RootsTech Connect 2021 - Day 2 - Discovery

Day 2 of RootsTech is coming to an end. Today was a day of Discovery at RootsTech. I started out this morning working in The Family History Guide booth in the Expo Hall. The Expo Hall was a bit slow but we did get to talk to some people about what we do at The Family History Guide. I invite everyone to take some time over the next two days to visit the Expo Hall and chat with the people in the booth. We won't bite and we will be happy to have a conversation.

After that, I participated in two panel discussions and had a great time interacting with the participants. These programs are live and are not available after the conference. 

We just finished up the Family History and Genealogy in K12 Classrooms discussion. Our panel talked about our experience using family history as a teaching tool. I came at the topic as a homeschool parent who used family history in my child's education. I am also the Education Director at The Family History Guide where we develop programs to teach a variety of age groups. And lastly, I am involved in the Indian River Genealogical Society's youth outreach program. The other panel members had their own experiences that they were able to discuss. Our goal was to begin the discussion and encourage the participants to think of ways they can incorporate family history in their programs.

Before that, I was the moderator for the Connecting Your Communities in the FamilySearch Family Tree panel. This panel discussed ways people interested in family history could work with their communities to encourage family history related projects. Some panelists discussed their experience working with African-American cemetery projects. Others talked about collecting various records and adding them to FamilySearch. We had a good discussion and started a new Facebook group to further this discussion after RootsTech.

Tomorrow at 3:00pm EST, I will be on a panel discussing Inspiring Children and Youth to Love Family History. This will be another great opportunity to interact with people at RootsTech.

I also discovered a new photo tool at MyHeritage. This tool is called Deep Nostalgia. It is able to animate your photos by moving the head, eyes and mouth in a fairly realistic way. Several of my Facebook friends have been trying it out. You can see an example of how this works in the video below. It's a little Harry Potteresque, don't you think?

The great thing about this is that we had the original black & white image, which we colorized at MyHeritage, and then we were able to animate it. This brings a whole new layer to your photographs. Some people may not like it because it manipulates the original photographs integrity but I see it as a new way to appreciate the images we have of our ancestors.

What else did I do today? I spent some time talking with Todd Hansen of Story Trek fame. He has a new project called Todd Hansen's Legacy Story Project. This project helps you record your own story. They have a downloadable workbook which provides prompts to help you develop your story. Todd and his crew will record your story in your home, at their studio, virtually, or you can take Todd's online training to learn how to record your own life story and the stories of those you love. If you are familiar with Story Trek, you know that Todd believes everyone has a story to tell. He is there to help you tell your story.

So my theme for today was Discovery. Discover your passions to build community and educate youth through family history. Discover your ancestors through seeing their images in a new way. And discover yourself through your own life story. I encourage each of you to discover something new about yourself, your ancestors, and your community in the coming days.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week at RootsTech. Get some sleep, stay hydrated, and most of all, learn how to tell the stories.