Four Days of RootsTech Fever – and What’s Up With Meitzler…

I am now nicely settled in an attractive room at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, looking forward to four busy days at RootsTech 2016. I understand the registration tables will open at 7 in morning, and I plan to be in line. I will spend much of tomorrow taking in classes at the Innovator Summit. I’m looking forward to the many classes at RootsTech, as well as the exhibit hall. I love exhibit halls, having worked them since 1985. This year I get to be on the other side of the table! I will post a few blogs dealing with RootsTech as the weekend wears on.

If you are at RootsTech and want to purchase Family Roots Publishing books, see Martha at the Maia’s Books booth.

As my readers know, I had rotator cuff surgery on the 18th of December. Last Thursday I began stengthening excerises at physical therapy. Suddenly the pain has decreased and every day I have more movement with my right arm. I am doing excercises twice a day for about 20 minutes. I really love having my arm back. Did you ever try to floss with one hand? (I know – they make little things to do that, but I like the string).

MY ONLINE TREES
I think I commented earlier that my priorities have changed. I have now launched into the process of cleaning up, adding to, and securing my own genealogy. The last few years, I haven’t taken the time to keep up with all the data and opportunities that have been presented to me. My excuse is that I have been very busy running a successful company – and I moved from Utah to Washington (a trek that took 10 months). I’ve started the process by resolving to get my online genealogy sourced and expanded as never before. I have online trees at MyHeritage, Ancestry, and FamilySearch. Most of the data is excellent, as I never take stuff found on other’s trees and add it to my database. Sure – some ancestors and facts get added, but only after I’ve proven the case myself. I haven’t made my online MyHeritage tree public, as I know that there may be error in family group that I compiled years ago – the source being a cousin who I now suspect was grasping at relatives… I will either prove or disprove that info, then make it public. The MyHeritage Database is over 5000 individuals, all entered one at a time. Another downside is that I didn’t go back and source everything that I started the tree with years ago. In 99% of the cases, I have the documents to back it up, so it’s just a matter of doing the work.

I will be writing about my experiences on my blog and in social media as I go along, and I invite my readers to ride along with me. We may be able to do this thing together… I also invite comments, suggestions, and questions.

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

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