This is me last February at the FindMyPast booth at RootsTech………… I was super excited because I had just connected with a phone call to an ancestor!!! Don’t I look happy???
Yah, right, you’re saying. And of course you are right. No matter how much we might want to, we cannot talk on the telephone (even a very smart phone) with a deceased ancestor.
But we can learn the ways to find them and make them real in our lives in different ways. I just attended our local state genealogy conference and I jotted down these observations to add to some from RootsTech:
** When references are mentioned in context, and you do not know what they are, why don’t you ask? (Too many do not and suffer in silence.)
** Too many of us are in a time loop and keep learning from the mistakes of others.” (Eric Stroshein, president of the Puget Sound APG chapter, said this.)
** A derivative source can have primary information.” (Like 17th century court records but published for today’s use. Bret Petersen said this.)
** Never assume there is nothing left to learn about your ancestor.
** “Technology plus information and stories and photos equals family history.” (Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch, speaking at RootsTech.)
** “Use technology as both a source and a resource.” (Josh Taylor, RootsTech)
** “Ancestry’s goal is to create a space where all, beginner and experienced, can work together and share and so to learn and discover…… yes, these records may and do contain errors but they are still valuable sources of discovery.” (Tim Sullivan, Ancestry.)
Do any of these quotes resonate in your mind???
Donna, aka Mother Hen, until next peek.