at the Family History Library. She provided a good synopsis of the meeting, and at the end of the video, said that she would be reporting on Tuesday’s supper with her friends from Australia and other Commonwealth countries.

RootsTech 2015 is on at Salt Lake City until Saturday, 14 February 2015.

Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-09-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Niagara Peninsula Branch and Google Hangouts on Air

This is wonderful news!

Niagara Peninsula Branch of the OGS is presenting another of its meetings by Google Hangouts on Air this Thursday, 12 February 2015.

As it is Black History Month, they are presenting Wilma Morrison, who will talk about early life for the African American Community of the Lincoln/Welland Counties.

This will be a night of sharing and celebrating Black History and its contribution to the past of the area.

So come join them in person, or join them online with their NEW streaming via Google Hangout. Just click on the following link to connect – http://youtu.be/v5U2MM02VYc. There is no login or special software to install!

Their website is at http://www.ogs.on.ca/niagara


Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-09-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.