RootsTech's Ban On Book Vendors

I have been posting to Facebook like a crazy woman ever since the news was made public.

To see where it all began go to  Leland Meitzler's post HERE. 

RootsTech now scares me for a whole new reason. 

Old School Genealogists already fear that the New School Genealogist relies too heavily on internet and digital creations for sourcing or just plain old "doing" their genealogy. In other words some fear that genealogy done by "New School" "Techie" genealogists might be limited to online research. That would be incredibly stupid. The vast amount of genealogy information can not be found in the digital world. 

So why would RootsTech, want to ban books in their vendor hall? Is this not a genealogy conference? Yes, it is a genealogy conference with a focus on techie stuff for use in the genealogy world but it is still a genealogy conference. Right?

Some genealogist, especially the beginners, might only pick one genealogy conference to go to in the whole year. Hopefully RootsTech would be that conference. How sad if that new genealogist could not find the one book that sends them down the road to discovery because RT doesn't have book vendors. 

When I first started doing genealogy I used "The Idiots Guide To Genealogy," I still recommend it to beginners. I would like to know what beginners guide RootsTech would recommend? And why can't I find it at RootsTech?

When technology catches up to (and contains) all the genealogical information that I use that is in print...then they can quit selling books. And don't tell me...well you can order that book, or buy it at one of the other national conferences. What if I want to look through the book first and decide if it pertains to my needs? What if I can only attend one national conference a year? I guess, if I can't buy books at RootsTech, and I know that good genealogy is based on using other sources in addition to digital ones, and I can get digital ones online...well then...hummmmm...my money is better spent going to NGS or FGS.

Not to mention that I can see all those techie things you're trying to sell me at FRYS or BEST BUY. Or I am sure my blogging buddies will tell me of the newest gizzmo I've just got to have...(can you say Flip-Pal). 

Personally I don't go to the vendor hall to look at all the new gizzmos. There is usually too big a crowd, or it's a demo of how a BOOK is digitized, or some such thing. While I am glad some books are being preserved by digitization...I don't need to know the How of it. I like to drive my car but I don't need to know how the car's electrical system works to take a drive.

And I don't spend hundreds of dollars to play pool or chess or Wii or pong or whatever else is in the "game room."

I go to RootsTech for the lectures when I do venture into the vendor hall (and don't get me wrong, I spend hundreds in there too) I mainly go for books. That's one of the reasons I drive to most of the conferences...so I can haul back books. If I fly I have to ship them. 

And RootsTech...don't you remember last year after Lisa Louise Cooke spoke there was a run on the Book Sellers to buy her book. Now tell me...do you really think speakers such as Lisa Louise Cooke come to speak at your conference for what you pay? What do you pay...I've heard it is the price of admission to the conference...if that's it then I would venture to guess that the speakers are counting on selling some of their books. So why would they want to speak at your conference if they can't get their books sold there?  Wake up! You're speakers sell books. They are your vendors. See this blog. 

It was my understanding that this was a genealogy conference that embraces technology not a technology conference that embraced genealogy. Or are we just a new market for the sales team?

Sharon Sergeant, in a Facebook post, said it so well, this conference is supposed to be "the marriage of genealogy to technology, not a divorce."

Come On RootsTech....think...it's not hard....who is your audience? Genealogists who use Technology or Techies who do genealogy?

NGS Home Study Course

At the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) conference this year I purchased the NGS (National Genealogical Society) Home Study Course.
I finally took it out of it's folder and began work on it today.

Surname Saturday: Duchamp

My second great grandfather was Eugene Auguste Duchamp De Chastaigne he was born in July of 1837 in Morris County, New Jersey. His family had come to this country from Martinique Island in the Caribbean. In 1860 he married Marie Amelie Sandoz in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

The name is shortened to Duchamp when speaking about the family but the full "correct" and legal name was Duchamp De Chastaigne.

His father was Jean Baptiste Eugene Duchamp De Chastaigne and his father (my 4th great grandfather) would have been Jean Baptiste Matthieu Duchamp De Chastaigne.

I can go a couple of more generations back but I did not do the research on this family. My cousin Eric did. Tragically all of his research was lost in Katrina. Luckily he had sent gedcom files and printouts to many family member...a good reason to share your research and to keep back ups somewhere safe.

Because we had the basics, pedigree charts and family group sheets, we were able to recall the information but not where he had got the information. That's right...he didn't record his sources when he put the information on Ancestry.

This has been a valuable lesson to me. You never think that tragedy will strike you. But it can. Mother nature is like that and fires happen. I urge everyone...don't wait...share your stuff today and make sure it is sourced so you can find those documents again.

Ok, enough about that....

It occurred to me today that because I don't have any source notes to go by that I'm not sure which Duchamp owned the plantation.  I know that Eugene Auguste was the owner of the town house. And I have always thought that he owned the plantation too. But it is possible that cousin Eric may have merged the ownership of the plantation and the townhouse into one man. (I've just recently discovered on another line where I suspect he merged two different men because they married two different women with the same name....but that's another story.)

So I have work to do on this line to determine which Duchamp owned the pharmacy, the opera house, the plantation and the townhouse ...or if they were all owned by different Duchamps.

RootsTech Scares Me-Tech Tuesday

I have to confess Roots Tech scares me just a little. Why? Because I learn how much I don't know.

I am by no means a "Techie." Just ask my friends who are. I am always asking them how to make this program work or, "how do I do this?" I have (tongue firmly in cheek) "bragged" about my techie prowess on this blog. And hopefully y'all know I'm laughing at myself.

I am also a little scared of RootsTech because, "Ignorance is Bliss."  For example: If I don't know that Nitroreader will make my life "easier" then I don't feel the need to go and learn how to use it. BLISS
But then when my friends start talking about Tweet Deck, Nitro Reader, Dropbox, Cloud Computing, SMS, RSS Feed, and the like....and I feel so left out...and I want to know the latest and greatest. I feel like I'm running behind...a day late and a dollar short, that's me.

The learning curve, is another reason I'm scared of Roots Tech. I'm still just catching up to last years brain overload. I still have not mastered Twitter or Tweet Deck. I barely know how to do this blog (as is evidenced by the many blogs that get posted before they are ready.) So when you tell me that the next RootsTech is just around the corner I start having anxiety attacks. WHAT!  I'M NOT READY YET!

All that aside; I love RootsTech. It's only a year old. And it is already one of the most (if not THE most) popular conferences in the Genealogy World. With good reason, too. Like I said...brain overload. You learn tons. You learn how to incorporate the techie world into your genealogy. Of course you can still do genealogy the "old fashioned" way, and you should. You don't want to be abandoning the careful research methodology we have all worked so hard to learn. However, adding the techie stuff to it complements it. It adds a new dimension to our genealogy. Like adding geocoding to our grave photographs. Even blogging adds a new dimension. By blogging about our research we find were our "holes" are and we get to practice putting our research into a narrative form.

So even if you're a non-techie like me RootsTech has something for you. You can become as Techie as you want or choose not to. But you should go at least once and find out what your missing and why you should try to work it into your genealogy world. And like me, I bet you'll find that you want to go back. And if you're already a techie, then join the other "tech geeks" and improve the techie world of genealogy for the rest of us.

Hope to see y'all there.

Shopping Saturday: Grandpa Duchamp's Pharmacy

Grandpa Duchamp's Pharmacy (that's it with the green awning)
Duchamp & Sons Pharmacy 1853-1881

Leeches used in medicine

I wish I had been able to see what my 3rd great grandfather's pharmacy was like.

The first picture is of the pharmacy building as it is today...it's the one with the green awning.






The other pictures are from the Pharmacy Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.

These photos give me an idea of what the inside of Grandpa's pharmacy might have looked like.
(used with permission of the photographer Theresa V.)

Funeral Card Friday: Flavie M. Landry aka Mrs. Laurent Theaux

This is the same Grand mother who wrote the letters  I am  transcribing. 

More Letter from Grandma Theaux

I have transcribed the second page of Grandma Theaux's letter.

I find it interesting how I can hear her voice coming through these letters even though I never met her. [the spelling is hers]

I hope you enjoy reading these letters.

Page 2.....

"really silly. I was so stubon [stubborn] about that, of course it made my Dady mad, I thought he was silly, but now I can see that now how a little give in was all that was needed. 

Now come the time I realy fell in love I was 17 I had a verry good girl friend she would visit our house with her brother I had a cousin staying at my house both her perent had died so my mother being her aunt took her to stay with us she was about one year older then me, she and my girl friends brother wer as she would say going out together but all that time the boy was trying his luck with me but love was not my line all I wanted was a good time untill one day she was teasing me, I was to young for her and her boyfriend I could not be with them, I told her if I would want she would lose him, so she told me I would have to shake my go-go, in my shirt tail so that was the end of it.

And that was the end of all my good time for after I realy got in love, that cut me off. because I did not enjoy life any more and my Dad did not want me to have a boy friend, and that...[to be continued]