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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Gartag on Friday 11 October 19 08:38 BST (UK)
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Good day all,
I have been searching for a board topic on the upcoming event in London. If there is one, could someone point me in the right direction?
In the meantime, I've started this one. I have never been to any family history/genealogy events before and now that I'm officially retired (with pension) I can manage it. It's a 3 day event but I can only cope with one of them and I have chosen the first, Thursday 24th.
If anyone has been to any of the RootsTech seminars before and would like to give a few tips, that would be wonderful. If you're going and it's your first time too, perhaps you'd like to ask some questions and we can learn together before the event. Likewise perhaps we could keep an eye out and give a little moral support on the day.
Garth
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Hello Garth :)
According to another forum I sometimes visit, this will be the first RootsTech event to be held in London. You'll be a pioneer ;D
I'm in Australia, so can't be there, but there are sure to be other RootsChatters in attendance. Where exactly is it being held?
Carol
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Apparently it is being held at Excel in London 24 -26 October.
https://www.rootstech.org/
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Thanks Rosie, I'd just seen that and have now found where Excel is located. Would have been very handy from my old Suffolk address with free rail travel ::) ;D
Carol
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I thought it was only London Boroughs that got free rail travel within London ;D I shall be giving it a miss.
Seems Donny Osmond is going ::) .
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I had a special Suffolk rail pass that not many people know about :-X
(My husband worked for a BR subsidiary, and BR pensioners had up to 13 free UK train journeys a year including Tube. When we married, I qualified for the same perk. Bargain!)
I'd have been surprised if Donny Osmond wasn't going :D
Carol
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Good day all,
I have been searching for a board topic on the upcoming event in London. If there is one
Hello Garth,
I would be interested to know how you purchased your ticket if you do not mind me asking. The reason I asked is that back in February when they started advertising this event I went on to the official site and they wanted loads of personal information to register and buy a ticket. I though this was unnecessary and so did not buy a ticket. However I did contact the organisers about this and got a mealy mouthed reply which did not help. I have therefore decided to give it a miss.
That said I hope it goes well and gets positive feedback as in that event they may hold it again. I hope you enjoy your visit and my only advice would plan what you want to see and where the things you want to visit are in relation to each other as you will find the time goes very quickly. Good luck.
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I had a special Suffolk rail pass that not many people know about :-X
(My husband worked for a BR subsidiary, and BR pensioners had up to 13 free UK train journeys a year including Tube. When we married, I qualified for the same perk. Bargain!)
I'd have been surprised if Donny Osmond wasn't going :D
Carol
I had forgotten about rail employees concessions. I shouldn't have really as I get similar with flying :)
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................ back in February when they started advertising this event I went on to the official site and they wanted loads of personal information to register and buy a ticket. I though this was unnecessary and so did not buy a ticket.
David, I haven't seen the list of questions, but I would think they're trying to ensure that tickets are sold only to genuine customers and not the 'profiteers' or 'scalpers' we hear about.
Carol
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Good day all,
I have been searching for a board topic on the upcoming event in London. If there is one
Hello Garth,
I would be interested to know how you purchased your ticket if you do not mind me asking. The reason I asked is that back in February when they started advertising this event I went on to the official site and they wanted loads of personal information to register and buy a ticket. I though this was unnecessary and so did not buy a ticket. However I did contact the organisers about this and got a mealy mouthed reply which did not help. I have therefore decided to give it a miss.
That said I hope it goes well and gets positive feedback as in that event they may hold it again. I hope you enjoy your visit and my only advice would plan what you want to see and where the things you want to visit are in relation to each other as you will find the time goes very quickly. Good luck.
If your info is passed on to all the event sponsors them my thoughts agree with Davids
Mike
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................ back in February when they started advertising this event I went on to the official site and they wanted loads of personal information to register and buy a ticket. I though this was unnecessary and so did not buy a ticket.
David, I haven't seen the list of questions, but I would think they're trying to ensure that tickets are sold only to genuine customers and not the 'profiteers' or 'scalpers' we hear about.
Carol
No I don't think that was it after all what would knowing the names of your grandparents do in helping them decide that? No I think it was their tie up with familysearch and them trying to extract genealogical information from you. Sigh!
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Ah well. As I said, I haven't seen the questions :)
Carol
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I'm going to all three days. I don't remember being asked a series of questions about anything... :-\
It was the usual name/address/email etc, type of thing. I didn't feel the questions were any more probing than anyone else asks. If you use the FamilySearch website you've probs provided this information already... I'm looking forward to it. The American's always have a different 'spin' on this type of event. ;)
CD
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I'm going to all three days. I don't remember being asked a series of questions about anything... :-\
It was the usual name/address/email etc, type of thing. I didn't feel the questions were any more probing than anyone else asks. If you use the FamilySearch website you've probs provided this information already... I'm looking forward to it. The American's always have a different 'spin' on this type of event. ;)
CD
That is interesting. May I ask when and how you bought your tickets. I tried buying back in the spring which is when I got the intrusive questions. As I said above I complained and got an unsatisfactory reply but maybe they altered things re buying tickets when sales didn't take off ( I was inundated with repeated offers to get tickets)
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Hi David,
I bought mine online in March after I was contacted by a friend from Canada who is travelling over expressly for this show - so I thought why not as they had a special offer on. I just can't remember what if anything extra I was asked... Since then there have been numerous offers. One which might interest you is an offer from Ancestry. They have been offering 50% off a 3 day pass for Ancestry users https://www.rootstech.org/london/why-attend-ancestry?sf109715293=1&fbclid=IwAR0EjXv-_GoQ56BbHLSlcgcHP-NLdiicJRFxuAasNRFIU8gD7FrUUvXkVJQ
Only a suggestion but if you feel the any questions being asked are intrusive (and perhaps irrelevant) and you still want to go I'm sure you could "modify" your answers.... ::)
I'm looking forward to hearing Dan Snow speak.
CD
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california dreamin
Thank you for the reply, very interesting. I do think they shot themselves in the foot with the way they initially marketed it and hope they have learnt from it. Thank you for the link. Hope you have a good time there.
David
Edited to add
Just browsing through the link and on the page seven reasons to visit the exhibition hall one of the reasons was
24–26 October 2019
Get Your Family History Books and Photos Scanned and Preserved for Free
The FamilySearch book scanning stand offers a free service to digitally preserve your family history or a book of genealogical value. Let FamilySearch scan your book, publish a searchable digital copy online, and preserve it for the future! Bring your books and this signed permission form to the stand during regular exhibition hall hours to get started.
And if you read the signed permission form you give them the right to use the information contained in the item they are preserving for you. Personally I prefer to choose who I give the information I have researched to.
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Hi David
Not something I was planning on doing - but yes, point taken.
I'm looking forward to attending numerous genealogy talks, seeing my friend and enjoying having 3 days away from home! :D
CD
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Ah ha! FREE tickets now
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ohz/
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01oi0/
OK its just to the Exhibition Hall not the full "Conference" but at least to me it implies they have not organised this event very well
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I’ve booked a free ticket to the Exhibition Hall, but it means I won’t be able to hear any of the speakers or attend any of the classes.
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You'll find much of it's being live-streamed -- some free, some not.
https://www.rootstech.org/london/live-stream-schedule
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WOW, i was hoping for maybe a reply after a few days but already taken a fair reading to catch up.
Yes at the Excel in London (it'll be my first visit there too) I'll be paying on the tube (didn't bother getting my free bus pass as I don't travel well on public transport. Only taking tube because over last few years find driving in London extremely frustrating).
The other week, using MyHeritage it linked to information on Familysearch (which was irrelevant so I disregarded) and I suppose that triggered the email from them offering 25% off. After dithering for a few days I decided to try and it was just a matter of Name, address, email. (oh and I think age group). I know I won't be able to travel all 3 days, I couldn't afford accommodation for the period so chose just the Thursday asi it's likely to be the quietest day and offered 3 talks I'm definitely interested in.
My main interest is how to locate and use pre-1800 records. I am a rather (pedantic/literal/evidence based person) and need proof of relationship. Very hesitant to add a great# grandfather as there were several possibilities with same name, withing a year of birth and same (or close) location, but finally fond evidence supporting the couple married in 1811. However, certificates back then provide little more than couples names, date of marriage and church. There are many Georges born in the area within marrying age (1794 - 1770) and I don't want the wrong one lol.
As suggested by previous posts, often people more interested in getting a big tree than accurate relationships will add anyone with the same (or even similar) name and these can be inadvertently added to your own. I'm hoping to find an easier way to undo this or even prevent it.
And finally, I'm hoping to get a better understanding of using the MyHeritage computer programme as well as the online MyHeritage, how to control the synch facility, and get full use out of both.
I think I've covered most of the above comments, but if on re-reading later I find anything I've missed I'll post on those later.
Thank you all so much for your responses.
Garth
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Yes I am going
I am also doing a tour of the library at SOG as they are offering this on the days before and after the conference.
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That sounds excellent Sally, wish I could do the same, it should prove very interesting just to look around and who knows, maybe get a few answers lol.
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In case it helps anyone, here's another take on it:
https://genealogystories.co.uk/2019/05/10/what-is-rootstech-why-should-i-go/?fbclid=IwAR3DFo2LedwukZaEIDN82njRZShYa3F86KjQdBgO3YlQOcHbYJgo9LEAYpw
Carol
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….....................…"I’ve booked a free ticket to the Exhibition Hall, but it means I won’t be able to hear any of the speakers or attend any of the classes".
Yes it is the same for Salt Lake City. I go every year...…..just to look at the Booths.
For anyone interested Salt Lake City is really a City with 3 Cathedrals.
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Trip Report - Just some feedback. My own opinions.
We went yesterday to ExCel (London). We had the free tickets (just an email saying "admit two"). No issues at desk, we got a hand stamp, but no bag or freebies. We also have TFL Freedom pass - so a "free" day for us.
It was very quiet at about 12;00 but got fairly busy around 3pm. All the smaller seminars were accessible to us, no check on tickets or anything. I think the only thing we could not access was the Main tent speaker sessions, but we didn't try (Donnie Osmond anyone !). One of the Seminars was VERY Mormon oriented, with a big personal plug for the speaker's religion. Each seminar had a prize draw for a gift for one attendee and I won something of real value to me.
All the main players were there (Ancestry, Find-My-Past, Family Search), also a big stand for MOD who were demonstrating a pilot of their 3-Hour War Record service - presumably on general release later. Almost everyone was "selling" DNA-related services. Very few small local societies, just three or so.
We thought it a good event, as good as any major UK Family History event. But I was NOT prepared to pay the very high advertised ticket price. Someone - presumably the promoter and/or the sponsors, must have taken a big financial hit at this event.
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I had considered going, but by the time I thought I might, the early bird deal had ended so the tickets were too highly priced for £49 a day, I think it was. So maybe next year. I did manage to catch some of the live streams - the one on Irish genealogy by Dr. Michael Gleeson was particularly good, and Else Churchill's 20th century researching and the DNA lectures were also good, albeit covering ground that personally I was already familiar with
https://www.rootstech.org/category/2019-london-rootstech-sessions
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RootsTech is a different kind of event from WDYTYA Live and other family history fairs. It has more in common with conferences, where the main attraction is the educational content, and the exhibit hall is a valuable add-on. There was a good range of (mostly) high-quality talks which were well-attended. Most of them were in a suite of lecture rooms on Level 3, so you couldn’t see how busy it was up there unless you were a ticket-holder, but there were plenty of paying attendees, and even the smaller rooms were bigger than those where talks are held at family history fairs.
This was the 10th RootsTech event organised by FamilySearch, it was just the first time it had been in London. The annual RootsTech in Salt Lake City is a much bigger event than the London one. FamilySearch invests great deal of money in family history so they are not looking for the sort of short-term profit that would apply to an ordinary commercial company.
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I've been following this thread with interest.
For anyone who doesn't subscribe to Dick Eastman's newsletter, he posted a write-up on the conference:
https://blog.eogn.com/2019/10/28/rootstech-london-is-a-roaring-success/
He also did a separate post for photos:
https://blog.eogn.com/2019/10/28/my-photos-from-rootstech-london/
Regards,
Josephine
P.S. I don't want to start a flame war but I just want to state that I like Donny Osmond. :)
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Thanks for that Josephine, great article that really gives a good 'flavour' of the event and the photo's give you a truer feeling of the enormity of it.
I only managed 1 day and, although spending an agonising night recovering, thought it was well worth it and so wished I could have managed the three days. There was just too much to fit into one day. The whole event was well organised, everyone was helpful, friendly and.... well, like a giant family Reunion. The atmosphere was electrifying, inspirational the vastness of it all was almost humbling.
I'm wondering if they will do it again next year, that would be so fantastic if they kept it the same format. I would go out of my way to get a small party together and do the three days with an agenda to help us get the most out of it.
Ecstatically
Garth
PS: Didn't get to see Donny or any of the speakers.... just so much to do!
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You're welcome, Garth. I'm glad you enjoyed your experience; it sounds great!
Regards,
Josephine
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Here’s my take on RootsTech if anyone’s interested.
https://chiddicksfamilytree.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/rootstechlondon-round-up/
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Mr Chiddicks, sir,
Thank you, that was as inspiring as the 'conference' itself. Let's hope the organisers found it worth their while to bring it back (preferably just as it was) and many of the volunteers partake again. This event really restores faith in that human nature still has bonding, friendly and supportive nature.
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Thanks Gartag..........lets hope they do bring the event back to London, instinct tells me it might be every other year, but you never know!
Mr Chiddicks, sir,
Thank you, that was as inspiring as the 'conference' itself. Let's hope the organisers found it worth their while to bring it back (preferably just as it was) and many of the volunteers partake again. This event really restores faith in that human nature still has bonding, friendly and supportive nature.