Nearly time for Rootstech

Well here I am in Salt Lake City to attend my second Rootstech.  It doesn't start for a couple of days but there is plenty going on in the lead up.  There has been time to do some research in the Family History Library (and I have already made some new discoveries), and on Monday I was a panellist for a short while on Dear Myrtle's Mondays with Myrt which took place in the Family History Library this week. I have met lots of new people and caught up with old friends.

Family History Library in
Salt Lake City

Mondays with Myrt

This morning I joined a group of other bloggers on a tour of the new Family Search Discovery Centre.  It will be officially launched tomorrow, but we got a sneak peak in advance.  

You are given an iPad which you use to login to your FamilySearch account, and then go around various stations where you "plug in" your iPad (it was located onto a magnet, which obviously had a reader built in) and you are then given a personalised tour around the system. Amongst other things, you are then told you about the origins of your given name and surname, and their frequency in America (but nothing about any other countries). There was also a station where you saw the migration paths of your ancestors as they came to the United States.  Hmm, bit of a problem there, since none of mine did - they all went from the British Isles to Australia! At another station you had to stand at a particular spot and use hand gestures to control the station, allowing you to have your face superimposed into a person in period costume.  I had terrible trouble getting the hand gestures to work - it took ages, and the picture was not at all flattering.

There was also a "scavenger hunt" kit for kids. I have to say, I think the whole thing was probably only relevant to kids, and getting them interested in their family tree and their origins, or at least people who've never looked into their family histories.  I couldn't see much value to it myself, though the technology that allowed you to "plug in" and be identified was very interesting.

At the end of the time the iPad had to be given back (darn!). 

The Discovery Centre

One of the stations with
iPad on dock at bottom right

About my name

I don't think I made a good-looking English woman