RootsTech Review Continued

As part of the #NotAtRootsTech crew, Day 2 was filled with viewing courses. I started with a few technical difficulties, classes not loading, etc. A quick refresh took care of that. There were a few sessions that I really wanted to attend live. I personally looked forward to being able to interact virtually. Unfortunately, the connection from the chat room is lost in translation during the experience. A mixture of IT complaints and/or off topic chatter regarding which class they would have preferred to be in, or their personal feelings about the session. I instead moved to abandon the majority of my planned live schedule and started perusing courses to watch at 2x the speed while taking care of tiny humans and working. Here is a review of the day.

THE MAIN STAGE

Tara Roberts took to the stage today to share her experiences and her mission to bring forgotten chapters of history, specifically those lost to the transatlantic slave trade, back into present day recognition. She offered an inspiring message with a true vulnerability. Rootstech summed up the takeaways from her keynote beautifully.

I absolutely love, respect, and fear the open ocean and to have the bravery to be able to dive into open waters. I don't think I'll EVER be taking on that kind of adventure but I'm thankful that she, and mother others do what they do to bring history to the surface.

Seeing Tara share her experience of diving underwater,

I'm reminded of when I met the engineer and lead diver

in the discovery of the Clotilda, Kamau Sadiki.

SESSION OVERVIEW

1. Mapping Maternal Connections, the first session that I choose with genea-friend Roberta Estes.

I've been interested in DNA for quite some time now, I've purchased more DNA tests than I can count and I've administered tests to a large sections of both my maternal, paternal lines, along with my in-laws, but I still have a few more to go, thankfully RootsTech is the best time to purchase. I have a brick wall that I'm hoping to solve with DNA but there is a lot of work required to solve it. I have a very good understanding of DNA, but if I didn't, I could safely say that Roberta's explanation of mitochondrial DNA is highly effective.

Here's a photo of Roberta and I from my last IN PERSON RootsTech experience in 2021.

2. Using Autosomal DNA Analysis to Identify an Ancestor's Likely Parents.

   

   
   

   Staying on the DNA train, my next chosen session was presented by Alice Childs. She shared her findings from a client research project. She uses the steps from Research Like a Pro with DNA: A Genealogist Guide to Finding and Confirming Ancestors with DNA Evidence (I happen to have that book) by mother daughter duo (and genea-friends) Diane Elder, Nicole Dyer, and Robin Wirthlin. She shared her lucid charts and airtable charts and I'm INSPIRED...who doesn't love a good chart! I didn't necessarily learn anything "new," but I did enjoy seeing the process from the book shown for her to be able to solve her research.

   
   

3. My next destination was Untangling the Darling Web: Advanced Strategies for Same Name Resolution with Bonnie Wade Mucia. In my current tree proofing project, I have a set of recuring names across multiple generations, children bearing the same name as their aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. This class was based on an article dated June of 2023, Vol. 49, No. 2 "Untangling the Darling Web" in the Journal of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society. She covered how to approach the same name identity problems and then applying the GPS to identify the correct person and to exclude the wrong people to create a proofed structured writing. The session was very detailed and I enjoyed following along with the process, I especially enjoyed the Q&A.

   
   
   
   

   I'll be continuing my review of RootsTech 2026 sessions while there is access... stay tuned for more.