ROOTS TECH IS OVER

Hi!

WOW - What an experience! It's hard to believe anything could surpass RootsTech 2014, but 2015 was way over the top. James Tanner commented in his blog:

#RootsTech 2015 has apparently rea; hed an entirely new level of energy and participation. Compared to previous years, the numbers of participants, exhibitors and activities have so far surpassed previous conferences to put the entire event into a new category of genealogy conference: the mega-conference. Granted, compared to other popular conferences, the numbers may not seem to be very impressive, but given the increase for this one conference, genealogy is moving into the big conference arena.

WHY DO TODAY WHAT YOU CAN PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW?

OR

WHY PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY?

WHICH IS YOU?

When I was  about 7-8, my father rented a cottage at Monmouth Beach. It came with a row boat and with it I discovered CRABBING. At low tide, I would stand in the bow of the boat with a crab net on a 10-foot  pole. The crabs would lay on top of the sea weed taking in some sun. At low tide I could see them. So I poled along in the shallow bay and scooped up crabs by the bushel.  It only worked at low tide.

I joined the church about 45 years ago. My first calling was 2nd counselor in the Sunday School. Soon I was teaching a Sunday School course in Family History. We carefully filled in  paper family group and pedigree sheets for our 4-generation project and sent copies to SLC. Upon occasion, I did a different kind of crabbing - Complaining that we sent all this paper to SLC, but never got anything back.

The tide has turned, SLC is now sending back information. A LOT OF INFORMATION. So much that you need a life preserver to avoid drowning. It is time to start crabbing to catch  members of our families who need the saving ordinances available in  the Temple.

I’ve heard people crab that doing family history was to hard, or took too much time. Well that has changed, the tide is out and the crabbing is easy. The problem is that most people don’t know the tide is out.

At RootsTech 2014, Familysearch announced it was partnering with Ancestry, Find My Past, My Heritage and Find A Grave. As a result, all of you can use these programs FREE. More than 13,000 persons registered last year and the sessions were videoed and made available to stakes. This resulted in more than 1,000 local family history fairs. Also, a new  certified app. named Puzilla app was unveiled.

At Rootstech 2015 more than 21,000 persons registered and the new Family Discovery Center in the Joseph Smith building was opened and another is under construction in Seattle,  Washington and one in the Museum of American History in Philadelphia was announced. Also, 19 new web apps joined Puzilla, 15 new windows programs, 2 new MAC (only) applications, and 11 mobile apps. were added as certified applications. By the way, look out for a new format for Familysearch Family Tree this month.

In our activities that week, I visited the BYU Family History Library and talked to  James Tanner who is a great person to know if you want to set up a blog for your family. The Church Family History Library in SLC was also visited and there were told about  the Riverton, UT Family History Center which has some cool tools online for training. They can be downloaded.

Family History work has never  been easier.The tools for the harvest are in place. Now, it is our job to help people learn to use them. For those those involved in family history, it is time to become family history missionaries. The normal paradigm is for missionaries to reach out while those in family history wait to be asked. This needs to change.

I would like to make a few thoughts for you to consider.

1.     Make family history consultants into family history missionaries.

2.     Teach our Full-time missionaries to be family history missionaries.

3.     Call all of our youth as family history consultants/missionaries.

4.     Host an indexing olympics.

5.     Complete family history passport challenge.

6.     Hold a scan a thon.

7.     Involve Primary, YM/YW, RS & Priesthood.

8.     Uae Primary sharing time to tell family stories (record them).

9.     Have a 2-week training program to introduce members to the new tools.

10.  As more family history missionaries learn the tools, they need to  reach out and involve all members.

11.  As  more members become competent, we need reach out to the public.

12.  Run a family history fair.

13.  Apply for a mini family history center. A cart, projector & 6 laptops with family history center software. And perhaps, a Lexmark printer, copier, scanner to scan in directly into Familysearch.

14.  Check out: Puzzilla.org, Rootsmapper.com, Billion Graves.com and Findarecord.com. Make sure you enter via FamilySearch.org/products or through the site menu at the bottom of th page. You will have to sign in again to Family Search so the program can access your file.

MISCELANEOUS

●       Be ready for success……. Plan for great things.

●       Family Search, Family Tree updates are released 3X a day.

●       The norm response time for social media is about 60 minutes.

●       The only constant is change.

●       Have the courage to change the things you can.

●       I could use a little help here.

●       Keep it interesting and engaging.

●       Who? Volunteers>Members>Visitors>Curious Public.

●       Celebrate families across generations.

●       Create a museum of ME.

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