I am speaking at Rootstech Connect (February 25-27), the online conference sponsored by FamilySearch, that has over 500,000 registered attendees. Rootstech started out as a conference focused on the convergence of genealogy and technology, but over the past ten years has become the largest genealogy conference of any kind worldwide. This year’s conference is only online, and will be by far the biggest genealogy conference ever held.
I will be speaking about how best to utilize this site , in particular the B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy (the link is available now: Using the B&F Compendium of Jewish Genealogy). Like most of the lectures, mine will be available as video-on-demand, so you can watch it anytime during the 3-day conference, and should also be available for the next year online.
There is a speaker chat on the Rootstech site where I will be available to answer questions, although I don’t know when exactly I will be on the chat. If you’re signed in to the site, you can get into my session’s chat using this invite link or simply go to my session’s page and click the Join Chat Room button there.
Update: The full list of presenters in English at Rootstech Connect has been published. I’ve put together a list of those lectures in English that are of interest to Jewish researchers. Of course many of the lectures will be of interest to all genealogists, but these are the ones dealing with specifically Jewish topics. As I’ve been able to collect new information I’ve been adding to the below, including lectures in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as a slate of lectures provided by the IAJGS and Jewish at their virtual expo booths. Here are the Rootstech lectures with a Jewish connection, in English (not including the IAJGS or JewishGen ones):
There are many other lectures that will be of interest to Jewish researchers. Daniel Horowitz must be giving the most lectures of anyone at the conference, covering a range of MyHeritage features (beyond his more personal lecture above). Janette Silverman is speaking about researching off the beaten path, which will probably be helpful to Jewish researchers. Greg Nelson from FamilySearch will be lecturing about Eastern European and Former Soviet records. Kinga Urbańska will be speaking about Galician and Polish resources. Any number of more general topics will be helpful as well.
There are also non-English lectures during Rootstech Connect. The following are those I’m aware of with a Jewish connection:
| LECTURE | Language | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Comidas Ancestrales: Indicadores de Raices Judias | Spanish | Genie Milgrom |
| Como Encontre a mis abuelas Cripto-Judias | Spanish | Genie Milgrom |
| Cómo Encontré Mi Familia Americana, Un Éxito de Investigación Familiar | Spanish | Daniel Horowitz |
| Dicionário de Sobrenomes Sefarditas | Portuguese | Guilherme Faiguenboim |
| Examinar las raíces sefardíes | Spanish | Jordan Gendra Molina |
| Las Diferencias en Genealogias Cripto-Judias | Spanish | Genie Milgrom |
| Los apellidos semíticos | Spanish | María del Carmen Hernández López |
| Siguiendo los pasos de los sefardies | Spanish | Jordan Gendra Molina |
| Sociedade Genealógica Judaica de São Paulo | Portuguese | Roberto Mayer |
In addition to the above, the IAJGS has a number of lectures they have provided. You can go to the IAJGS Booth, although the lectures are also searchable along with the other sessions at the conference. The IAJGS lectures are:
There is also a JewishGen Booth, with the following lectures:
| Finding Family on the JewishGen Family Finder | Phyllis Kramer |
| Locating Your Ancestral Town | Phyllis Kramer |
| Using the JewishGen Discussion Group and Jewish Genealogy Portal | Avraham Groll |
| Searching the JewishGen Archival Collections | Avraham Groll |
Which lectures are you planning to watch? If you watched them, which were your favorites? If you watched mine, what did you think?
I watched your session. I am an amateur genealogist at best — been working at it off and on for 50 years. But I just discovered my father was Jewish 5 years ago from dna. I am two weeks away from proving who he was, and will be starting Jewish research right away. It seems so much more complex than English. But your presentation organized my head as to where to look and to start. Thank you so much!!
Glad my session was helpful. For getting started, I recommend my article Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy.