Another family history event promoted as the largest in the world has just finished.
It was run from 29 February to 03 March (US dates). For me, I have to do the conversions since I live in Australia. It is run by Family Search based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.
The event is held each year and has a variety of content for everyone. It is a live event i.e. in person and for those who cannot attend for various reasons with some content available online.
Schedule.
I went through the schedule and found content that was of interest – making note of the correct date and time for me.
I have no problem getting up early so I had a couple of events that started either at 6 AM or around 7:30 AM Australian time.
I did the same for the 2023 event, however over these dates, there was a major Internet outage, in my area, so I didn’t get any opportunity to attend the sessions. One good thing about Roots Tech is you can create your own watch list. This allows you to schedule your own time to view the content. Each session provides a syllabus to download so you don’t really need to be taking notes.
Expo Hall.
There is an Expo hall where you can venture to and view various virtual shopping sites. The event is also sponsored by many different family history organizations/companies.
You do have the more known – Family Search, Find My Past, Ancestry and My Heritage advertising at the event. Most of these companies were sponsors.
There are a large number of other sponsors of the event. They were shown in different tiers.
Artificial Intelligence.
This year there was a lot of content relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI) which is of interest to me. AI can assist with making some things quicker and easier particularly in a time sense. Always remember the old saying “garbage in, garbage out”. So, please check all the content that is generated by AI i.e. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini (Bard) and Microsoft CoPilot. You do not want to be caught out with fake information.
Avatars.
AI can also be used with photographs – bringing them “alive” so to speak. Photographs can be repaired, coloured, enhanced etc. You can create “Avatars” of your ancestors and even of yourself if you wish. It is an exciting time.
For me, it brings family history alive and can add context to your research. Instead of just seeing words i.e. names, dates and places on a page or screen – your ancestor photos can be added to and create a story. It can even have your ancestor tell their own story by using your research as the content.
It is an amazing time to bring something new to a hobby that many think is so boring.
Not Perfect.
Everything is not perfect, just like life. I did have a big disappointment with one of the sessions during Roots Tech. Of course, I was up very early to view the online session. I will not name the session or the organization that was presenting it. I’m sure you can work out why! I set myself up for the start of the session. The countdown occurred but no presentations started. Instead, everyone was re-directed to an external site – where you had to register. We had already registered for Roots Tech.
The most common question asked in the chat was why do we have to re-register? I am sure you can imagine my frustration. If it had been another timeslot, I think it would have not been so bad. By the way, there was no prior notice advising you that you had to go to an external site. I have provided feedback and at the time of writing, there has been no response. (5 March 2024).
Overall.
I did get to hear/see some very good content in the online sessions I attended. I will even do the re-watch of a couple of them. The handouts, oops the syllabus provided with each session are helpful. Doing the “live” online attendance, for me, is a good idea. You can interact with other attendees and make comments as the session progresses. Most sessions had a Q&A so this added to the event.
Would I attend live online again next year? We will have to see. All the content can be viewed after the event – so it is one’s own preference on how to deal with such a huge event with a lot of different content. Attend in person maybe not, due to financial costs that would be involved but hey, never say never.
Explore & Discover.
Pics on this page: The top three have been snipped from RootsTech 2024 webpage. The 4th & 6th are from within WordPress. The animated Avatar has been created in pixverse. It is titled “Eyes wide-open”.
Ancestor Family 