https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/home
I've been aware of RootsTech for several years, but had never participated. Always before, it was a convention in Salt Lake City. That was prohibitive because of time, cost, need for accomodations, etc. This year, however, because of COVID 19 Family Search, the sponsor, put it all in a vitural format and offered it for free! How could I resist!
I have long been involved in Family History work and an quite accomplished at it within the realm of my own personal needs. Because I have no ancestry in Scandanvia, though, I have no expertise in Scandanavian research, for example. But, in the realms of my own research I'm really quite able, though self taught. I came to seek RootsTech hoping to find help with breaking through a "brick wall" in one of my genealogical lines. I came away with something else entirely.
I became enthralled with the Keynote Speakers! People from all walks of life who had so many wonderful stories to tell of their family history! Despite the fact these were often people who's circumstances, culture and ethnicity were far different from my own, I came away every time feeling like they were telling the story of my own family. I came away feeling like we were indeed all one big wonderful, amazing family!
Most of the Keynote Speakers were highly successful in their own personal lives and I loved the tales about their rise from obscurity to stardom, for lack of a better word, on the shoulders of their progenitors, but more importantly upon the boost the commonly got from kind benefactors who were mostly strangers.
Astrid Tuminez, for example, was living in a slum in Iloilo, Panay, Philippines. Her home was a handmade nipa hut standing on stilts over the water. When she was five, a Cathoic Nun came to their home and invited she and her siblings to attend an expensive school in the city for free. Thus, began her quest for education. Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found her family when she was ten. That led to her being able to attend Brigham Young University and later MIT. She is now President of Utah Valley University.
Erick Avari, known to me for his wonderful role as Nichodemus in the acclaimed television series The Chosen, grew up in a middle class Parsi family in a small town in India. The Parsi, fled Persia in about the tenth century to escape persecution and found a new home in India. They were accepted on the promise that they would not seek to share their Zoroastrian religion with their neighbors. As a consequence, their community is growing ever smaller. Through the kindness of strangers he was enabled to come to America and seek his dream of becoming an actor. His humility and appreciation for so many kindness was very apparent! Such a kind, unassuming man!
There were other important and inspiring speakers, like Nick Vujcic, Lorena Ochoa, Sharon Leslie Morgan, Sunetra Sarker, Diego Morena, Bruna Benitez and Ladysmith Black Mambazo who were all wonderfully inspirational!
Sharon Leslie Morgan co-authored a book called Gather at the Table. I bought it on Kindle and began reading it last night. Wow! She is descended from slaves and her co-author Thomas Norman DeWolf is descended from the largest slave holding dynasty in America. They met at a conference and decided to travel together to rediscover their ancestry all while co-writing a book describing their journey. She told of the frustration, anger, anguish, fear and ultimate healing that came of their e experience. I'll report on the book here later.
Another fun and productive feature was that you could connect with your own relatives through the conference. Over a half million people registered for the conference this year. Based on FamilySearch I was related to over 11,000 of them. I could search for individuals or just run through the list! Then with one click you could connect with them. With another you could see how we were related and who our common ancestor was! Ten thousand cousins at my fingertips! Totally amazing. You can check that out here: https://www.familysearch.org/connect/
I suspect that taking the convention online has been so successful that they'll continue to do it this way. I sure hope so!
