This Week On My Family History Calendar

March 26-April 1

March 25-
  My Maternal 3rd Great Grandmother, Eliza Atiza Brazell Roberts (1836-1890), would be celebrating her 182nd birthday. Eliza was born in Richland County, S.C. to John Brazell (1794-?) and Martha Parnold Brazell (1795-1876).   

Eliza (Brazell) Roberts
Headstone
Brown's Chapel Cemetary
Richland County, South Carolina

March 30~
   My maternal step-grandfather, Francis "Frank" Emerson Sullivan, Jr. (1923-2004), was born 95 years ago on this day. Frank was the first and only child of Francis Emerson Sullivan, Sr. (1880-1925) and Mary Christine (Williams) Sullivan. (1896-1930). 
He was born at Camp Jackson, Richland, South Carolina. 

Frank Sullivan
©Cheri Hudson Passey

Who are you rememsbering this week?
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Helping you climb your family tree,

Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!

You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.
                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 
Share by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section or you may also put a link to a blog post telling about what had you dancing this week.

My Happy Dance This Week:  
Have I mentioned that I love teaching people how to begin and continue on in their genealogy journey? Yep, I believe I have a time or two!
 Coaching is another love of mine. Spending one on one time with a client who needs an extra pair of eyes to look at a problem or advice an what their next steps should be or as my client this past week wanted, suggestions on how to begin with the box full of family photos and documents she had collected.
What had me doing the happy dance this week? My client's response when I asked her what prompted her to want to take the next step and actually begin sorting through the box and begin finding her ancestors and telling their stories. 
She picked up an old photo of a couple taken in the early 1900s and said: " I just feel so connected to them and want to know them." Tears were flowing from her eyes. What a touching moment! 

What made you want to start on your genealogy journey?


                                                                                   Share your discovery!

                                                                                   Let the dancing commence!

Share the fun! Click below to tweet this post! 

Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,

RootsTech 2018~An Opportunity to Feel and Be Inspired!

RootsTech 2018 Theme

RootsTech is unlike other genealogy conferences in many ways. 
One of those ways is daily opening sessions which include celebrity and industry speakers and the last two years, family comedian Jason Hewlett.
Why is that important and why should you care?
Often as we go about our genealogy research, looking for family and their stories, we can get frustrated, lose focus and stuck in a rut. Let's be honest. It can be a lonely pursuit.

The opening sessions of RootsTech can get you motivated and excited to do what we love! 

Starting each Keynote session, we were woken up and energized by the clean comedy of entertainer Jason Hewitt. He had us dancing, laughing and in tears as he was touched by the emotion shared by the speakers he introduced.

Enjoying the antics of Jason Hewlett

Industry leaders spoke of new projects to obtain records, technical advances in DNA and how to motivate and encourage the love of family and this important work of remembering those who have gone before.

We were welcomed to RootsTech 2018 by Steve Rockwood, President of FamilySearch International.

My Favorite Quote from Steve Rockwood

Scott Fisher of the genealogy podcast Extreme Genes leads panelists discussing the future of genealogy.

My Heritage Announced DNAQuest. Helping adoptees by offering free DNA Tests. 

Excitement for Season 3 of Relative Race was in the air as host Dan Debenham gave us a sneak preview of the show! If you haven't been watching, you really should!

Findmypast announced the digitization of more Catholic Church records!

The folks from Ancestry got my attention when talking about DNA stories. 

These happen to be mine!!

Celebrity Keynote speakers awed us with their tender stories of family, had us riveted in our seats with musical performances and touched our hearts when they couldn't contain excitement over being presented with documents and records to add to their family tree,

Brandon Stanton gifted photographer of Humans of New York explained how he began taking pictures of the people he met on the streets and his ability to pull the most amazing stories from this subjects. He touched my heart with the projects and people he supports. 

Raising money for childhood cancer

He was touched as David Rencher, Chief Genealogist at Family Search introduced him to family.

Learning out about family stories.

Olympic Skater and all around nice guy Scott Hamilton shared, for the first time in a keynote address, stories about his family.  He described his growing up years as an adopted child, his surrogate parents in the skating world, his marriage and struggle to have children and what it felt like the first time he held his son. He also shares how he and his wife were able to adopt two children from Haiti.
He understands that knowing who we are and where we come from brings stability and peace in our lives.

Scott Hamilton beginning his keynote address

A man proud of his family!

Learning his ancestors overcame adversity too from Diane Loosie, Family History Library Director

 Mexican Singer Natalia Lafourcade, you may know her from her song in the movie Coco, had us all in tears with her beautiful pure voice. She performed several songs for us including "Remeber Me"    which she sang live for the first time. Natalie headed to California the next day to sing it during the Acadamy Awards!  

The look on her face says it all. Natalie was surprised, and emotional as part of her family tree was revealed to her on stage.

Much anticipated speaker, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. from the PBS television series, "Finding Your Roots" shared his first experience in learning about an enslaved ancestor when he was a boy and the importance of never giving up on research.

Although having looked for years, just before arriving in Salt Lake, he received this copy of the newspaper obituary he remembered reading as a child. 

Circled is the Obituary for his once enslaved ancestor

Why attend these special RootsTech opening sessions? The sheer joy of experiencing these moments with other genealogists. That look of yes, we KNOW and UNDERSTAND with those sitting near us. 

Friends waiting for the day's opening sessions to begin!

Coming out of the hall, heading to our classes or the expo hall with a renewed feeling of I can do this, I want to do this! Now, let's go learn something that will help us do this!!

Why? Becuase of the opportunity to feel and be inspired! 

If you weren't able to attend RootsTech in person or view them on Livestream or simply want to watch these wonderful keynotes and see the recorded classes again, they can be watched by clicking on this link. 

Before you know it, we will be hearing about the speakers, classes, and events for RootsTech 2019.
I encourage you to go and experience the largest genealogy conference in the world!

Were you there, listened live or watched the recording? What was your favorite speaker or moment of the opening sessions?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Helping you climb your family tree,