... we embark on educating citizens of the urgent need to preserve the legacy of the 20th century before it is too late!

Several months ago, I informed Tom Cormier of the RootsTech 2012 Conference to be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah on Feb 2-4, 2012.  To make a long story short, he decided to plan on attending.  As we discussed his coming to Utah, I also asked about the possibility of my receiving Certified Legacy Advisor (CLA) Training.  He agreed that he would be willing to do that during the RootsTech Conference weekend.

As plans began to be made, I arranged for a substitute to take my science classes for Thursday and Friday, Feb. 2nd and 3rd.  Tom made his flight and intinerary.  As time went on both he and Justin, his son, decided that both would also attend but Justin would drive across country from Knoxville, Tennessee to our home in Salem, Utah.  But that came sometime later due to events that transpired, that as I look back are all tender mercies of a loving Heavenly Father helping us to empower others in affecting the lives of many of His children here upon Earth.

During Christmas Break from school, as I wrote stories in LegacyStories.org, I had the thought more than once that it would be interesting to see if an affiliation could be made between FamilySearch and the Living Legacy Project to assist in the I-ASK mission to save the living history of the 20th century.  Since I am involved as an indexer and arbitrator for FamilySearch Indexing and wehahve access to feedback cases, I decided that maybe I could make contact with someone who could answer that question.  I sinmply asked the question, "How can LegacyStories.org be avviliated with FamilySearch?"  I gave the LegacyStories URL as well as the URL for I-ASK and indicated that the project was about the launch.  I further indicated that I was simply making inquiry at this point in behalf of Dennis Stack and Tom Cormier.  The email was sent on the morning of December 28, 2011.  Generally, when I present a case to FamilySearch, the FamilySearch missionaries forward them to headquarters for reply.

Just before noon on December 30th, as I was writing a legacy story, I received a phone call from Gordon J. Clarke, marketing director working with the Expo Hall at RootsTech regarding FamilySearch's "Memories" and the possibility of having a booth at RootsTech2012.  Gordon indicated that one of the vendors was talking about down-sizing their booth and he wanted to know if "LegacyStories.org" would like to have a booth at the Expo Hall.  I told him that I had no authority, and I had simply requested information as to the possibility of becoming an affiliate of FamilySearch.  During our conversation, he said that FamilySearch was planning to establish their "Memories Project" as part of FamilySearch.org where their database would eventually use a search engine that would bring all information on the Internet for a particular individual together.

I referred him to Tom, and about a week later they made contact.  Tom secured a space for I-ASK and the Living Legacy Project to be introduced to over 4200 participants at RootsTech 2012.  Various sponsors including FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, BrightSolid (the Ancestry.com of the United Kingdom), Google, Dell, Archives.com and others were there along with both users and developers to bring together the needs of Family History and Technology.  This was the second year of the event with a more than 35% increase in particiipants.

As I attended 'users' classes, over and over again the participants were asking questions about what they were looking for in preserving their family history.  Presenters were interested in knowing the needs so they could include them in their product development, but again and again there was no one to present anything that really filled those needs.  Recognizing that the Living Legacy Project and LegacyStories.org were already in place to fill those needs, I took the opportunity to give my business card to specific people who had responded to developers' requests and told them that what they were looking for was at the "LegacyStories" booth.

During the conference, Justin manned the booth with help from myself, Tom, my wife Diane and my sister Jan Coover  in starting to make the LegacyStories and I-ASK names public and the response was beyond our expectations.  Many questions were asked--many answered.  Without doubt, the booth was certainly a success simply from the standpoint of awareness.  Beyond that remains to be seen.

For part 2, click HERE..