In January I flew to Salt Lake City for the annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. The trip is always a fun combination of genealogy, meetings related to our Bahamas project, and visits with family and friends.
Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy - This conference is more like a college course than a conference at which you sample many different topics. At Institute you study one topic in depth all week with the same classmates. Overall about 200 people attended the Institute. There were 10 topics. My class of 15 people studied American Records. In addition to the classes connected with my course, I also went to evening presentations.
Family - I had a fun evening with two of our grandchildren, their mother, and grandparents. Michael Todd and I enjoyed several visits.
The Joseph Smith Memorial Building was built as the Hotel Utah back in 1911. The lobby is very ornate. I always feel like I've stepped back into a more elegant time when I'm in this building.
Music and the Spoken Word
at the Tabernacle
Sunday morning I went to the tabernacle to attend the Spoken Word broadcast. I arrived early enough to catch most of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's rehearsal prior to the broadcast. It was awesome to be in the tabernacle and to hear and feel the music of the choir, organist, and bell ringers.
The theme was “Make Some Difference.” "The purpose of life is not to be happy....It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived."
I thought about all the people who have made a difference in my life. It’s a very long list.
After the performance I stayed around and watched the post broadcast rehearsal. I enjoyed watching Mack Wilberg, conductor, playing the keyboard as he coached the choir.
Over the last 10 years that we've worked on The Bahamas project, we've become acquainted with a number of archivists for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Periodically they call on us to respond to questions about using nonprofessionals to collect the history of the LDS church throughout the world. This trip I had several meetings with archivists and programmers who are trying to figure out how to design a cataloging and data entry system that will allow missionaries and other volunteers to enter data from throughout the world - and keep the cataloging system and entries at a professional level.
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