Stephanie Neilson of the NieNie Dialogues - Saturday Keynote #2

Saturday is the third and last day of the RootsTech 2014 Conference.

The second Keynote speaker on Saturday was Stephanie Nielson, who suffered the results of a plane crash that burned her over 80% of her body in 2008.  Here's a photo of Stephanie at the podium:

What a beautiful and strong person she is!  Her talk was the story of her recovery and resuming her life as a wife, a mother of four children, and a noted blogger.  They had another child two years ago, and showed a video of Stephanie loving her baby. 

Stephanie has written a book Heaven is Here.  She was interviewed by several media people in the Media Center, and signed her book for many other people. 

She told us that "It's how we deal with hard times that matters," and "Everyone has a story that needs to be told."

This presentation were inspiring and heartwarming - please watch the RootsTech video when it is available.

Todd Hansen of The Story Trek - Saturday Keynote 1

Saturday is the third and last day of the RootsTech 2014 Conference.

It started with two Keynote speakers - Todd Hansen (of The Story Trek show on BYU TV) and Stephanie Nielson (of the NieNie Dialogues blog).  The Keynotes should be on the RootsTech.org website in the next week or so.

Here is a photo of Todd Hansen of stage taking a picture of the audience:

Todd's presentation was about his career - he drops in on people at their homes and films their story.  Then he shows the stories on his TV show on BYU TV.  He showed many short videos of people telling their stories at their door or in the homes. 

Todd did a two-minute monologue on his life and family - working backwards in time from doing this talk to his work to his family to his parents to his grandparents to his immigrant great-grandparents.  That sounds like a good blog topic!

He encouraged us to take pictures and videos of our lives, and tell our stories, one at a time.  Todd noted that "Everyone has an amazing story..." and you are important and need to tell your story."  After all, what will you say when he knocks on your door?

Saving Memories Forever - Friday "New Genealogy Product" Pick

Saving Memories Forever is my choice for Friday's New Genealogy Product - it's a no-brainer, really, since they won the FamilySearch Developer's Challenge award this year at RootsTech 2014.

Jane and Harvey Baker have created a mobile app and a website that helps families record, share, and save their family stories.  The key to this app is the ability to do voice recordings on a mobile phone or tablet device. 

The website says:

"Saving Memories Forever is a system that consists of an app and a website. The app provides great mobility for interviewing and easy uploading to a secure and private storage on the website. The app also gives you the opportunity to announce your newly recorded story thru Facebook. Listen to your recorded and uploaded stories on the website.  Also use the website to share and “manage” your stories.

"The features of the system are determined by the level of membership.  Saving Memories Forever is available as a Free Membership or as a Premium Subscription."

The website has an excellent description of how to use the site and the app at the Start Here page (https://www.savingmemoriesforever.com/Start-Here/).  

Here are Harvey and Jane in front of their exhibit this afternoon.

This looks like an excellent opportunity for people interested in recording family stories and saving them for their family and friends to hear.  I will download the app and try it out soon.

Congratulations to Harvey and Jane Baker for bringing this app to fruition and I wish them success with it.

Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman - Thursday Keynote #2

The second keynote speaker was Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, from Oklahoma, who started blogging eight years ago and now has thousands of readers, and her own cooking show on the Food Network.  A blog success story!  She talked about her own family history, her family, and her life as a celebrity blogger.

AncestorCloud - Thursday "New Genealogy Product" Pick

I will try to highlight at least one new product each day at RootsTech 2014.

Today, it's AncestorCloud (www.ancestorcloud.com).  

The screen says "Show & Tell for genealogists -- it's genealogy without limits."

The publicity says:

"Ancestorcloud is a social community for genealogists.  It's sharing without limits.  You can upload, share, and showcase all of your research files with family and friends for free.  You can also connect with, and follow your favorite researchers and keep on what they are sharing.  All in one beautifully designed place.

"We are launching soon and look forward to opening our doors to the first private beta user group.  Join the quickly growing, first of its kind social network for genealogists."

This site is still in development, but you can request an invitation on the site.

If you are at RootsTech 2014, you can drop by their booth - number 724 (near the Media Center).  I snapped a picture of Jeffrey Hicken and Wesley Eames when I stopped by:

I also signed up to try it out.  It's FREE, and has the potential to be a website to share my family photographs, stories and documents.  I need to work in it a bit, but will probably write about it in future weeks.