According to Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch.org, this year’s RootsTech 2014 will host 12,000 in person attendees. There are also 622 RootsTech family history fairs coinciding over the next few weeks worldwide. In total, over 150,000 people will be involved with RootsTech 2014.
One reason RootsTech is having success comes from one question that FamilySearch and their genealogy partners keep asking: “How do we get more people interested in genealogy?”
The answer? Stories and photos. This year alone over 150,000 have uploaded photos. Five hundred stories are being uploaded every day. Records too are important. Along with photos and stories, twelve million sources have been added.
According to Brimhall, “This process of stories has the power to bring families together. Family Search is creating a social network that bridges families. Genealogy is Facebook for the dead.”
What is new for Family Search in 2014?
For those of you without computers Family Search has created a brochure that will help you tell your story. It is possible to fill it out and enter your story the next time you are near a computer. If you do not have the skills, there are plenty of volunteers who will enter your information. There are already 1.7 million copies of this booklet already distributed in twenty-seven languages. Write your story and contact FamilySearch.org to get your copy.
RootsTech is also in the process of designing a texting app for people without a computer. Watch for that during the year and the results will be presented at the next conference which occurs in February 2015.
Another big push FamilySearch is making obituaries available online. Apparently, “Dead men tell no tells, but their obituaries do.” Obituaries are an incredible source of names, dates and information for family researchers. All that is needed to help this work progress are volunteers to help with indexing. Volunteer…you will love it!
This article was written and submitted by Gary and Maggie Stevens
