Back home again!

It is great to be back home again in New Mexico!

WDYTYA Live 2011 was a great experience - despite feeling a bit under the weather - and I managed to see some of my Bombay Dardashti cousins and Persian and British friends.

Genner personalities also included Lisa Louise Cooke (blogging for Family Tree magazine), photo detective Maureen Taylor, and Dick Eastman. Dick will be back in the UK in about six weeks for the one-name guild event.

Tracing the Tribe, of course, will be back in the UK in May for the Society of Genealogists' Centenary Conference and the JGS of Great Britain's Manchester one-day conference, followed by the National Genealogical Society's event in Charleston.

I'm trying to get things organized during March, while at home.

I'm already looking forward to next year's event. Wondering when the NBC version of the show will spawn a US-version of WDYTYA Live here at home. The event is so different from what we experience here at gen conferences and it might really take off as it would attract those who are really just beginning and want a "gen lite" experience.

Even better, our daughter arrived yesterday for a visit. Unfortunately, she seems to have the "bug" that is going around New York (and many other places!).

Chicken soup seems to be on the menu over the next few days, and also hoping it helps take care of this still coughing blogger and the bug from Salt Lake City!

Sorting through what seems like a thousand emails, notices from Jamboree, submissions to other conferences.

London: Making connections!

It was good that I spent Monday (my arrival day) running about and getting communications arranged.

In the evening, I organized some advance blogs, tweaked my WDYTYA Live presentation, had dinner in the hotel, including a huge bowl of delicious chicken and barley soup. Then serious jet-lag hit.

On Tuesday, I decided to stay in and get more advance blogging and research done, began contacting friends and cousins and arranging to see everyone.

The social calendar filled up quickly. Tuesday was dinner with some of our Bombay Dardashti cousins who came into town. Wednesday there was coffee with an old old friend - haven't seen each other for many decades. Thursday evening I spoke at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain, Friday was Shabbat dinner with Persian friends, and I'm hoping to see the London Talalay cousins this evening.

We sett up the MyHeritage.com display stand on Thursday. The first day (Friday) of the Who Do You Think You Are LIVE show was crowded from the first minute it opened. When we arrived, there was a long line of people waiting to get in and it seemed everyone came to visit us.

On Friday, Lisa Louise Cooke dropped by to record short pieces for her blog with Daniel Horowitz and with me. Dick Eastman was around, and we said hello to Maureen Taylor.

Today - Saturday - we're expecting an even bigger crowd. Dick Eastman just dropped by:

My talk this afternoon - in the Society of Genealogists' workshop series - focuses on "Creating Online Ancestral Communities."

We've had one day of partial sun, cloudy the rest of the time, and raining today. For our friends back in New Mexico, I'm suffering from sunshine withdrawal.

London: Arrived!

This morning's London arrival provided a demonstration in the goodness of perfect strangers.

Readers know that two weeks ago Tracing the Tribe was at RootsTech. I generally keep my small roll-on stocked with essentials (camera battery and cellphone chargers, computer bag, vitamins, etc.). Everything usually works very well, except .....

Arrived at the Albuquerque airport Sunday morning, noticed my cellphone battery was low, opened the bag for the charger, and found one. However, it was the charger for my old Israeli cellphone and had likely been lurking in the case since our November move. My second thought was perhaps the correct charger was in the checked bag,

Just in case, I called my husband to see if it was somewhere in the house. He checked all the usual places it might have been used. Wasn't in the kitchen or the office. That gave me some hope for the checked suitcase, until he said, "Here it is, in the living room!"

A reasonably smooth flight from Houston landed at 6.50am - an ungodly hour. Note to travellers flying into Heathrow for the first time: Be prepared to walk MILES - this airport gets bigger every year - to get to border control and baggage claim. Electric carts never looked so good. Got through the formalities and found the car service driver, Raj.

I mentioned to him that I needed a charger. Mind you, this is at 7.30am. He found a neighborhood market that sells such things on the way into town, saying it would be much less expensive than in Kensington High Street near my hotel. He took the phone in and came back with the charger at a cost of only a few pounds. He also obtained a sim card and topped it without my having to even get out of the car. What a great guy!

Kept trying to imagine a New York City taxi or car service driver providing the same level of customer care. That image escaped me.

Later in the day, I ventured out on the high street, looking for a pay-as-you-go phone to use this week and when I return in May for the Society of Genealogists' Centenary Conference. I also checked the charger price in a shop near the hotel and it was much more expensive than at the little neighborhood store..

Found a nearby branch of one of the major UK mobile phone companies and found another great guy - Kupresh - who explained all the possible options, made some excellent practical suggestions, programmed the phone, made sure everything was working perfectly and, in general, went far out of his way with kindness and good humor to help this very jet lagged traveler. My little bag also contained a broadband USB to avoid a very expensive hotel connection.

Moral of this story: Before each trip, carefully check your roll-on for the correct chargers, cables, connectors and plugs. Today it was simple to make things right; it might have been much more expensive and/or difficult to do the same in another location.

I'm connected to the world tonight via phone and internet, thanks to two very helpful people who went far beyond the call of duty. By the way, both men knew about the "Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE" event this week.

A very good start to my London visit.

Tomorrow - in some spare time - I'll be visiting several Persian markets in the area to bring back some ingredients rare in New Mexico. Tracing the Tribe's readers familiar with Los Angeles' Westwood area with its numerous Persian shops would feel right at home on Kensington High Street with its restaurants, supermarkets and bakeries.

Summertime: Genealogy on the air

According to a Scottish genealogy blogger, the US episodes of "Who Do You Think You Are?" will be aired on the UK's BBC after all US shows are screened.

Chris Paton, who writes Scottish Ancestry News and Events, reported on this earlier, indicating that the seven US episodes will be aired prior to the new UK 10-episode season.
He also notes that the US shows will be re-recorded by the narrator who does the UK show, and that some reorganization and editing will be done on each episode.

In any case, it means that 17 episodes will be running from late spring through the summer.

Paton also noted that another 25 episodes of Heir Hunters has been commissioned for BBC1 daytime television - those are set for winter 2010 or early in 2011.

For more information, read Chris' post (link above).