Rootstech was held in conjunction with the FGS conference and was bigger than ever. Something like 25,000 people. The Expo Hall was twice as large as last year and full of a wide variety of interesting genealogical products in addition to the big companies.

And there was the temptation of the Family History Library just a block away. Many like me came a day or two early in order to enjoy research time in the library. And yes I did a happy dance when I found my new 3rd cousin’s grandfather’s farm entry showing his mother was indeed the expected sister of my gg-grandfather.

Judy Russell did a really good blog post on all the DNA news at the conference. I am very excited that Family Search will be partnering with Family Tree DNA to link from the FS tree to DNA results from ftDNA. Initially this will only be for Y and mtDNA. Plus testers at Family Tree DNA will have an icon that will link to their tree at FamilySearch when there is one.

A few of the Rootstech talks are available as videos at this url: https://rootstech.org/video/4050134760001 – I particularly recommend geneablogger Thomas MacEntee‘s talk of about his genealogy tool box on that page.

Fellow San Diegan blogger Randy Seaver did a comprehensive listing of Rootstech blog posts

What I truly enjoyed were all the talks detailing available online records for my areas of interest. The FGS talk given by Dr. Michael Lacopo really revived my interest in researching my German ancestors. I am eager to explore the site he discussed in the most detail – GENwiki.

I was blown away by Tan Le at the Thursday keynote telling us about her remarkable life and that her first memory was being in a boat leaving Saigon as a refugee with her mother and grandmother.

Finally, what I enjoyed the most was the final show: listening to David Archuleta sing. The song he wrote in Spanish is still echoing in my ears.