Tuesday, January 12, 2010

"Genealogy Media Day" at Ancestry.com

For the second year, Ancestry.com invited a number of "genealogy media" persons to come to Utah in early January to tour their facility, meet with their executives, and talk openly about issues. The tour and discussions at Ancestry.com took place on Friday, 8 January and there were hosted dinners on 8 and 9 January.

This year, the nine "genealogy media" persons (thank you, Diane, for the description) in attendance, and their blog posts to date (and I will update this post when necessary), included (listed in no particular order):

1) Kimberly Powell, who writes Kimberly's Genealogy Blog on the About: Genealogy site has posted:

*** Insights from Ancestry.com's Blogger Day 2010 on 11 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com's "New" New Search on 12 January 2010

2) Pat Richley, who writes the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog (and who I know is presently up to her neck in SLIG support work):

*** Ancestry.com Bloggers' Day 2010 on 8 January 2010
*** Census: 1790-1840 every field index on 8 January 2010

3) Diane Haddad of Family Tree Magazine, who writes The Genealogy Insider blog:

*** "New" New Search Coming to Ancestry.com on 11 January 2010
*** Inside an Ancestry.com Remote Scanning Facility on 12 January 2010
*** Records Coming Soon to a Large Genealogy Website Near You on 14 January 2010

4) Leland Meitzler of Family Roots Publishing, who writes the GenealogyBlog:

*** Blogger’s Day 2010 at Ancestry.com on 9 January 2010 (with a group picture)

5) Dick Eastman, who writes Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter:

***

6) The writer of The Ancestry Insider blog:

*** Ancestry.com 2nd Annual Bloggers Day (with a group picture) on 9 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day Banquet on 12 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Andrew Wait on 18 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: The Data Center on 19 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Data Center Tour (Part 2) on 21 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: DPS on 25 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: DPS (Part 2) on 26 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: DPS Tour on 28 January 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Technology on 1 February 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Technology (Part 2) on 2 February 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Lunch with Tim Sullivan on 4 February 2010
*** Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Content on 9 February 2010

7) Craig Manson, who writes the Geneablogie blog:

*** The Changed Face(s) of Ancestry.com on 10 January 2010

8) Thomas MacEntee, who writes the Destination:Austin Family blog and Geneabloggers blog:

*** Disclaimer: ancestry.com on 11 January 2010
*** ancestry.com Bloggers Day - Part 1 on 12 January 2010
*** Meeting A Genealogy Celebrity on 14 January 2010

9) Lisa Louise Cooke, who writes the Genealogy Gems Podcast blog:

*** Behind the Scenes at Ancestry.com - Your Questions, Their Answers on 10 January 2010

I'm sure that there will be more articles forthcoming from this august crew of hearty and hardy genealogy bloggers, er, media types.

There was also a group of Ancestry.com subscribers and Family Tree Maker users who were invited for separate meetings with the Ancestry.com team. There are blog posts from the individuals from that group:

10) Russ Worthington, who writes the Family Tree Maker User blog:

*** Visit to Ancestry.com Today on 9 January 2010

Read all of the blog posts listed above to learn about the important issues and "news" items learned by the participants. The discussions of the "New" New Search process, the "coming soon" databases, and the Saturday night banquet were of particular interest to me.

After last year's media day, it was apparent to me that Ancestry.com was trying to listen to and interact with their customers more. Of course, they were trying to influence the media day attendees also.

UPDATED: 14 January 2010 to add Diane's third post.
UPDATED: 19 January to add MacEntee's third post and Ancestry Insider's third and fourth posts.
UPDATED: 27 January to add The Ancestry Insider's 5th, 6th and 7th posts. More to come, I hope.
UPDATED: 2 February to add The Ancestry Insiders 8th, 9th and 10th posts. He still has more to come. The other bloggers? Out of sight, out of mind?

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