Recommended Reads will be posted tomorrow.
We’ve come to the last day of FGS – RootsTech 2015 and the convention center is packed since youth and families are also here. Here is what some of the expected 22,000 look like:
Everything, from sessions to hallways to bathrooms to vendor booths, are even busier than earlier this week.
Donny Osmond was the keynote speaker this morning and everyone loved him. It turns out that, not only is he an entertainer, he was also more or less appointed the family historian when his mother passed away and he is loving it. He took time from his Las Vegas shows to speak at RootsTech and his efforts were appreciated.
Thomas MacEntee is a great speaker and he presented a brand new talk – Wearables and Genealogy: Wacky and Wild or Worth the Wait.
Since I have heard of Google glass, but had no idea what it even did, I decided to learn more. Thomas gave an interesting overview of the current popular devices like Fit Bit and offered ideas on how up and coming devices might be applied to the genealogy world. He also brought up what he called “the dark side” of this technology as it relates to privacy concerns today. Very interesting talk that left everyone food for thought.
I can’t believe I am at my last full session since my shuttle ride to the airport will be collecting me at 3:30, which is the middle of a session. I follow Maureen Taylor’s The Photo Detective so I came to hear her present Google and Beyond: Finding Illustrations and Photographs.
There are old school methods for locating family photos based on life events. Many of these photos can now be found on line. Maureen gave an excellent overview of the types of photos of people, places and events that caused photos to be taken. We would look for the same kinds of digital versions of these family photos. She reminded attendees to note restrictions and licensing guidelines for sites hosting images of interest. There are multiple venues for searching images on Google so the search method choice depends on what one is trying to find. Maureen also talked about Tin Eye, which is an image search engine that claims to be better than Google, along with several other image search engines. What I found most incredible in my own research is that so many photos of ancestors can now be found on line and, often, those photos were posted by distant cousins so new connections can be made.
This has been a top notch conference. Make plans now to attend next year here in Salt Lake City February 3-6, 2016.
If you would like to know about new products that vendors showcased this year, I will be writing a few posts next week.