I can’t believe it’s been a week since RootsTech. If you missed being in Salt Lake, you can still enjoy the virtual event from the comfort of your home by visiting the site HERE. Be sure to enter March 6-8th, 2025, in your calendar to prepare for RootsTech next year.
I’ve been busy reviewing all the interviews I did at RootsTech, which you can find on my YouTube Channel. If you subscribe and ring the bell, you’ll be notified when new videos are added. (There are quite a few more to come.)
The first thing I enjoy about going to Salt Lake for RootsTech is meeting old and new friends. There is no better feeling than talking genealogy with someone “who gets it.” With over 15,000 live attendees, you will find someone to talk to.
My Geneablogger friends
You can always count on RootsTech to be the place where new genealogy or DNA products are launched and, of course, new features are added at the big genealogy sites. This year was no exception.
FamilySearch – until now, records held by FamilySearch were only searchable if they were indexed. However, at RootsTech, they launched a full-text search that used AI technology to read the handwriting on images. Currently, this means that 100 million records are available. This includes US Probate and Land Records, US from the Freedmen Bureau, US Plantation records of the Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations Collection, and Mexican Notarial records, but more will be coming. You can try it at the FamilySearch Lab.
Ancestry – I could tell you all the things that Ancestry has for 2024, but why not listen to the voice of Ancestry, Crista Cowan, The Barefoot Genealogist, and get the real goods on what’s new at Ancestry. You can also check out my interview with Crista HERE.
MyHeritage – I got a chance to interview Daniel Horowitz at RootsTech (watch for that upcoming video on my channel), but I can give you a small recap. One of the major announcements was about MyHeritage’s newspapers called, OldNew.com. Coming soon are AI Photo Scanner on the MyHeritage app, Sharing your DNA results with experts, and Ethnicity Estimate 2.0, so watch for these new features.
FindmyPast Launched a new collection for those with British Home Children in their genealogy. You can search this new collection HERE. Between the 1860s and 1970s, the British government sent over 130,000 children to live in overseas dominions.
The Expo Hall
The Expo Hall has to be one of my favorite spots. It’s an excellent opportunity to see the big names in genealogy and some that you may not have heard of.
One of my first stops was at DNA Painter. I’ve mentioned my love of this site, and Jonny Perl launched an update to WATO called WATO plus. If you love DNA Painter like I do, you’ll want to take advantage of the $10 off their subscriptions. This offer is for new and old subscriptions. Find it at dnapainter.com/show-special . But don’t wait, as this offer expires on March 11th.
The next stop was Legacy Family Tree Webinars, just across from DNA Painter, to say hi to Geoff Rasmussen and Marian Pierre-Louis. This is another of those sites that is such a great resource, and you get great value for your genealogy $$’s. I love that you can watch their webinars whenever you have time and even watch in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep. (Not that that ever happens…. right?) Watch for my interview with Geoff, which is coming soon on my YouTube channel.
You know my love of photos and all the tools that help me with them, so I was sure to stop by FOREVER, Vivid-Pix, Photomyne, and Storied, just to name a few. Stay tuned because more blogs and demo videos about these tools will be available soon.
I also stopped by Cite-Builder.com , goldiemay, and the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. Like the photo sites, I’ll be posting more about each of the businesses and, of course, some video demos for Cite-Builder and goldiemay.
I stopped at so many other booths, but you don’t have time to hear about them all.
Keynote Addresses
Each day of RootsTech at 11:00 a.m. Mountain, there is the Keynote address with a featured presenter. On Thursday, it was Henry Cho; on Friday, it was Nancy Borowick; and on Saturday, it was Kristin Chenoweth. Each shared a unique perspective about family.
All in all, it was a perfect time. I did some research at the Family History Library for a couple of days, and I did manage to get away from Salt Lake before the snow. It was great—a tired great when I got home.
If you like what you’ve read, please consider joining my “pack.” After all, we’re all family history hounds, aren’t we? You can do that HERE or by clicking the image below.
