24 March 2013
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The Genealogists Else Churchill and David Lambert at Rootstech 2013.
Alec Tritton leads us through another day at Rootstech 2013 and all that's on offer... Day 2 at Rootstech and I decided t0
Alec Tritton leads us through another day at Rootstech 2013 and all that's on offer...
Day 2 at Rootstech and I decided t0 spend an hour or two in the expo. With 250 vendors, it takes some time to get round. It has a media centre where Else Churchill from the Society of Genealogists and myself have been interviewed a couple of times about the Halsted Trust's forthcoming genealogy conference, Exodus:Movement of the People (www.exodsu2013.co.uk for more info) and what a facility, two glass booths one for video interviews and one for audio interviews so it's like being in a fish bowl but far better than the roaming interviews at WDYTYA Live. The area is for the official bloggers, of which there about a dozen, and those videos that I have looked at are both superb quality and professionally edited. This facility is a service to the media and is free for them to use. Really gets the message out to the public about Rootstech.
Another area that is a Godsend in such an environment is the Cyber Cafe. There is nothing like this at WDYTYA Live. It is an area with both comfy sofas where you can chill out and relax between talking to vendors and about 30 state of the art computers all with fast Internet connection that you can use to read and send your email and just generally browse the World Wide Web. Best of all this area comes with a FREE soda bar. So a welcome drink (or two) whilst you chill out.
What about the vendors? I think the Rootstech organisers have been selective on who they allow to exhibit. Apart from the usual suspects, Ancestry, findmypast and MyHeritage there is obviously quite a few areas occupied by Family Search showcasing the different aspects of the organisation, many of the vendors relate to either the telling of "your story" or recording it for posterity. Many of these are free until you come to actually burn a DVD. The various software tend to provide templates and help you to tell your story, recording our stories for the sake of our great-grandchildren.
Finally I took this picture of Else Churchill and David Lambert and wanted to title it "the oldest genealogists in the world" but I might get into trouble for that. It is in fact the genealogy officers of the oldest societies in the new and old world; New England Historic Genealogical Society founded in 1845 and the Society of Genealogists founded in 1911. Rather apt when on the final day of Rootstech the conference welcomed in the region of an additional 2,000 delegates all aged between 11 and 18.