A new use for Relatives at RootsTech

 I am surprised how many of my relatives signed up for RootsTech 2023. Out of over a half million participants at RootsTech, this still seemed like quite a lot, The relatives in far-off places were distantly related, so they were just curiosities. 

The closer relatives were of much greater interest. "I did not know her mother had died." So I checked and found that my own record for her mother showed her as Living. So I marked that particular record as Deceased and then merged it into the more complete record that included her death information. Ditto for her husband and 2 more of the children. 

Then I checked my other close cousins to see if there were duplicate records that showed death information, There were some. I enjoyed cleaning things up by merging duplicate records.   

And yes, I did contact a few of my relatives at RootsTech. It is too bad that I never thought of this use of Relatives at RootsTech previously. But I am glad I thought of it in time to be useful to me. Most features on the site will still work. www.familysearch.org/rootstech

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Bill, Relatives at RootsTech may shine 

a light on relationships you never

knew existed.

906 of your relatives have joined.

See them on an interactive map and send a message to connect.

United Kingdom - 22

New Zealand - 7

Australia - 5

[etc.]

Hurry! This experience only remains live until April 1.

RootsTech 2023

Over the past few days I have watched as many of the (live and recorded) presentations as possible at RootsTech, the world's largest family history conference.

I have looked at "Relatives at RootsTech" and seen that over  600 of my various cousins have participated in the conference. I have enjoyed the latest news and technology and I have thought of things I can do to share family history with my family. 

People's stories sometimes have the power to touch me deeply. As I listened to Gerrit and Susan Gong share the stories of their ancestors, I was especially touched. His family came to the USA as agricultural workers from China, to work 12-hour shifts in the sugar plantations of Hawaii. Her Lindsay ancestors came to the USA from Ireland in 1847 fleeing the Great Irish Famine. My Buchanan ancestors fled to Canada from Ireland that same year, I could fully identify with her. As she viewed the farm her ancestors left in Ireland, it brought to mind the photos I have seen of the farm my own ancestors left behind, At one point there were tears in my eyes. 

I will continue to enjoy sessions at RootsTech, but I don't expect many of them to touch me this deeply. Some of them are viewable on Youtube.if you are interested. 

Enjoy!

Bill