My trip to London and USA

I haven’t yet finished going over all the material I brought from the Who Do You Think You Are? Live event in London, but wanted to let everyone know about my recent trip. It was really a dream come true in every aspect.

Considered the major genealogy event in Europe, it was important for me to attend the London show – not only as the MyHeritage.com Genealogy and Translation Manager, but also as a genealogist with a great passion for the hit BBC series, now also available in several international versions.

Manning the MyHeritage booth meant I didn’t have much time to run around, but I was able to meet many great people. There is an incredible difference between genealogy events in the US and this event. The attendees are different, as the majority of the London visitors are ordinary viewers of the series who have just begun to develop some interest in their family history.

In the US, genealogy conference attendees tend to be hardcore genealogists with family trees numbering in the thousands, always talking about the next cemetery visit or the newest bit of evidence – just like me!

I also met members of UK genealogy and historical societies. The amount of material they produce is rather impressive, as are the number of related magazines and journals printed in the UK.

The MyHeritage booth, served by a mix of London and Israel staff: Laurence Harris, Mario Ruckh, Robert Barham and I; distributed some 1,500 CDs containing our free Family Tree Builder software, more than 2,000 leaflets with information, and chocolates to all our visitors. It was wonderful to meet MyHeritage users and learn how each person is taking advantage of our multiple features. We also provided six PremiumPlus accounts to lucky drawing winners. Thanks to all for a wonderful time in London.

On a more personal note as a genealogist, I couldn’t resist contacting some relatives and organizing a small family reunion. With advance planning, email and phone calls, we managed to get together five distant cousins from two branches of my paternal grandmother’s family.

These cousins haven’t met in more than 20 years because their parents had an argument back then. No one today really remembers what the argument was about and not really care any more. Does this sound familiar to you? It was an emotional get-together as we each brought old photos, compared notes about the family tree and took new photos. This reunion is the continuation of the magnificent work done by my late distant Uncle Lothar. I couldn’t resist taking the 45-minute tube ride plus a 20-minute bus ride – each way – to visit his grave.

Right now, I’m working full speed towards my next trip.

I’ve been invited to speak at the Family History Fair (Grand Junction, Colorado) and at the Computerized Family History & Genealogy Conference (Salt Lake City, Utah). This year this SLC event takes place in conjunction with the NGS annual conference. There’s no doubt it will be a very intense week.

For me, it will cap my West Coast Genealogy Tour, which includes speaking at other regional venues:
* April 17: Family History Fair; Grand Junction, Colorado.
* April 18: Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento, California.
* April 19: San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, California.
* April 21: San Joaquin Genealogy Society; Stockton, California.
* April 26: Computerized Family History & Genealogy Conference, Utah.
* April 27: Utah Jewish Genealogical Society; Salt Lake City, Utah.

For more details, visit my personal page http://www.searchingformyroots.com
This, however, is only the first part of my upcoming US visits, as I will be in California again in June and July for the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree (June 11-13), the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (July 11-16), along with other programs for genealogical and historical societies.
If your group would like me to speak, contact me and I’ll schedule it with pleasure.

Daniel at his lecture on WDYTYA