Yet Another Reason to Love Evernote

So I'm busy doing laundry and packing for my trip to Rootstech but I found an awesome tool recently that I just have to tell you about....Evernote Clearly.  I'm a very visual person that is also easily distracted (oooo, shiny....) so sometimes I find reading on the internet to be difficult.  Enter the browser extension Evernote Clearly.  One click transforms any cluttered web page into a clean, readable, printable article.  Awesome.  You can print directly from the extension or save it to Evernote for reading later.  Watch the video and go check it out.  And speaking of Evernote and Rootstech, there will be session on Evernote on Thursday.  Stay tuned!

Rootstech Advice

Since Rootstech will be my very first genealogy conference as well as my first trip to the famous Family History Library, I have been scouring the blogs for advice on how to prepare for the trip and make the best use of the short time I'll have in Salt Lake City.  Genealogy bloggers, being the generous souls they are, have written some very helpful posts on this topic.  Here are just a few I've found:

• Sue Maxwell - Granite Genealogy  Prepare Before Attending a Genealogy Conference   Sue has some great tips from selecting your workshops to what to pack.

• Banai Feldstein - The Ginger Jewish Genealogist The Insider's Guide to the Family History Library and SLC  This is a very comprehensive post on the FHL and answers a lot of questions that I didn't even know to ask!

• Jill Ball - Geniaus A Peek Inside My Gadget Bag  Jill was at Rootstech last year and lets us in on what worked (and didn't) as well as the technology she's taking this time around. My favorite?  The decidedly low tech spiral notebook.  I also can't wait to see the hot pink laptop bag!

• Julie Cahill Tarr -  GenBlog  11 Tips for Attending Rootstech  Concise and too the point but great advice.  Number 9:  Sit by someone you don't know.  Well that shouldn't be hard since I only know one person (in real life, not just online) that will be there! But its still great advice especially for introverts like me.

• Amy Coffin - The We Tree Genealogy Blog The Wallflower's Guide to RootsTech  Speaking of introverts, Amy has written a great post for those of us who are little intimidated by the thought of all the new people we will be meeting.  My favorite tip? Attend a class outside your comfort zone.

Maybe next year it will be me writing the advice!

Meet the Official Rootstech Bloggers

The Tech Tips blog on FamilySearch.org  is doing a series of posts  to introduce to the Rootstech bloggers.  Mine was posted here today.  They sent us a questionnaire and then picked from our answers to write the intro. Some of the questions:  what superpower would you like to have? (time travel) and what is your hidden talent? (I can say 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' backwards.).  If you want to know my biggest pet peeve you'll have to go read the article!

Business Cards

One of the things that has been suggested to me take to Rootstech is business cards.  Now, I don't have a business or a "brand" or even a logo but did that stop me?  Apparently not.  I finally put my order in tonight after weeks of agonizing over design, colors, what info to include, etc, etc.  Here is what I came up with.
I wanted to keep it simple.  At some point I'd like to have an actual designer make a logo for the blog but that wasn't going to happen before Rootstech.   Anyway, it's one more thing to check off my pre-Rootstech to-do list!

Front side

Back side

Preparing for Rootstech- The Family History Library

Image by whistlepunch via Flickr

The countdown to Rootstech has begun!  My head is buzzing even more than usual as I try to plan what to bring, what to do while I'm there and on and on and on....
One of my priorities while in Salt Lake City is do some research at Mecca the Family History Library.  The time I will have available to do this will be limited and since it will probably be a LONG time before I get there again, I want to be as efficient as possible. So here is my plan:

• I'm taking the first flight out of Tulsa (7:25 am!) which will get me to SLC by noon on Wed.  (Rootstech begins on Thursday, Feb. 2) This will give me several hours in the afternoon and maybe early evening to research. Starbucks anyone? ( Do they even have Starbucks in SLC?)
• When I registered for Rootstech I signed up for the Late Night at the Library event on Friday evening.  More research time.
• Today I sat down and identified 3 brick walls to work on. One of these is my great great grandmother Martha Blosser.    I also want to do some research on Hardin County, TN the home of most of my maternal relatives and the side on which I have the least information.
• After picking my genealogical battles, so to speak, I went to familysearch.org and checked the library catalog for the areas I want to research.  I printed off the titles that I want to look at while I'm there.  I will be focusing first on the books since I can always order microfilm in Tulsa if I run out of time.  
• On the other hand, I've learned that you can ask FHL to pull film in advance of your visit so its already there waiting for you.  What a cool service and a great time-saver!  You can do it online here.
• I will be bringing my Flip-Pal scanner, my camera and a couple of flash drives.  If I start to run out of time in the library I can make a quick scan or save and I will still be able to evaluate the information after I get home. Oh and lots of batteries.

Any of you experienced FHL researchers have any suggestions?

Users Schedule | RootsTech.org

You can also view the Rootstech schedule by type of attendee. For example, us non-techie types (i.e. "users") can look at just the sessions that are designed especially for us.

Users Schedule | RootsTech.org:

'via Blog this'

Decisions, Decisions

The Rootstech schedule is out! Good thing I have a few weeks to decide.