I’m thinking that I must be sinning in some way or other, because I’m having way too much fun. I just enjoyed a second day at RootsTech, and even attended another general session before spending a day in the exhibit hall.
I started the day out at a wonderful breakfast, sponsored by FamilySearch. FamilySearch CEO Dennis Brimhall spoke, bringing us up-to-date on FamilySearch. Some of the stats were as follows:
- 1 billion records added in 2014.
- 3.5 billion records in the total FamilySearch database.
- The site surpassed 1 billion records imaged.
- 1/2 billion hints were added in January.
- 1 billion persons are now on the Family Tree.
- 48.5 million sources were added.
Digitization worldwide stats:
- 286 teams with cameras onsite
- in 46 countries
- 44 cameras are in the USA
- in 21 states
By the way, you can now sponsor a camera crew!
Following breakfast, we headed to the general session where Josh Taylor gave us a peptalk sponsored by FindMyPast. Then former first-lady Laura Bush, and here her daughter, Jena, came onstage and spent an hour or so entertaining us with stories about living in the white house, as well as some before and after memories. Goodness, those two could be a comedy team. It was not at all what I expected, as my memories of them were warped by what the media allowed us to see… In my mind, Laura was the first lady that was always promoting reading and literacy, while her daughter was an air-headed teenager. Well, Jena is now in her 30s and a smart young lady – and Laura knows how to make people laugh. The audience loved them.
The Innovator Summit took place next. This is now an annual thing, and very exciting. See my previous blog for the news release on who won.
I did the exhibit hall today. I spent a lot of time in the MyHeritage booth, as they’ve got really cool stuff in the works, and I’m making some good friends among the staff. They seem to be willing to put up with me, so I’ve been taking advantage of it. I’ll be writing a lot more about exhibitors that I visited over the next weeks.
I finished my day in the BackBlaze demo area, where a number of groups entertained us. There was a Scottish bagpipe and drum band, complete with dancers – Japanese traditional dancers – polynesian dancers (cut short by sound difficulties), and a “Sons of the Pioneers” – like group – with an additional two ladies. I asked around and was told that they were the Pecos Bill Band. Whoever they were, they had me wiping the tears from my eyes for most of the performance. They were very good. It brought back memories. Roy Rogers was a childhood hero and the Sons of the Pioneers records were some of the few my parents owned. My wife’s family were nearly all musicians in the same vain, playing western music for dances on the weekends… Memories… Delightful memories…
Click here to read a good article at the KSL website about the presentations given by Laura Bush and her daughter, Jena Bush Hager.
