The 2018 Genealogy Jamboree is now history, but I have one more post to share – the Exhibit Hall vendors.

Although Jamboree is much, much smaller than RootsTech (well, everything is much smaller than RootsTech, isn’t it?), all the big companies had prominent booths – FamilySearch, MyHeritage and Ancestry along with software companies RootsMagic, Legacy and Family Tree Maker and the genetic genealogy companies, Living DNA and Family Tree DNA. Pretty much all of the companies offered some terrific sale prices.

Jamboree itself had door prizes valued at over $17,000, which is something that does NOT happen at RootsTech and is lots of fun, especially if you win a prize.

There are some great raffle prizes on this list!

The best part is that while additional raffle tickets must be purchased for some of the drawings, many prizes are offered with the raffle ticket received just for registering for the conference. No, I didn’t win anything, unfortunately.

Also, although a smaller venue, Jamboree had some vendors who I’ve not seen at RootsTech, so I took some time to make the booth rounds to talk to them.

First stop was Sara Lamm, who has created a documentary film, Thank You for Coming, about her quest to discover her biological roots through DNA testing.

Thank You for Coming has been very well received and it’s the first documentary of its kind.

Visit Thank You for Coming for a movie synopsis, background information and how to view the film.

Next, I met Ray Richmond, the man behind Family Sleuth Memoirs.

Ray is a journalist and author, who will publish your family story and even do the research if you don’t want to or are unable. His website describes Family Sleuth Memoirs as your one-stop shop for telling the story of your life and recording it in book form.

There was a sample book on display, which is hard-cover and looks to be well-done:

This is a fee-based service, so visit his website if you are interested in more details.

GenDetective is a product which I currently own, but I’ve not seen RumbleSoft at a conference for a number of years.

Sandra Rumble is the developer of this software program, which allows you to organize your family history research.

GenDetective has multiple features, ranging from research progress and family planner views to My Maps, which allow you to visualize your family through the use of maps. My Video Library is great for those of us who are visual learners, as you can learn how to use the program at home. Sandra is wonderful about replying to emails – I can say that from personal experience. Visit the website for pricing and further information.

I even had an opportunity to talk with Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, but in an entirely different capacity, as she shared MemoryWeb, a metadata photo app for genealogists.

MemoryWeb allows the user to gather, edit, navigate and export photos with metadata added and is available for both Apple and Windows products.

A free 14-day trial is available with three pricing plans, based on standard or highest resolution, not on the amount of storage space needed.

Last, but definitely not least, I visited the rootsfinder booth.

Rootsfinder was the 2018 DNA Innovation Competition runner up at RootsTech 2018. It’s a free app (with premium versions available) that does lots of genealogy stuff.

From their website: RootsFinder is a free family tree that makes research easy with hints to records on multiple websites, including FamilySearch and Findmypast, and a web clipper browser extension that saves data-entry time and increases accuracy by automatically copying web-based records directly into your tree.

It syncs with FamilySearch, has a web clipper, gives hints from several of the large genealogy databases and is easy to share when you want to. DNA tools are coming – they are currently in beta version.

Along side the vendors in the Exhibit Hall, there were several genealogical societies and hereditary organizations.

California African American Genealogical Society

French-Canadian Heritage Society of California

All in all, SCGS Genealogy Jamboree 2018 was a rousing success. I am already looking forward to 2019, which will be the 50th anniversary celebration of Jamboree:

I am already looking forward to next year. 🙂

 

 

Today was another intense learning day at Jamboree.

Session 1 (8:30-9:30) – Civil War Medical Records

I began the day listening to an excellent presentation by another new-to-me speaker, Craig Scott. He began with a quick review of military medicine up to the time of the Civil War. The presentation continued with tips for locating military medical records for both Union and Confederate soldiers at the National Archives. The remainder of the class covered examples of the very varied types of documents and details found within individual personnel records. I loved this presentation!

Session 2 (10:00-11:00) – How to Get More from Your DNA with GEDmatch.com

This session was an approach-avoidance conflict for me. I wanted to learn more about working with my DNA results on GEDmatch, but was worried about how quickly the information would fly over my head. However, I decided to jump in. The first part of the class reviewed the basics of using the GEDmatch website, which I liked and was pleased to find out that I have a decent grasp of the options available. Many more advanced tools were identified and discussed. Now I need to go home and play with them.

Session 3 (11:30-12:30) – Digging Pennsylvania Roots from Your Desk Top

James Beidler specializes in German research and, although I’ve met and spoken to him at previous conferences, I have never attended one of his classes. Pennsylvania is a natural ancillary specialty given that so many Germans settled in Pennsylvania. My husband has a number of German lines, several of whom at least passed through Pennsylvania. I have done a small amount of standard resource searching in this state, but I need to learn much more. After a quick overview of early Pennsylvania settlers and d their histories, the speaker discussed available records and repositories accessible to researchers.

Session 4 (2:00-3:00) -Get Started Blogging Your Family History

Yes, I know. I’m already a blogger, so why was I at a talk about starting up a blog? Well, Elizabeth and I are long time friends and I was there to cheer her on, although she needed no cheering from me! All the basics and then some were covered in how to become a blogger. The room was full and quite a few people asked questions at the end.

An added bonus is that while I was on the way to the session room, I finally ran into Jacqi Stevens, a fellow blogger who I knew was at Jamboree but who I’ve never met in person. We had a fun few minutes chatting before the class began.

There were two more sessions this afternoon, but unfortunately, I had to be three hours away in the desert for the night as I headed back to Tucson and didn’t want to be driving alone at night. So, I was unable to finish out the Saturday afternoon sessions.

One day next week, I will write about the Exhibit Hall and several new vendors that I met. The hall is no where near the size of RootsTech, but in spite of that, there were several new products and websites that I learned about. Stay tuned for that post!