Friday Follow - Burbank California - THE JAMBOREE BEGINS

Coming to you live from Burbank California for the 45th Annual JAMBOREE put on by

the Southern California Genealogical Society and it's many sponsors............ Welcome to the Jamboree

I traveled Southwest Airlines Wednesday afternoon - smooth carefree trip. I am staying at the Los Angeles Marriott Hotel - Burbank Airport in Burbank California.......... This is the host hotel and is where everything is happening.  Lots of other early arrivals. Laptops being brought out for blogging. Hi to old friends. Free shuttle service to & from the Burbank Bob Hope Airport. Nothing else free.... no free wifi, breakfast, microwave, parking. Yada Yada Yada!! The rooms in the hotel are very nice and comfortable just would like a few more amenities (complimentary wifi would be GRRRREAT!). Now that that is out of the way, let's go on the fun stuff - the stuff that I came down here for............ well after I checked in, unpacked and ate dinner I settled down to write a few lines from many room, getting ready to pull out the old credit card for the wifi service.......  and to my surprise there is a letter in my room letting me know that they are initiating 'a new Internet experience' and they are susupending charging for the basic connection throughout the introductory period. So I am off and running since I don't know when the introductory period began or will end. Thank You Marriott. I am very thankful. The funny thing is at the overflow hotel 'Courtyard at the Marriott' they offer free wifi all the time. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Oh and my friend Marilyn Ulbricht is attending the Jamboree also - so I am looking forward to talking to her about the classes, speakers, exhibit hall and more. I was hoping that more Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society members would be attending but they aren't. I believe another friend KimVon Aspern-Parker will be attending.....  I am sure I will run into her sooner or later. 

The PINK SHEETS were up online for download - they are the Jamboree Bible. I made a point of reading everything and trying to remember most of it. I will be a room monitor througout the weekend and want to be able to help people with questions.

Thursday was a full day of DNA sessions. With a good opening keynote speaker, Dr Maurice Gleeson who I met Wednesday in the lobby area. I attended the luncheon for the DNA Day, Very Good. And a good time to try and digest all this information on DNA and get ready for the rest of the day of DNA. AND the bible sheets for this day are BLUE sheets. Necessary to have to know what is going on for the day with maps.

 
Dr Gleeson's presentation was HOW DNA WILL CHANGE THE FACE OF IRISH GENEALOGY.....

MAKING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN YOUR FAMILY TREE AND DNA with Cheri Melo

BEYOND X AND Y: THE PROMISE AND PITFALLS OF AUTOSOMAL DNA TESTING with Judy Russell (she is an excellent speaker- if you get a chance to take a session with her take it)

LUNCHEON: PANEL - PEERING INTO THE FUTURE OF GENETIC GENEALOGY with Blaine Bettinger (the Genetic Genealogist); Jake Byrnes (AncestryDNA)f Bennett Greenspan (FamilyTreeDNA); Joanna Mountain (23andMe); Diahan Southard (Genetic Genealogy Consultant).

USING AUTOSOMAL DNA TO EXPLORE YOUR ANCESTRY with Blaine Bettinger


ADVANCED TECHNIQUES FOR USE OF AUTOSOMAL DNA TESTS TO BREAK THROUGH GENEALOGICAL BRICK WALLS with Tim Janzen

The last session of the day was an open discussion. Participants were able to ask questions with either a representative of FamilyTreeDNA, AncestryDNA or 23andMe and ask your own questions. I was room monitor for the FamilyTree DNA Open Discussion. Most of the questions were over my head. My questions were basic but will ask tomorrow in the exhibit hall.

YES It was a very long day but for the most part very informative and a little overwhelming. Lots of new buzz words you will be hearing a lot from now on......... autosomal, family finder, chromosome mapping, triangulation, genetic genealogy, gedcom's, x chromosome test.

Nite......................