2022 RootsTech Conference Encourages People to Choose Connection

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A million-plus participants enjoyed more than 1,500 interactive experiences in at least 30 languages during RootsTech 2022 on March 3–5, with many more planning to access content on RootsTech.org throughout the coming year.

If you missed out, you can still create custom playlists of sessions you would like to watch now or later. Popular topics include DNA, family history search, research help, technology, travel, storytelling and connection.

Below are a few highlights from this year’s conference, which FamilySearch hosts annually.

Click on the links below to learn more about presentations from international keynote speakers, announcements of new tools and resources, and inspiring messages on how you can get involved in discovering, gathering and connecting your family.

#ChooseConnection

The 2022 RootsTech theme “Choose Connection” encourages people to choose connection in a world that is often divided.

In addition to sharing a new song composed for this year’s theme, share ways you are choosing to connect with family, friends and strangers using #ChooseConnection. For example, one person used a drone to deliver notes and small gifts to people outdoors. Another delivered flowers to mothers leaving a grocery store.

Keynote Speakers

In documentary-style videos and a few live presentations to audiences of family history influencers in several locations around the world, RootsTech keynote speakers shared messages about family and the importance of connection.

Learn from Argentine singer Diego Torres, American actor Matthew Modine, French baker Apollonia Poilâne, Ghanaian boxer Samuel Azumah Nelson, Food Network’s Molly Yeh, Palestinian comedian Maysoon Zayid, and Brazilian actress Thaís Pacholek.

Learn more in the Church News How the RootsTech 2022 keynote speakers 'Choose Connection'

Family Discovery Day with Elder and Sister Soares

Learn about the importance of strengthening our connection to God and understanding our divine heritage from Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Rosana Soares. In a video message filmed partly in their homeland, Brazil, they visited the school Elder Soares attended as a young boy and other locations and shared why they are significant.

Relatives at RootsTech

Relatives at RootsTech lets you see who you’re related to, chat with newly discovered relatives, and even add them as contacts. Use Surname Connections to check the history and locations of two surnames and to see if you are related to your friends. The tool is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Russian, Korean, Japanese and Chinese until March 26, 2022.

Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction

With the theme “Joyfully Bound to the Savior through Ordinances and Covenants: The Blessings of Power and Protection,” Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other members of the Church’s Temple and Family History Executive Council talked about past, present and future blessings that come from participating in temple service and family history work.

In featured videos, leaders caught up with Latter-day Saints featured in Church videos a decade ago to see how temple service and family history work has blessed their lives. Watch all instruction videos, including “A Prophet’s Temple Invitation” featuring President Russell M. Nelson, in Gospel Library.

2022-Temple-and-Family-History-Leadership
From left: Kevin S. Hamilton, Executive Director for the Family History Department; Sister Reyna I. Aburto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency; Primary General President Camille N. Johnson; and Elder Gerrit W. Gong and David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles record the 2022 Temple Family History Leadership Instruction, which premiered March 3, 2022.2022 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Church History Biographical Database

Searching for a pioneer or a missionary in your family history work? Now you can search two data sets with a single integrated portal. The Church History Biographical Database is a new English online resource with information about the lives of early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It profiles their contributions to building the kingdom of God and serves as a gateway to the records they left behind.

Get Involved

Finding your ancestors just got easier thanks to a new effort that couples handwriting recognition artificial intelligence with a new online volunteer experience from FamilySearch called Get Involved. Projects available in English include the refining of U.S. wills and deeds collections from almost all 50 U.S. states and indexing the 1950 Census. Projects from 22 Latin American countries are available in Spanish. Italian and Portuguese projects will be available later this year.

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Highlights from RootsTech 2022