RootsTech Ticket Giveaway

 

RootsTech 2025 is on the way. Currently, prices for tickets are $129 for a 3-day pass. That's about the same cost as a 1-day pass to a Disney World park but there are fewer rollercoasters. As a RootsTech Media Representative, I have been provided 2 passes to give away to my readers. You can enter to win one of these passes at https://forms.gle/MzV6Esz9cA4vw4Pt8. Additionally, other Media Representatives will be giving away passes. I will provide a running list below as I receive links to their giveaways. You can enter as many contests as you like but can only win one ticket. Enter even if you have already bought your ticket because you can get a refund if you win.

• Miles Meyer - https://forms.gle/MzV6Esz9cA4vw4Pt8
• Aimee Cross -  https://ancestryaimee.com/rootstech_giveaway  
• Aimee is also providing a free handout "10 Tips for a Better RootsTech Experience"

Keep an eye on this page for updates and more contest links.

What did you do for family history month?

I've managed to write three blog posts this month. I haven't done that in quite awhile. I am trying to do better with my posts but there are just so many things going on. For example, since I live in Florida, I have to watch out for hurricanes. We had two hurricanes come through about two weeks apart - Helene and Milton. Milton was definitely the worse of the two for us. We had over 120 tornado warnings in our area - not watches - during the afternoon and early evening of October 9. There were 19 confirmed tornados in the area of the circle where I live, many of them EF2 and higher. There were also multiple deaths caused by these tornados. 

Map of tornado warnings from Hurricane Milton, October 9, 2024.

So, what was I doing as these tornados were coming through? Well, I was doing a live feed for RootsTech to talk about the upcoming RootsTech conference on March 6-8, 2025. If you watch the video, you will notice that the tornado warning warnings go off during the live interview. 

RootsTech Live interview on October 9, 2025.

Speaking of RootsTech, you can still get the early bird pricing of $99 for 3-day RootsTech tickets until October 31. After that, the price goes up to $120. So if you plan on going, now is the time to buy tickets. Additionally, there will be a RootsTech promotional give away between the beginning of November and the end of January. Many of the RootsTech Media, including myself, will each be giving away two free tickets to RootsTech. More details will be forthcoming on this but you should watch the feeds for many of your favorite genealogy bloggers/vloggers including Aimee Cross, Connie Knox, Conference Keeper, and many others. I will provide an updated list when I am ready to begin this give away. One thing to note, you can get a refund on your purchased ticket if you win one of the free tickets so don't wait to buy your tickets.

Now that we have talked about the weather and RootsTech, let's move on to some other topics.

Some of you may know that I am the Education Director for The Family History Guide. Our mission is to greatly increase the number of people actively involved in family history worldwide, and to make everyone's family history journey easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable. The Family History Guide was created in 2015 and debuted at the BYU Family History Conference in Provo, Utah on July 15, 2015. Over the last 9 years, the Family History Guide has helped hundreds of thousands learn more about family history and discovering their ancestors and we continue to grow. Last year during RootsTech we began talks with the National Genealogical Society and this year we formalized that agreement. We are now partnered with NGS to provide educational materials for their members. Additionally, The Family History Guide was asked to be featured on ViewPoint with Dennis Quaid on PBS. The filming was done in September and we are looking forward to the episode being aired sometime after Thanksgiving.

Another thing that happened this month is that OurAncestories Genealogy turned 1 year old. My wife and I licensed our business in October 2024 in preparation for my retirement from a 9 to 5 job next year. We have been doing research for more than 25 years and thought we would start doing it professionally. We have had great support from our clients over the last year and have had a huge amount of research work in addition to our speaking events. We are currently working on 6-generation research projects for several people who are planning a heritage vacation to Germany next year. This research is tracing their families back to the early 1800s and late 1700s to determine the towns their families came from so they can plan their visits. I currently have over 60 German towns identified for the clients as well as towns in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. My wife is heavily into genetic genealogy. She has been helping clients find their biological lines in some very challenging situations. One of the most challenging was a for one client who had a series of father-son relationships where the biological fathers were not know. He was not aware of this until we started his project.

My wife and I also completed our certificate in Advanced Methodology at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies (IIGS). We both received certificates with distinction. This certificate included 14 classes and we had to get A's in all classes to receive the certificate of distinction. 

Certificate of Distinction in Advanced Methodology from the IIGS

In addition to this blog, I also try to write in my other blog, OurAncestories, when I can. Both of my blogs have anniversaries in November. This blog is has been in production since 2008 and OurAncestories has been in production since 2009. I appreciate all of you who have been following me all these years.

One last thing - as we begin the holiday season (yes, the stores have already started putting up Christmas decorations), think of ways to include your family, both the living and those that have passed, in your gatherings and find ways to preserve your family history for those yet to come.

Free Genealogy Education

October is Family History Month, Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Filipino American History Month, and German American Heritage Month (Oktoberfest). It is a great time to celebrate your ancestors and learn more about their lives and your heritage. 

As genealogists we are always looking for free resources and one of those resources are webinars. Since I am still working, I usually am not able to attend live webinars so I hope that they records some of these.

RootsTech Monthly Webinar Series

Did you know that RootsTech has a monthly webinar series? They advertise these on their website under Mini Events. These events are also advertised on FamilySearch. So what is scheduled for October?

• October 8 - 12:00pm EDT - German Empire Research – Understanding Your Ancestors Hometown Using Meyer’s Gazetteer
• October 10 - 12:00pm EDT - Using the FamilySearch Catalog
• October 15 - 12:00pm EDT - How to Build Quick Trees
• October 17 - 12:00pm EDT - Pilgrims, Puritans, and Piecers: Researching Early New England Settlers (1620-1700)
• October 22 - 12:00pm EDT - Registros parroquiales: Una introducción
• October 24 - 12:00pm EDT - Using the FamilySearch Community

BYU Library Family History Webinars

The BYU Library has monthly family history webinars which they advertise on their Family History Webinars website. You can join their email list to receive updates about upcoming events.

• October 10 - 7:00pm EDT - Mayhem on a Manifest
• October 17 - 7:00pm EDT - Mining the Treasures of FamilySearch

They also have Sunday Family History virtual classes. 

• October 13 - 4:00pm EDT - FamilySearch Basics (for Latter-day Saints) 1: Getting to Know FamilySearch.org
• October 13 - 5:30pm EDT - Updated, Untangling a Mess on the FamilySearch Family Tree
• October 20 - 4:00pm EDT - FamilySearch Basics (for Latter-day Saints) 2: Adding & Correcting Info in Family Tree
• October 20 - 5:30pm EDT - How Do I…Find “Missing” Children in My Tree?
• October 27 - 4:00pm EDT - FamilySearch Basics (for Latter-day Saints) 3: Finding People to Add to Family Tree
• October 27 - 5:30pm EDT - Tracking Your Ancestors After a Divorce

Maybe you want to attend a Q&A session about a specific topic. BYU Library has designated times for Q&A Topics.

• Tuesdays & Thursdays - 5:00pm - Computer Tips & Tricks with Elder Van Celaya
• Mondays - 5:00pm EDT - French, French Canadian, Italian, Spanish Research with Sister Michele Templeman
• Mondays & Fridays - 2:00pm - Chinese Research with Elder Franklin West

Legacy Family Tree Webinars

Legacy Family Tree Webinars have free as well as subscription webinars. Their free webinars are usually available for 7 days if you miss the scheduled event. After that they become part of the subscription service. You can find their current list of upcoming webinars on their webpage.

• October 8 - 2:00pm EDT - 5 Ways to Use AI to Involve Children & Youth in Family History
• October 9 - 8:00pm EDT - A History of Calendars for Genealogists
• October 11 - 11:30am EDT - Rubik's Cube Genealogy: A New Twist on Your Old Data
• October 11 - 12:45pm EDT - Probate Power: Parents for Charles, a Father of Phoebe
• October 11 - 3:30pm EDT - Evidence Mining & Context: Powerful Tools to Dig Deep
• October 11 - 4:45pm EDT - Strategies for Resolving Conflicting Evidence
• October 11 - 6:00pm EDT - Applying the Genealogical Proof Standard to Researching Enslaved Families

There are many more webinars that have been recorded and archived on these sites and others. So there is always something to study to increase your genealogy skills.

Also, remember that RootsTech will be live on March 6-8. You can now register for the early bird price of $99 until October 31. And be sure to take a look at the more than 1500 archived presentations from the previous years.

RootsTech Live 2025 and more (British Columbia, Canada and Połaniec, Poland Resources)

RootsTech 2025 registration is now open! (Actually it opened September 25th and I already have my tickets.) Similar to last year, registration is free for those who join RootsTech virtually and it is $99 for in-person until October 31. After that the price for in-person attendance increases. You can watch the RootsTech Live announcement about registration on YouTube. If you are ready to register you can go to the RootsTech website.

There are a couple things coming up in the next couple weeks. Each Wednesday at 2:30pm Eastern, there is a RootsTech Live event on YouTube where you can learn more about RootsTech. During October they will be talking to some of the speakers for RootsTech. I will be one of the guests this week Wednesday (October 9). As I mentioned in my previous post, I will be doing two live webinar presentations during RootsTech. That means everyone, even those watching virtually, will be able to watch live or view the recordings later. The two topics are:

• "The Ayes Have It - Discovering Your Ancestors Through Voting Records"
• "A Deep Dive into the US Census Records" 

You can see more information on these talks and others on the RootsTech Schedule.

Also, beginning on October 31, I will be giving out two RootsTech in-person tickets valued at $99 each. These tickets will be awarded in either December or January. But please don't wait to see if you win before buying your tickets. Get your tickets now while they have the early bird special and you will be refunded the cost if you win. These passes have been provided to me by RootsTech/FamilySearch as part of my participation in the RootsTech Media. (As a member of the RootsTech Media, my attendance at RootsTech is complimentary and I am provided minor compensation in the form of food vouchers.)

Now that I have talked about RootsTech a little - by the way, have I mentioned how great RootsTech is in-person? - let me talk a little about some of the research I have been working on over the last week and some great resources that I discovered.

I helped a researcher discover her British Columbia, Canada ancestors earlier this week. She was not able to find her ancestor on Ancestry or FamilySearch in the British Columbia Death Registrations, 1872-1986; 1992-1993 or Online Index of Deaths, 1872-1985 collections. After a little research I found a great resource with a large number of genealogical records and even the digital images of the death records she was looking for. The resource is the Royal BC Museum Family History (Genealogy) Collection. I would highly recommend downloading the BC Archives Genealogy Research Guide if you have relatives in British Columbia, Canada. That document contains 13 pages of links to various British Columbia resources. You can find digital images of the birth, baptism, marriage, and death records on their Genealogy - General Search page. The search covers the following time periods: births (1854-1903), marriages (1871-1947), deaths (1872-2002), colonial marriages (1859-1872) and baptisms (1836-1888). 

Another researcher was looking for relatives in Połaniec, Staszów, Świętokrzyskie, Poland. We have been using the Geneteka website which provides a large collection of indexed vital records across Poland. But as we know, the indexes are great but not complete. Additionally, the original records (or digital images) provide much more detail than what is covered in the indexes. So FamilySearch to the rescue! I looked up Połaniec, Poland in the Catalog and found that there were digital images for the Catholic (1810-1884) and Jewish (1826-1884) records. All of the images are locked but since we were in the FamilySearch Center, I was able to pull up several of the records that she was looking for.

That's all I have for this post. I hope to be able to post regularly for the next couple months at least. And until next time, good luck with your research.

AI image created by DALL-E 3 - Genealogy researcher researching in an archive.

Where Have I Been?

Hello everyone. I hope you are all doing well. Do you realize that I have been doing this blog since 2008? I can't say that I have been a consistent writer but I can say that I have been doing a lot of genealogy. So what has been happening since my last post earlier this year?

1) I am finishing up my first set of classes at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. The Methodology course has been great. There were a total of 14 classes including Transcribing, Abstracting, and Extracting; Effective Searching and Recording; Paleography; Genealogy and Copyright Guidelines; and Genetics and Family Medical History. There are also three in-depth Analysis and Skills classes which help you put the information you learn into practice. Once I complete this course I will start on my focus classes for American and German research. My wife will focus on English and DNA research.

2) We have been very busy with our new genealogy research company, OurAncestories Genealogy. We are completing our first year in business and have had some incredible clients with challenging projects. Several of the projects involved extensive DNA research while looking for birth families. One client had two consecutive generations where non-parental events occurred, making the search even more difficult. Ancestry's Pro Tools and BanyanDNA came along at just the right time to help us with these complex cases. Our projects have included research into 18th century German church records, New Jersey medical school yearbooks, and a variety of other record sets in the midwestern and southern United States. I am also preparing an historical atlas for a tour group that will be visiting their family homes in Germany at the end of next year. So far I have over 50 towns documented for this tour group.

3) My speaking schedule has been pretty active. I have been speaking across Florida and have also done several virtual presentations for groups in England this year. I had two presentations at RootsTech 2024 and will be doing two more presentations at RootsTech 2025. You can see some of my archived RootsTech presentations here. A list of my current presentation topics can be found here.

What is in the future? I plan on continuing my genealogy work and will be able to focus more time on that once I retire. Yes, I am planning on retiring from my full time job as a Supervisory Biologist for the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Everglades Restoration Program at the end of 2025 - a little more than a year from now. I will have spent over 32 years in various environmental protection positions in Florida and it is time to hang up that part of my life and focus on the next phase.

I will be posting more over the next couple months as we approach RootsTech since I am one of the official RootsTech Media representatives again this year.

RootsTech 2025 Early Registration is open until October 31. Virtual online attendance is FREE while in person attendance is currently $99 for all three days. You can register by clicking the image below.

Check out the speakers and topics by clicking the image below!

Keep an eye on this blog space to get further news about RootsTech!

RootsTech Day 2

Day 2 of RootsTech was another great day. So many things to do. My morning started out in Room 155EF where I presented my talk on Adding Social History to Your Family History. I had a packed room of nearly 600 attendees and they had great questions after the talk. After that I headed over to Room 250 to listen to Katherine Schober's talk, A, B, C, Fish? German Handwriting Made Fun! Katherine is a great instructor in German records and is the owner of Germanology Unlocked. She currently has some deals on her classes and books during RootsTech so check out her webpage for details on those.

Most of the rest of my day was spent with MyHeritage doing various things. I attended a talk by Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. He introduced several new and upcoming products that MyHeritage users will be able to use for their research. Currently MyHeritage has nearly 20 billion records available for your research. Recent features that have been added since RootsTech 2023 included the Photo Dater, AI Biographer, and AI Record Finder. Photo Dater uses AI to give an estimate of the year a photo was taken. The AI gathers information from multiple items within the photo including clothes, furniture, vehicles, etc. to build the estimate. Over 5 million photos have been dated since the product was introduced. AI Biographer creates detailed biographies by exploring your tree as well as other tress where the person is included, records, and other internet sources to gather data. Over 115,000 AI Biographies have been written in the last 2 months. These biographies are in pdf format and are attached to the tree and can be downloaded for your use. The third recent release is the AI Record Finder. This product is the first AI search engine specifically designed to find historical records for your genealogical research. The search is based on AI chat and can be built upon by adding more or less information in a series of questions or requests. Over 500,000 search messages have been requested in the last 2 months.

This week, until March 4, you can upload your DNA data file to MyHeritage from another service and get FREE access to all advanced DNA features, including the Ethnicity Estimate, forever! Click this link to learn more.

MyHeritage released several new products during RootsTech. One is the new Profile Page with hints. This profile page puts all the important information in one place including life events, saved records, immediate family, life map, consistency checks, and hints. The hints are located under each event so you will find hints that can improve birth information directly under the birth information and so on.  The Profile Page has a new Biography tab where you will find the AI Biographer, basic biographies based on the records, and biography notes that you can write and edit. There is also a Photos tab where all of your photos and uploaded records are stored, and a DNA tab where your DNA results can be found.

MyHeritage also announced the release of OldNews.com. It currently has over 20 million pages from eight countries and is in 11 languages. The current countries represented include the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Czech Republic. More countries including Hungary and France and several more languages will be added soon. They expect to add over 100 million newspaper pages per year in the coming years. MyHeritage is using AI extraction to gather data from obituaries during the initial release of these records. OldNews is a standalone newspaper archive which can be added to your MyHeritage account by upgrading to the Omni level or subscribed to separately. The MyHeritage Omni subscription will include MyHeritage Complete, Geni Pro, FamilyTree Webinars, OldNews and some other benefits. You can test OldNews out with a 7-day free trial.

MyHeritage is upgrading their MyHeritage app by incorporating their Reimagine app technology. The new app will have all the same functionality allowing you to automatically crop individual photos from pictures of album pages and identify faces.

In addition to all this news, MyHeritage hinted at some upcoming releases. MyHeritage and FamilyTree DNA will be collaborating to allow FamilyTree DNA users to access the MyHeritage trees when looking for DNA matches and also link their DNA accounts between the two platforms. This should happen later this Spring around April-May. MyHeritage will also add the capability to securely share your DNA results with another person or researcher so they can have more detailed access and help you find lost relatives. This will be available near the end of March. Later this summer, sometime around June, MyHeritage will release their updated ethnicity results. This will increase the ethnicity groups from 42 to 80 and provide users more detailed resolution.

MyHeritage is also trying to scale up archival DNA so it can become part of the DNA products they offer. This is still a little way off but they are excited about the potential to extract DNA from artifacts such as postage stamps. 

I also was able to have several one-on-one interviews on Friday. You can see the 10-minute videos at the links below.

I spoke with Aaron Godfrey, Vice President of Marketing at MyHeritage. We talked about how MyHeritage markets its products to its various audiences.

I spoke with Daniel Horowitz, MyHeritage's Genealogy Expert about the new products that MyHeritage has released.

I also spoke with Tina LaFreniere, Founder, CEO and CPO of Related Faces. Related Faces is a startup which helps you identify your unknown photographs. 

MyHeritage Friends Social

After all this, I attended the NGS Society Social and networked with other genealogy society leaders then went over to the MyHeritage Friends Social where we chatted with all of our MyHertiage friends. We finally got back to our room about 11:00. 

Another great day at RootsTech!

RootsTech Day 1

RootsTech has started and day 1 is in the bag. What a whirlwind day! I always try to fit in a few classes between events but am usually not able to do that successfully. However, now with the hybrid format of RootsTech I will be able to watch many of the talks online when I return home. So, expect to see posts about RootsTech over the next few weeks as I get time to view many of the talks I missed.

Storied sponsored breakfast

What does my day at RootsTech look like? Well, first of all, since I am still on Eastern Time I wake up at 4:00am (6:00am my time) to write in my blog. Then off to start my day at the event. At 7:00am I attended a breakfast sponsored by Storied. Storied talked about the four challenges they see in furthering family history to a wider audience. Those are 1) Storytelling, 2) Relationship Building, 3) Collaboration, and 4) Affordability. One of the focuses of the Storied platform is to make it easier to tell the stories of our ancestors. They do this through generative AI. The stories use the records and information that you attach to the individual in a more engaging way. Storied also allows you to add non-familial relationships to your tree. You can add pets, neighbors, co-workers, friends, classmates or anyone that may have had an influence on your ancestor's life. Their collaborative platform lets you invite others to participate in the gathering of information for your ancestors. This means that a wider variety of pictures, records, and events can be included in their stories. Storied also is capable of adding information directly from FamilySearch or you can upload your GEDCOM file to build your tree faster. During RootsTech they are offering a $99/year subscription. That is $60 off the regular annual price and it includes access to their newspaper collection and a free StoriedBook which you can create with up to 200 pages. Just go to their website and click the "Get the RootsTech Deal" button at the top of their page to take advantage of this offer.

At 8:00 I had my first presentation. I presented Using Censuses, Maps and Newspapers to Enhance Your Research in Ballroom G. This presentation starts with what you can learn in the census records and uses three case studies to show how incomplete that information is and how you can enhance your knowledge about your ancestors by adding information from newspapers and maps. The talk went well, and I had between 200-300 people in attendance.

FamilySearch Tech Forum

At 9:30 I attended the FamilySearch Tech Forum. This forum highlighted developments from seven FamilySearch programs. FamilySearch has over 16.8 billion searchable records and over 1.4 billion names in its FamilyTree. The use of generative AI and computer assisted indexing has accelerated the number of records they can make available. AI has allowed for the production of full text search in multiple languages and the creation of computer generated trees. 

One of the new products released during RootsTech is the FamilySearch Helper. The FamilySearch Helper is an AI assisted search tool. It accesses the variety of sources on FamilySearch including the Wiki, blogs, RootsTech presentations and others to answer your questions. You can now explore how an AI-assisted search might provide better guidance for your research and using the FamilySearch website. 

Another newly released product is Full Text Search. Full Text Search uses AI to interpret handwriting and search for keywords in records. There are now over 100 million records available to search across several languages. These records include US Land and Probate records, Mexican Notarial records, and Plantation records. Each one is fully searchable. Eventually, every unindexed record will be processed through this technology. This process pairs human indexers with the AI to proofread and edit the AI indexing.

FamilySearch finally released their Family Group Trees project. They have been talking about this project for several years. Family group trees help everyone find and gather all their family, living and deceased, together as a family, not just as individuals. It allows family members to work together on the tree including access to living individuals. It is connected to the larger FamilyTree and still keeps information on living people private to the rest of the world but viewable to the group members. Members can share items within the Memories and like and comment in a way similar to social media platforms. FamilySearch is also working on an app called Together by FamilySearch which integrates into the Groups function. Both products were released on Wednesday.

All of these items can be found in the FamilySearch Labs page and more products will be added as they are developed. The developers want people to test these products and provide constructive feedback which they can use to improve them.

I also attended the Innovation Forum. This forum featured seven products that utilize generative AI to assist family history research. The first speaker was Jared Spatero from Microsoft. He talked about how quickly AI has become a common feature in our lives, from the first release of ChatGPT in November 2022 to the recent release of Microsoft's Copilot. ChatGPT is limited in its knowledge to events that occurred prior January 2022, but Copilot is continually learning through searching the internet for new information. One of the cool features in Copilot is the ability to upload pictures and ask Copilot what is in the picture. For example, you could upload a picture of a car and it would tell you the make and model. Or you could upload a picture of a person in Victorian dress, and it could identify the timeframe. Copilot can also convert its responses into a Word document and then in Microsoft 365 you can open PowerPoint and import the document as slides. There are many uses for Copilot. I have been using it to create graphics for slides, create outlines for presentation, and draft handouts for my presentations. It is an incredible time saver.

Jon Morrey from FamilySearch discussed how AI will change family history. He said that AI can help develop more intuitive user interfaces, make the records more accessible, help speed up the development of applications, and index records more quickly than ever before. He demonstrated an application that AI helped him build which would ask the user questions about a picture they uploaded. The questions would build upon the previous answers until a complete story about the picture was developed. 

Jonathan Gibson from LivingHistory.ai and TheAfterlife.ai discussed the use of AI in creating interactive virtual worlds. Both of these products can interface with data in FamilySearch and build a virtual world where you can interact with historical figures as well as your own ancestors. LivingHistory.ai has a set of historical figures preloaded for you to interact with. But you can also use the information in FamilySearch Memories to build your own virtual ancestor. You can explore the items and pictures as well as use the stories and articles to add detail. The interaction is based on asking questions and having them respond. I had talked to these developers last year and their product continues to advance as new technology develops.

Laryn Brown from Storied discussed their Biography Extraction Technology which can extract data from any printed source, identify individuals and key events, and then link people by their relationships. It can even build relationships outside the normal family lines.

EmulateMe talked about their platform that enables you to create virtual ancestors and converse with them. They import data from FamilySearch or you can upload your own content to build the profile. They demonstrated the ability to call your deceased ancestor on your phone and have a conversation with them using the app. 

Cameron Graham from Storii talked about their product which helps to record the stories of your living family members. The application calls your relative over the year, prompts them with questions, and records the responses. They have over 1,000 questions which can be asked. The responses are put together as an audio book recording the story of their lives and also creates a transcript which can be searched. AI is able to create and analyze the content of the responses. 

And finally, Hunter Cameron from Ancestry talked about how they are using AI to add records and capabilities to their website. AI has assisted in increasing the number of records available. They now have over 18.6 billion records. AI also helps to process the DAN data to build the matches and relationship calculations. They also have some new products coming soon including narration of records and recognizing ancestors in photos outside your tree along with their new Research Assistant.

That was one information packed hour.

As part of the Media Team I also get the opportunity to interview VIPs during RootsTech. I had two interviews scheduled on Wednesday. The first was with Steve Rockwood (CEO of FamilySearch) and Elder Hamilton. We discussed RootsTech and FamilySearch. You can see the raw video footage here. I also had the opportunity to interview Jenn and JD Barnes, Team Black, from Relative Race Season 6. You can see that video here. The audio isn't always the best in these videos since we are in the open Expo Hall.

I also had a photo shoot with the Geneabloggers and attended a quick meeting with MyHeritage to meet some of the others who contributed to their new Wiki. Then I worked for a couple hours at The Family History Guide booth. And I also explored the Expo Hall and talked to some of the exhibitors during my free time.

There is so much happening at RootsTech that it is hard to get it all in but there is always something new and interesting to explore and the opportunities to learn are endless.

RootsTech Countdown - 1 Day to Go

RootsTech is probably one of the most fun things a genealogist can do in a week. It is amazing being in the presence of all these dedicated researchers and developers. Even though yesterday was the day before the start of RootsTech, I was still busy. My wife is accompanying me on this trip. This is her first RootsTech since the pandemic. 

Queue outside the FamilySearch Library

First thing in the morning, right after breakfast, we lined up outside the FamilySearch Library with a good number of other people. I saw several of my genealogy friends and chatted with them while we waited. It's always good to catch up and see what they have been up to for the last year. When the doors opened at 9:00am there was a mad rush (Black Friday style) for the elevators. Ok, maybe it wasn't Black Friday style but everyone calmly headed to their respective floors to begin their morning of research. We went to the US/Canada book collection on the third floor to see if we could find early 1800s records for several counties in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. Our research goal was to establish the next generation for my wife's Walker line. We didn't find what we were looking for so we left about lunch time and headed over to the Salt Palace to get our badges for the conference and take a look at the Expo Hall.

IIGS Booth

In the Expo Hall we met Angie Breidenbach, the President of the International Institute of Genealogical Studies, where my wife and I are studying for our degrees in genealogical studies. We helped her set up the booth and chatted for a while. We also took some time to see how everyone else was getting along with their booth construction. Everyone was busy getting things ready for today. There are over 120 vendors in the Expo Hall this year so it will be a fun experience. We were able to chat with Ellen Goodwin, CSO of Artifcts while she was waiting for supplies for her booth. Artifcts specializes in saving memories while decluttering and preserving the value behind your things. They give you a digital way to organize stuff and capture the meaning behind objects. We also visited with the LaFreniere family who own Related Faces. I wrote about their company last year and this year they are back and ready for another RootsTech. Related Faces uses AI to scan your photos and isolate faces. Then their program compares those faces with their entire database, returning pairings with photos from your own collection as well as others. These pairings can help you fill in the blanks of your photo mysteries as well as connect you with users who may have more details. Then I had to run over to Ballroom G and room 155E to do tech checks for my talks. 

Lego Family Tree set

The evening was very busy with attendance at two socials and dinners. The first dinner was at the Speakers Social. We sat down and heard from Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch. He talked about how far we had come in genealogy, from microfilm to digitization to DNA and now the exploding world of Generative AI. He commented that Generative AI is now at the place where DNA was 7-8 years ago for genealogists. After that dinner some of us headed across the hall for the Media Social and another dinner. There we heard from Steve Rockwood again. Steve talked about his family history and discovering his ancestor, Tim Rockwood. David Lambert, one of the attendees, had given Steve a book written in the 1880s which contained the genealogy of Tim Rockwood. Steve Rockwood also talked about Generative AI at this event and about the new Lego set that recently came out. This set is a Family Tree. After the socials we were given a tour of the Expo Hall to see how much work had been completed and get a general lay of the land. 

Day 1 starts in the morning, and I am up at 4:00am writing my blog and getting ready for my first talk at 8:00am. But before my talk I will have a breakfast event with Storied to hear more about their big news. More on that to come. Have a fun day at RootsTech whether you are here in person or watching the virtual conference from home.

 

RootsTech 2024 Countdown - Forums or Classes?

We arrived in Salt Lake City yesterday and decided to take it a little easy. Coming in from the east coast means early to bed and early to rise when you are on Mountain Time. And it also means a 40-50 degree drop in temperatures. It is below 30 this morning...brrrrrrr. Today will be a day for preparing for RootsTech which starts on Thursday. We will be headed to the FamilySearch Library at 9:00 to take advantage of the RootsTech hours and do a little research on my wife's Walker family. Then head over to the Salt Palace around lunch to get our registration and tour the venue. Then to the Expo Hall to help set up booths. We will be meeting Angela Briedenbach from the International Institute of Genealogical Studies and also try to help The Family History Guide get set up. After that I have a tech check for the rooms that I will be speaking in and then the Speakers Social and Media Social tonight. I will also need to go over my schedule to make sure that I have the sessions on my calendar. That means deciding on attending Forums, General Sessions, or classes.

Why should you consider attending the Forums? I like the forums because you can see short presentations from a variety of speakers and companies. This is where the future is presented. 

Thursday at 9:30 is the FamilySearch Tech Forum. This is an opportunity to hear Craig Miller, CTO of FamilySearch and see demonstrations of the new products that will be released. Early word is that the Family Group Trees will finally be released after several years of development. Family Group Trees will allow you to share the private individuals with your family group so you all can work together to update the tree. There will also be some additional new products released that will make family history more productive.

Thursday at 10:00 is the Innovation and Tech Forum. This is the opportunity to learn about the latest innovations in family history from various companies. The features speaker will be Jared Sparato, Corporate Vice President of Modern Work and Business Applications at Microsoft.

Friday at 9:30 will be The Impact Forum. Speakers will talk about how family history has a positive impact on individuals, families, and society. 

Saturday at 9:30 is the FamilySearch Global Forum. FamilySearch will talk about the work being done around the world to promote family history. Some new things that you may learn about during this forum could be the FamilySearch Cemeteries Project, the FamilySearch African American Ancestors Project, individual country and region landing pages, and new collections.

All of these forums will be broadcast online as well as attended in person. 

On the other hand, there are so many classes to choose from. Most sessions have 15-20 classes so how do you choose? You can choose to follow a track of classes. They have a track for Beginners and an advanced track that BCG is hosting which focuses on professional development. You can follow a track based on your research interests such as German research or DNA. Or you can mix and match. There are over 250 in-person classes and 150 classes online so I am sure that you will find something of interest.

So, no matter what your interests, there will be something for you. And you also have the opportunity to watch classes from previous years in the archived videos. So sit back, gather your snacks, select your sessions and have a fun RootsTech Conference!

RootsTech2024 Countdown - 4 days to go

Hello everyone. Have you been wondering where I've been? It has been a busy year! In my previous post I mentioned that I had started a course of study at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. The classes there have been great. I am currently working on the Advanced Methodology classes and taking classes in transcription, paleography, and DNA. Once I complete the 14 classes in that track I will start my American Studies and German Studies courses which have 12-14 classes each. My wife is also taking classes and will focus on DNA and English Studies. We also started our genealogy research company called OurAncestories Genealogy. We have been busy working on projects and getting that business started. Of course my speaking engagements have continued with three programs during February and two presentations for RootsTech this week. I have continued working as the Education Director for The Family History Guide and you may have heard we just signed a contract with NGS to be their official education partner. And I was able to write a couple Wiki articles for MyHeritage over the summer. Is that everything? Well, I still continue to work my regular day job and have had frequent trips to South Florida to work with our partners restoring the Everglades. My plan is to retire at the end of 2025 so I can focus more on the genealogy part of my life.

Now to the subject of the post. RootsTech2024 is this week! I am getting prepared to fly to Salt Lake City on Tuesday to get ready for everything that I need to do. I will be speaking at 8:00am MST on Thursday and Friday and my topics will be Using Census, Maps and Newspapers to Enhance Your Research and Adding Social History to Your Family History. Both of my classes will be in-person only.  If you are there in person you may also find me in the Expo Hall where I might be in the Media Hub doing interviews, or at The Family History Guide booth introducing people to their great website, or at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies booth talking to people about genealogy education.

This year, RootsTech will be a hybrid conference with over 150 classes broadcast online and nearly 270 classes in-person. Additionally, there will be presentations from the various exhibitors in the Expo Hall. So what is the cost? Virtual registration and Expo Hall attendance are both FREE! In-person conference attendance is $109 for three days. Classes are available for people of all experience levels and interests. I have some German classes and Artificial Intelligence classes that I am particularly looking forward to seeing while my wife is planning on attending several DNA classes and possibly some Irish classes. You can see the schedule of classes on the RootsTech Schedule page.

RootsTech will have several celebrities present during the event. 

• Henry Cho will be on stage on Thursday. He is a comedian with a variety of appearances on TV and film. 
• Lynne M. Jackson will be on stage on Friday. She is the great-great granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott of the Dred Scott Decision and founder of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.
• Nancy Borowick will join Lynn M. Jackson on stage on Friday. She is an internationally renowned photographer, author, teacher and speaker.
• Katie James will be joining the virtual portion of RootsTech on Friday afternoon. During her artistic career of more than 15 years she has released 5 albums and has toured stages in Mexico, Italy, Holland, Scotland, the United States, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia.
• Kristin Chenoweth will be on stage for the closing keynote on Saturday. She is an Emmy® and Tony® Award winning actress and singer and she received a coveted star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame.

What else can you do at RootsTech?

• Family Discovery Day - All day Saturday. This program is FREE and you can participate in dozens of family discovery activities, watch a shoot out with basketball legend Jimmer Fredette, receive a free copy of the 2024 RootsTech Family Recipes eCookbook, and watch pros play an exhibition pickleball game!
• Archives and Records Custodian Symposium - There will be a variety of live and virtual sessions specifically designed for Archivists during the week.
• Young Adult RootsTech After Party - RootsTech After Party for ages 18–30 Friday evening. See a special address from Elder Kevin S. Hamilton of the Seventy and Sister Kristin M. Yee, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency and stay for live music, dancing, a service project, and family discovery activities
• FamilySearch Tech Forum - This forum is Thursday and will be in-person and broadcast virtually. It is a special forum focused on the offerings of FamilySearch. Hear about the newest innovations FamilySearch has to offer.
• Innovation and Tech Forum 2024 - This forum is Thursday and will be in-person and broadcast virtually. Artificial intelligence is changing family history. Come learn from industry leaders and partners as they share the latest developments created with you in mind.
• The Impact Forum - This forum is Friday and will be in-person and broadcast virtually. Learn about the impact of family history in and beyond the genealogy community. 
• FamilySearch Global Forum - This forum is Saturday and will be in-person and broadcast virtually. Hear from FamilySearch global leadership, including Ann Harrison, Stephen Valentine, Tom Gill, and Michael Colemere as they discuss efforts to make family history accessible world-wide.
• Night at the Expo Hall - On Thursday evening from 6:00-7:30 RootsTech is holding a “Night at the Expo Hall”. The theme is a masquerade ball, and they will have masks for you at the door or you can bring your own masquerade ball mask.
• Pickle Ball Demonstration - There will be a pickle ball demonstration in the Expo Hall on Saturday and some of the players will highlight the importance of remembering our family sports heritage, and how to document it properly is just as important as other family facts.

Check-in begins at noon on Wednesday in the Salt Palace. I recommend that you pick up your registration packet on Wednesday and tour the Salt Palace to see where your favorite classes will be held. That way you are prepared for your first class at 8:00am Thursday (when I am speaking in Ballroom G) and won't have to wait in registration lines.

If you will be joining RootsTech in person remember these basic recommendations:

1. Bring comfortable shoes. You will likely exceed your step goals every day.
2. Bring water and stay hydrated. Salt Lake is a dry environment and staying hydrated is very important (especially for those of us from places like Florida).
3. Dress in layers. The conference rooms are cool and the outside temperature will be in the 30-40F range. Make sure you are prepared for a variety of conditions. There is a coat check area under the main stairway where you can store your heavier items.
4. Have fun! This is the Disney World for genealogists. Attend classes, visit the Expo Hall, see old friends and make new ones. And don't forget to check the Relatives at RootsTech app to see if you have new cousins.