Jamboree 2019 Recap

We had a great time at the Southern California Genealogical Society’s 50th Genealogy Jamboree. The annual conference is a favorite for us because it is located right in our own backyard in Burbank, California.

The Geni booth before the start of the conference

Many genealogists flocked to the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel to participate in this fun and engaging conference. The exhibit hall was open to the public, so even those who didn’t have passes to attend any sessions had the opportunity to see what products are available in the world of genealogy and family history.

Celebrating Jamboree’s 50th birthday

The conference was also celebrating their 50th birthday and had many fun events to mark the occasion, including lots of cake!

The Geni team and curator Randy Schoenberg

With the conference so close to the Geni office, we had a few additional team members stop by during the conference. We were also joined once again by curator Randy Schoenberg, who is always happy to share his expertise and enthusiasm for Geni with conference attendees.

New users building their family trees on Geni

One of the best parts of attending genealogy conferences is having the opportunity to connect with Geni users. We had one user enthusiastically run up to us eager to tell her Geni story. She shared that when she first started on Geni many years ago, she wanted to find out how she was related to Albert Einstein. She knew her grandfather grew up in the same town that Einstein was born in and believed there was a connection somewhere between the families. At first, she received a long relationship path through marriages to the renowned physicist. Then after a few more years of research and building out her tree, the path refreshed and she found that Einstein was her 3rd cousin 3 times removed!

We happily answered many questions from visitors

A big advantage of the World Family Tree is how easy it is to fix mistakes. A woman stopped by to tell us that she had found a Geni profile for her 4th great grandmother, but the line had many mistakes and wanted to know how she could get it corrected. We helped her start an account and connect to the World Family Tree through the line in question. And then she proceeded to help fix the tree! She was very happy to see how easy it was to make the corrections and pointed out how difficult this can be on other sites because so many people copy the same mistake across duplicate trees.

Great to see our friend, Kitty Cooper

We also had the opportunity to catch up with some old friends. Geneablogger Kitty Cooper came by to chat for a while. Fun fact: It was a suggestion from Kitty at Jamboree a few years ago that inspired the Ancestor and Descendant reports for Geni profiles. Prominent blogger Randy Seaver also spent some time visiting and sharing stories about his wife’s Norwegian ancestry. We had lots of fun looking through his family tree on Geni.

Geni curators Randy Schoenberg and Bob Ourian

On the last day, Geni curator Bob Ourian dropped by to say hello. It’s always a treat to meet and spend time with our  hardworking curators in person!

It was announced this week that the SCGS will not be holding Jamboree next year. After a short break, they plan to be back in June 2021. We look forward to seeing what they will come up with next!