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SALT LAKE CITY — People around the world are tuning in this week to RootsTech, a family history conference hosted by FamilySearch, that for the first time is happening both online and in person.
"As a result of our combined efforts, this industry has never been stronger. What we have to offer has never been more important and needed by others," FamilySearch CEO Steve Rockwood said in his keynote address on Thursday.
Rockwood said that through RootsTech, FamilySearch — which is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — hopes to unite traditions, knowledge, resources, technology and information so that families can be united.
Last year, the theme was "connection and belonging," and addresses focused on how to connect with people — including extended family, ancestors and friends — while in-person experiences were restricted. Rockwood said family history helped people connect during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Out of the tragic, cataclysmic chapter in history we all experienced these past few years, family history — the industry and all of you contributing — provided wonderful lights of connection and belonging that the world needed," Rockwood said.
"Everyone matters and everyone can contribute. Each contribution comes together to create one light and we can light the whole world and unite families past, present, future." - Steve Rockwood CEO of #FamilySearch
— FamilySearch (@FamilySearch) March 2, 2023
#RootsTechpic.twitter.com/Magesm1551
RootsTech began on Thursday with an interactive keynote address from Rockwood, actor and comedian Kirby Heyborne and Jordin Sparks, an actress and musician who remains the youngest contestant to win "American Idol" 15 years after her win.
Between singing for the crowd, Sparks talked about her family, both how they supported her music when she was growing up and how music is a part of her family now.
Tens of thousands of people are expected at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, where about 30,000 people attended in 2020. The conference grew exponentially when it went online in 2021, attracting over 1 million people that year and about 3 million in 2022.
As the online and in-person events merged, the experience became accessible to even more people. Rockwood said they want to reach everyone around the world.
"FamilySearch is determined to go literally everywhere and help everyone. We know we can't do it alone ... so we seek to work side by side with others," Rockwood said.
A gathering place for family history businesses
The others Rockwood referred to include many businesses, which also participate in RootsTech. The Expo Hall at the Salt Palace is full of businesses and organizations seeking to connect with people and share their unique family history technology or information.
Deb Liu, CEO of Ancestry, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, spoke to a crowd on Thursday about how artificial intelligence technology has helped it provide more information over that time and helped the company tell billions of stories.
Liu said it took nine months to index the 1940 census, but 10 years later, with the ability to use AI, the 1950 U.S. census was indexed in just nine days — providing quicker access to searchable information about ancestors. She said with this technology they were able to add 5.2 billion records last year, and this year they expect to add 15 billion more searchable records to their site.
Storied, a Provo-based family history company that has grown from a microfilm company and online newspaper archive, decided to use RootsTech to launch its new business. CEO Kendall Hulet said the company is all about storytelling, from compiling newspaper stories about ancestors to telling and preserving new stories.
The company provides a platform for creating a tree that is not limited to family but can include friends, mentors and even pets. It also provides an AI option for writing stories about any of these people; users can type in as many details as they want and it will output a story that they can edit to make more accurate. Families can create groups to share stories, photos and sources within that group.
Hulet said the RootsTech conference is full of the people they want to reach: family history enthusiasts. "It's just a really unique event, and the people here really care about family, family stories ... we just want to give them better tools," Hulet said.
David Lundgren came with ArkivDigital, a Sweden-based heritage website, to participate in RootsTech. He said there is about the same number of people in the U.S. with Swedish ancestors as people in Sweden, so about half of its potential customer base is here.
RootsTech allows Lundgren, and people associated with many other countries, historical events or language-specific family history groups to connect with others who have similar family histories and share information and resources.
A worldwide audience
Jen Allen, who directs events for FamilySearch, said people are visibly excited for the event to be back in person and it feels vibrant. She said it is easier to connect with people during the in-person experience; during the remote experience you know others are out there, but you aren't seeing reactions or connecting through interactive experiences.
"I'm just so excited to be with people again. It's been a long journey the last three years, but we love seeing everybody. There's a great community in the genealogy industry, and so being back and just seeing that energy, I think it's been the most exciting," she said.
Allen said they are also excited about the stage lineup, which is packed full of entertainment and inspiring messages.
The goal for this year's event was to create content that would connect with everybody. Allen said they learned over the last few years you can't create one thing and make it work for everyone, and you can't expect an online and in-person audience to react well to the same thing.
Allen said RootsTech is now primarily an online experience, with supplemental events and in-person experiences, but they plan for the in-person RootsTech event to continue each year.
There are 11 languages available RootsTech.org, but there are classes and content in 40 different languages to address family history in specific areas of the world. Allen said FamilySearch has teams around the world who help organize different classes.
"(It's) all in an effort to help people all over the world know who FamilySearch is, and then discover their families," Allen said.
She said the majority of people attending RootsTech are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ, and the primary audience they plan for are people who are not members. In past years, between 60% and 80% of RootsTech attendees were not members.
"First and foremost, we're creating for everybody — the general public," Allen said.
Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, general authority seventy, said people are passionate about connecting with their families.
"We provide the tools and the data that lets them connect, but the people come. It's driven by people wanting to do it. We just simply meet the need," he said.
Elder Hamilton said he was with an archivist from Argentina who came to RootsTech for the first time who was blown away to see so many people passionate about family history; he said one reason for RootsTech is to help people capture that vision.
Rockwood said on Friday it isn't about how many people attend, but about how many one-on-one interactions take place, something FamilySearch can't measure but tries to facilitate both online and in person. But he said RootsTech will always be online now, and it will have a physical location when possible.
He said Family Search hopes RootsTech attendees, both in person and virtual, feel the spirit of the work and feelings of joy and connection.
"The universal thing about this subject matter, and the hard thing about this subject matter is it becomes very personal very, very quickly. We all love to connect, but ... you really want to experience your own (story). So we really hope that everyone discovers something new about their own family," he said.
Rockwood said he thinks everyone is feeling like they need to accelerate family history, and RootsTech this year has increased his sense of urgency.
Still to come at RootsTech 2023
RootsTech does provide content specifically geared toward members of the church, including an online section and Family Discovery Day on Saturday that will include an in-person keynote speech from Elder Gerrit W. Gong, of the Church of Jesus Christ's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife, Sister Susan L. Gong, at 1 p.m. They will be sharing their own personal family stories.
Sean Astin — famous for his acting roles in "Goonies," as Samwise Gamgee in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, and in the title role in "Rudy" — will also be giving a keynote speech on Saturday at 11 a.m. He is going to talk about his life and the fulfillment that comes from uniting people and families.
In-person experiences will continue throughout the day Friday and Saturday, with events geared for younger audiences in the evenings on both days.
Everything available online now, including each of the main stage keynote speeches in Salt Lake City, will remain online for about three years, until the 2026 RootsTech conference.
Elder Hamilton said he hopes RootsTech online can become an "ongoing learning center" for members of the church. He said they have made it more accessible online and the conference this year has its "best content ever" as they have taken steps to localize it for areas around the world.
"I'm hoping this will be really a quite remarkable resource for all Family Search patrons in the future," he said.
