Help from ‘Roots Tech’
By Nancy Battick
Roots Tech, the world’s largest family history celebration, has now ended, but you still have time to access many of the sessions online for free.
For those unfamiliar with Roots Tech, it’s an annual conference (my word, not theirs), the largest in the world. Millions attend in person and online from around the world.
Roots Tech is sponsored by Family Search and other major genealogical organizations. It offers a wide variety of classes, tips, and stories. This year the event offered more than 500 classes in 23 different languages. That’s a staggering number of options and outreach.
If you missed it, never fear – you can still attend many of these classes online for free. Go to RootsTech.org and explore your options. You can listen to some of the keynote speeches, view classes and even browse the Expo Hall. More than 200 vendors populated the Expo Hall, and the hall will be available until August of this year.
To have all this genealogically related material in one place is huge.
I recently explored some online offerings, including AI and Family History: Help or Hype, given by Andrew Redfern, and Gravestones Symbols from A to Z by Cathy Wallace.
The keynote speakers range from actress and Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin to NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young, NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez and others. All these keynote speakers spoke about their personal struggles and family discoveries.
You can also find panel discussions on assorted topics of interest to family historians, such as Roots Tech Innovation and Tech Forum 2026, where you can learn about the latest technological advancements created to simplify your family research. You may not consider yourself a techie, but these panels will allow you to at least familiarize yourself with what’s happening in the technological side of genealogy.
While Roots Tech can keep you current on the technological advancements in family search, other sessions provide general information. This is a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon.
You can subscribe to receive notices and updates on future Roots Tech offerings.
Family Search is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those who are somehow not aware, the LDS Church is the world’s largest nonprofit genealogy organization. They offer free classes and resources, maintain the Family Search Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and have more than 6,500 Family Search Centers in 129 countries, including one in Bangor.
If you haven’t already done so, I urge you to sign up for a free research account at familysearch.org. I also suggest you browse what’s being offered from the Roots Tech celebration.
In today’s world, finding quality offerings for free is a delight. Genealogy is now a big business with most of the major sites such as My Heritage and Ancestry.com fee based. Free sites such as FamilySearch.org and now these samples from the Roots Tech conference are rare, so take advantage and enjoy.
Columnist Nancy Battick of Dover-Foxcroft has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft. Nancy holds an MA in History from UM. Reader emails are welcome at nbattick@roadrunner.com.