Family History Enthusiasts are 'Heart Specialists'
for the rest of society, RootsTech speaker says
Julianne Trotter puts on a mask as keynote speaker Steve Rockwood tells the audience that they are all heart doctors and need to look the part, during the RootsTech conference Thursday, Feb. 4 2016 from Deseret News by Kristin Murphy
Julianne Trotter puts on a mask as keynote speaker Steve Rockwood tells the audience that they are all heart doctors and need to look the part, during the RootsTech conference at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016.
When Stephen T. Rockwood was a boy of 10, he received a BB gun for Christmas. While he was reading the rules and responsibilities of owning it, including “never, ever shoot inside the house,” his dad took the gun, took careful aim at a Christmas tree ornament and pulled the trigger, obliterating the ornament. . .
Julianne Trotter puts on a mask as keynote speaker Steve Rockwood tells the audience that they are all heart doctors and need to look the part, during the RootsTech conference at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016.
When Stephen T. Rockwood was a boy of 10, he received a BB gun for Christmas. While he was reading the rules and responsibilities of owning it, including “never, ever shoot inside the house,” his dad took the gun, took careful aim at a Christmas tree ornament and pulled the trigger, obliterating the ornament. . .
To attract novices, including family members, to family history, enthusiasts need to reach their hearts with meaningful stories — “It was so cool!” exclaimed Rockwood, as he recounted the memory during the opening session Thursday of RootsTech 2016 at the Salt Palace Convention Center.
“My dad was just awesome. But then, of course, he handed it back to me and said, ‘Don’t tell your mother.’”
On another Christmas many years later, the father, Truman Rockwood, shared with his children and their spouses his feelings about the true meaning of Christmas “and his never-ending love for each of us,” said Rockwood, the new president and CEO of FamilySearch International, organizer of the annual RootsTech conference.
“I’ll never forget the heartfelt counsel he gave us,” the CEO said, “along with promises of how happy we would be if we always lived by what we knew to be true.”
On Father’s Day of that year, Truman Rockwood died.
Steve Rockwood said his four sons have never met their Grandpa Tru. “But I guarantee they know him and are growing up to be like him, as he lives on through the stories, pictures and lessons they have heard throughout their lives.”
Rockwood said every family has favorites stories like this one.
“To get and keep the non-genealogist’s attention, we need to focus on the person, not on the genealogical search,” he said to the audience estimated at 12,000, with a potential 150,000 viewers watching via Internet streaming, virtually all of them family history enthusiasts at this, the world’s largest family history event.
“We need to keep it short, and we need to keep it meaningful,” he admonished. “If we’re going to reach our family members, we need to reach their hearts within 60 seconds.”
Thus, the RootsTech attendees “are, in a way, heart specialists,” he said, “heart specialists for society, and most importantly, heart specialists for your family.”
He invited his listeners to don surgical masks that had been distributed beforehand at each seat in the hall.
“You may have thought you came to RootsTech to see the latest apps and technology,” he said. “You did. But RootsTech is so much more than that. … This is a a train-the-trainer convention of family history heart doctors. All the vendors and booths and classes are here to help you better touch the hearts of your family members and of society with family history.”
“My dad was just awesome. But then, of course, he handed it back to me and said, ‘Don’t tell your mother.’”
On another Christmas many years later, the father, Truman Rockwood, shared with his children and their spouses his feelings about the true meaning of Christmas “and his never-ending love for each of us,” said Rockwood, the new president and CEO of FamilySearch International, organizer of the annual RootsTech conference.
“I’ll never forget the heartfelt counsel he gave us,” the CEO said, “along with promises of how happy we would be if we always lived by what we knew to be true.”
On Father’s Day of that year, Truman Rockwood died.
Steve Rockwood said his four sons have never met their Grandpa Tru. “But I guarantee they know him and are growing up to be like him, as he lives on through the stories, pictures and lessons they have heard throughout their lives.”
Rockwood said every family has favorites stories like this one.
“To get and keep the non-genealogist’s attention, we need to focus on the person, not on the genealogical search,” he said to the audience estimated at 12,000, with a potential 150,000 viewers watching via Internet streaming, virtually all of them family history enthusiasts at this, the world’s largest family history event.
“We need to keep it short, and we need to keep it meaningful,” he admonished. “If we’re going to reach our family members, we need to reach their hearts within 60 seconds.”
Thus, the RootsTech attendees “are, in a way, heart specialists,” he said, “heart specialists for society, and most importantly, heart specialists for your family.”
He invited his listeners to don surgical masks that had been distributed beforehand at each seat in the hall.
“You may have thought you came to RootsTech to see the latest apps and technology,” he said. “You did. But RootsTech is so much more than that. … This is a a train-the-trainer convention of family history heart doctors. All the vendors and booths and classes are here to help you better touch the hearts of your family members and of society with family history.”
Paula Williams Madison, CEO of Madison Media Management Also speaking in the keynote session was Paula Williams Madison, chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management, whose documentary movie “Finding Samuel Lowe: from Harlem to China,” chronicles her journey to her maternal grandfather’s homeland in China and reconnection with his 300 descendants. Madison, who is African-American, said she and her brothers attended a genealogy conference in Toronto, Ontario. While at the airport waiting to come home, they spoke with a FamilySearch representative and learned about its global online database.
She said she typed in her grandfather’s name, his birthplace of Kingston, Jamaica, and her grandmother’s birthplace in China, and in seconds the ship’s manifest popped up bearing the name of her grandparents and their youngest daughters leaving Jamaica for the last time to go to Hong Kong.
“I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “My mother hadn’t seen him or knew anything about him in decades, in a lifetime, and in seconds, you all solved a mystery in our family,” she added, referring to FamilySearch and its global army of volunteers whose indexing efforts have contributed to the billions of searchable records online.
She said she typed in her grandfather’s name, his birthplace of Kingston, Jamaica, and her grandmother’s birthplace in China, and in seconds the ship’s manifest popped up bearing the name of her grandparents and their youngest daughters leaving Jamaica for the last time to go to Hong Kong.
“I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “My mother hadn’t seen him or knew anything about him in decades, in a lifetime, and in seconds, you all solved a mystery in our family,” she added, referring to FamilySearch and its global army of volunteers whose indexing efforts have contributed to the billions of searchable records online.
“This Life” column for the Sunday New York Times and host of the PBS series “Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys, with Bruce Feiler.” A third speaker at the session was Bruce Feiler, author of the “This Life” column for the Sunday New York Times and host of the PBS series “Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys, with Bruce Feiler.”
Feiler said researchers gave children a series of tests, first in 2001, with four dozen families. The children were asked questions about their relatives.
A high score on the test was the highest predictor of the children’s emotional well-being and whether they felt they could affect the world around them, he said. “It was the number one predictor of a child’s happiness.”
If you missed Bruce Feiler's talk at Rootstech in our previous article, take time to listen to it this time. It is not very long, and it is worth your time.
Feiler said researchers gave children a series of tests, first in 2001, with four dozen families. The children were asked questions about their relatives.
A high score on the test was the highest predictor of the children’s emotional well-being and whether they felt they could affect the world around them, he said. “It was the number one predictor of a child’s happiness.”
If you missed Bruce Feiler's talk at Rootstech in our previous article, take time to listen to it this time. It is not very long, and it is worth your time.