RootsTech 2024 - What has been happening at RootsTech 2024

 A ROOTSTECH 2024 UPDATE

Whether you have been attending the RootsTech 2024 conference in person or online over the past couple of days, I am sure you will agree that there have been so many exciting new announcements, not to mention a great deal of amazing information sharing and learning experiences. I myself, could not attend in person this year so I will be sharing my online experience of the world's largest and my personal favorite genealogy conference. 

Steve Rockwood speaking at the Main Stage event on day 1 of RootsTech 2024

From the inspiring Keynote Speakers, to the huge variety of classes and the incredible Expo Hall, there is so much on offer for family historians at all levels of experience. 

MAIN STAGE EVENTS AND KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

The mainstage event held each day of the conference are not to be missed. Not only will you be privileged to hear inspiring stories and memories but you can hear breaking news from RootsTech sponsors. 

Below are some highlights from day 2 Keynote Speakers, Henry Co, Lynne Jackson and Nancy Borowick. 

Lynne Jackson gave an inspiring talk about how her enslaved ancestors Harriet and Dred Scott encouraged her to start a foundation in their honor. 

Henry Cho, comedian entertaining the main stage crowd on day 1 of RootsTech

A delighted audience listening to Henry Cho, Day 1 of RootsTech 2024

Archivists being recognized during the main stage even

EXPO HALL

Each year, RootsTech is sponsored by companies such as FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindmyPast, My Heritage, Storied, Family Tree DNA, Mylio Photos and many more. You can find all exhibitions. and talks by sponsors in the Expo hall and on the main stage. See some of the sponsors below.

Whether you are at RootsTech in person or online there is so much happening in the Expo Hall. With more than 120 exhibitors and sponsors promoting books, genealogy software, DNA and other innovations in the Expo Hall, there's something for everyone so don't miss it! 

Keynote Speaker, Nancy Borowick at a meet and greet and book signing in the Expo Hall. 

CLASSES

Create your own playlist of classes you plan to watch. There are a wealth of learning opportunities at RootsTech covering beginner level to advanced. have a notebook handy as there is SO much to learn. 

Cheryl Hudson Passey speaking about Tackling a new Research Location, at RootsTech 2024

BREAKING NEWS

RootsTech is where you will hear all the latest breaking news about new genealogy technologies, programs and websites to help with your family history research. 

Read here about some of the breaking news announcements at RootsTech 2024.

FamilySearch: Full text Search

FAMILYSEARCH HAS MADE A VERY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT! 

Until now records held by FamilySearch have only been searchable if indexed. FamilySearch has launched at RootsTech 2024, an exciting new way to find information in historical records that have not been indexed. 

Full text search uses AI technology to read the handwriting on images 

At this stage, more than 100 million records are available in FamilySearch Full text Search and currently these are limited to US Probate and Land Records, US from the Freedmen Bureau, US Plantation records of the Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations Collection and Mexican Notarial records. More collections will be added over the coming months. 

To learn more about this incredible new feature, just click the link to watch a FamilySearch video about using Full Text Search . 

My Heritage: OldNews.com

My heritage is one of the leading global family history platforms. This week at RootsTech it announced it's new platform OldNews.com 

In a press release MY heritage said of OldNews.com

OldNews.com enables genealogists, researchers, and history enthusiasts to search, save, and share articles about people and events throughout history. At launch, OldNews.com includes a huge repository of hundreds of millions of historical newspaper pages from around the world, with millions more added monthly. The website features easy navigation and consists of a diverse range of high-quality publications, from major international newspapers to small-town journals and gazettes. 

At launch, OldNews.com more than doubles the amount of historical newspaper content that was previously available on MyHeritage. The website includes all the historical newspapers from MyHeritage, plus new, unique content. The new content was processed using best-in-class optical character recognition (OCR) technology and enhanced with sophisticated algorithms developed in-house by MyHeritage. 

Fileshadow : Person Detection and Custom Object Identification in Images.

FileShadow Enhances Identification and Search for Individuals, Objects and Landmarks in Photos with Person Detection and Custom Object Identification 

On 29 February 2-24 at RootsTech Fileshadow announced the launch of a new genealogical feature for family historians : Person Detection and Custom Object Identification in Images.This feature will help you to identify people in photographs and make the person searchable when you are organising photographs around a person. 

According to Fileshadow's press release -

The Person Detection feature leverages advanced technology so users can tag faces in photographs. With this feature, users select a photo in FileShadow and click “Detect Faces.” The app then identifies faces with a red outline box. Users can click on one of the faces and assign a name/title to that face. The system will add that name/title as a tag for future searches and tagging. “FileShadow goes beyond AI-based object identification,” said Tyrone Pike, FileShadow’s president and CEO. “FileShadow now can identify and name people in photographs. Of course, everything is searchable, so finding people later will be easy. FileShadow also provides a way to create custom regions so objects in a photograph like horses, dogs or buildings can be named.” Click on this link  to access the website. 

Don't forget the FamilySearch APP

What are you enjoying about RootsTech 2024? 

RootsTech would love to hear feedback from you. You can upload a video sharing your RootsTech experience if you would like to. 

Have you checked out the Relatives at RootsTech feature on the FamilySearch App or RootsTech website? You will need to add your family tree to FamilySearch. I discovered a branch of my family I had never known immigrated to Australia from Northern Ireland and now DNA has confirmed the matches and my new cousins and I are exchanging information that each branch had uncovered exclusively.

You never know - you might be related to someone famous, though I suggest doing your own research to verify anything you find.  

How many relatives do you have at RootsTech this year? 

You can create collages of your memories using FamilySearch's Collage templated and your own photographs easily and its fun! Here is a collage I created of some RootsTech memories. 

Have a great time at RootsTech everyone.