I didn't attend RootsTech 2020, but instead streamed the sessions from home during their free live-streams. This year the RootsTech conference celebrated their 10th anniversary. I've watched the live-streams at home from the very beginning.
Some very interesting new tools, and some not yet available, were introduced and demonstrations were given on how to use them.
I've spent a good deal of time, as you know if you've seen some recent posts, identifying people in old family photos. A new tool I learned about from watching a live-stream fits into my recent photo projects. MyHeritage now has a tool which allows you to colorize black and white photos. I colorized a photo of my mother with some Navy friends, which came out really nicely. This tool doesn't work as well on some of my much older photos though. It does help the details to pop a little more though, which may help us to see facial features a little better, Seeing features more clearly could assist in photo identification. The painting on the wall, in the photo below, is by my grandfather Charles Lynn Forgey. Nice to see the painting in color.
A live-stream session that was particularly interesting for me, and also directly relates what I''m currently working on, was "German Research for the Everyday American". I've been working on my Austrian family line and dealing with the difficult to read German script lately. I've been going through the newly released Burgenland, Austria Catholic church books. Karynne Moses did a wonderful job covering techniques for researching German ancestors. She briefly went over German pronunciation and showed a useful slide with the German script alphabet. Her slide of the alphabet was better than an example of the writing I've been using.
Karynne Moses also introduced me to a site with Protestant religious records in Germany. It's called Archion. There is a fee to use the site. I have German ancestors who immigrated to Colonial America, and so I will likely give the site a try at some point. She also discussed the records available for Germany at Familysearch, which also includes church records, and Matricula an Austrian site for church records. Of course I'm familiar with Matricula because of my obsession with the Kappel/Kurta families.
What Are the Odds? (WATO) was another very interesting live-streamed session. During this session Leah Larkin explained how the WATO tool from DNA Painter works. This is an autosomal DNA tool. WATO stands for what are the odds. This is a question that everyone working with atDNA is always wanting an answer to. DNA testing is all about determining our relationships to matches using the number of shared cM's as a way to estimate when we share a common ancestor. This WATO tool helps to confirm, or disprove, hypothesizes we've formed regarding our relationships to matches.
Another interesting session on DNA was presented by Angie Bush called "Adding Branches to Your Family Tree Using DNA" . I learned about the beta DNA based family tree at 23andMe from this session. This is similar to Thrulines at Ancestry.com, and the Theory of Relativity at MyHeritage, which she also explained. The 23andMe tree groups matches who likely descend from a common ancestral couple in a tree format. The trees created for my mother and I correctly group matches according to family lines. Matches are definitely correctly sorted according to whether they are maternal or paternal line matches. I was busy in October 2019 when this tool was introduced so I appreciated learning about it now.
I wasn't able to watch all of the sessions live so I'm watching the archived videos as I have time. Every year I pick up new tips for research, and learn how to use new tools, this year was no exception. I look forward to what we might learn to further our research in 2021!
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The World Awaits You: Use Our Social Media Marketing Tips To Succeed
If you're jumping into marketing using social media tools, you have many elements to bear in mind. These networks are a fast track to business success today, if you know how to work them. But, figuring out where to start can be hard. Use the advice noted below to create a bulletproof social media marketing plan.
When it comes to social media marketing the right way, it's all about the titles. It doesn't matter where you're leaving a post, you should focus on the right type of title.
Businesses that rely on Twitter to promote upcoming sales should make an effort to interact with customers. Always thank people for sharing your posts, and acknowledge and answer any questions as soon as you can.
Invite all your friends and acquaintances to visit your social media sites. Some of these people may not be interested in your business right now.
One popular social media method is to allow an experienced blogger, who writes about the same product or service you sell, to write guest posts on your blog. Both avenues can bring increased traffic to your website. When guest blogging somewhere else, make sure they let you link back to a website of your own. When you have guest bloggers, provide them the same courtesy. These blogger's followers will probably investigate your website from either their blog or your own post.
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