RootsTech 2016 Free Pass Contest

RootsTech 2016 will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 3-6 February 2016. Some of the hotels have already sold out, so I thought I better have my contest for a free, 3-day pass sooner than later so one of you lucky readers can make your plans early. Seating in computer labs is more limited than hotel rooms, so these sell out extremely quickly. Sponsored lunches sell out as well. They are a bit pricy ($29), but you get to hear a speaker in a relaxed atmosphere and you get to chat with other attendees at your table. At a conference luncheon earlier this year someone volunteered to help me with my Vermont brick wall, so the lunch was well worth the price.

With a 3-day pass to RootsTech you get access to

• Keynotes, General Sessions
• Over 200 RootsTech classes
• Getting Started classes
• Expo hall
• Evening events

(There are extra charges for add ons: sponsored lunches, computer labs, and the Wednesday networking event. Family Discovery Day requires separate registration.)

Here are the rules for my free pass contest:

• Send me an example of a darned record. What is a darned record? See examples from my past articles. Darned records are funny, weird, unique, cool, or awesome. Extra credit is given if the example is instructional. For example, two birth certificates for the same person, each with a different date, instructs us that no record, no matter how trustworthy the class of record, is beyond examination.
• 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 might edit (“rewrite”) the article to match my style. (That offends some people.)
• 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. Don’t worry about it being encyclopediacticly correct.
• 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. I must receive it before the end of Friday the 20th, November 2015, Mountain Standard Time. The gmail timestamp will be the official time of receipt.
• 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 will be eligible only if I can find your original email.
• If you’ve previously submitted a record and I have not published it, submit it again, following all the instructions above.
• Employees of FamilySearch are not eligible.
• I will choose the winner by how awesome I think the record is, how well I like your article, and how well you followed these instructions.
• I reserve the right to change the rules if a situation comes up that I didn’t foresee.

I’ll try to review the entries over the weekend and promptly inform the winner, but I make no guarantees. If you’ve already decided to attend RootsTech, go ahead and buy the pass, labs, and luncheons now. If the winner has already paid for RootsTech, I can arrange for you to get a refund.

I think there were no more than a dozen entries last year, so your chances of winning are extremely good.

I hope to hear from you!