The world's largest genealogy conference is almost here! This year at RootsTech, unity is a key word, and whether you’re attending in person or connecting with your phone our computer, FamilySearch has some amazing activities to help you feel more united—with your friends, your family, your community, oh, and let’s not forget—with your ancestors!
Take a look at some of the free things you can do to feel more united with the world around you. Then be sure to come back March 2–4, 2023, when the conference will have lots more ways to unite and learn.
Uniting...Cousins and Relatives around the World
Would you be interested to know if you and any of your friends are related? Would you be surprised to discover a connection between you and someone in an entirely different country?
Try Relatives at RootsTech, and find out how you are related to other people attending the conference in person or participating from home.
The feature analyzes your ancestor information in FamilySearch Family Tree and tells you where your family lines overlap with someone else’s. The more ancestor information you have in Family Tree, the more likely it is you’ll discover new relatives. Check out this article for a more detailed explanation of how it works.
Don’t wait too long to try it out, though. The feature is only available from February 17 to March 31, 2023. You can find it on the web or through the FamilySearch Family Tree app on your phone.
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Uniting...People through Shared History
There’s a reason you and your best friend get along so well. Each of you has a unique personality and history, but the more you know about someone, the easier it is to be united. Now here's the test: Do you know your best friend's last name? What about the name of the last person you spoke to? Imagine if you knew not only the name of your friends and acquaintances but also some of the unique history and origins of those names. Now you can find out!
Surname Connections can find what your friends' names means and show you how you might be connected. It's easy. Click on the button below, type in your last name and your friend’s last name, and see what interesting facts FamilySearch knows about your origins. Who knows—you might have even more in common than you thought!
Uniting...You with Your Celebrity Ancestors
You might not be a celebrity, and you’re definitely not a well-known historical figure from the 18th Century—but hey, there’s a good chance you’re related to one!
Try out our Famous Relatives activity, and see if you have any connection to people like Walt Disney, William Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley, Sean Astin, and others. Maybe you will learn where you got your dance moves from!
As with many of our discovery activities, Famous Relatives uses your ancestor information in Family Tree to look for connections. If the activity doesn’t find any famous relatives for you, a prompt will appear to see if you can enter a few more of your ancestors.
Uniting...People and Families Who Are Doing Family History
When building your family history, it's hard to do it alone. Whether you are interviewing family members, finding ancestor profiles on a shared tree, or finding records that someone took the time to preserve or digitize, someone else had a hand in helping you learn about your family.
On FamilySearch, there are over a billion ancestors in the shared Family Tree, and more are added every day. Who are these people giving so much time and effort to building what could be your branches of the Family Tree? If you knew who they were, you could reach out and say thank you, right?
As it turns out, you can say thank you with this feature right here. The page shows you who’s been adding information to Family Tree about your ancestors, and it gives you an option for saying thank you.
Remember, if these people are working on your ancestors, then there’s a good chance they’re related to you!
RootsTech 2023: Celebrating Unity!
People come from all around the world to attend RootsTech. Sure, they have their differences. But at the same time, that’s what’s so great about family history—it invites us to overcome those differences and build on what we all have in common: love of family, love of culture, love of tradition, love of story . . . the list goes on!
RootsTech is a place where archivists, genealogists, speakers, innovators, families, and even just your average individual can come to learn, share, and be inspired. Discover all that this worldwide conference has to offer by visiting RootsTech.org today. And get ready to feel more united!
