Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Day 1 of Randy's Adventure in Salt Lake City

..
We were bright and early to get to the airport to take our 9 a.m. flight from San Diego to Phoenix to connect to the 12:15 flight to Salt Lake City.  Our bags made it on those flights but we changed our SLC flight when the first plane was an hour late.  So we got here at 3:30 instead of 1:50 p.m.  55F when we got here...warmer than I expected!  We checked in at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel and I took off to walk around the Family History Library looking for familiar faces.  Janelle waved at me, and Craig Scott was losing his battle to the microfilm scanning machine. 

Back at the Plaza lobby, I saw Paula Hinkel, Leo Myers and Jane Vantour (all from the Southern California Genealogical Society) checking in, so we talked for awhile, and arranged to meet for dinner at JBs next door.

Audrey Collins came along, and then Jan Gow, and many more.  Julie Tarr, Linda McCauley and Jane Haldeman came in and we talked, and then Paula Stuart-Warren and a host of others came off the elevators to go out together.  I know I've forgotten some names here...my apologies.

We went to dinner with the SCGS folks, and Vicky Hilb joined us.  The food was forgettable, but the conversation was great!  Then it was up to the room to check email and Blogger. 

The wireless internet at the hotel was really fast for me in the lobby on my iPhone, and in the room also.  However, the wireless in the room for the laptop was really slow to start with - I wonder why?  It took minutes for Gmail to load, and for Blogger to load.  I didn't try Reader or Facebook!  I noticed that the Calendar on my iPhone has reset to MST and all of my appointments are now an hour later than they really are.  Drat. 

On Wednesday, I'm off to the Family History Library in the morning, with a long to-do list, my iPhone, the camera and two flash drives.  My priority list is:

1)  Find four items that were in Alpheus Smith's (1802-1840) probate packet in Norfolk County, Mass.  Hopefully, they will provide more evidence that Elizabeth Dill Smith was the sister of James H. Dill, who purchased the estate at auction.

2)  Find Norfolk County, Mass. Land Records for the Smith and Dill families.  Plus Plimpton and Seaver while I'm at it. 

3)  Find Plymouth County, Mass. Probates for 1633-1686 - I need Snow, Chandler, Howland, Bangs, Hopkins and probably other probate records.

4)  Find Barnstable County, Mass. Probates for 1636-1894 - I have many names for which I'm sure there are probate records.

5)  That's probably enough to do in the morning... or perhaps all day! 

I have several other things on my To-Do list, but those are the most important ones.  Who knows, I may browse a bit and find something really interesting just before I have to leave. 

Blogging is going to be pretty light all week.  I will try to write a highlight post every night, but doubt that I will post pictures to the blog.  I may post pictures from the iPhone to Facebook.  I anticipate that the RootsTech Conference will take all of my time with events, presentations, the exhibit hall, and the Media Hub.  I'm looking forward to the Genealogy Idol competition, the Galaxy Girls talk and the Three Genea-girls presentation. 

Stay tuned for Day 2 of Randy's Great Adventure in Salt Lake City.

2 comments:

Marian said...

So wonderful that you are running into so many people. Oh, how I wish I was there. And funny to think that you are in SLC researching my local turf. I hope you find everything your looking for!

File Keeper said...

Randy, let me know if you find the Snow, Chandler and Hopkins probates. I'm going to be in SLC in April looking for those very same things.
Ellen Reesh