My RootsTech 2023 Recap ~ Thursday

Welcome to my RootsTech 2023 recap for Thursday, March 2, 2023. I attended RootsTech virtually this year. Many of my genealogy friends attended in-person and from their social media posts it looks like they had a lot of fun at RootsTech, which is awesome! From my experience attending RootsTech in-person in the past, there really is a feeling of energy and excitement at RootsTech when attending in-person.

Before RootsTech began I looked through the class sessions that would be available for us virtual attendees and then created my Show Planner, or as it is called on the RootsTech website, My Playlist. The RootsTech app refers to my playlist as My Show Planner.

During RootsTech I shared my posts about RootsTech on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram instead of here on my blog. So now I will be sharing my experience attending RootsTech virtually here on my blog. I'll be sharing three recaps, one for each day of RootsTech 2023.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

My first class session on Thursday morning was "What's New at FamilySearch in 2023" presented by Craig Miller. Some of the things I learned from that class were these amazing statistics about FamilySearch: There are 1.47 billion persons in the FamilySearch Family Tree, 2.6 billion total sources, 83 million total memories, 8.9 billion searchable names in records, 4.6 billion historical record images, and 1 billion new record images published in 2022. Wow! One of the sneak peaks for the future that intrigued me is the "Shared Family Trees" feature that will be within Family Groups. With this new feature, we will be able to work on our family tree collaboratively with others in our Family Group. To learn more about this upcoming feature, and more from this class, click HERE.

Next up for me was the General Session which included the very talented Jordin Sparks. She said that her family helped her keep her feet on the ground and her head screwed on straight. And that her family brings her back to center. And can I just say how amazing her voice is! Wow! What a treat to hear her sing at RootsTech!

Can I also say a word about the wonderful emcee for the RootsTech General Sessions? His name is Kirby Heyborne and he was such a great emcee! He was so fun and did a fantastic job. To learn more about him, click HERE.

The next class session I watched was "1950 Census Secrets" by Lisa Louise Cooke. Unfortunately, inclement weather where she lives caused a power outage and her class was cancelled part way through. But one thing I learned from her abbreviated class is that Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and the NARA each have a different version of the 1950 census index. That's quite helpful because if we can't find our ancestor in one of these indexes, we should search the other indexes.

I also watched the Innovation and Tech Forum 2023, or at least part of it. One of the company's presenting in this forum was MyHeritage. Maya Lerner from MyHeritage spoke about their new AI Time Machine. I've tried this feature and it is very fun. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), MyHeritage creates "imaginary images of a person, as he or she may have looked in different periods throughout history." Here is one of my 1950s Chic photos using MyHeritage's AI Time Machine. If you'd like to give the AI Time Machine a try, click HERE.

My next class session was "What's New at Ancestry in 2023" presented by Crista Cowan. She did a fantastic job with her presentation. One thing Crista pointed out was the comparison of time it took Ancestry to index the 1940 census versus the 1950 census. It took nine months to index the 1940 census and only took nine days to index the 1950 census using AI and handwriting recognition technology. Wow! A new feature on Ancestry is group messaging in the message center. Another new feature in the message center is the ability to archive messages. An upcoming feature on Ancestry is Info Request. So watch for that. A new and exciting feature is called Storymaker Studio. This feature is included in the Ancestry App. Storymaker Studio will allow us to "enhance photos," "capture audio," and "craft and share stories." To learn more about this new feature, click HERE.

My last class session of the day was "An Overview of Recent MyHeritage Photo Feature Releases" presented by Tal Erlichman. The AI Time Machine was discussed, which I already shared information about here in this post. Another feature that was discussed is the list view option for viewing photos uploaded on MyHeritage. Here is a screenshot of some of my photos on MyHeritage using the list view option. The red arrow is pointing to the list view icon. The icon next to list view is grid view.

With the list view, I am able to easily see which photos need place and date information, as well as which people havn't been tagged in my photos. There's also a filter option to view the photos in my list.

Another feature that was discussed is called Photo Tagger. This feature helps with tagging our photos. Rather than manually tagging the people in our uploaded photos, Photo Tagger tags them for us. It sounds like this will be done based on who we've already tagged in our photos. It also appears that we will be able to review tagging suggestions as well. I don't have this Photo Tagger feature yet.

An exciting upcoming MyHeritage feature is called Photo Dater. Using AI, this feature will be able to estimate the year a photo was taken. I am looking forward to trying this feature, which was announced to be coming in a few weeks.

Well, that's it for this RootsTech recap. I'll share more about my RootsTech 2023 experience in my next RootsTech Recap post. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2023 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Exploring the RootsTech 2023 App - Part 2

 

Welcome to Part 2 of Exploring the RootsTech 2023 App! I thought I'd go ahead and show the app's homepage again for those who missed Part 1.

If you haven't read Part 1, you can see what else you've missed by clicking HERE.

Next up in our exploration of the RootsTech 2023 app is a look at the Expo Hall. Clicking on "Expo Hall" takes us to the Expo Hall map. 

This map is zoomable and interactive. Here's a screenshot of a zoomed-in portion of the Expo Hall map.

By clicking on one of the exhibitors on the map, you can learn about the exhibitor and can add them to your Show Planner.

You can also see where they are located in the Expo Hall and can mark the exhibitor as having been visited.

Here's the screenshot with the app showing the location of the exhibitor in the Expo Hall.

Once you've added exhibitors to your Show Planner, they will appear in blue on the Expo Hall map.

Next up is the RootsTech.org tile on the homepage. This tile takes you to RootsTech's website.

The app's homepage also includes a Relatives at RootsTech tile, which is a pretty cool feature. Relatives at RootsTech provides a way for you to find relatives attending RootsTech 2023. When you click this tile, you will see this screen.

Click on "Relatives at RootsTech" and you will be taken to this screen.

Sign in to your FamilySearch account or create a new one. Once you do this, you will see a screen that shows how many relatives have joined.

So far, I have 9,116 relatives who have joined. Be sure to click on View Relatives to see how you're related. You can search by location, ancestor, and family line. You can also search by attendees. And you can turn on the map feature to see a general idea of where your relatives live.

You also have the opportunity to see how you are related to your relatives, message your relatives, and add them to your contact list.

Also, don't forget to scroll down below the "View Relatives" tile on the Relatives at RootsTech screen to view more interesting information such as how many people with your last name have joined, total participants, a map showing the hometowns of relatives at RootsTech, and even a way to share Relatives at RootsTech with your friends on social media to see if you're related to them.

Relatives at RootsTech ends March 31, 2023. So don't wait to try this fun feature. 

The last app tile I'm going to share with you is the "Restaurants Nearby" tile. Clicking on this tile provides you with a map showing restaurants near the Salt Palace Convention Center, which is where RootsTech 2023 will be taking place. You can also view restaurant options in a list view.

If you haven't registered for RootsTech 2023 yet, there's still time. To register for RootsTech 2023, click HERE. Virtual attendance is FREE and in-person attendance is currently $98.

If you haven't downloaded the RootsTech 2023 Mobile App yet, here are the links to the app:

RootsTech 2023 Mobile App in Google Play Store

RootsTech 2023 Mobile App in Apple App Store

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2023 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Exploring the RootsTech 2023 App - Part 1

RootsTech 2023 is right around the corner. In fact, it begins next week on Thursday, March 2, 2023. Are you attending RootsTech? I am attending virtually this year. If you haven't registered yet, there's still time. To register for RootsTech 2023, click HERE. Virtual attendance is FREE and in-person attendance is currently $98.

Did you know that RootsTech has an app? Yep, it does. I have downloaded the RootsTech 2023 mobile app and have been exploring it lately.

Today I'm going to give you a tour of the RootsTech 2023 app. Here is a screenshot of the app's homepage.

As you can see, the app has tiles titled My Show Planner, Classes, Speakers, Expo Map, Exhibitors, RootsTech.org, Relatives at RootsTech, Restaurants Nearby, and Notifications. I'll show you what you'll find after clicking on these different tiles. But first, I'd like to point out that you can access some of these by clicking on the menu icon (three horizontal lines) at the top left and by clicking on the icons at the bottom of the homepage.

I clicked on the menu icon and this menu list appeared.

Clicking on "My Show Planner" brings me to this screen with the following list: Exhibitors, Calendar, Show Features, Products, and On-Site Photos.

Each of the items on this list are clickable live links. The Calendar shows you the events that you've added to your Show Planner. Here's my Calendar so far.

I added an Exhibitor on my Show Planner and this is what it looks like when I clicked on "Exhibitor."

Now I'll show you how to add items to your Show Planner.

To add Classes, click on "Classes." This is what you'll see.

You can scroll through the list of classes or search for them by Speakers, Date, Type, or Booth Demos. This is what you'll see when you click on "Type."

I added a class in the "Live Webinar" category.

After finding a class I simply clicked on the blue "Add to My Show Planner" tile.

If I change my mind, I can removed the class from my Show Planner by clicking on the blue "Remove from My Show Planner" tile.

Because I added the class to my Show Planner, it now shows up in my Calendar.

The same process is used to add Exhibitors to your Show Planner as well.

To remove an Exhibitor from your Show Planner, simply click on the blue "Saved to My Show Planner" tile. It will toggle back to the blue "Add to My Show Planner" tile.

There is more to explore in the RootsTech 2023 app, but this post is getting long. So, I'll share more about the app in Part 2.

If you haven't downloaded the RootsTech 2023 Mobile App yet, here are the links to the app:

RootsTech 2023 Mobile App in Google Play Store

RootsTech 2023 Mobile App in Apple App Store

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2023 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

RootsTech 2023 Keynote Speaker ~ Sean Astin

Have you heard the exciting news? Sean Astin will be a keynote speaker at RoostTech 2023! Yep, that Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I love those movies! Sean Astin is a successful actor who has played various roles in film and TV.

Sean Astin will be the RootsTech 2023 keynote speaker on Saturday, March 4, 2023 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

If you haven't registered for RootsTech 2023 yet, there's still time. Here's the link to register: Register for RootsTech 2023.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2023 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

RootsTech 2023 Keynote Speaker ~ Me Ra Koh

 

It has been announced that Me Ra Koh will be a keynote speaker at RootsTech 2023. Me Ra is a famed portrait photographer and will be the keynote speaker on Friday, March 3.

As stated in the FamilySearch news release, "Koh rose from humble beginnings, including physical and emotional challenges, to become a famed photographer featured on Oprah, Live with Kelly & Ryan, and other popular television shows, sought after photography expert, best-selling author, Disney Channel host, and one of the first two women photographers to be Sony-sponsored. Her family portraiture work has been featured in galleries in London, New York, and Los Angeles, and published in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Martha Stewart, Parenting, and Women’s World."

"She is also a sought-after motivational speaker whose inspiring story weaves in and out of personal tragedy, homelessness, and a period in a psychiatric hospital to a successful life as a wife of 25 years, a mother of two young adults, and the co-owner with her husband Brian Tausend of the renowned FIORIA portrait studio in Frisco, Texas, whose sole purpose, she says, is to celebrate people's resilience."

To learn more about Me Ra Koh, click on this link: Fioria.us.

If you haven't registered for RootsTech 2023 yet, there's still time. Here's the link to register: Register for RootsTech 2023.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2023 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved