RootsTech Day 2

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Day 2 keynote at RootsTech. 7 Mar 2025.

Yesterday was another great opportunity to listen and learn at Rootstech. I caught two morning sessions on Irish research and case study examples, then the General Session 2 keynote by artist Dana Tanamachi (see above). I then tried to absorb information from Exhibit Hall sessions by Ancestry and FTDNA, and grab some lunch.

A helpful staff person from FindMyPast listened to my research challenge to find the family of my 3rd-great-grandmother Bridget in Ireland, and she gave me some tips to try while I was still in Salt Lake City that pointed me in the direction of the FamilySearch booth. The helpful team at FamilySearch had computers with access to documents normally only available at FamilySearch Centers, and I tried searching through La Salle County, Illinois documents that aren't generally available when not at one of these locations. I didn't have any luck finding a marriage record for John O'Brien and Bridget, or birth records for any of Bridget's sons with first husband Patrick Dooner. The combination of Irish research sessions and the in-person help gave me some ideas for further exploration.

I'm now in Seattle for my work part of the trip, and will have to wait to catch up on missed RootsTech sessions online. This is one of the great things about the event. There's really too much to see in person, particularly with my limited time on the ground. Attending the event again was really inspiring, and over the next few weeks I have a lot of ideas for new methods. Many of the big platforms announced new features, like Ancestry's Networks and MyHeritage's Cousin Finder, so there's also new things to test and apply to existing trees.