One of the advantages of going to RootsTech is that there is a wide variety of sessions to choose from. Everyone’s family is different and your research will take you in a different directions than my research. During some time time slots there were as many as 20 sessions to choose to attend. Some people are just beginners and others have been on their family quest for many years. Either way, there were sessions for just about everyone.

I noticed that there was at least one session for doing research in Ireland, Scotland, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Greece, and Canada. There were also some sessions for Jewish research and African-American research.

D. Joshua Taylor

On Wednesday I was at two sessions by D. Joshua Taylor. He is currently the President of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. A few years ago he had given four talks to the Rochester Genenealogical Society at an all-day seminar. These were brand new topics.

First Josh gave a talk on “My Ancestor was a Farmer: Telling Their Stories.” He reminded us to check the non-population schedules from the census. For farmer those list many items about the farm like acres plowed down to the number of chickens. He also reminded us to check land records, newspapers, tax records and probate records. Some probate records will have an inventory personal property.

Later Josh talked on “10 Years Later: 20 Ways RootsTech Changed Our World.” The first RootsTech conference in 2011 only have about 3,000 people attending. This year it was somewhere around 20,00. The first conference only had 2 sessions on DNA. This year there were so many DNA session that I can’t count them all. Josh noted how over the years RootsTech has tried new things like having after hours entertainment. He also noted how over the years RootsTech has become more international. He even mentioned the rise of genealogy bloggers over the last 10 years. I doubt he was referring to this little blog.