#RootsTech – Day Two; Laura Bush Day

Well, we usually don’t get quite so many VIPs to a genealogy conference. I got to the opening after my usual train ride from Provo and was sitting in my seat before 8:00 am. By the time the crowd got here to the Salt Palace, there wasn’t a seat left. The bloggers are a good distance from the front, seated behind the real VIPs. I suspect that this the first brush with genealogy most (many) of these people have had in their lives.

I can’t get an Internet connection; I suppose WiFi is maxed out, so this is being written in Word and then posted when I get a connection. Today is the Innovators Challenge; the final four were selected after the Innovators Summit on Wednesday. The selection of the winners will be today, February 13, 2015 in the Innovator Showdown.

Here we go. Back to reporting and commenting on #RootsTech 2015.

The introductory videos are extremely well done and very touching. They will likely be posted on YouTube.com. Today’s keynote is JoshuaTaylor. President of the Federation of Genealogical Societies who also is Director of Family History for Findmypast.com.  They have 10 million pages of newspapers. They have the online digitized copy of PERSI. They will be launching a record set every single hour. True family history is what you do with it after you find it. Family History should be accessible to anyone anywhere. They adopted the Mocavo.com idea of free forever. Findmypast has record hints. Family history is inspiring. Partnerships: this week they announced partnership with New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, next a partnership with FamilyTreeDNA. Now a partnership with StoryPress. But according to a news release, there is a partnership with BillionGraves.com. More about this later. Family history is more than a family tree.

Josh relates his own story. Combining Data, Accessibility and Partnerships.

Dennis Brimhall , CEO introduces Laura Bush and her daughter, Jenna Bush Hager. I suggest you may want to watch this presentation on RootsTech.org. Again, as happened yesterday with Tan Le, I will listen and not try to transcribe. She says every child in America should learn to read. Reading is not just a cause, but a passion of her life. Talks about the National Book Festival. You need to hear her account of September 11th and time following. When all is said and done, we as genealogists need to embrace a more expansive view of what we do and why we do it. We also need to adopt a more inclusive, rather than exclusive attitude towards history and our own history. Laura Bush is an important part of our history. Let's embrace that history as we learn about our individual heritage. 

The question and answer part of the presentation talks about their family and other family experiences. 

More later, of course.