Mr Familysearch - Steve Rockwood

I note that one of the keynote speakers at Rootstech in 2018 is Steve Rockwood.

Dennis Brimhall and Jill 2012

I would guess that nearly all of my genimates use the resources of Familysearch but they probably wouldn't recognise the name of the man at the helm, Steve Rockwood or of his predecessors Jay Verkler and Dennis Brimhall.

One of the perks of being a Rootstech Ambassador is that I get to interview some of the stars who attend the annual Rootstech Conference. There are pop stars, sporting stars, tech stars, people with a strong social conscience and geneastars. I have been fortunate to conduct personal interviews with all three of the Familysearch CEOs since the first Rootstech in 2011,  Steve Rockwood and his predecessors Jay Verkler and Dennis Brimhall. That's a pretty big deal for a little old granny from downunder.

Jay Verkler and Jill - 2011

What has impressed me is that, although these three very tall individuals have brought different emphases to Familysearch during their time at the top, they are genuine nice guys who are passionate about family history and their mission as the Familysearch CEO. Although they have been super busy they have been most gracious in spending time chatting with me.

Steve Rockwood suggests that when people engage with genealogy they experience feelings “They’re feelings of the heart. I don’t care where you are; people tell you what feelings they felt. . . . They’ll tell you, ‘I feel love; I feel joy; I feel peace.’ These are powerful, core feelings that everyone has.”

If you use Familysearch and don't know Steve Rockwood please take the time to get to know him in this interview I recorded  at Rootstech 2017.

Monday Geneapourri

So I started this post on Monday and here it is Friday!

I borrowed the Geneapourri theme from Randy Seaver a,s on Monday, I had a geneaday where I devoted myself to geneatasks but, by the time I got to writing this post, I was tired and ready to take to my bed with Ernest Hemingway.

When Mr GeniAus asks me how I fill in my days I sometimes struggle to find an answer so, on Monday, I took a few notes.

As is my daily practice I started with a cup of coffee and read through emails and social media on my smartphone prior to rising. I responded, commented on and shared some posts to my new GeniAus page on Facebook. Because I prefer to do most tasks on my computer I had to leave my bed and get myself comfortable in an upright position at my desk.

With my GeneabloggersTRIBE admin hat on I sent out some welcome to the Tribe emails and wrote a couple of welcome blog posts like this one.

As I have a busy few weeks ahead I wrote and scheduled some posts for the Geneadictionary. While that blog doesn't have a huge readership it has created quite a bit of interest in the geneacommunity. I regularly get suggestions for inclusion via social media from genimates.

I need to be equipped for Rootstech and Congress two geneaevants that I am attending so I did a spot of shopping at Vistaprint. My new contact cards and bag are already on their way to me.

I shouldn't lose this bag

Someone who had found my online tree via a Google search had emailed me with a correction so I noted this in my tree and responded. I must remember to upload the corrections to my website.

On Sunday evening I had a run through with Martyn Killion (President), Heather Garnsey (Exec Officer) and Danielle Lautrec (Education Officer) of the webinar I was giving for SAG on Thursday. I had taken lots of notes so, as a result,  I spent quite some time modifying my powerpoint slides for the gig. All through the day I monitored the Genimates at Congress 2018 Facebook page that I administer, I try to respond to comments/questions there in a timely fashion.

Webinar Powerpoint

I am the administrator of a Facebook page for a family history group so I answered two local questions that came via that platform. All one required to find a comprehensive answer was a simple Google search using a person's name!

Realising that I hadn't been keeping the Presentations page on my GeniAus blog up to date I tried to fill in some gaps. As I am speaking on Beaut blogs at Congress I need to tart mine up!
As a Rootstech Ambassador I like to promote that event and I am taking particular interest in their mobile app. What amazes me is that there are many folk spruiking the benefits of the app but only a handful who are making their profiles public and using the collaborative features of the app. So every so often I took a look at my phone to see who else had shared their profiles. Not many - go figure!

Whenever I want to pat myself on my back for completing my geneatasks I let myself indulge in a bit of  Tangential Genealogy. My wanderings took me to my Ancestry DNA matches and four new 4th-6th cousin matches. I was able to work out where two fitted in but the others are in my mystery pile. Fingers crossed that they respond to my messages. It has taken me ages to get to 52 confirmed matches on Ancestry, passing 50 this week was quite a milestone. My lowest confirmed match, an adoptee,  shares just 7.5 centimorgans shared across 1 DNA segments with me.  By the time I came up for a breather my day was done.

Today, Friday, I have another Geneaday all to myself. I'm sure that it will be different from Monday. Do your days resemble mine?

Calling Members of the Commonwealth at Rootstech

For the past few years I have coordinated a casual dinner for people from the former British Commonwealth (now the Commonwealth of Nations) attending Rootstech. This gathering gives us a chance to make a few friends prior to the big event, Rootstech and to catch up with old friends. This year, we will meet on the Monday evening prior to Rootstech.

In previous years we have had attendees from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. (Pics of 2017 gathering on the right) 

It would be beaut to meet reps from Antigua or Zimbabwe or any Commonwealth country in between.

As the restaurant closes at 9:00pm please arrive in plenty of time to dine and chat. We will gather at the rear of the restaurant so we won't cause too much disturbance to other patrons. After closing time new found friends may wish to adjourn to a neighbourhood bar to continue their conversations.

If you have other pressing engagements please drop in for a while and say G'day.

Commonwealth folk please accept this post as your invitation. 

You are invited to a casual "People from the Commonwealth" get together
at the 
Blue Lemon, 55 West South Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84111
from
6:00pm - 8:00pm on Monday 26th February 2018. 
RSVP By email to jillballau@gmail.com or via a comment to me on social media.

Blue Lemon Location

Found on the phone

Before I recently upgraded my phone I downloaded all the old images and videos from the old one. Amongst the treasures I found were a few very amateurish videos I shot during the interview opportunities we Ambassadors had with the keynote speakers during Rootstech in 2017.

This video is a bit shaky as I was swooning (with some of my fellow ambassadors) during the time we had with the Property Brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott. Take a look at the clip below to see what fun we had.

As there will be no fancy video studio available for Ambassadors at Rootstech in 2018 my videos for this year may be similarly shaky.