Kinship Genealogy Co.

I have just returned from Salt Lake City where I attended Rootstech, the world’s largest annual genealogy conference.*

Rootstech was held March 5–7, in the Salt Palace Convention Center at Salt Lake City, Utah, and online, for free, at Rootstech.org. Sixteen hours flying time from New Zealand (via Los Angeles) the time difference was only 4 hours (albeit a day behind us).

The conference is hosted by FamilySearch and the theme this year was “Together,” inviting participants to connect, uncover, and share new insights about their ancestors and heritage.

RootsTech highlights emerging trends in genealogy, including advancements in DNA research, artificial intelligence, and innovative tools for discovering and preserving family stories.

This year’s schedule was packed with talks by family history experts and keynote speakers, family history workshops and an Expo Hall of family history companies and organisations.

In a personal sense, it’s the place where I meet others from all around the world who belong to my ‘tribe’. There’s no fear of boring anyone with crazy family stories, discussions about research tips and techniques and new tools for the trade.

Top Announcements from Rootstech 2026

AI and Genealogy Research

• Ancestry – 𝘏𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 will be available as a button on the person page, taking the researcher to a dedicated Hints Workspace, grouped by record time and in chronological order; 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 will be an option within Hints allowing users to compare multiple censuses at once; 𝘗𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 will use clues from background details, hair styles and clothing to suggest a potential date or decade if an uploaded photo has no information; 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 is to offer a side-by-side comparison between your tree and another user’s, allowing you to see at a glance their similarities and differences; 𝘐𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴, currently in beta testing, will be a new button next to ‘Search’ on the person page whereby AI will suggest future avenues to pursue to gather more information on your family member.
• FamilySearch Labs – 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 is for those who love the Full-Text search, but find choosing keywords and/or names confusing. More like a natural language search, queries can be in sentence form, eg. “I am looking for my great-grandfather Henry Smith who lived in Bristol in 1865, with a wife named Mary Jane…”; 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘨 will be welcomed by those who are constantly fixing erroneous merges in the tree. The change log allows users to track changes to profiles and undo changes made by mistake or in error.
• MyHeritage – 𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦 𝘈𝘐 is a powerful new feature that uses AI technology to transcribe, translate, and interpret historical documents and photos — helping people better understand and preserve their family history. Subscribers can try it here myheritage.com/scribe-ai.
• FamilyTreeDNA – FTDNA will transition Family Finder to a new targeted next-generation sequencing panel. All kits processed after 2 March will be processed using the new panel and report more consistent and precise autosomal data.

DNA and Genetic Tools

• GEDmatch announced a new look website, hopefully launching in the U.S. summer. It will feature enhanced login security, the ability to anonymise kits easily for sharing and a note facility. New matches will be more obvious and there will be easier access to kit owner information and expanded user profiles.

Explosion of Digitised Records

• Findmypast announced a series of major archival partnerships across Great Britain and Ireland. An exclusive collaboration with the National Museum of the Royal Navy will bring fourteen naval record series online for the first time. New records will include decades of British Medical Register Directories including ancestors’ address and qualifications, College of Preceptors (later known as Chartered College of Teaching) Student Registers 1881-1931 and 19th century Surgeon’s Case Books from the University of London.
• Fold3 now has 2.4 million Revolutionary War pension images full-text searchable thanks to handwriting recognition.

Networking

Rootstech offered the chance to meet in person many people that I only knew from e-mails (Kirsty Gray, of Family Wise Ltd) or by reputation like Ancestry‘s corporate genealogist Christa Cowan), Leah Larkin, Diahan Southard and Jen Schaffer; as well as catching up with genealogists I’d met during a previous visit for an Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) conference in 2023.

Final Thoughts

The Salt Palace Convention Center is huge. Being prepared is essential. A simple change of lecture room may require a walk of up to 10 minutes, so bring comfy shoes!

Salt Lake City is at altitude and very flat. You’ll need a waterbottle and chapstick.

If you’re a genealogy addict like me, Rootstech is a must-do. Being present in person is not the same as attending virtually. I had a ball catching up with genie friends all around the world!

Did you attend in-person or virtually? I'd love to hear about your experience! 

*I attended Rootstech as part of their dedicated Media Team.