The Week My Outlook on Genealogy Changed: RootsTech 2011

The first annual RootsTech conference came to a screeching halt yesterday afternoon at 4:00 pm and left 4,000 people wondering where we go from here. As I keep broadcasting on Twitter and Facebook, this conference marks the start of a shift in perspective in the genealogical world. I'll describe my own experience and hope it helps explain my bold assertion.

Image via CrunchBase

I usually visit Salt Lake City every January during the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy but this year I couldn't, so instead booked my week to coincide with RootsTech. I figured there would still be lots of people I know and I could visit the Exhibit Hall to network. I didn't plan to attend many sessions. I wasn't coming to play: I had real work to do. Besides, I'm already a techy, so I didn't need to be convinced to enter the 21st century. I love the latest gadgets, monitor new developments and keep up to date. I'm already in constant reach via the internet, being a sad, pathetic geek who actually goes to sleep cradling her iPhone whilst listening to audiobooks, and awakens bleary-eyed (sometimes with the cord wrapped around my neck) to check email, FB status and tweets. What could I possibly learn about technology and genealogy? I'm already all over it. HAH! Wrong! Just goes to show, you don't know what you don't know. It's not about the gadgets.

Before the conference even began there was a soft hum developing. The organizers stayed in touch with attendees, keeping us informed of late-breaking developments. Tuesday we heard there were 2,000 attendees. Compare that to the two major national conferences, sponsored by NGS and FGS, which usually attract about 1,500. The night before it began the number ballooned to 3,000!

We could have lounged in bed and watched the keynote online instead of stepping across the street, but the buzz was calling us, so we went. Because of so many last-minute sign-ups, registration was jammed, so I just skipped it and went to the hall to witness the keynote, given by Shane Robison, Executive VP and Chief Strategy and Tech Officer at Hewlett–Packard and Jay Verkler, President and CEO of FamilySearch. It was held in an enormous room, with rock music playing, four huge screens, photographers everywhere and an announcer who counted down the minutes to blast-off in a smooth-as-silk polished media "voice of God." "This ain't your father's genealogy conference," was the phrase being circulated. OK, fine, so it's jazzier, in a slightly comical, corporate kind of way. Alarming to the elderly, and amusing but not earth-shattering to the techie crowd.

Myles Kimmitt
Patent-Worthy Circuit Design Engineer,
Enabler of Moore's Law

Shane Robison came on to put into perspective the vastness of the internet and the potential for growth. He reminded us of Moore's Law which asserts that the amount of computing power they can squish onto a microprocessing chip doubles every 18 months, thanks to my husband and other genius engineers of his ilk. Moore formulated this in 1965 and it has consistently been proved correct. We never can believe it will still happen, but it does. Yes, yes, I know, technology is grand and getting more and more efficient. The amount of data online also doubles every 18 months which I could feel, if not give specific statistics about. Ho hum. The immensity of potential is great, but not surprising, and definitely not inspiring.

Just hearing Jay Verkler's bio recited was enough to mark him as someone to whom I need to pay particular attention: obvious software genius, having been with several Silicon Valley companies, the most familiar of which to me was Oracle. But here's the sentence that got me: "Mr. Verkler studied electrical engineering, computer science and chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as Japanese and Asian studies at Harvard University." Except I swear they said Japanese and Chinese... Not your average geek. And he pulled this conference together in the maniacally short period of seven months. Unheard of! He bounced onto the stage and won us over with his passion for spreading knowledge.

FamilySearch Mini-Lab
Have your cake and eat it, too!

This is the crux of the conference. It can't be easily explained, or at least I haven't yet extracted the essence of what is making everyone so slightly crazy. We don't even have a clue what we're in for. Remember ten years ago? Many people didn't have cell phones. Professional genealogists didn't use the web. People were suspicious of Ancestry.com because they made us pay for access! Then FamilySearch came along and we got the IGI online, but the IGI is based on two things: member submissions and extracts. Many people did not understand the difference. Remember those that said you can't trust anything you find on the web? That wasn't very long ago. They said this because all they had found was personal family trees with no documentation, and facts such as born 2 July 1603, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA. They threw out the baby with the bathwater. Eventually, the baby was resuscitated as people began to realize that valid original documents were being scanned and uploaded, careful (often volunteer) indexers were donating their time to give us access to these documents, and today you'd be considered horribly inefficient if you did not start most research projects with an overview of the internet. Things change quickly.

RootsTech 2011
Randy Whited consults the Unconferencing Board

Jay outlined the goals of the organizers. For old genealogy dogs like me, it was exciting to have a different model. The focus here was on connectivity, collaboration and community. Many sessions were to be interactive. They introduced the concept of Unconferencing, where you sign up on a white board for a time spot by entering your brilliant idea, others gather and energetic collaboration ensues! People emerged from these with eyes sparkling and  I overhead several people describing conversations between developers and genealogists that left both feeling validated and motivated. Microsoft provided a fun "Playground" with pool tables and air hockey, XBox games, chess, ping-pong etc., which encouraged the programmers to get creative and the genealogists to let down their white hair a little. It was hysterical. I even wished my kids were with me! The organizers created a collaboration zone with couches for relaxing and knocking heads together. They served popcorn at the software demonstrations. Little additions like this keep everyone on their toes and help us accept new paradigm.

So I keep talking about how everything is changing, but what, exactly?? Curt Witcher, Historical Genealogy Department Manager at the Allen County Public Library was instrumental in forcing me to undergo a fundamental shift in perspective. His keynote moved many of us to tears, over and over again. This is not normal for me, to gently weep during keynotes. Curt's message was "just get the story out there." Instead of harping on WDYTYA producers for not ensuring that white gloves be required, for instance, be delighted that our passion is being introduced to more and more people. Find ways to welcome them, encourage them and help them. And that doesn't mean you start by quoting ESM on source citations. Everyone deserves the chance to know the story of their ancestors. It's about our humanity, the essence of life, our shared journey. We can help them to understand professional concepts later––just connect up with then first, and help them connect with others. And above all, share the results of your own research! Don't be afraid of people stealing your work, just disseminate it!

Nathan FitzGerald Kimmitt
Official Welcoming Committee
Barnes Family Reunion
June 2010, Scituate, Massachusetts

Genealogy used to be practiced by individuals working at home or in libraries. They were removed from one another. Unless the researcher wrote a book for his family, they usually never saw the results of his hard work unless it was displayed in a pedigree or fan chart on the wall. In fact, that's just what I did last summer to introduce some of my own relatives to our ancestors. People were interested, but it was very static and dry. A bigger hit were the photo albums, but what we all loved the most was recognizing shared family traits, or hearing stories we had somehow missed before. Just being together was the fun of it. We made a video which will be so precious to my children's children, when they see my sons (their dads) at 19 and 17 with their Great Uncle Eben who was 80+. The key to this conference is the counterintuitive realization that technology will bring us closer. In fact, our own reunion took place because of my blog, which brought a long lost branch of our tree back to the fold. The excitement of finding each other online, first via the blog, then telephone, then Facebook, led to the face-to-face reunion.

Once I heard Curt, I gave myself over and just stayed at the conference. Luckily, I had exhausted most of my research leads, so being in SLC and not at the FHL was tolerable. The nagging guilt was soon overcome by the rush of ideas that flowed for the next two days. The floodgates were opened and our imaginations are finally able to go there. Just as Facebook keeps me connected to family, friends and colleagues in a most intimate way, so will technology enhance my ability to serve my clients. I will provide them with a better service because my product will not just be a written report with charts and a gedcom, but I will attempt to bring the passion I feel for their families to them as well. I will encourage newbies and not cringe (much) when they say, "I'll remember where I found that, I don't need to cite my sources." I won't talk about ESM until the third date. And I will be tireless in advocating to local societies the need for them to take their mission online. Otherwise, they will fail. I will help them find a way to bridge the gap between computerless members and the rest, and I will show them that the only way to attract new members, and members in large quantity, is via the internet,

RootsTech 2011

Media Hub

Many initially worry that putting information and webinars online will kill societies (and society!) because members won't bother to leave their homes. Again, counterintuitive! The technology does not replace our humanity, it brings it alive and serves to connect us to one another, be aware of one another, and causes us to want to gather. The Official Bloggers, shown above hard at work, managed to get the word out to the community, not just by blogging, but also via Facebook and Twitter and probably stuff I haven't even heard of! Many other non-official participants also tweeted constantly about the amazing sessions we attend, and drove those not in attendance into a jealous, but happy frenzy. It's not about the technology, it's about how the technology draws us together. 

RootsTech 2011 was an amazing accomplishment. The organizers dared to patch this together in a mere seven months, and there were some issues. As I mentioned, registration was jammed. It was hard to find individual lecture notes in the syllabus.  They could have used a few traffic monitors. But hese are minor considerations and inconveniences that were easily tolerated by attendees because the reward to being present was so great. Organizers are going to have their hands full preparing for next year's RootsTech. I can't imagine how they will pull it off again, given the exponential nature of the power of technology to atttract attendees apparently, but the innovation in the minds of those planning this event is impressive. I can't wait for RootsTech 2012 (v. 2.0!) and I hope to see you there 2-4 February 2012. We'll have fun!

RootsTech 2011
Microsoft Playground

What It's Like to Research at the Family History Library

Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

Fun!
I'm on a flight enroute to Salt Lake City and am thinking about the first time I went to the Family History Library, not all that long ago. I was so happy I thought I'd pop. I felt like a five-year old on Christmas Eve. I was very excited about what I might find, but also a little nervous that it would be so overwhelming that it would take me days to get up to speed. Instead, I read up on it ahead of time and followed what so many sage authors told me to do. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel and go through everything you need to know, but I can point you to others who have already done so.

Prepare Ahead!

My fellow Genea-Blogger, Randy Seaver published a post, Preparing to Visit the Family History Library back in January of 2009 that was very helpful. And just as helpful are the comments left by his readers.

Kimberly Powell, About.com's genealogy guru, has a great introductory article, Research at the Family History Library, for new researchers.

EHow.com has an article, too including info on how to download the FHL's special bookmark collection onto your own computer which can be helpful before you go.

The old FamilySearch.org has a FAQ page which might answer some of your questions as well.

Take Advantage of the Tremendous Website

In order to use the library effectively, you should be familiar with the website at familysearch.org. It's layout is deceivingly simply. What first catches your eye is a search form. This is the home page, and where you do searches for information the FHL has uploaded to the website. You may have already used this, and will continue to use it while at the library as you update your information.

But let's look first to the bar at the top of that page.

While researching you will be concerned with the first two on the left. Click on FamilySearch to get back to the home page from wherever you are on the site.

If you click on Learn it will bring you to the FamilySearch Wiki. A wiki is like an encyclopedia, with the entries constantly being updated. This is where you go when you have a question and wish you had a live person to ask. It's the next best thing! For instance, I'll be doing some research in the Philippines, so I immediately went to the FamilySearch wiki page on the Philippines to find out what records have been created (and by whom), which ones have been filmed by the FHL, and which ones are available on familysearch.org. This is a tremendous asset to the researcher! So, of course I went to the wiki to learn tips and techniques for researching at the FHL.

Back at the home page you see this:

Look at the line with Historical Records, Family Trees and Library Catalog. Historial records are what have been uploaded and can be found on the FamilySearch website. Family Trees are submissions from all sorts of people and can be useful, but can have errors and should be verified. And finally, this is how you access the card catalog.

The Card Catalog is Your Best Friend

I'm going to assume you have done most of your preliminary research, though. Before you go you'll need to have your notes in order, with lists of things you intend to research. In order to do this, and to save precious research time, you should go into the Family History Library catalog. I don't want to give step-by-step instructions of anything here because the entire website is changing a lot these days, as they upload more and more information for lucky genies. But if you go to the wiki you'll find Introduction to the Family History Library Catalog which will help you get organized before you go. While you're doing your advance research, you'll be improving your skills and speed, and that will save you even more time at the library itself.

But what does it feel like to research at the Family History Library? 
Like the website, the library itself is deceptively simply in its layout. Upon entering you are greeted by friendly missionaries who are happy to direct you to the correct floor. Do not be concerned that the missionaries will try and convert you on the spot. On the whole I have found them to be extremely courteous and helpful in non-complex genealogical questions, and I think they understand that people are there to work. No one has ever discussed religion with me there. For more complicated questions you can ask someone at the central help desks.

Orientation
They do have an actual orientation, which can give you a better feel for the layout. Unlike most research facilities, there is no sign-in, no ID required, no research fee. It feels very open and free. So I usually wheel in my briefcase quite early (it opens at 8:00am) and find a good cubicle on the floor I want that day (3-US and Canada books, 2-US and Canada microfilm, 1-Family History books, B1-International and B2-British Isles). The only floor I don't use much is the first floor. My ideal cubicle is dark, has a fine microfilm reader, and enough room for my laptop and a notebook. I lock my computer to the furniture and off I go. You need to buy a copy card if you want to make photocopies, or even better, bring a flash drive and you can download your images directly to that!

Researchers at the Family History Library's microfilm readers

You are allowed to walk up and fetch your own microfilm or books, as many as you want (within reason, I'm sure) and again, no check-out, no watchful eye. It's very relaxing, and nice to feel you're trusted. There's always a quiet hum of pages turning, microfilm machines being cranked, people helping others, missionaries chatting with each other or helping, and photocopy machines running. OK, maybe not so quiet, but it all fades into white noise once you wind that microfilm up.

Cabinets full of microfilm documents from all over the world

The Thrill
The vast quantity of information contained under that one roof never ceases to amaze me. I frequently think to myself, "Well, I got more Massachusetts research done in Salt Lake City today than I could have in Massachusetts in three days." Why? Because there is no driving time. No waiting while clerks retrieve registers, or order volumes from an off-site location. It makes me feel so efficient! And then, not only can I research in Massachusetts and New England records, but I can go across the world. It's truly amazing. When doing Irish research, the mantra is always, "Do the bulk of your research here in the US, then cross the ocean." When you're in SLC you can do both! You feel like a world traveler. It's a great feeling!

Clients, Salt Lake City and the Ecstasy of Being

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. This is because I've been overwhelmed with client work! I'm appalled at myself, but am redeemed by the subtitled theme of my blog – "juggling genealogy and life." I have not perfected this juggling (and am doubtful I ever will), hence the hiatus.

The genealogy "half" of my life can be subdivided into genealogy for profit; genealogy marketing; genealogy volunteering; genealogy self-education; genealogy research pro bono for friends, potential clients and good will; and genealogy research for my own family. Yet, even the genealogy bits are difficult to juggle, and for the past month, I've been focused almost entirely on genealogy for profit, aka, client work.

Towards the end of 2009 I worked on a very large client report –– the study of a Massachusetts master mariner. This was a second phase of research and I'm partial to this client, so I laid it on thick, devoted a lot of extra time to the project and created a lovely biography. As time went by, I became ever more frustrated because I had accumulated so much information in the early research hours that writing the report took much more time than I had allotted. Though the client was happy with the end result, I vowed never, ever, ever, ever to get caught writing after the research. It takes discipline to stop researching and start writing before the allotted hours are all used up. I believe this is a vestige of my early amateur years, when I could research at will, postponing the writing until I had more information. The biggest change I made as I transformed into a professional was to be ultra efficient with my time, which no longer belongs to me but to the client.

For the first time, in 2009, I started to accumulate a lengthy queue of clients willing to wait until I was free. So, when I finally sent the big master mariner report off on 18 December I felt a huge relief. When I resurfaced after Christmas I immediately set out to prepare for my upcoming trip to Salt Lake City.

I first visited the FHL last year in January and it became immediately apparent that I can operate in high efficiency mode there. It is well worth the expense of travel, room and board to spend a week researching there. So much at my fingertips, no travel between courthouses, vital records offices, libraries or other repositories!  It is exhilarating to have so much at your fingertips, every day. The billable hours just piled up and research proceeded at a pace previously unbeknownst to me so I decided then that it would become an annual expedition.

So after the holidays I created research plans for each client in my queue, sent out contracts, then revised my templates. I hit the ground running in SLC and even though I vowed I'd write as I researched, I couldn't and still can't quite get it through my skull that I should sit down and craft a detailed report with proper citations etc. when I'm in a places as fruitful as the FHL. Sooooooooo, I've been writing ever since I got back! And that's why I haven't posted in a month. But don't worry. This time I stopped before my hours were consumed. The lesson has finally sunk in for good, I think.

I spent years and years learning all I could about genealogy via any means I could acquire. I took the NGS Basic Course in American Genealogy, attended NIGR, IGHR, subscribed to countless journals, bought many, many books, subscribed to mailing lists, joined societies, and attended lectures and conferences. Then I spent two years pursuing certification and when I resurfaced a year ago, certified and raring to go, I was finally ready to conquer the world in the form of taking clients full time. I am there, I have arrived, and it's a load of fun. SLC 2011, here I come!