Roostech Genedocs Report Continued

My apologies go out to my blog readers for the stall on posting, but a nasty ransomware/spyware/malware program snuck on to my computer that required some obvious priority!

Did I also mention Thomas MacEntee had a wonderful session at Rootstech on backing up your Computer ?  Well this is exactly why.  He doesn't promote USB thumb/flash drives as much as I do because they can get lost being so portable, but if you attach them to your key chain or within a wallet (something you ALWAYS make sure you have with you!) then they are a wonderful backup.  Here I have posted a few of my favorite such images:


On to my Rootstech experience...Friday is where I left off.

My first session was kind of boring after the astounding keynote from Jyll Patee so I meandered down to the Expo Hall and crossed paths with KathyMeade who is the American representative for the Swedish Firm ARKIVDIGITAL.  It was hard not to get sidetracked into their area with the astounding image quality on their two sided Acer computer screens for wonderful presentations (I so want to have a monitor with that capability!), but I stepped in to say hi to Mr. Swanson who I was chatting, sitting, and joking with in the seats at the registration area prior to the day's keynotes commencing.  He seemed to be getting some great help from the Swedish lady there an invited me to sit next to him.  She told us to watch Kathy's presentation coming up in the BackBlaze sponsored demo area.  Kathy did a great job so I returned to that seat to see if she could do a quick lookup on my Swedes in Kalmar from Hogsby and maybe get me one more generation of ancestor names to work with...

Kathy is AWESOME!  She knows their databases of various records so well - adeptly popping between various screens and duducing why my Swenson and Thunberg ancestors wern't showing up and more importatnly where esle we could look.  This short query soon ran into lunch!  That's how dedicated Kathy is!  I need not banter about how she also was multitasking to add new clients throughout our several hours of browsing their sites crystal clear images of Swedish Church, State, Tax, and various other key vital resources.  Did we find my ancestors?  Not quite - I needed lunch and she needed to handle a few more paying customers, but assured me if I e-mail her that she will be able to narrow them down in Wirstad 1,2 3 4 or whereever we left off!  Of course she wil be able to find them faster when I send the initial research findings of
Ruth Ellen Manness' work that was surprisingly published in an issue of Heritage Quest Magazine back in 2005.

     If you have Swedish Roots - give Kathy and her team an e-mail an check out their site:

kathy.meade@arkivedigital.com              www.arkivdigital.net

Kathy advised us that at Arkivdigital hey are still working on some of the translation materials like an English  Users Guide, but are very helpful with such things when you hit a bump and aren't we all already using Google translator? LOL!  many Current users popped in to thank her personally for their wonderful digital clarity and assistance with finding more about their Swedish roots which I found very reassuring as we sifted through the Wirstad address connected records online.

   You all (y'all for my fellow southerners) may be wondering "Did Eric ever get lunch?"  The answer is a resilient yes.  The folks at the salt palace didn't see me coming, but had one warm meatloaf plate left for this attendee as I bolted upstairs and into another presentation beginning in the sponsored meal area.

    I sat down at a table of friendly looking fellows with the only remaining available seats.  A particularly familiar face across the table just kept giving me this very friendly smile as we all chuckled at the luncheon speaker's jokes.  I was busy stuffing my face with salad, meatloaf, and potatoes so I didn't inquire who he was to avoid choking or making a scene during the presentation.  After the presentation was over, the man stood up and came right over saying Hi Eric, you are the Genedocs Founder" (Finally! someone gets the T-shirt for being the first to call me by my title, I'm thinking), "I'm Paul Hawthorne from California" he concluded.

I apologized for not identifying his face to his name and welcomed him warmly with his well earned Genedocs Swag for beating me to the punch in that area.  We hit it right off talking about how the conference was going, how I wished I could have made the presentation deadline, and before you know it he had us in front of some other friends confirming when and where the FGS conference for 2014 was so I could present in San Antonio - WOW!

    We compared schedules and were both heading to Randy Whited and his Metadata Presentation on the floor below so teamed up for that presentation. here is a picture of Randy - well his forehead at least :-):

After Randy had begun,I realized I hadn't called my wife, so I departed and ended up not returning since I had caught the presentation earlier in November in TX.  The next Session...

    I got back on track after a quick trip to the restroom (all conveniently placed by the way) and was in Robert Raymond's Excel Timelines presentation.

 He had a tough crowd in there asking why he was going through all of these steps to format the spreadsheet which he countered fairly well.  I tried to help with the negativity be shifting to some positive alternative solutions which he seemed to appreciate.  I am glad he left the presentation open to questions before the Excel Gods had to intervene;-).  He did really well and it was very eye opening for me to see what kind of formatting critics attend these events waiting in the wings to punch holes in your presentation flow if you use an alternative method - for Genedocs presentations, I will shut that stuff down immediately if it even surfaces the teeniest bit!

We are there to learn not critique with negativity.  Anyway Robert knows his stuff in Excel really well and pointed out some formatting options we may want to use especially with dates that i was completely unaware Excel was so particular about.

    As the day's sessions concluded, I ended up like so many others, wandering the Expo Hall, drinking a free Coke, and pumped into Randy Whited again who was headed to the FHL for research so we walked together talked about what changes he was planning for Saturday's improved metadata session, had some Pizza and drinks upstairs at the FHL with his buddy Mike from Mocavo, and went off to do some actual research.  I am not kidding when it came up again that i should present in San Antonio at FGS in 2014 - this time from Randy! I ended up with a splitting sinus headache and headed back to the room for my Advil Cold and Sinus after some painful bumbling attempts on the FHL terminals - bummer!  But within about an hour you know who was at the computers in the lobby of their hotel plugging away again ;-)  (Included for those of you who live, eat, sleep and breathe genealogy too!)  How could I complain?  The day had gone practically as amazingly as Thursday!!

Stay tuned for Saturday's Astounding Conclusion to Rootstech 2013!