Saturday, January 25, 2014

Win a RootsTech Full Access Pass

RootsTech 2014I’m giving away a free, full access pass to RootsTech! Ready to win? More about that in a minute.

RootsTech is the biggest genealogy and family history conference in the United States. (See “RootsTech Proclaims Itself Largest US Conference.”) I could be wrong, but I think that is paid attendance. There are doubtlessly thousands more who have signed up for the free Saturday youth and family discovery day. The atmosphere there will be electric!

RootsTech is February 6th-8th in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Salt Palace Convention Center, just down the street from the famous Salt Lake Family History Library, the largest family history and genealogical library in the world.

There are RootsTech sessions for everyone. (See “Insider Speaking at RootsTech 2014.”) If you’re interested in winning the free pass, you should understand the flavor of information you’ll learn at RootsTech. It’s light on hardcore genealogy. Some of the focused sessions at this year’s NGS Conference are “The Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania to Virginia and Onward,” “War-Time Damages & the Claims They Generated,” and “Irish Emigration to North America: Before, During, and After the Famine.” NGS and FGS conferences also have beginner and technology sessions, mind you, but my point is that they teach a lot of core genealogical skills.

RootsTech is not that kind of conference. RootsTech sessions are more apt to have titles like

  • Top Ten Things I Learned About My Family from My Couch: Beginning Internet Genealogy
  • Genetic Genealogy Demystified: Reading and Understanding Your Family Tree DNA Results
  • Digitize Your Memories on a Budget
  • Accessing Land Records Using New Technology
  • Do it Yourself Photo Restoration (that’s my session) 
  • Connecting Past, Present, and Future Generations through Stories and Photos

You can see the complete list of sessions on the RootsTech website.

The Ancestry Insider is an official RootsTech 2014 bloggerSo, how do you win a free pass from the Ancestry Insider? Here’s the rules:

  • Send me an example of a darned record. What is a darned record? See examples from my past articles. Darned records are funny, weird, or unique. Extra credit is given if the example is instructional.
  • I’ve published many funny names from censuses, so that get’s a little old. If you submit a funny name from the census, it better be really interesting. Darned records of other types might catch my interest better. 
  • Write up an article about the record, ready for publication on my blog. By submitting your idea, record, or article, you give me permission to publish it, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to explicitly state that you are giving me permission.
  • I will list your name at the top of the article, “By So-And-So.” Tell me how you would like your name to appear.
  • Attach an image of the record. If the record is online, also send the URL.
  • Include a citation for the record and any other sources used.
  • Begin the subject line of your email with “Contest Entry: ” followed by a good title for the article.
  • Submit your entry to AncestryInsider@gmail.com before 3:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Wednesday morning, 29 January 2014. Since I won’t be awake at that time, I will use the time stamp shown by gmail, even if they don’t adjust for the time difference correctly.
  • If you’ve previously submitted a record and I have published it, you can still enter that record into the contest. Instead of writing an article, point out the URL of the published article. You won’t be given credit for writing the article, but your record will still be considered.
  • If you’ve previously submitted a record and I have not published it, submit it again, following all the instructions above.
  • I will choose the winner by how awesome the record is, how well I like your article, and how well you followed the instructions.
  • I reserve the right to change the rules if a situation comes up that I didn’t foresee.

If I have time to review and make the decision Wednesday evening, I’ll announce the winner Thursday. May the best record win!

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