Category Archives: Conferences

Summer Conference Season 2025

Categories: FEEFHS, Genealogy, IAJGS
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 45 seconds

This summer’s FEEFHS and IAJGS conferences took place in August. Last year, there was a week between them, giving me time for a road trip and a bit more. This year, there was no time between them or I probably would have driven to the second.

FEEFHS was virtual this year, a plan I thought was brilliant when they announced it. In-person every other year, and virtual in between. I like the in-person conferences; filled with socializing and networking, seeing my friends on a regular basis. But virtual is also good because it saves the travel expenses and is good for the conferences, giving them higher attendance and a better chance to make money, allowing them the slack for the in-person years to lose money. So I stayed home and watched. But I didn’t want to move my portable AC between rooms, so I headed into the bedroom each afternoon where it was cooler. I have my newer scanner set up in there and I got a lot scanned while listening to the sessions. I gave one lecture, Morse Code: Favorite Tools On Steve Morse’s Web Site.

When that ended, I headed over to Fort Wayne, Indiana for IAJGS. I had never been there before, so visiting the Allen County Public Library was a priority. I signed up for a tour on the first day. I eventually went back for a short time, but didn’t do any specific research; just wandered around the room looking at books while a friend used their scanner before donating to them the book he was scanning. It was a rare year for that conference to be in the attached convention center, whereas they usually just use a hotel meeting space. I gave two lectures, Don’t Trust Everything You Find On The Internet and Morse Code: Favorite Tools On Steve Morse’s Web Site. Even though it was the third time of that lecture for the summer, the second had a bigger audience.

And now I have no more lectures scheduled this year.

I had a surprise before IAJGS began. I will be going to NERGC this year, as a representative of MyHeritage. I’ll be working in their exhibit hall booth, since Daniel Horowitz has overlapping conferences and needed someone to help out with that one. How about that? After 14 years, I will finally be working for MyHeritage.

(Back in the vendor room of IAJGS in 2011, while hanging out with Daniel in the booth, someone asked if I worked for them. He said, very distinctly, “Not yet.”)

More highlights from IAJGS, I finally made it to the baseball game! A bunch of people have been going to local games and I’ve meant to go, but things came up. The stadium was next to convention center and I saw a game. Drew Smith attended IAJGS this year and brought some games, and I made it to a couple of his game nights. Those are fun at RootsTech and I’m so glad he brought his games to this conference too because we had a blast.

And on the way home at the airport, when our flight wasn’t even assigned a gate yet, I got to watch the Indiana Air National Guard taking off right by the window. The commercial flights were much farther away.

RootsTech 2025 – Post 2

Categories: Conferences, Genealogy, RootsTech
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 56 seconds

Now that I’ve had some time to catch up on my sleep, here’s part 2 about RootsTech.

As usual, I had a great time. I have a lot of friends who come to town for RootsTech and I enjoy seeing them, talking, eating together, and playing games.

Even though I had a full attendee pass, I barely made it to any lectures. I made it to my own (just barely, keep reading), and went to most of one after that. I intended to go to a few that were in person only, but other things came up. For one, my schedule has been upside-down for a while and I couldn’t spin it around. I sleep during the day and I’m awake all night. That caused some problems with getting to daytime lectures. I missed another as my best friend was leaving in the middle of it; then he asked me to drive him to the airport at the last minute, and how can I refuse that?

As for my own lecture, I left my house on time to get there plenty early, but got slowed by an accident on the highway. We all had to exit to another highway, where we caused another traffic jam at the next exit. I had about a 15 minute detour, removing all manner of being early to my lecture. I went to the nearest parking lot and was surprised at how packed the place was. I’d never seen it like that before. Then I speed walked to my lecture, entering the room just about the time I was supposed to start. While stripping off my jacket and other things, I loaded my slides, told everyone why I was late, and ended up beginning only two minutes late.

I must have done a lot of rambling in the first stories because I had two left to go with 15 minutes remaining, and that was the question and answer 15 minutes. I sped up a bit, skipped over details I meant to include, and finished just short of the hour. I wish I’d recorded it, but didn’t need everyone watching me fuss with my phone when I was already late, and the recording app wasn’t handy enough since I rarely use it.

But in the end, I think it went well. I got some laughs. I still remember some things I meant to say and missed them. Several people spoke to me after and all suggested it went well. I really like giving this lecture. It’s not scheduled again yet. Anyone want a good lecture about researching your family stories? It’s called “David Rosenthal Was An Only Child… Or Was He? (Dis)Proving Family Stories”.

Alas, besides that, I spent most of my time during the day in the Expo Hall, like I have for the past 13 years. At night, I had dinner with a few different people, and made it to game night twice. I would have made it a third, but I was falling asleep at dinner, so I went home. I wonder if we can make game night happen at IAJGS? I can think of a few people to pull into it.

There are a lot of recorded and pre-recorded lectures from RootsTech. I intend to watch some of them. I don’t know if I’ll write another post about them; maybe if something really stands out. If you’re interested, the virtual conference was free. I bet there’s still a way to sign up and watch, if you hadn’t already signed up.

RootsTech 2025 – Post 1

Categories: Conferences, Genealogy, RootsTech
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 19 seconds

And it’s time for RootsTech 2025!

The festivities began last night with the Speaker and Media dinner. They decided to try to not invite people to two events at the same time this year, but I also went to the Influencer social after, which overlapped by a bit.

This is the 15th year of RootsTech. I have been to every year. The first two years, I attended normally. And the year I was in the Innovator Showdown, even though I spent the week in the expo hall at my own booth. Other years, I didn’t always have a registration as I spent my time in the expo hall, some years volunteering, others just visiting. But I’ve been here every year.

This year is different. I’m a speaker. It took submitting a lecture with “stories” in the title. I think that helped. And I really like giving this lecture. It was at FEEFHS last year too. My lecture is on Friday, at the same time as three others I would have otherwise attended. So there’s that.

So hello again to my readers. I know I haven’t been here for a while again. I started writing last summer about FEEFHS and IAJGS, but those never got finished and posted. There was a week in between them where I took a road trip with my best friend, who also attended both. That was my first in-person FEEFHS. This year, I have another lecture at FEEFHS, which is virtual, and I just got notice today of two lectures accepted for IAJGS.

But first, today begins RootsTech.

RootsTech – Part 2

Categories: RootsTech
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 45 seconds

That’s a wrap!

My next two days were much like the first one. I watched the keynote from home, then later drove downtown where I hung out in the expo hall for an hour or two. Again, I went by the MyHeritage booth, but you couldn’t not go by it, right at the front entrance. Then spent most of the time hanging out and chatting at Reclaim the Records. I thought I would volunteer with them like I did the last RootsTech, but they seemed better staffed this year. I did walk down all the aisles in the expo hall eventually too, to see who and what was there.

Friday night I had a little time to kill and went looking for a record at the FHL (no, I can’t call it FSl, it just doesn’t work for me after all these years, maybe someday, I even taught spellcheck the acronym, come on). I never found the record; it was indexed but hiding. I think it was a supplemental page that didn’t get bound where I expected it to be and thus couldn’t find it. I spotted Alex walking by me, so I went to chat with him and then brought him with me to a MyHeritage gathering that I’d been invited to.

MyHeritage hasn’t thrown their big parties at RootsTech for several years (not even counting the c-word years), but I’m not a big fan of loud, rowdy parties anyway, so this calmer and smaller gathering was nicer to me.

And Saturday was the same. I drove downtown earlier, but the expo hall closed earlier, so it didn’t give me any extra time like it might have seemed. I then went to dinner with my best friend and then drove him to the airport. When do I get to see him again?

And as I said at the top, that’s a wrap. Now I get to see if I get sick next week, as the mask is useless when kept in my pocket. I’d prefer not to, but I’m kind of expecting it now. I once got really sick after RootsTech, so I better not get those germs again. No, covid would be the preferred germ — if any — this year, as I do get sick from it but it’s fairly mild and doesn’t last too long.

I can’t wait for another genealogy conference to see many of my friends again.

  • RootsTech
  • An indoor park
  • MyHeritage, right in front
  • The minibus MyHeritage brought

Didn’t my photo galleries used to pop up bigger pictures? I think I had a plug-in for that. I guess it died in some update when I wasn’t using it. Another web site that needs my attention. I have a few to work on.

Bonus edit: for anyone who reads this on my blog instead of the original email. I can’t believe I forgot about game night. I had no idea there was one, or that it appears to be a regular thing, but the second night, walking through the Marriott lobby, I discovered there was a game night going on. I found them playing Cards Against Humanity, so I sat down and played until almost midnight. Now I know that I have to watch for that at other conferences. These people were great to play that game with.

RootsTech 2023 – Day 1

Categories: RootsTech
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 21 seconds

Hello again world, and subscribers. Yes, this blog is still here. I haven’t had much to write about for a while. But I also felt guilty writing for my blog when I wasn’t writing to people who were emailing me.

So quick update, I caught up on old emails just days before the new year. (Some were very, very old. Embarrassingly old.) Then I wrote a blog post, but I was rambling and stuff, so I made it private. And now, I kind of want to blog again. So here we are. A big genealogy event to write about.

Today was the first day of RootsTech. I am a virtual attendee, because it costs less and I don’t really go to the sessions anyway. I watched the keynote. I found the new music video and prefer last year’s earworm to this year’s airline commercial (really, that’s all I could think of) — so yes, I played the old video on youtube. Several times.

Then I went to the expo hall for a few hours. I stopped in, as always, at the MyHeritage booth to say hello to my friends (one far more than the others, but they’re all my friends at some level). I stopped at the Reclaim the Records booth for a while. I walked past the IAJGS booth and said hello to the people who were there. And I returned to Reclaim the Records as a few more friends were there. I strolled around most of the expo hall, but I still have some busy aisles to walk down when it’s less crowded.

It was wonderful to visit with my friends Daniel, Brooke, Jennifer, Tammy, and Alex most of all. I used to see them more often. This is better.

After that, I went to the influencer/speaker social where I spoke to many more friends and met some new people, and met some people whose names I recognized and may or may not have ever met them in person before.

Overall, it was an enjoyable day. Most people have given up wearing masks (there were very few), but that’s true of everywhere in Utah by this time. I brought mine, but didn’t put it on fast enough to really matter. So I predict I’ll be sick next week.

RootsTech isn’t about the lectures for me, and it’s not about the tech anymore like the first few years. Like most genealogy conferences, it’s about hanging out with friends. I don’t learn much at conferences because almost everything is beginner level, or something I know absolutely nothing about and won’t learn just by listening to a one hour lecture, hence, the virtual attendee level.

I’m not expecting much different over the next two days, besides talking to some different people and going to different events, but two more days to go.

IAJGS 2021

Categories: Conferences, Genealogy, IAJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 51 seconds

It’s been a long, slow, and overwhelming year. But here we are again, summer, time for an IAJGS conference. This is the Jewish genealogy conference.

This year, as in most, I’m a speaker. I got my videos submitted late, but they were done well. And now we’re in the midst of the conference.

Unlike the other major conferences, this one is longer. It was always longer in person, but even virtually, it’s longer. Because it’s international, it could go for more hours of the day, but they’ve scheduled short days. The first day, there was a very long lunch break. Who needs a big lunch break when we’re home at our computers? Not to mention, the international attendees aren’t staying up all night to watch the live lectures because they’re being recorded and play back on demand. But they could have the lectures going for longer days for the international people and the Americans could be watching those on demand.

I’ve attended some of the live lectures and a couple of the SIG meetings so far. Because everything is on demand, I can watch more lectures and I’m going to some of the beginner level or random topics just to listen in. This is better than the in-person conference, where I choose lectures more carefully and try not to re-learn old stuff or learn things that I likely will never need to know.

It’s not the same chatting with friends. I’m mostly chatting with the friends I’ve been talking with for the whole pandemic. But they’re good to talk to. At a normal conference, I’d talk to a lot more people, talk to people I don’t even know, go out to meals with friends and strangers. Virtual is still missing the social part of the conference. It’s more like having a pile of webinars all at once. But that’s not too bad either.

I just realized that I haven’t blogged in a long, long time. I thought I’d touch base, and IAJGS is a good excuse for a blog post. Maybe I’ll write more about the conference. But even if I don’t, at least my readers still know I’m here.

Actual people, in person, at a real IAJGS conference, from 2017.

IAJGS 2019, Part 3

Categories: Cleveland 2019, Conferences, Genealogy, IAJGS
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 11 seconds

Day Five

I began my day in Carole Vogel’s session about creating a town-wide genealogy. Currently indexing all the vital records for a city puts me in a good position to create such a project, so I’ve been considering it.

I continued to shmooze and whatnot until my second presentation in the late afternoon about CSI: Crowd Sourced Indexing. I was in the big ballroom this time and had ten people. I wasn’t expecting a huge crowd, so it was fine. If IAJGS actually had a society day like FGS or a society track, then I might get more people interested because CSI is for societies and SIGs rather than individuals.

Day Six

I started a little earlier than on other days for the last day of the conference, having found a few sessions of interest on the last day. Patricia Edmonson spoke mostly about dating photos and was interesting. Analyzing photos is not something I usually do.

I finished off sitting in on a session about the Czech Republic, but I pulled out my computer and tuned out the speaker, so I have no idea what he was talking about. I meant to listen.

There was some more schmoozing and saying goodbye, but I had scheduled my flight later in the evening. While trying to figure out what to do, another conference attendee somehow appeared, having almost the same flight time as me and wanting to share a ride to the airport, so we set out together for a few hours to see a bit of the city, hopping on the free trolley. It was good to have the company.

All Finished

And that was it. I fielded additional questions about CSI throughout the conference from a few people and I was some kind of rock star to some people over my first presentation.

I enjoyed seeing my conference friends and making some new ones, especially my cousin. I snuck out in the middle of the week and grabbed a few records I needed in from the courthouse across the street, a very convenient location for that. I got a bit from the Resource Room access, and some things I was hoping to get and din’t find. My flight left Cleveland almost two hours late, but my connection was just the right amount of late that I made it.

And now it’s weeks after the conference when I finally finish this post. I am back into my usual routine at home and the swamp cooler is still leaking. I still haven’t been through my Cleveland photos, so I have one more conference blog post in my plans.


IAJGS 2019, Part 2

Categories: Cleveland 2019, Conferences, Genealogy, IAJGS
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 43 seconds

Day Three

It was time to give my new presentation. I had a bad feeling about the room they put me in and I was right. When I got there, the room was already full, and I wasn’t late. My session was a fire hazard. I had people sitting up the aisles and standing in the back. I heard from several people that they wanted to attend but couldn’t get in.

So Lesser Known Online Resources was a big hit. I have already submit it to other conferences and maybe I’ll finally be accepted to speak at some of those. People have approached me since that time, for two days so far, telling me they either loved it or couldn’t get in.

I next went to the Litvak SIG luncheon. I have never been to a SIG luncheon before, but since I was forced to buy some hotel food, I chose that one for the speaker and topic, which was supposed to be about archives and digitizing. The overpriced buffet meal was a tiny salad bar. And the speaker had been switched for a different topic. I am not happy about that.

I skipped the next two sessions I’d planned to go to for schmoozing or visiting the Resource Room. I got the gravestone images I wanted but couldn’t find anything I wanted from ProQuest.

I finished the conference day listening to Judi Missel and her brother talk about seven cousins who survived the Holocaust.

Day Four

I began the day at Jennifer Mendelsohn’s presentation. Hers was a beginner level session but had lots of Jewish Next Gen support in the room. It was interesting to hear what she taught from a journalist’s point of view.

I had very few things planned for the day but ended at the Webmaster’s Roundtable BOF. We had a small group, some interesting discussion, and finished early.

Quick Summary

Overall, sessions are going well. Speakers are interesting. Everything related to food is a disaster. Well, the conference food is. Going out to eat with cousins and friends is wonderful.

IAJGS 2019, Part 1

Categories: Cleveland 2019, Conferences, Genealogy, IAJGS
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 31 seconds

It’s summer again. That means it gets up to about 100 degrees for a while, the weeds stop growing making the yard work a little easier, the swamp cooler leaks and I can’t get anyone to come out to my house to fix it, and it’s time for the IAJGS annual conference on Jewish genealogy.

This year, IAJGS is in Cleveland, Ohio. I have some relatives here somewhere, but I don’t know who they are. I was in contact with one person from this branch of the family, but I didn’t get a response before the conference started to help me contact the ones who still live here. I didn’t leave myself extra time to visit people or tour the city or the cemetery anyway. I usually give myself a few days at these things.

Saturday was for acclimating, walking around the hotel to see what was here, trying to figure out where we could go for food all week. And the conference began on Sunday, as it always does.

As the years have gone by, I’ve tended to go to fewer lectures, but as we head in to the third day, I’ve gone to a few good ones, even some repeats from previous years.

Day One

Ron Arons has updated his lecture with some newer content and a new title. I first heard Avrohom Krauss talk about landsmanshaftn research years ago and I think this was the first time I went to his presentation in person.

The keynote was fun, as it usually is. One thing IAJGS seems to do well is find good opening keynote speakers. This year, Daniel Goldmark spoke about Jews in popular music. There were a lot of them.

The presidents’ reception was on the top floor of the hotel. It had a nice view.

The opening reception was different this year. It wasn’t right after the keynote or free, but at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I wasn’t impressed, with what I saw at the museum or the terrible way they served the food. Apparently there are six floors of the museum. Me and friends walked around one floor and then left for dinner.

Day Two

I began my second day in the Belarus SIG meeting where Miriam Weiner spoke about her research there. I worked for her in my first year of being a professional genealogist and was happy when see she remembered me at the reception the day before.

Walking around at random after, I found myself standing in front of my cousin. We just discovered each other a couple years ago through DNA. She’s my father’s second cousin on his biological side. We sat and talked for a bit before splitting up for some sessions. I’ll be seeing her more.

Cousins Elise Friedman and Hariette Gershon spoke about their Palevsky research and a global surname study. I was hoping for some tips on the ones I’m planning on. I have or have plans for three at this point: Mularzewicz, Nosatsky, and Feldstein. One of those names is going to be a lot more work than the other two, so it might get put off for longer. In the Palevsky case, they had more than one person working on it.

I skipped a couple meetings to see an Ava Cohn presentation on identifying photos. I keep missing her and she doesn’t get recorded, so I made sure to get to one this year.

I had dinner with a friend in the hotel and then back for the JewishGen session. They’re getting a new web site, finally, was the main take-away. That didn’t sound as exciting to me as people made it out to be. They announce the really exciting stuff when I’m not there. Or maybe it’s sitting through the whole meeting that makes it not as exciting and just hearing the highlights after is quicker. The reception after was on par with the opening reception, in how disappointing and disorganized it was.

Quick Summary

So far, so good. I’ve enjoyed all the presentations I’ve been to. The food has been a mess — I’ve heard other stories too. And it’s good to see some of my friends that I only see at genealogy conferences.

IAJGS Conference – Summer 2018 Trip, Part 2

Categories: Conferences, Genealogy, IAJGS
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 6 seconds

After my family reunion in Maine, I headed out to Warsaw, Poland for the IAJGS Conference on Jewish Genealogy. The two events fell on the same weekend. I missed two days of the conference. Because of that, I felt like the conference was just starting as it was actually ending.

It’s good to be the webmaster because I have access to the On Demand videos, so I will be able to watch the opening session and any others that I missed that were recorded. I’d consider buying them if I didn’t already get them. The opening sessions are usually really interesting.

I met a cousin at IAJGS this year. It’s not easy for Ashkenazi Jews to research enough to find fifth cousins, but I did that during this past year. Sady, I did not get to meet him. He was visiting with his mother and went home before I arrived in Poland. But I did get to meet my fourth cousin, once removed, Myra! We just connected some months ago. She is the first person I have found who attends IAJGS conferences who turns out to be my cousin. I have lots of DNA cousins, but we’ve never found the genealogy connection. She’s also my first confirmed Australian cousin (along with her descendents) and had an exciting story of how her ancestors went from Poland to Siberia and China. Myra found a marriage record and contacted the people in the JewishGen Family Finder with the new-to-her surname, Mularzewicz. And because of her diligence, we also made contact with three people in another branch of our family that we found online too.

I gave two presentations, went to a few SIG and BOF meetings, and attended just a few other lectures. I reprised Search as an Art on Friday and a new session called Three Adoptions and an Ethical Dilemma was on Wednesday. I think they both went really well. The BOF that I lead, the Webmasters Roundtable, was well attended; much more than I expected in Poland.

At the banquet, I received the IAJGS Award for Outstanding Project for CSI: Crowd Sourced Indexing! IGRA nominated me and made me an honorary member after the conference.

I don’t usually get a lot of photos from the conferences because my cameras don’t do well indoors, and I’m picky about good pictures. Also, crowds-at-conferences pictures never turn out the way I hope.

IGRA folks shared some other pictures that include me, but I’m just posting the ones from my camera here.