Reclaim the Records--An Interview

Have you ever had issues getting access to records that should be available by law?  Did you just give up?  Well, Brooke Schreier Ganz didn't give up--she began filing Freedom of Information requests and (when that didn't work) lawsuits.  And she's been winning.  Here's an interview I did with Brooke who founded Reclaim the Records to help get genealogists access to critical records.  She talks about her past successes, what she's working on now, and what's in the works.  Enjoy!

RootsTech2017, Part 2 (Thursday)

(A link to my first post on RootsTech is here.)

On Thursday, I woke up super-early to get a tour of the (enormous) expo hall which was still slightly under construction.  There are hundreds of vendors, from the large genealogy companies to very small niche organizations.  You could seriously spend all week here and not leave.

Just a small part of the HUGE expo hall

RootsTech2017, Part 1 (Tuesday-Wednesday)

I've been at RootsTech for the past few days, and it's been a whirlwind (in a good way).  On Tuesday, I went to the new (just opened this week) Family Discovery Center in the Family History Library.

Family Discovery Center

Upcoming Talks--UT, CT, MD, FL (including Livestreamed from RootsTech)

February is shaping up to be a busy month for me!  I'll be giving talks in Utah, Connecticut and Maryland.  There's also a scheduled talk in Florida in April, so if you're spending Passover in Florida, come on by!

My talk at RootsTech will be livestreamed, so you can watch from wherever you are if you can't make it to Utah.

You can see the full list of RootsTech streamed sessions here.

Upcoming talks I'm giving are as follows:

Coming to RootsTech?

RootsTech is coming up quickly, and it's still not too late to register at their promotional price!  If you haven't ever been to RootsTech, you're missing out.  It is the largest genealogy conference in the world, with over 200 sessions--and keynote speakers including LaVar Burton (Geordi from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the original Kunta Kinte in Roots, and the Reading Rainbow guy), the Scott Brothers (from HGTV's Property Brothers), Buddy Valastro (Cake Boss) and CeCe Moore (Genetic Genealogy guru).

RootsTech Free Admission Contest

I'm thrilled to be both a speaker at and an ambassador to RootsTech this year.  If you haven't ever been to RootsTech, you're missing out.  It is the largest genealogy conference in the world, with over 200 sessions, the most enormous exhibit hall I've ever seen at a conference of any type, and tens of thousands of attendees--last year they had over 28,000 people!  I'll be speaking on Thursday (date subject to change), so drop by and say hi!

(You can see what I wrote about when attending RootsTech 2016 here.)

So, how do you get to RootsTech--potentially with free admission?

RootsTech2017, Here I Come!

I've had a talk on basic Jewish genealogy accepted to RootsTech!