Salt Lake City (ABC 4 News) Thousands of detectives have descended on Salt Lake City. Instead of trying to solve crimes - they're tying to find roots to their family tree. The 2010 Family History convention is now underway at the Salt Palace Convention Center.
If you want to know about you Irish ancestors or your British blood or your Utah connections the National Genealogical Society Convention has you covered. Just ask genealogy expert Bobbi King. "There are programs here and lectures here that can help answer every questions." And King should know – she is one of the lecturers at the convention. She says this convention is massive and offers something for everyone. She also says that with increased access to detailed information, conventions in genealogy have changed in the past few years. "I think nowadays people don't come to hear such an such a person, but rather they come to hear that talk about that record set and that place."
It's also a place to make a splash. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints used the convention to announce it was making available another 300 million names through it's FamilySearch web site. That is something that excites people like King. "Its huge because it's across the world. Which means I can read a microfilm of Catholic church records of my little church in Poland."
The man who made that announcement is Jay Veckler - the Director of LDS Family History and CEO of FamilySearch. He says the news is big thing, but the convention is also about the little one on one meetings. “You cant solve these (genealogy) problems by yourself sometimes. You need to touch someone who knows about Ireland or Poland. That's why they congregate. They come together because they learn a lot from each other."
The Family History Convention is also a place where businesses showcase what they have to offer. Everywhere you go, you can find cd's and books – even family history art. Tim Firkowski is one of those businesses. He dressed up as Sherlock Holmes to push his genealogy research company. "I wanted to get a costume...so I could attract some attention." Firkowski calls himself a family history detective and he says genealogy research is not easy. "The Internet doesn't hold all the answers, it takes a lot of work." That may be true, but based on the turn out at the convention is appears thousands of people are willing to don't mind the work.
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