Each year the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City hosts the RootsTech genealogical conference. While many of us wish we could attend in person, there’s good news for long-distance genealogists. You can watch hundreds of the sessions from the three-day conference right in your own home at no cost. Free is always good in the genealogical world.
The sessions are wide-ranging and cover many fields of genealogy from the basic to the advanced. In addition, there are other fun things such as relative connect, where you can “meet” relatives from around the world. You may be amazed to look at the world map with all the circles representing people who share the same ancestors you do.
RootsTech also had a fun feature that lets you determine your relationship with selected famous people. You may find you have a royal connection or have a famous film star in your family tree.
I enjoyed the latter upon learning my connection to Wilbur Wright of the Wright Brothers fame, film legend John Wayne, the remarkable Helen Keller, Emily Dickinson, the late Princess Diana (who knew?), Sir Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, and even Elvis Presley. All in all, Family Search’s computer pegged my relationship to 27 individuals from President Franklin Roosevelt to Martha Washington. All of them shared Scottish or English roots with me. They missed Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but having Emily Dickinson, Charles Dickens, and Jane Ausen as cousins isn’t bad.
Of course, the truth is all of us have huge numbers of cousins. If your ancestor was in New England by the late 1600s and if your ancestors came from the British Isles, you’re probably related one way or the other to just about every other family who lived in the same general area. Still, it was fun to trace the lines of these individuals. My guess is some of you reading this column are also my cousins.
Roots Web also will let you listen to the keynote speakers. While the keynoters weren’t famed genealogists, they did touch on how genealogy and subjects such as their adoptions changed their lives.
You can learn more by going to RootsTech.org and exploring the website. The sessions should be online for another year.
Another genealogical event is in the works much closer to home. The Maine Genealogical Society will be offering their annual spring one-day workshop on April 20 at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer. This year the focus will be on military records from the Colonial period to the Civil War. The guest presenter is Michael Strauss, historian and genealogist. The workshop will offer a chance to meet other genealogists, learn new skills and resources, visit the vendor hall, and share lunch with new friends. I’ve always enjoyed attending these workshops in the past.
You can learn more about the workshop, register online, and the exact schedule by going to MaineRoots.org. Maine Genealogical Society members get a discount on the registration fee.
Columnist Nancy Battick of Dover-Foxcroft has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft. Nancy holds an MA in History from UM and lives in DF with her husband, Jack, another avid genealogist. Reader emails are welcome at nbattick@roadrunner.com.
