What did you learn from RootsTech this past week? I watched a lot of different livestreams and YouTubers talking about it. I am so excited about all the new stuff happening.
Here are some different videos to share what happened. The official description of the video above from its YouTube page says the following:
“Family history enthusiasts worldwide gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah, from February 29 to March 2 for RootsTech 2024. The conference’s keynotes included Dred Scott descendant Lynne M. Jackson, award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth and FamilySearch President and CEO Steve Rockwood. Family Discovery Day featured late President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
Here’s an idea of one speaker’s preparation and anticipation that she had for the event. This is Sunny Morton, who has been involved every year since RootsTech started in 2011.
Family history/genealogy isn’t just about preserving stories and records of dead people. It’s about getting the records and stories preserved of our live family members. I love this video below that RootsTech showed at the event about how everyone’s story matters.
Here’s the description of the video below from its YouTube page:
“In a world that often celebrates the extraordinary, watch as five individuals who’ve led seemingly ordinary lives through their own eyes, are reminded of the indelible mark they’ve left on the hearts of their loved ones. We filmed their family members answering the question, “What makes your parent/grandparent extraordinary. The responses we received were nothing short of breathtaking— personal memories, touching anecdotes, and deep reflections shared together. Through the lens of personal stories, we recognize the transformative power of personal memories and experiences, and remember the importance of cherishing and celebrating the unsung heroes in our lives. Everyone’s story is worth remembering. Learn more here http://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/events/remember”
The biggest news out of RootsTech was that FamilySearch has three new features:
- Shared Family Group Trees so you can share photos of living people with other living people and see the exact same version. In the past, you could only share and see photos of people who have passed away. For example, I could save photos of my children on each of their pages in FamilySearch, but they could not see these photos when they logged into their page. That’s all changed! Now we can share their photos and see the same page.
2. Full text search capabilities of three collections of records: U.S. Land Records, U.S. Probate Records, and Mexican Notarial Records. This is huge! Because of A.I., we can now search these records for words and not rely on indexed versions of these records to find information about people. The video below explains that.
3. FamilySearch now has FamilySearch Labs that allow you to explore potential features at FamilySearch before it is released to the general public, allowing the users to give feedback to make the features more user friendly.
More about that new stuff is below.
Lynne Jackson, a great-great-granddaughter of Dred Scott, gave the keynote address on Friday March 1. Dred Scott is the famous Scott of the infamous 1857 Supreme Court case Scott v. Sanford, which said that black Americans aren’t full citizens. Ouch! Common sense tells us how wrong that was. Ms. Jackson’s presentation was so amazing with all her slides explaining how general U.S. history has intertwined with her family history since that unjust decision by the Supreme Court was made. Her journey of discovery about her ancestor Dred Scott began years ago, when she first heard her Heavenly Father tell her “You should study Dred Scott.” Then, a few months, maybe years later, she heard her earthly father tell her the same thing. Thus began her call of learning about Dred Scott and being part of a legacy of healing and reconciliation.
She shared that Dred Scott was born as Sam Blow and showed a photo of the record of that name in the family Bible. She said that the Blow family bought her ancestor with the intent of setting him free. She also shared a photo of a charcoal drawing of Dred and his wife Harriet. She also shared photos of reconciliation between a representative of the Roger Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the aforementioned case, and her family. A currently living family relative of Justice Taney publicly apologized to her family for the Supreme Court’s decision. This presentation was amazing!
I so loved hearing that story. You can watch it below, starting at the 1 hour, 38 minute mark.
I also loved hearing from Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, the founder of Connect Our Kids. She talked about how foster children benefit from learning who the history of their biological parents. She told a story of a young foster boy. His foster parents wanted to adopt him, but he didn’t want this. He didn’t think he was worth being adopted because he knew his biological parents’ history and was ashamed of it. When some kind person showed him his biological family tree, full of upright citizens, he was amazed. He then was willing to be adopted. You can learn more about Connect Our Kids here.
It would have been so cool to have toured the hall full of vendors. I love learning about all the products and apps connected to researching and telling family stories. Every year new stuff comes out for RootsTech to make the study and preservation of family history easier. It is like Christmas exploring all the cool techie things that are announced at RootsTech. Here’s a video below showing a sampler of the vendor hall. That DNA Painter software/app sounds so cool.
The crowning event of all was watching Elder M. Russell Ballard, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, share about his family and his testimony of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith. He has passed away but has left a beautiful legacy of love of the Lord, family, and service. Watch below. His part starts around the 16 minute mark. I also enjoyed hearing from Elder Gong, who is introduced around the 8 minute mark. Elder Gong is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ as well. He just oozes love of the Lord. One of my neighbors shared at church this past Sunday that she and her grandson got to meet Elder Gong last Saturday at RootsTech. She said that Elder Gong took the time to look into her grandson’s eyes and ask, “What is your name?” as they shook hands. There were so many people surrounding them, Elder Gong couldn’t hear the grandson’s reply and asked for it again. My neighbor expressed how touched she was that Elder Gong took the time to learn his name. She said she could just feel the love of God coming from him. That doesn’t surprise me. The Lord’s apostles love each one of us, as the Lord Jesus Christ does.
All in all, it was such a glorious weekend. I am so grateful for all the people who make it happen and all the tools and opportunities we have to study and preserve family history. My heart is overflowing.
Tree of Life Mothering 