Have you ever wondered about your ancestors, the stories they left behind, or how your family history connects to the world and your faith? RootsTech 2025, the world’s largest family discovery conference, is your chance to dive into genealogy like never before—and you can attend online for free or even start exploring your family history for no cost now.
RootsTech will be held March 6 to 8 in Salt Lake City. Parent company FamilySearch expects over 20,000 people to attend in person, with millions more visiting online to learn more about discovering family roots.
This year’s theme is simply “Discovery.” Conference officials hope to encourage attendees to discover ways to connect and learn more about their life’s story.
One of the keynote speakers is Ndaba Thembekile Mandela, the grandson of the South African anti-apartheid leader and the country’s first-ever democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela. Today, Ndaba Mandela speaks to international audiences about social justice, youth empowerment, and the need for education.
Two other keynote speakers are Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall. The couple made worldwide headlines for their medal-winning achievements at the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Both won gold medals in the women’s long jump and the men’s 400 meters for athletes with dual-amputee legs, respectively.
Lastly, Dana Tanamachi is a sensation for her artistic flair, resulting in a global phenomenon in restaurants, libraries, and even museums. In 2009, custom chalk lettering and imagery became viral and constantly duplicated, but it began with Dana. Her work has been commissioned by Nike, Ralph Lauren, Google, Instagram, and a cover of O, The Oprah Magazine.
In a post-pandemic world, many are searching for silver linings. Rachel Crump Mattheus, RootsTech Experience Manager, was on Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate, KTVX-4, sharing one such glimmer of hope: connecting people with relatives they never met or knew they had.
When the world was locked down during COVID, RootsTech was placed online and marketed to people interested in tracing their ancestry. Mattheus shared that the organization went from sharing two online classes in one language to 507 courses in 23 languages.
“There are a couple of things shaping this industry, but at the core of it is that we all want to know who we are, where we came from, and have a sense of our own history,” she said. “You find stories of strength, of fortitude, of overcoming things, and find connection, and we crave that in society today.”
FamilySearch has existed in some form since 1894. In February 2014, it partnered with Ancestry.com, Findmypast, and MyHeritage. This partnership included sharing large portions of FamilySearch’s databases with these companies to help people discover more about themselves and their extended family.
FamilySearch is the only big player in the genealogy space that is absolutely free for users.
You don’t have to wait for the conference to start exploring.
Some fun tools you can start utilizing now include:
- Discovering famous people you are related to
- Finding last name connections with friends
- Seeing what celebs and family members you most look like
All of these tools and recordings of the RootsTech conference will also be available at the after the conference. So what are you waiting for?
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