Friday always seems to come too quickly during RootsTech, but here we are once again. DearMYRTLE’s computer lab was repeated again this morning, so I am now an experienced lab assistant. 🙂

After I gobbled down my lunch, I wandered through the Expo Hall once again and took a few photos to give you an idea of what is on offer besides the actual vendors.

The only session was presented by one of my favorite speakers – Thomas Jones. Today’s topic was When Does Newfound Evidence Overturn a Proved Conclusion? I love talks where I am challenged to think both in and outside the box. Thomas Jones’ talks always do that.

I loved his puzzle piece metaphor in terms of research. If pieces of the puzzle can only be assembled in one way,  it is reasonable to believe that the evidence leads to a correct conclusion, but if a puzzle can be put together in more than one way, or there are more puzzle pieces than needed to complete the puzzle, the researcher has a problem!

What did I do the rest of the afternoon? I decided to photograph some of the non-vendors and genealogical societies who hosted booths.

The Expo Hall is huge and, while most of the booths are vendors selling products or services, there are a number of “help” and informational booths, along with many vendors who also are hosting short educational sessions in their booths.

FamilySearch is the host and they have multiple areas set up around the hall.

The Cyber Cafe has computers that are used to research on the FamilySearch.org website with volunteers ready to help. This picture was taken late in the afternoon. Often, there is a wait for an empty computer.

The seating area was too large to capture in one photo, but most of their sessions are filled – it’s a very popular booth.

They even had an area where attendees could bring in books to be scanned for the Family History Library. (Books had to be copyright free or permission had to be presented from the copyright owner to have the book scanned.)

I even signed a form giving permission for an article that I wrote and donated to the FHL a number of years ago to be made available online through home access. I was quite surprised to find out that when I tried to view the digitized version at home, I received a message saying I didn’t have rights to view it! That should now change. 🙂

Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. If you have never checked out Genealogy Gems, you should.

Lisa was one of the first to regularly schedule mini-sessions in her booth. This year, she had a packed schedule of speakers. Tonight, the last talk began at 6:30 p.m.

A new feature this year, I believe, is the Coaches Corner. Attendees could sign up to meet individually with professionals who could give suggestions for further research on brick walls or to answer specific questions about how to research.

RootsTech includes the Innovators’ Summit, which I don’t attend. However, it is fun to walk down Innovation Alley to see and try out new genealogy apps.

There are also booths to meet with reps from major genealogical societies like the New England Historic Genealogical Society (AmericanAncestors.org), The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and the National Genealogical Society.

Several genealogy software companies have booths, not only selling products, but also answering questions and presenting some educational sessions as well. In ABC order, the Ancestral Quest,  Family Tree Maker, Legacy and RootsMagic booths all have been busy places during the conference.

That’s it for today, as I am off to the MyHeritage party at the Marriott. I hope this gives you a sense of the variety to be found in the Expo Hall. Next week, I will share information about some of the new vendors with whom I spoke.

One more day to go. Tomorrow night at this time, I will be in the skies on the way back to Arizona.