This is my space to share my quest to collect as many broken branches as I can in my fractured family tree which resembles a bramble bush more then a proper tree. As I go forward in this blogging journey I hope to share how I have searched far & wide for family - with no regard for where they come from or if I should really want them.
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

Monday, March 1, 2021

Virtual Conference ~ Relatives at RootsTech

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2021: Week 9 (MULTIPLES)


This past weekend I attended the virtual ROOTSTECH CONFERENCE. I have never been able to attend in the past, but this year's virtual conference made it so easy. I didn't have to travel, and I didn't have to take time off work. I never thought there would be a positive to be found in a worldwide pandemic.  Being able to attend the RootsTech Conference is definitely a positive side of the Covid-19 Pandemic. 

Don't get me wrong - I would love to travel. 

My husband and I had a trip planned to New York September 2020. It was canceled. We had big plans. We were going to attend the 911 Memorial. We were going to Ellis Island to find the documents for my husband's ancestor. Our hotel was right in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. He looked forward to the Hot Dogs, and I the Bagels -- ooohhhh the food.

Canceled!!! 

We now have ginormous travel vouchers we may never get to use. 

I dream of the day we will hear those magic words "This is your captain speaking". 

Until then I am grateful for the small wins like an amazing free virtual genealogy conference.

This year's Roots Tech Conference had a cool feature I signed up for -
RELATIVES AT ROOTSTECH



My first thought was WOW --- that is a lot of relatives at this conference.

These relatives of mine are all over the world as shown on the maps below.



When I started to look more carefully at the matches I discovered the closest is 4th cousin X2 removed, and they are as distant as 11th cousins. The search function breaks down maternal and paternal lines. On my paternal side I had 11 matches. All 11 were on my father's maternal line. My biggest brick wall is my father's paternal line, and not one match was via that line. None of the matches that I looked at helped me break down any of my brick walls. 

I realized that the multiple matches on my mother's maternal line was because I hadn't added enough to my other lines on the Family Search site. I spend some time over the weekend doing that. Sadly it didn't break down any walls. One of my matches was connected through the NPE (Non paternal event) that I have in my tree. It was only with Ancestry DNA that it became clear my great grandmother was not the biological daughter of her mother's husband. 

It was only when I realized all of my matches are attending the virtual RootsTech conference that everything made sense. The reason my brick walls are solidly intact is because I haven't yet found the people who know or the sources with the facts. The connected relatives are only through the Family Search Family Trees. 

My father's paternal grandparents immigrated from Ukraine to Canada in 1909. I have no solid information from before they departed the port of Bremen. Not one of my connections were from that area.

Multiple sources sharing the same information doesn't provide any new information. 




I
t's only when I find the right sources that the brick walls will come down!








This is why I search - 




Cause ... 






You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

















***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***




Sources:


RootsTeach by Family Search, Retrieved February 27th 2021 from
https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/



Links:


Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/



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My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.
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