Hi, cousins and everyone! Randy Seaver on his Genea-Musings blog, gave a challenge:
"What is the most wild, crazy, off-the-wall, or really stupid thing you have done in pursuit of your ancestral families and their family history?". Here's what might be mine... yall be the judges...
A couple of weeks ago, I did something most of my people considered a bit crazy. I decided that this was the year I would attend "Rootstech". In person, by myself, knowing no one, flew from Texas to Utah, just for genealogy. Ok, not JUST genealogy. THE largest genealogy conference IN THE WORLD. So, what was crazy? You see, this was the very first vacation in my entire life that I went by myself anywhere fun, just for me. It felt wild and crazy and off-the-wall, and some might even say really stupid. But, yall, I grinned from ear-to-ear for 5 days straight, every waking moment.
You see, my 'alone' vacation wasn't alone at all. I was in a town full of like-minded genea-nuts, and I was at a convention with almost 7,000 of my closest friends, a bunch of whom I was convinced were my 'cousins'.
The conference is hosted by FamilySearch and before I left, I downloaded this nifty app they created called, "Relatives at Rootstech". So, through the app, FamilySearch said that online and worldwide, there were 26,468 of my relatives 'attending' the conference that were registered. I wasn't surprised. I have a LOT of family, yall.
Walking down the tunnel to get on the plane at 5:10 am, I turned to the lady beside me and said, "I wonder how many of us are going to Rootstech?" and she actually squealed! "ARE YOU?" and I said, "Yes, my first time!", to which she replied, "ME TOO!" and we sat together and talked and talked all the entire flight. She had done about 10 years of research with lots of dead ends, and was hoping to advance her research skills. She hadn't learned much about Rootstech before she left, so I told her about the app, how to pick sessions and make the most of her time, all the suggestions I had read by the veterans and what to expect. When I told her about "Relatives at Rootstech", she said she didn't think she would have many because she didn't have much of her family added to FamilySearch Family Tree, which is the collaborative shared world tree that powered the app. Nevertheless, as SOON as the plane stopped rolling, she pulled out her phone, turned it off airplane and looked me up. YEP! You guessed it. We were 10th cousins...
And that is how my entire week went. EVERYWHERE I went, I was checking the app and collecting cousins. Wednesday, when I went to check in, I found out there is a little toggle to view only "Relatives in person at Rootstech". It said I had 653 coming to Salt Lake. By the end of the evening, I had found 7 of them! They were each SO surprised! (Hint: I really wasn't at all surprised, although I was tickled every time. I often say I'm related to 1/2 of Texas, most of Georgia and any other place big enough for a dot on a map.)
Thursday, I started messaging cousins through the app, asking if they wanted to meet up. There was a special area called, "Cousin Corner" with photo opps and props for this purpose! I found 11 cousins that day!
Friday, I found out a fun app search feature called "Relatives Near Me". It would show me people standing or sitting around me!!!! Mind blown! That day, I logged and met 23 more new relatives! Three of them were 4th cousins! So close!
Saturday was a short day, and I was concentrating on making it to all of the vendors I had yet to visit. And I still managed to locate 7 more new cousins!
There were so many, I forgot to take photos with about half of them. There's always next year, I guess.
And yes, I exchanged contact info with all of them, and have emailed them now to share research. And I am still messaging all of them through the amazing app!
So, perhaps talking to all of these 'new' cousins was a crazy thing, but man it was so fun!
I'll be blogging more in the coming weeks about the classes, the booths, the speakers, the music, the walking, the Lehi city archives and the FamilySearch History Library. What, did you think all I did was find cousins all week? :) Stay tuned for more of this grand adventure...
Me and my kin:
