March 13, 2018
Liz Writes Life
I was wondering what was happening last year at this time, so
I checked my articles from March 2017 and found that my daffodils were
blooming. Yep, mine are blooming this year as well.
The big “but” is that our snow levels in the mountains are
dreadfully lacking. The 2017 snowfall in the mountains around Scott Valley were
at 145 and 125 percent of 50-year averages. That was super great after the five
previous years of drought.
Now, we have had another really poor snow and rain year, even
though the first part of March has given us moisture -- just not enough. The
March 1, 2018 Snowpack Survey by USFS Klamath National Forest employees found the
snowpack for the same areas surrounding Scott Valley is at 26 percent of
average. Hopefully, March will keep giving us snow to increase that snowpack.
Back to the garden, garlic is up about five-inches as are the
tulips. Jack decided to roto-til the garden last week, which was just in time
to get the weeds that were really starting to grow. The rhubarb is just barely
showing and Jack promised not to disturb them with the roto-tiller. Whew! He
reminds me quite often that he doesn’t like rhubarb!
The iris and daylilies are up about five-inches, but until
this last week’s rain everything was looking very dry – not thriving very well.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the hyacinths that I “forced” by
putting them in a bowl with rocks and water in the house did bloom. They were
pink, purple and white. I love their fragrance. It was fun to have them bloom
in February.
If you haven’t planted peas, now is a good time.
Genealogy
During the first few days of March, I was on-line checking-out
the Roots Tech Conference that was held in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake Utah.
Literally, thousands of people attended from around the world. In less than 10
years, Roots Tech has become the largest family history conference in the
world. This year, it started on Wed., Feb. 28th and ran through Sat. March 3,
2018 with several hundred workshops and presentations.
Steve Rockwood is the FamilySearch International CEO and he
shared a powerful keynote speech highlighting human emotion as the primary
element that engages people to do family history. In other words, it is the
historical stories that tug at our heart-strings and helps us appreciate our
ancestors.
Other keynote speakers included Olympic Gold Medalist ice skater,
Scott Hamilton; Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who hosts the television show
“Finding Your Roots”; and Brandon Stanton, who owns a “Humans of New York” blog
with millions of followers. He has captured photographs and stories of over
10,000 people.
These speakers encouraged us to get family history stories
written, audio or video recorded and then uploaded to genealogy websites like
Ancestry.com, Family Search, My Heritage, Find My Past and others. Technology
and innovation is moving at break-neck speed and this conference showcased
these products.
Indeed, and somewhat ironically, Roots Tech’s philosophy
claims that the future of family history lies in technology and innovation.
Companies, both large and small, presented their newest ideas and projects on
stage, in contests and in the huge commercial conference center.
So why am I talking about something that has already happened?
Well, there are more than 40 workshops that you can watch for free. Yep, I am
hoping to get you motivated, as well as myself, to do family history. Whether
it is finding your ancestors and putting them in a family tree or getting those
family stories documented. Remember, it is a really good idea to document your
current family’s stories and the newest technology makes it so simple. People
are using their smart phones to audio or video record family stories. Now that
is easy!
Videos of the keynote motivational speakers are also available
to watch from the RootsTech.org website. Hamilton’s is really fun. He was
adopted at six-weeks of age and laughs at the trials that life has given him,
including cancer.
One of the live-streamed workshops I watched was about Google
Photos. Did you know that we can use your smart phone to take photos of our
photos (this is great for the old black and whites) and immediately upload them
to the invisible cloud (yep, I don’t know where this is) where they are stored,
then they can be sent to family history sites, facebook social-type posts or
emailed, where they can be enjoyed by others who are looking for these ancestors.
A lot of connections and sharing of family tree info is being done on social
media.
This kind of technology is creating avenues for networking
that is quick and easy. No more old-fashioned letter writing, sending by snail
mail and waiting months for responses.
There are also millions of census, birth, death, marriage,
church, social security, and much more that have been digitized and are now available
on-line. It is truly amazing what technology has already accomplished, but
innovators are not slowing down.
Some of the video presentations available teach you about DNA
testing and how to use your results to help you find more relatives. Another
helps you decide which DNA test you should take. World War II research is a
topic and another presentation talked about the ‘hidden treasures” in the
Library of Congress, which is on-line. Some workshops are for beginners and
others for the more advanced.
If you want to dabble, just to see what you can find, check
out the free website FamilySearch.org. It is sponsored by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints and has millions of digitized records and resources;
and claims to have the largest collection of family trees in the world.
Next week, I’ll report on the winner of the Alaska Iditarod
Sled Dog Race! As of Monday morning, Nic Petit left Shaktoolik 2 hours and 34
minutes ahead of Mitch Seavey, who won the race last year. The winner will
cross the finish line sometime on Wednesday.
Scott Valley Protect Our Water will hold its next meeting on
Thursday, March 29, 2018 at the Fort Jones Community Center. Time is 7 p.m.
Liz Bowen is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near
Callahan. Call her at 530-467-3515.
# # #
No comments:
Post a Comment