February 24 - March 2 - Sunday to Saturday

The RootsTech Tree Symbol which is unique

Sunday Feb 24

I have been thinking about how much I am enjoying this mission serving in the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission assigned to the Family History Library.  It is very rewarding to help the wide variety of guests who visit the library. I also enjoy the friends that we are making among the other missionaries.

We enjoyed Music and the Spoken Word.  One whole section on the main floor was reserved for individuals attending an “Au Pair” (nanny) conference.  Of course, we attended church from 1 to 3pm.  .

Today is Sister Tolman's father Rowland Senior’s 91st birthday.  We went to her sister Jayne’s home for dinner.  Sister Tolman baked an apple cake for dessert.  It was good to be able to have all of her siblings together.  

Rowland Senior with his new WWII Veteran's cap

Rowland and Lois Senior with his birthday cake made by Sister Tolman

Monday Feb 25

We attended the Mission devotional.  Sister Pressley shared an experience with almost losing her son to drowning when he was three years old and how this changed her life for the better.  If you want to read the complete story, see the end of this week's blog entry.

We went to Salt Palace to get registered and get our tee shirts and badges for Roots Teach.  Here we are below with our green shirts.

Tuesday Feb 26

We attended the 8am Endowment session at the Temple.  We enjoy being so close to the temple.

Started at the library at 2pm with the zone leadership meeting.  Our schedule today is 2pm to 11pm due to extended hours for RootsTech attenders.

We were busy helping individuals the whole time.  Most of these were attending RootsTech. Sister Tolman was Floor Supervisor a lot of the time. I helped woman analyze her aunt’s ancestry trees and made sure she could get access to the trees since her aunt had passed away.  I showed her how to access them from her account as soon as she is able to get her LDS member account reactivated.  

Both Sister Tolman and I helped a mother and daughter who are from Northern Wyoming (Cody).  They knew where Lovell, Wyoming was where my father was born.  We both helped them with using Memories and Sister Tolman took a while to figure out what they wanted and it turned out they wanted to know how to document information about the photos they were adding (add Title, date and place and any other information about the pictures). Elder Tolman helped the mother with adding stories as well.

Helped man understand how to upload a GEDCOM from PAF to FamilyTree and explained the  analysis function to avoid creating duplicates.  We found that at least some of this ancestors were on the tree but there are some that are not so he could use the interface when he gets home to make the needed additions. 

Helped a woman with some research questions.  Found out she is a church member and an adult convert.  She has been doing a lot of genealogy over the past 40 years since she joined the church. She has always worked to extend her ancestor lines.  I showed her about descendancy research.  She is a ward temple and family history consultant. I showed her my blog and showed her how descendancy research is done.

Helped Jason whom I have helped before and worked with him right up to 11pm.  He has some questions about part of his line and we reviewed census records and found more records so he was convinced this part of the tree was accurate.

Helped a man work with finding information on the FamilySearch Catalog and helped a woman with several technical questions and how to do some searching.  Later she told me she couldn’t get her laptop connected to the familysearch library WiFi.  She brought up her computer and I was able to help her.  I have seen her several times during the week at Rootstech and on Friday night at the library when we stopped by for a short time.

When we helped the RootsTech people today we told them we would be at the Cyber Café all week.

We visited with Leona Pierce who served with us at the Mesa FamilySearch library.  She is her for RootsTech.  We expect to see some others from the Phoenix area this week.

Went to dinner between 5 and 6 at Kneaders.  The food was good and this time we used a gift card that was actually for Kneaders instead of Deseret Book which we tried last time.

Wednesday Feb 27
We attended RootsTech 2019 starting at 9am.  We attended Ron Tanner's presentation on "What’s new in FamilySearch." We really enjoying his presentations as he is very entertaining and shares a lot of good information.  Here is a statistics summary of FamilySearch at this time.

We next went to a presentation on the FamilySearch Catalog and learned a whole lot more about the Catalog capabilities.  Before the presentation started we happened to sit by a missionary (Sister Konuizy) with whom we worked at the Mesa FamilySearch Library.  We enjoyed visiting with her before the class.  

We had a really good lunch of Chinese food, noodles, fried rice, beef, orange chicken and salad with wontons.  We also took some snacks to tide us over in the early evening.  We enjoyed talking to some FamilySearch employees and had a good visit with them.

I attended a class for Temple and Family History Consultants and Sister Tolman attended a class on writing family history stories.  We both attended a class at 3pm on using the hints in the major family history sites.

We attended the Keynote speaker session at 4:30pm.  The speakers were Steve Rockwood, Elder Foster, Elder Bednar, Michael B Moore of the International African American Museum, and Martin Luther King III.  The church is donating $2 million to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.  Here is a quote from Elder Bednar.  “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through FamilySearch International, is making a concerted effort to help establish a bridge back to Africa so individuals can reclaim their African roots,”  Read and watch more about this donation and its purpose at the following link on LDS.org Newsroom Article

Elder Bednar, Michael B Moore and Martin Luther King III

Elder Bednar and Michael B Moore right after the donation announcement

We worked at the Cyber Café from 6 to 8pm.  Here are pictures of us in front of the Cyber Cafe with our green shirts and what it normally looks like with all the people sitting at the computers..  

People sitting at the computers at the Cyber Cafe

I met my second cousin Patti Ann Gilbert from Lehi. The FamilyTree mobile app is updated to identify common ancestors. She found me and sent me a text and I told her that I was working at the Cyber Cafe.  Our common ancestor is Jaren Tolman, our great-grandfather. She comes from a different wife. I encouraged her to serve a full-time mission with her husband.

Elder Tolman with 2nd Cousin Patti Ann Gilbert

I helped several others at the Cyber Café.  We saw and visited with Elder Tolman's sister Glenna and her daughter Lori.  Lori shows as my closest relative on the FamilySearch mobile app (see below).

We met and talked to Linda Boatman and Margaret Burke who served with us at the Mesa Family History Library. We also saw them again on Saturday.

Sister Tolman, Linda Boatman and Margaret Burke

Thursday Feb 28

At 8am I attended a class on Scandinavian Research.  Sister Tolman attended a class on stories and sat by our friend Ann Ray. 

Sister Tolman with Ann Ray from our home ward

We started work in the Cyber Cafe at 9am. Helped a lot of people including Sam Morrison.  We uploaded his tree to MyHeritage.com from ancestry.com and also uploaded both his and his wife’s DNA from Ancestry.com to MeHeritage.com.   We found out that the flash drive that he brought with him was bad.  He got a new one and I helped him upload files.

Helped two sisters and a brother upload pictures of their mother.  This family of 7 drove from near Dallas, Texas to RootsTech (a long drive). 

I helped my sister Glenna and a lot of others find their Mayflower ancestors and helped two women who just met and had become friends as they were related print out the document showing their relationship.

Helped an experienced genealogist with identifying the biological and adoptive parents of her husband’s relative.  I showed her how to connect and share her ancestry.com information with FamilySearch/FamilyTree.   She was at the Cyber Cafe everyday applying what she was learning in the classes that she took.  Sister Tolman met her and helped her some on Saturday,.

I purchased a historical fiction book titled “For the Strength of the Hills” from the author and she added her autograph.  Her website is https://www.karenpetersonmosley.com/   

Also purchased a video which is a documentary titled Gina’s Journey which premiered at Rootstech.  The website is https://www.ginasjourney.com/  

Talked to a member sister who has had a lot of challenges in her life.  I helped her with some family history questions and encouraged her to hang in there.  I later saw her at the Family History LIbrary.

Sister Tolman met Scott and Angelle Anderson in person.  She had worked with Angelle on family home evening lessons she shared at least 25 years ago.  Scott works for The Family History Guide now.  Here is a picture of them taken on Saturday morning after the class they taught

The keynote speaker today was Patricia Heaton from “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The Middle”.  See at summary at https://www.rootstech.org/bog/patricia-heaton-keynote-begins-and-ends-with-family

Here is a quote “Speaking of her long and successful career playing a wife and mother, Heaton said, “What’s really been such a gift to me is that the two longest running shows that I’ve done, Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle have been about family, and that has meant so much to me.””

Hear a little from her presentation at Patricia Heaton Presentation

At 7pm we watched the one-hour Temple and Family History Leadership Session led by Elder Bednar.  We enjoyed this presentation.  It can be reviewed at LDS.org at 2019 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction

Friday Mar 1

We had a busy day.  We attended one class from 8 to 9am which we could have skipped and slept for another hour.  We were busy all day helping people with a variety of things.  We both helped a lot of people with using Relativefinder.org to document how they were related to a Mayflower ancestor so they could join the Mayflower society.  Sister Tolman helped at least four people with FamilySearch Memories and Elder Tolman helped a few as well.

Helped a person recover her FamilySearch.org account and helped a woman from Illinois who is a Ward Temple and Family History Consultant.  I showed her the helper resources and also showed her a lot about FamilySearch.  She thanked me for teaching and helping her so much. 

I met a third cousin, Coleen Benson.  Our common ancestors are Judson Tolman and Sarah Lucretia Holbrook.  We visited for a long time.  She told me lots of stories about her part of the family and our common ancestors.  She needs to update the death place of one of her ancestors and I showed her how to create a source documenting that fact since it is recorded only in a family story quoting from a newspaper article.  

Elder Tolman with 4th cousin Coleen Benson

We saw Jeanne Konuizy and Peggy Ash on the way to lunch.  We served with them in the Mesa Family History library.  

We had a good lunch at the Plaza Hotel.  One of the individuals we at lunch with works at FamilySearch as a software developer working mostly on the Indexing software.  He is a fourth cousin on the Tolman line.

Things finally slowed down a little later in the afternoon and I went to visit the Relative Race booth in the Expo Hall.  We have watched all the seasons of Relative Race on BYUtv  The new season starts on March 10.  At their booth, they had a corn hole toss and if you made the most difficult toss in one out of four tries, you won a tee shirt.  I made it on the fourth try.  I called Sister Tolman and she joined me.  She tried the toss and also won a tee shirt with her last toss.  We had our picture taken with the host Dan Debenham and had about a 15-minute conversation with him. He told us about how they look for candidates for the show and encouraged us to recommend someone if we see someone we help at the library who might fit. It was really fun to talk to him.

Elder and Sister Tolman with Dan Debenham host of Relative Race

Access this link to see Friday Highlights  The featured speaker was Saroo Brierly.  Here is a quote.
"In one of the most memorable keynote sessions in RootsTech history, Saroo Brierly touched attendee hearts with his remarkable story of reconnecting with his homeland and biological family after being separated for more than 20 years.  "I had to go back, in order to move forward."  Purchased his book titled "A Long Way Home".

Saturday Mar 2

Here we are at our last day of helping at RootsTech 2019.  We attended a class this morning at 8am titled “Discover, Gather, and Connect Your Family Together”.   It was led by Angelle and Scott Anderson.  We really enjoyed the class.  Sister Joy D Jones Primary General President was sitting a couple of rows in front of us. 

How Family Stories of ancestors help children

The Apostolic Blessings from Temple and Family History 

The hallway was really got busy once it was time for Family Discovery Day to start at 9:30am.  See a picture of lots of people walking to the main stage where the General Session was held with Elder and Sister Bednar speaking.

While the Family Discovery session was going on we had an hour to explore the Expo Hall some more.  From 10:30am until we closed the Expo Hall at 2pm we were very busy helping people.  Most of our 36 computers were occupied during that time.  We helped and answered lots of questions. We both helped a man from Hawaii get started on his tree.  His brother was there helping him as well.  I was able to help a woman visiting from north of Coalville who was here just for Family Discovery Day.  I showed her the new features on FamilyTree and since she had some experience and wanted to learn more about searching ancestors and adding to the tree, I shared my family history blog with her.  We finished right before the computers shut down at 1:50pm.

We were able to get away for lunch at about 12:30pm and had Chick Fil A chicken sandwiches and Cold Stone Creamery ice cream for dessert. 

We saw a lot of friends and family today.  We saw Sister Tolman’s cousin Sharon Lenhart who is her uncle Bob’s daughter and it turns out that Elder Tolman is her fifth cousin with Abigail Mead and Daniel McBride being the common ancestors.  

Sharon's daughter, Sharon Lenhart, and Sister Tolman

We saw Sister Tolman’s sister Jayne and husband Greg and had a good visit with them.

Greg, Jayne, and Sister Tolman

There were two main events going on today.  The first was Family Discovery Day.  The main session from 9:30 to 10:30am can be reviewed on LDS.org.  We watched and enjoyed this session in the evening as we were unable to participate at 9:30am. The other event was with Jake Shimabukuro, a world-renowned ukulele master. We purchased a CD with his music.  You can see a brief review at Saturday General Session

Here we are back at our apartment after a long day.  It also started snowing and we walked back in the cold and snow.  We look a little different than we did on Monday.

Looking tired after our four day's helping at RootsTech

Here are some memorabilia from our week showing the front and back of our tee shirts, our lanyards that we needed to show so we could attend RootsTech classes and our badges with our names for when we were helping at the Cyber Cafe.

The front of our Tee Shirts for the Cyber Cafe

The back of our Tee Shirts with our lanyards and name tags

Sister Presley’s Experience shared at the Monday Devotional

One of the most difficult situations happened shortly after my son’s third birthday. One of his birthday gifts was a large beach ball, which turned out to be very popular among all of the children. He accidently fell into our backyard pool while trying to retrieve a beach ball. My six-year daughter found him in the bottom of pool and by the grace of god was able to get him out of the water. The message to me from her was “Mama, I found Jamie in the bottom of the pool, I got him out but he won’t talk to me. Of course, sheer panic set in as I rushed to his side. He was motionless; I picked him up and ran to my neighbor’s home, the wife opened the door, and took one look and immediately called 911. I laid Jamie on the floor and started to give him mouth-to-mouth CPR or resuscitation. Within minutes help arrived, and Jamie was whisked away instantaneously, w/o any sign of life from my son!

This was one of my deepest and darkness moments!!! By this time, the whole neighborhood had heard about the accident and one of them took my daughter and me to the hospital! Upon arrival to the hospital, I had to wait in the setting room, w/o knowing what was going on! I began to hear my grandmother’s voice as if she was setting right beside me. Here is what I did; I knelt down on my knees, in the middle of the setting room and called out to my father in heaven, with all of the fever of heart. I made a convent with the Lord, w/o having any knowledge of what I was doing. I promised Him from that day forward, I would serve him for the rest of my life, no matter what! I would teach my children all that they should know about the Father and the Son. While I was still crying out to My Heavenly Father, a nurse tapped me on the shoulder and said come with me. At that moment, I felt like someone had covered me with a warm blanket! I felt His Peace, His Love, and His Comfort! That Peace that surpasses all understanding! It was as if I was having an out of body experience! When I went through the door, my son said, “Mom I’m hungry”!