RootsTech 2023 - Recap

I can't believe that it has been 6 days since RootsTech ended. There was so much going on at RootsTech last week that I didn't have time to write every day. And now that I am back home there is still a lot going on.

But RootsTech isn't really over. We still have access to hundreds of recorded talks, keynote sessions, and other information to view through the end of the year. One of the things that I have always been impressed by at RootsTech is their ability to bring in first class talent to entertain and inspire us. This year there were four celebrities who spoke and performed during RootsTech. As part of the RootsTech Influencers Team, I was able to have front row seats and be part of the media interviews for some of them. It was great being able to ask them questions about their lives and how family history has inspired them. You can see their sessions and my video of their interviews at the links below:

• Jordin Sparks - Session
• Me Ra Koh - Session
• Sean Astin - Session - Interview
• Adassa - Session - Interview

Relatives at RootsTech is still available until March 31. You can visit the page to see how many relatives are registered for RootsTech. I am up to 246 relatives now. My wife has slightly more at 35,445.

You can search the On-Demand Library for virtual presentations. The On-Demand Library has a couple topics such as DNA, FamilySearch, Getting Started, and Research Methods highlighted but there are many more classes available.

Some of the exhibitors still have deals going on. Here are a few that I know are still active.

• CivilWarRecords.com has a discount code for 10% off your ancestor's Civil War records through Saturday, March 11th. The discount code is RootsTech.
• Related Faces has an offer for 20% off on their 6-month or 1-year subscription. The coupon code is RFMGQWKH85. This offer is good through March 31st.
• Ancestry.com still has their $59 DNA sale going on until March 17th.
• International Institute of Genealogical Studies has a sale going on until March 15th. Anyone registering for their 40-class Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) will get an additional 4 classes for free.
• MarcoPolo is offering 2 months free access to their Plus subscription.
• MyLo is offering a free photo book and scanning class for new subscribers.
• FamilyTree DNA has specials on their DNA kits.
• BillionGraves has a discount on their Plus subscription.
• GEDMatch has 10% off their Tier-1 subscription until March 31st.
• Vivid-Pix has several discounts. 20% off Vivid-Pix RESTORE software. $50 off Vivid-Pix Memorya Station/Education Bundle. 20% off Vivid-Pix Education.
• American Ancestors has $25 off their annual subscription.
• 200-Year Challenge has $25 off their family tree starter kit with 4 family tree designs.

There may be others but I haven't had time to explore all of the online Expo Hall yet.

Take some time to expolre the RootsTech365 website to discover all there is to learn over the next year.

RootsTech 2023 - Day 1

Day 1 of RootsTech is over and there was so much going on. I had several classes on my schedule but didn't even get to any of them. So, what did I do instead of classes?

At 9:00, I did an interview with Jen Allen, Brandon Beckstead, and Jonathan Wing, the FamilySearch employees who are responsible for making RootsTech happen. We talked about the process of setting up RootsTech, how much sleep they have lost over the last couple months, and when RootsTech 2024 will occur - (Spoiler Alert: It will start on February 29th, 2024!)

After that, I walked over to the Storied booth where I spoke with Brandon Camp, the CMO of Storied. Storied is a new company which officially launched on January 18, 2023. They use ChatGPT (AI) for their Story Assist to help you develop the story of your ancestors. Story Assist gives you several prompts and then provides the start of a story for you to edit and add to as you wish. This is meant to remove writers block and help people get started in telling the story of their relatives. The site has a set of basic research records which is growing. They currently have access to Newspaperarchive.com, many of the US Census records, a variety of vital records, some international records, and has integration with Goldie May. 

Storied has a three tier membership. Their basic Free account allows you to create your family tree or upload a GEDCOM file and you can create unlimited stories. Their Storied Plus account is $4.99/month and allows you to create a group, have access to the US historical records collection, and invite up to 50 people to collaborate. The group members get free access to what you have created and can add unlimited memories to the people. The Storied Ultimate account is $11.99/month and provides access to everything in the Plus account as well as UK newspapers and Newspaper Archive and you can add up to 10 groups with up to 100 people in each group to help you collaborate and create stories. But right now, they have a RootsTech special where you can get the Ultimate subscription for only $99 for the year using this link. That is $40 off the regular price. The link is good through Saturday.

Then, I went to the Main Stage to watch Jordin Sparks. I had front row seating in the Media Section. Jordin did a little interview and then performed four of her songs during the 45 minutes she was on stage. Afterward, a few of us were able to go to the Meet & Great to get pictures.

After lunch, I attended the Innovation Showcase where several new companies promoted their products. Vlada Bortnik of Marco Polo discussed their video chat platform. The Marco Polo platform allows you to record a video chat and send it to others. They can then view the chat at their leisure and return a chat to you. The object is to make the interactions more personal and build connections. See the bottom of this blog post for a QR code for 2 free months of Marco Polo Plus.

Andy Gold of FamilySearch presented their new developments in Computer Generated Trees (CGT). CGTs build the scaffolding to store data in tree form. It scans millions of records in a matter of hours, looking for connections that can add to the family tree. This process is currently being developed for locations in Australia, Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, and Italy. You can begin exploring the CGTs by visiting FamilySearch at https://www.familysearch.org/search/cgt.

Bank of Memories was the next to present. They are a blockchain storage where you can store your digital information. I'm not up on the blockchain process so I won't even try to explain how this works.

KinSame has a really cool technology which can analyze photographs for genetic information and relationships. I don't understand the algorithm they use but they claim to be able to detect thousands of genetic traits, verify degrees of kinship between individuals, and develop family trees just by analyzing photographs. They are marketing their product to the big genealogy companies and hope that they will be able to license the product for commercial use in the near future.

GENXT is another company that is developing a product that they hope the industry will adopt. Their product allows for cross-platform genetic matching. There are currently over 250 companies which do genetic analysis and more than 70 of them specialize in genealogy. However, there is no way for an individual to see what is in all of these databases. GENXT would allow the data to be shared across platforms so you can see if you have cousins at company X without having to test at that company. Many of us today use the major companies, Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilyTree DNA, 23 and Me, etc. and have either had to upload our data or take tests at various companies. If the GENXT technology is adopted, the data from all of these companies would be available to us with only one test.

Ericcson demonstrated their EPHAS augmented reality technology. EPHAS stands for Every Place Has A Story. This technology has a variety of uses, but for genealogy it would allow you to experience the story of a place in a virtual environronment. Ericcson provided a RootsTech Trial QR code which I have provided at the bottom of this post.

Then MacFamilyTree presented their latest release. This software is for personal use and has spectacular graphics. It almost makes me want to have a Mac so I could use their 3-D tree and other components. MacFamilyTree has integration with FamilySearch and uses AI to colorize and enhance photos and enhance blurry documents. You can see their video on their website and get a good idea of what they have developed.

MyHeritage cM Explainer

And lastly, MyHeritage talked about their AI Time Machine, which I wrote about last November. MyHeritage has also just released their cM Explainer. This is a free new feature that accurately estimates familial relationships between DNA Matches. For every DNA Match, cM Explainer offers detailed predictions of possible relationships between the two people and the respective probabilities of each relationship. It also determines the most recent common ancestor, and displays a diagram showing their relationship path.

There was a lot more going on, this was just my day before 2:30. Maybe I'll write about the rest later. But now, it is time for me to head out again for RootsTech Day 2.

Ericcson EPHAS trial

RootsTech 2023 - Pre-event

Uniting Photo Booth on second floor

Good morning. It is 4:00 am in Salt Lake and my first day of "RootsTech 2023" is over. But you may be saying that RootsTech doesn't start until later today, and you are right. But many of us have been busy behind the scenes getting ready for the big day.

So what does the day before RootsTech look like? For me, I did a quick walk through of the Salt Palace to get the lay of the land and remember where all the classes are. Many of the fun activities had already been set up on Tuesday and the staff were preparing the Help Desk and Registration areas. There are a couple photo op areas, including a VW mini bus, where you can take fun photos with your friends. 

Help Desks are located throughout the event

Then it was off to the FamilySearch Library to get a few hours of research in. The library is open from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm during RootsTech. My wife had sent me with instructions to find her Walker brick wall. I was busy searching through records for Edgefield County, South Carolina; Bullock and Dale counties in Alabama; and Robertson County, Texas. 

After a few hours of no luck researching, it was time for the GeneaBloggers lunch at Blue Lemon. This is our annual opportunity to get together and see how everyone is doing. I believe the furthest that one of our GeneaBloggers travelled was from Australia.

The Family History Guide Booth

Then is was back to the Salt Palace to register and return to the Expo Hall to help set up the booth for The Family History Guide. I will be working the booth on and off during the week. We will have classes every 30 minutes and there are many videos available for those attending virtually. Come by and visit us if you are here or find us in the Virtual Expo Hall.

Once that was done, I returned to the FamilySearch Library to continue my research for a more couple hours. RootsTech is providing golf cart shuttles between the Library and the Salt Palace, making it easier for more people to get between the locations. This year there will be events and classes at the Library in addition to those in the Salt Palace. Make sure you check the schedule for those classes.

Steve Rockwood, CEO FamilySearch

Then it was back to the Salt Palace for the Media Dinner. The RootsTech Influencers and media representatives got together to hear more about what to expect for the next couple days at RootsTech. My table included a media representative from Brazil, three bloggers from Australia, including Fran Kitto and Shauna Hicks, and James Tanner. During the dinner we were introduced to the theme for RootsTech. In previous years the theme had been Choose Connections. RootsTech wanted to go one step further this year and selected the theme of Uniting. We all have connections but the object is to unite them all working together to push the positive. 

RootsTech 2021 and 2022 were virtual events with over 3 million attendees from more than 220 countries participating. That was a huge success and they wanted to build on that with the hybrid conference this year. We now have the ability to host thousands of attendees with 205 classes in person as well as millions of virtual attendees with 304 classes. The last 100 years of family history have focused on the US and Europe but now that focus is expanding to more records in Latin America, Africa and Asia. This year RootsTech wil be broadcast in the time zones for countries across the world and be hosted by 15 international virtual emcees. The General Sessions will be broadcast in 9 localized sessions with translations in Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Korean and Japanese.

After the Media Dinner we were able to tour the Expo Hall. Even at 9:00 pm there was still quite a bit of activity there as exhibitors were putting the finishing touches on their exhibits. Some of them, such as FamilySearch and Storied, will be spectacular. Storied has created a city block with buildings, a street, and even a car.  

Let's Do Good Together Team

As I get ready for the official start of RootsTech in just a few hours, I wanted to share with you how family history can be an uplifting experience for you and your community. A few years ago when RootsTech was still only an in person event, a few of us got together and started talking about projects that we could do in our communities. That small group grew and now forms two organizations. The Family History: Let's Do Good Together Group on Facebook is one way we provide inspiration to others. You can find information about some of the projects our members have done such as Connected Tempe, The 21 Day Family Connections Experiment, and the Texas Connect Project. 

The second group is called The Bridge. The Bridge is now led by Dr. Joe Price of the BYU Record Linking Lab. The Goal of the Bridge Forum is to use family history to create a kinder and more connected world. We provide a monthly forum to share projects that grow the Family Tree at familysearch.org and help people see their connections with each other and their communities. You can view our February 2023 meeting on YouTube.

How can you use the lessons from choose connections to help unite your community?

Join us at RootsTech in person or virtually to see what Family History has to offer. You will be hooked.