Don't hurry - be happy at Rootstech

Rootstech is here and I am ready to learn.

With the Rootstech recorded sessions now live I decided to go through the offerings and create my playlist. There is so much on offer. I am not going to stress about filling my days with watching zoom sessions, mine will be a relaxed approach over many days, weeks and months. This is necessary to experience the Joynealogy of Rootstech.

I am working out which Live and Main Stage sessions are on at Australia  friendly times and try to watch them live as they offer the most opportunities to Connect with other genies.

Meanwhile I am spending my afternoon creating my playlist (I made sure I narrowed it to 2022 sessions) and adding selections. It's hard to decide on what I need to know and what would be nice to know! I also want to support my genimates by watching their sessions (and giving their number a nudge in the all important statistics kept by Familysearch). 

When I am satisfied that I have dealt with the content of a session (I may need to watch some things more than once) I will delete it from my playlist. When I hear what others think of what they view I will adjust my playlist accordingly.

I believe that "Just in time learning" is a most effective means of learning anything so, whenever I have a need for knowledge in the future, I will use the search facility on the Rootstech site to find appropriate sessions. These sessions may or may not have been in my original list.

I am delighted to see that so many sessions from 2021 and 2022 will be available as an online learning resource. Just yesterday I came across a session that filled a gap in my knowledge from the 2021 event. 

My approach fits in with my 2022 research goal "Have fun and find stuff" and my new theme song "Don't hurry - be happy".

Joynealogy

As I prepare to make flight bookings for my journey back to Salt Lake City for Rootstech 2016 I am thinking about the folk I will meet there.

I have been doing family history for 27 years and am still an amateur. For me it is not an academic pursuit but a fun albeit serious hobby. Joynealogy, the title of a genealogy blog I follow (joynealogy.blogspot.com), also describes the feelings of elation I get from my genealogy activities. It is a feel good  pursuit that fills me with joy whenever I make a new discovery or teach a group, friend or contact new new trick or tool.

I regularly speak or attend talks and meetings at local societies. Most of the people I encounter at these events are there because they too experience Joynealogy. I have been to four out of five Rootstechs, the greatest genie show on earth, and love these events mainly for the people that I meet from the old pros, to enthusiastic youngsters and beginners of all ages.

Most of the people who attend Rootstech or grassroots events at local societies are amateurs like me. They want to learn how to find their ancestors but do not worry about the correct way to cite a source, they just record enough detail to lead someone else to find that source. They will never bother with  Proof Arguments. Their methods of organisation may be haphazard like mine but they are having fun while learning about their ancestors, recording their lives for posterity and sharing their stories. Their  methodology may be unique like mine (not adhering to one of those fat expensive texts) and supported by information skills developed during years of life, work and tertiary study.

I think that more of the 22,000 people who crowded into the exhibition hall at Rootstech on the Saturday  were amateurs like me and probably not (unlike me) society members. They were there for a hit of Joynealogy.