Rootstech 2024: Free online sessions we recommend

It’s that time of the year - Rootstech is about to start! The theme of this year’s show: Remember. Even if you are not able to attend the genealogy expo in Salt Lake City from Thursday February 29 to Saturday, March 2, there are hundreds of virtual or hybrid events taking place. Even better: Registration for the online sessions is FREE.

You can register for Rootstech here (note: you can use your FamilySearch login), and review the entire list of sessions (in person and online) including the popular main stage sessions (this year, featuring comedian Henry Cho and actress Kristin Chenoweth). While we would love to see all of the Rootstech free sessions, time is limited. We have created a list of recommended virtual sessions below that touch a lot of genealogy topic areas:

Thursday, February 29 Rootstech sessions

• Alice Childs: Climbing Your Branch of the FamilySearch Family Tree (Feb 29 at 6:00 PM EST)
• Debbie Gurtler: Where did you find that? Effective searches on FamilySearch.org (Feb 29 at 10:00 AM EST)
• David Ryan: ​​Coming and Going: Tracing Your Irish Surname History (Feb 29 at 11:30 AM EST)
• D. Joshua Taylor: Who is My Ancestor? Tracing Individuals with Similar Names (Feb 29 at 11:30 AM EST)
• Paul Nixon: Photographing Private Ryan – tracking down photos of your military ancestors (Feb 29 at 3:30 PM EST)
• BYUtv “How I Got Here” & “Relative Race”: Family Treasures: Making your story meaningful for descendants (Feb 29 at 5:00 PM EST) 
• Katy Rowe-Schurwanz: Genealogy's Secret Weapon: How mtDNA Can Solve Family Mysteries (Feb 29 at 5:00 PM EST)

Friday, March 1 Rootstech sessions

• Nicole Gilkison LaRue: Did My Family Get Skipped? Mining Census Records for Missing Ancestors (Mar 1 at 10:00 AM EST)
• Jessica Korgie and Bernice Alexander Bennett: The Homestead Act and Southern Black Homesteaders (Mar 1 at 11:30 AM EST) 
• Laura Olmsted: Using Images to Map DNA Matches in Ancestry Trees (Mar 1 at 3:30 PM EST)
• Ellen Kowitt: U.S. Synagogue Records as Genealogical Resource (Mar 1 at 3:30 PM EST) 
• Lindsay Fulton: Recover, Restore, Remember: The 10 Million Names Project (Mar 1 at 5:00 PM EST)
• Laurie Rubin: How To Find Any Photo Quickly, No Matter Where You Store Them (Mar 1 at 5:00 PM EST)
• Julie Merrill: Getting the Most Out of United States Census Records (Mar 1 at 6:30 PM EST)

Saturday, March 2 Rootstech sessions

• Jenny Hansen: An Introduction to Scandinavian Church Records 2024 (Mar 2 at 10:00 AM EST)
• Alina Khuda: How to work with European Archives and Libraries? (Mar 2 at 10:00 AM EST)
• Sharlene Habermeyer: 33 of the Best Activities for Families to Understand & Connect to Their Ancestors (Mar 2 at 11:30 AM EST)  
• Jimmer and Whitney Fredette: A Pro’s Take on Preserving Your Story with FamilySearch (Mar 2 at 11:30 AM EST)
• Shannon Combs-Bennett: Paleography: Handwriting Studies for Genealogy (Mar 2 at 3:00 PM EST) 
• Debbie Kennett: What’s in a name? DNA, surnames and one-name studies (Mar 2 at 5:00 PM EST)
• Andre Kearns: Finding Milly: Tracing enslaved ancestors using Experimental Search (Mar 2 at 5:00 PM EST) 

While Nicole and I won’t be able to attend Rootstech in person this year, we hope those of you who are attending in person can share some of your experiences. It’s a fabulous show, from the speakers to the sponsors to the vendors, and we can’t wait to return in person in 2025!