Dear Ancestry Insider,

I am very frustrated, and think you might be in a position to help, at least understand the problem.

The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] has digitized and indexed millions of records which is a wonderful thing.

What is not so wonderful is that these names are being bulk merged by computer to existing family lines and more often than not, fouling them up.  I am suddenly finding names attached to my family lines that are in a completely different geographical area than where my family lived, and with dates and other ...

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The Ancestry Insider is written independently of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.

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These are my notes from the session “Future Directions in Search,” by Ian Tester, a product manager at findmypast.co.uk, a brightsolid website.

As an aside, Tester mentioned that Find My Past will shortly be adding records from Ireland.

Ian Tester of Find My Past said the input to a search is a little bit of information about an ancestor, and the output is an ancestor. (Wrong, Ian. The output of a genealogy search is not a person, but a record. You’re committing the mistake that I’ve so often criticized in this space. ...

“Wildly successful. Loved every minute,” said Jay Verkler after the conclusion of the inaugural RootsTech Conference. Apparently attendees agreed; during the closing session audience members gave organizers a standing ovation. Verkler’s grand experiment to create synergy between genealogists, vendors, and technologists had been a big success.

“RootsTech 2011 was an amazing accomplishment,” wrote blogger Polly FitzGerald Kimmitt. “It's not about the technology, it's about how the technology draws us together.”

“It is a big ...

“The opportunity of our generation is to put information online,” said Brewster Kahle during his RootsTech keynote address. Kahle is the founder of the über-awesome Internet Archive and Open Library.

“Will our descendants know out story?” asked Kahle. We can take our personal “box-o-stuff” and preserve it. Images can be digitized for about 25 cents apiece. Super 8, 8, and 16 millimeter family movies cost about $200 per hour to digitize. Digitizing audio disks costs about $10 per disk and $10 per hour.

Kahle said that ...

“We have some of the finest organizations on earth represented and handling various aspects of this conference,” said Elder Richard G. Scott at RootsTech. “We feel honored to be part of that.” Scott is a high ranking leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

(Presumably, Scott is Jay Verkler’s boss’s boss, according to publicly available information.

While Verkler is the president and CEO of FamilySearch, his position at FamilySearch sponsor, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is managing director of ...

“I really think these are really the best of times for genealogy,” said Curt Witcher. “All of us really know the passion of finding family. And with technology we can tell that story better.” Introduced by “Timothy” Sullivan of Ancestry.com, Curt Witcher is the department manager for the Historical Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

“Where are the most open, lit screens in the Allen County Public Library?” he asked. “You all will know. The genealogy section.” ...

The RootsTech conference goal of bringing together technology users and technology producers was nowhere more evident as in the Expo Hall.

“We want to merge the two and see if we can’t drive innovation in the genealogy world,” said Paul Nauta.

“We’re not sure if it’s going to work,” said Jay Verkler, “but if you think about technologists and genealogists, they’re both compulsive problem solvers.”

The Expo includes components directed to this end in addition to the usual trade show fodder: booths, vendors, ...

“Technology can be used as an enabler and accelerator,” said Bruce Miller at the FamilySearch technology booth. FamilySearch is showing the technologies it uses to acquire, publish, and preserve historical record collections.

Larry Telford told us that FamilySearch has developed a new technology they called DCAM/X. DCAM/X is used with their digital cameras in the field. As important as it is to capture images of historical records, it is just as important to capture metadata about the records. Metadata is the information genealogists need to cite their sources and ...

  “Why would we have a technology conference related to genealogy?” asked Jay Verkler, “When friction and filtering is reduced between connections, innovation occurs.” Verkler spoke during the opening keynote session of the new RootsTech conference this morning. The conference brings together users and producers of technology. “We hope you’re picking up a view of what’s possible.”

One recent innovation in technology is the cloud. The cloud is big. I’m not talking about actual breadth, but importance. The ...

The new RootsTech Conference inaugural opening is today, Thursday, 10 February 2011. Close to 3,000 attendees are expected to attend. Keynote addresses will be streamed complimentary at RootsTech.org, and Twitter users can follow real-time updates using #rootstech.

“When we first started, we thought we’d have 1,500 attendees,” said Jay Verkler. “We thought 2,000 was a stretch goal.” At a pre-conference media event Verkler, chief executive officer of FamilySearch, expressed optimism about the success of this new conference.

“The purpose ...

After a week of rumors, FamilySearch announced Tuesday the return of Ancestry.com to family history centers.

In addition to Ancestry.com, the FHC portal gives family history centers free access to these premium websites:

19th Century British Library Newspaper Digital Archive Alexander Street Press – The American Civil War Find My Past Footnote.com The Genealogist Genline Family Finder Godfrey Memorial Library Heritage Quest Online Historical Map Works Library Edition Paper Trail (from the Oregon-California Trails Association) World Vital ...

In Salt Lake or in your home town, there are parts of RootsTech that you can participate in for free.

A Few, Select Sessions Live and Free Online

Conference organizers have selected eight popular sessions to broadcast live and free on the Internet. These include all four keynote addresses. You can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org.

10 Feb Thursday Sessions 8:30-9:50 a.m. A world of Information, Shane Robison, chief technology officer, Hewlett Packard Turning Roots, Branches, Trees ...

Free training and a devotional with Elder Richard G. Scott are available for family history consultants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the RootsTech Conference this week. RootsTech starts this Thursday (February 10th) and runs through Saturday (February 12th) at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City.

Devotional. Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will give a fireside talk on Saturday, 12 February 2011 at 11:00 AM. Registration is required to attend.

There are two training ...

Remember that today is Super Indexing Sunday! Join the rest of the genealogical community as we shatter the single day indexing record.

Top Ten Suggestions for Super Indexing Sunday:

10. Set your own indexing goal for the day.

9. Challenge your friends to an indexing bowl. Most names wins.

8. Host an indexing party.

7. Get comfy on the couch with eats and a laptop. TV optional.

6. Once your team is behind by 30, concentrate more on indexing than losing .

5. Index two names between each play and ten during each penalty.

4. ...