Every year at FamilySearch brings more free genealogy records for everyone to explore and new and improved experiences that help people connect to their families, past and present. Here is a fun glance of some of the new things coming to the FamilySearch website and apps this year in 2024.
Genealogy Records
In the new year, FamilySearch employees and volunteers will collaborate with record archivists and other organizations around the world to continue to image millions of historical records, to preserve them and make them more widely available.
As part of these efforts, FamilySearch plans in particular to work on finding and imaging records in places without many historical records published online, including countries like Peru and Portugal. Of course, our efforts to image records in other countries will continue, so much so that we hope to make progress in digitizing records in more than 75 countries in 2024, from every habitable continent and island group—Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania.
In addition, we are always pleased to help make specialized and much anticipated record sets more available. Last year FamilySearch worked in collaboration with Ancestry and the Library and Archives Canada to make the 1931 Canada census freely available to search. To further improve its census collection, FamilySearch.org will add the full 1921 Canada census as well. We also plan to continue to work on gathering oral genealogies from Africa and other unique record sets, and making them available to search.
Speaking of oral genealogies, an updated search experience will be released that will allow you to easily explore the oral genealogies that have already been collected by FamilySearch in over 15 countries in Africa. Users will be able to search by tribe, village, and/or surname and get instant access to the photos, audio recordings, and lineages that were captured during the interviews.
Advances to Computer-Assisted Indexing
In 2024, FamilySearch will continue to improve its computer-assisted indexing algorithms to recognize and index records in various languages, including Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. These efforts will help take those millions of record images and make them text-searchable faster, vastly improving the online record availability and helping people from many countries discover more information about their ancestry.
Full Text Search
On a related note, FamilySearch has been leveraging its state-of-the-art, AI-powered handwriting recognition technology to improve its record search experience. We try to index the most important details of a record to help you find your ancestors. In 2024, we are working to make your search even more powerful by adding full-text search capability to select record sets.
New Volunteer Experiences
A few new volunteer experiences are coming to the Get Involved section of FamilySearch.org, to allow volunteers to more easily assist with reviewing computer-assisted indexes.
Improvements from past years allowed volunteers to help review indexed names on the go and allowed them to work on record sets relevant to their own interests. The 2024 Get Involved updates will include options that allow patrons to help review all fields in a record, in ways that are easier and more mobile-friendly. (See how your volunteer efforts from past years have helped others here!)
More Digital Books
FamilySearch will be adding more contributing organizations in 2024 that will continue to expand the number of digital publications added to its free Digital Library. These include genealogy books, family histories, local histories, maps, yearbooks, and more.
Better Sharing Capability for Family Groups
The FamilySearch Family Tree is a highly collaborative tree, where any relatives—including cousins, parents, grandparents, and so on, can work together to document their ancestry. To protect privacy, the Family Tree limits visibility of information entered for living relatives.
This year, new updates to family groups on FamilySearch will allow users to share information about living relatives within a group so that family members do not have to re-enter information about shared living relatives. More details will come, but photo-sharing and collaboratively recording family memories and details about living family members will be much easier with this new update.
The Largest Genealogy Conference in the World—Coming in February
Starting on February 29, FamilySearch’s popular RootsTech event returns, this year with the theme "Remember." The world’s largest online family discovery conference runs both online worldwide and in person in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 29–March 2, 2024, and will include over 700 classes in 27 languages. A new interactive chat feature will enrich the experience for those participating in the online RootsTech experience.
RootsTech is a wonderful way to make new family discoveries, learn helpful tips for expanding your family tree, explore innovative new products and services, and be inspired by wonderful keynotes and speakers. The online experience is expected to attract millions of attendees worldwide, and thousands are already registered to participate in the in-person event. The online event is free, and the in-person event is only $109 for the jam-packed 3-day event at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Find out more or register now for both at RootsTech.org.
Be a Part of the Future of FamilySearch by Testing New Updates
FamilySearch is eager to hear from its users about its site and get feedback on what is working well and what can be improved. In 2024, we plan to have a dedicated space where users can go to help test select updates as they are being developed. Keep an eye out on the blog for more information about this as it is released.
An Exciting New Year—Don’t Forget to Visit!
With all that and more coming to FamilySearch in 2024, we hope you’ll come to visit frequently! The FamilySearch Blog regularly publishes updates to help you know when new features are released. Visit our What’s New at FamilySearch category, or subscribe for updates to keep informed.
Please take as much time as you would like to enjoy the current features on FamilySearch as well. Here are a few quick links to help you make discoveries about your family and ancestry—all freely available already.
At FamilySearch, we care about connecting you with your family, and we provide fun discovery experiences and family history services for free. Why? Because we cherish families and believe that connecting generations can improve our lives now and forever. We are a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To learn more about our beliefs, click here.
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