After a good night’s rest, I arrived at the Salt Palace around 9am just in time to check my coat and walk to my 930am class. I knew this session was going to be good. I was excited to see when I arrived that the winner of our RootsTech Give-a-Way pass was in the session along with my new genealogy friends that I had met yesterday in the expo hall. After seeing their smiling faces, I knew it was going to be a great second day at RootsTech.
Yesterday I made the mistake of not eating until after 4pm, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t make the same mistake twice. So, I went and got lunch before the keynote speaker today. The lines in the expo hall were longer than I would have liked, so I decided to watch today’s keynote speaker virtually on my phone at rootstech.org in the expo hall while having lunch. Photographer Me Ra Koh explained how ‘photography showed her that shadows embrace the light and not to hide from the shadows’. She was also presented with her family history scroll that dates back to 900 A.D.
After my 130pm session, African American History – Let the Truth Be Told presented by Janice Cross Gilyard, I went back to the expo hall to prepare for my one on one interview with Family Tree Magazine contributor, Sunny Morton. I was so excited to be able to sit down and talk with her. She answered one of my questions that I asked Genealogy Gems about six years ago, and we have kept in contact about my genealogy ever since through email. Sunny has been my mentor in this journey, and it was so nice to be able to sit down and talk with her in person about all that I have been doing and her sessions that she was presenting at RootsTech this year.
After my interview with Sunny, I walked around the expo hall and was able to hear Thom Reed, Director of African Heritage Initiatives for Family Search, discuss some new African American record collections that Family Search recently added and some coming out with in the next few months. Then I just walked around to finalize what I wanted to purchase from the vendors tomorrow. I decided to head over to the Family Search Library and get in some research time. The library had extended hours during RootsTech, so I was able to get in around four hours which was great. We left the library just after 8pm, went to dinner. and headed back to the hotel, so I could finalize my schedule for the last day of the conference. I would have to say that day two of RootsTech was a success. It was a long and busy day, but I was definitely in my happy place.
Sessions I attended:
- 930am – How I Found an Enslaved Ancestor in My Family Tree, presented by Karen Strickland
- 11am – Keynote Speaker, photographer, Me Ra Koh
- 130pm – African American Genealogy: Let the Truth Be Told presented by Janice Cross Gilyard
- 330pm – Interview with Genealogist and Family Tree Magazine Contributor, Sunny Morton
Click HERE to read about RootsTech 2023 Day 1
Click HERE to read about RootsTech 2023 Day 3
Journey Through the Generations 