I had an 8am session again today, so I was up and out early this morning. When I walked out of the hotel, I saw it was snowing. It was cloudy, windy, and cold with light fluffy snow falling. It has snowed at least one day every year we have been to Salt Lake City for RootsTech. I arrived at the Salt Palace with more than enough time to get my coat checked and walk across the building to my first session. The second day I always feel like I have adjusted to the time change and gotten reacquainted with the layout of the building.
I didn’t realize it until after the general session that I had planned such a packed morning. The keynote speaker today was Tara Roberts. She is part of a black scuba team that searches for slave shipwrecks around the world. One of the things she said was “The ancestors are calling on me and others to help bring their stories back into memory.” That sentence basically sums up how I feel about my own research. After the general session I was able to get her book, Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging, signed. One thing I love about RootsTech is you never know who will meet.
I was standing in line waiting to meet Tara Roberts and get my book signed and someone called out my name. I turned around and didn’t recognize anyone and saw someone waving. I went over to her, and she said, “You’re Trisha from Journey Through the Generations, right”. I was like yes you recognized me. She said yes that she listens to our podcast. I was so shocked that someone recognized me. Then she told me she was from Little Rock, Arkansas. She introduced herself, and we just talked, while we were in line waiting, about what a small world it is that we are both from Arkansas, but had to go all the way to Salt Lake City to meet.
This year the RootsTech Media Team had a podcast area available to us. I thought it was going to be a table with some mics and equipment on it. But I was wrong. It was an entire production area. We were able to record our podcast, and it was filmed which is something we don’t usually do. There were people there were people around us: the sound people, the camera guy, and others that I’m not sure what they were responsible for. That was kind of weird having people around us while we were recording. But it turned out great. I can’t wait to listen to it.
I got a late lunch and went to a couple of more sessions before heading over to the Family Search Library for the rest of the evening. I was intentional about spending time researching this year. I was able to get to the library around 4pm and stayed until just after 7pm. I ran into some of my genealogy buddies at the library. After leaving the library we went to an impromptu meetup and hung out talking about our research, DNA matches, the sessions we had all attended, and the conference in general until almost 10pm. Today was a long day, but this really was one of the best days I have had at RootsTech thus far.
Sessions I attened:
8am – Underground Freedom Seekers: Slave Labor Case Studies in the US Mining Industry, presented by Cecelia McFadden
930am – Bachelors, Maiden Aunts, and Childless Couples: Don’t Forget the Dead Ends, presented by Loretta Evans
11am – General Session and Keynote Speaker – Tara Roberts: Award Winning National Geographic podcast host, author, and Scuba Diver
130pm – Finding and Using Religious Newspapers in the United States, presented by Sunny Morton
3pm – Finding Female Ancestors, presented by Loretta Evans
Journey Through the Generations 
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