Still arriving in installments, with bits of sanity turning up unannounced at all hours. In spite (because?) of that, the first day here has been amazing. It’s given over to an “Innovator Summit”, a mix of genealogy business and tech talks. The by-the-way assumption of literacy in both genealogy and all sorts of coding languages (javascript, PHP, Ruby, C++ and more) is just wonderful. The US has an entire weird and wonderful ecology out there, where this stuff is taken for granted.
So it’s not just one guy in his dressing-gown in the front room in Drumcondra hacking away. I’m normal, Ma, I’m normal!
I also managed to spend a few hours in the Family History Library, where I was mobbed (in the nicest, most Mormonly way) when word got out that someone knew something about Irish records. But they have more Irish records on microfilm than any other repository on the planet. Granny was taught how to suck eggs.
The meat-and-potatoes classes kick off tomorrow, and the multi-acre vendors’ area opens for business.
Salt Lake City will probably seem less surreal when the jet-lag wears off, but it’s plenty enjoyable already.