Gentle Giant of Genealogy

One of the highlights of Rootstech was meeting up with my virtual GeniMates. Prior to arriving in Salt Lake City I was given some wonderful advice from one of my pals Geneabloggers founder, Thomas MacEntee.

"Hmmm I'm not sure if you'll need the thermal underwear . . . perhaps that's just a man's perspective. Are you going to be sightseeing in SLC? Otherwise if you will be going from the hotel to the Salt Palace and to the FHL, you might not need it. The forecast for that week will be 40F during the day" was just one of the helpful comments he posted on my blog.



Hearts aplenty for MacEntee

My first real meeting with Thomas was in the bar of the Radisson Hotel where we enjoyed a cool ale. At that meeting Thomas decorated me with some genealogy bling ie red necklaces with heart-shaped beads. I earned two necklaces - one for each of my genealogy blogs. Thomas' neck was weighed down with many red strands.

During my time in Salt Lake City Thomas was most senstiive to the fact that I was a stranger in the midst of many GeniMates from the US and  went out of his way to make me feel welcome. I loved being with Thomas with his sense of fun and his jokes and understand why he is so popular in the genealogy community.

Thomas MacEntee - Moderator/Facilitator

Not only is Thomas a SNAG and a lot of fun, he is also a consumate professional as was evidenced in the two conference events I attended where Thomas was the moderator/facilitator in roundtable sessions. Thomas directed his troupes of professional genealogists ably as they discussed blogging and virtual presentations. The content of these sessions will be the subject of future posts on the Geniaus blog.

During the conference Thomas made the Media Hub his home away from home. He spent a busy few days there networking with colleagues and conference delegates, at each encounter he showed genuine interest in people giving them his full attention. Perhaps Thomas should give up on dead people as he has such a facility for communicating with the living!