THE ROOTSTECH CONNECT 2021 WEBSITE

©2021 by Donald R. Snow - Last updated 2021-11-08
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ABSTRACT: RootsTech Connect 2021 was a virtual (online) family history conference sponsored by FamilySearch in Feb 2021 and was the first RootsTech conference to be entirely virtual and free.  It had 1,500 sessions from 250 presenters in several languages and more than 1.2 million attendees from 240 countries.  The videos of all keynotes and classes will be online and free until Mar of 2022 when RootsTech 2022 will take its place.  This website is a major source of family history help, instruction, and inspiration. This class will discuss the website and how to use it.  The notes for this class and related articles, all with active Internet links, are on my website  https://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

  1. Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
  2. These notes, with active internet links and other related articles, are on my website  https://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
  3. Tips:  (1)  Easy to put an icon on your desktop for these notes or any webpage; just drag the icon from in front of the address in your browser to your desktop.  (2)  To open a link from here in another tab, but keep your place in these notes, hold down the Control key while clicking the link.
  4. The problem for today:  What is the RootsTech Connect 2021 website and how do you use it?
    5. dons-freewarecorner-2021-03-rootstechconnect2021.html

    ROOTSTECH CONNECT 2021

  5. RootsTech Connect 2021,  https://rootstech.org/ , was the first entirely virtual and completely free RootsTech.
  6. RooteTech started in 2011 with in-person conferences in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. By 2020 the attendance had grown to 30,000, each paying more than $100 to register, plus travel, hotel, and food costs; I was a presenter at the first 7 or 8 RootsTechs.
  7. This year, 2021, it was all virtual (online) and completely free because of the worldwide Coronavirus-Covid-19 pandemic and there were more than 1.2 million attendees from 240 countries, a major success by any measure.
  8. It was "live" during the 3 days, 25-27 Feb 2021, with all the 1,500 keynotes, classes, and workshops on video, so they were all on-demand; there were more than 250 presenters speaking in several languages, mostly English, but with subtitles in many other languages. 
  9. It was announced before that all videos and handouts would be online and free all year until the next RootsTech, which will be 3-5 Mar 2022.   

    THE ROOTSTECH CONNECT 2021 WEBSITE

  10. The FamilySearch engineers had to build the website themselves due to the predicted numbers of attendees and the costs -- They did a remarkable job!
  11. They included many things to make it helpful to a worldwide audience and it is a major source of information and help for family history.
  12. It has classes, handouts, vendor information in the Expo Hall, and more, and has been added to during the year.
  13. You can watch anything without an account, but with a (free) RootsTech Connect 2021 account you get a My Playlist to help organize items you are interested in. (See below)
  14. In addition to family history the website is a major source of help for teachers and parents with information about history, customs, food, and traditions from many countries, since the theme was connecting with other people.
  15. At the center of the top of the website is an icon for Website Tutorials which has several short (5-15 minute) well-made video tutorials.
  16. These tutorials show you what's there, how to search for topics or speakers or keywords, and how to watch classes with subtitles in different languages.
  17. You can watch my class, which I gave in English, with subtitles in Swahili, if you want.  (Well, maybe not in Swahili.  I haven't really checked to see if Swahili is on the language list. :=)) 
  18. An excellent introduction to the website is to watch each of these tutorial videos. 

    19. MY PLAYLIST

  19. Setting up an account (free) gives you a My Playlist to collect links of items you want to keep track of or watch later.
  20. To get to your Playlist, sign in and click the My Playlist button.
  21. Each keynote, class, vendor item, etc., has a Save To My Playlist button and you can save unlimited numbers of links there. 
  22. Problem:  There is no way to organize your Playlist into folders or even sort it alphabetically.

    23. SIGNING IN

  23. You don't have to sign in to watch anything, but if you do, you have more options, including your Playlist; accounts are free.
  24. If you have a FamilySearch account, either as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or one of FamilySearch's (free) accounts for others, you can sign in with that.
  25. During the conference itself, linking your RootsTech and FamilySerch accounts could be used to show how you were related to other attendees -- that feature was remoged after the liv conference, but will be discussed below.

    26. CLASS SESSIONS

  26. The 1,500 sessions (classes) were mostly short (5-20 minutes), were recorded by 250 presenters, mostly in English, but many were in other languages, and any could be watched with subtitles in whatever language you wanted
  27. The short classes made it possible for people to try out what they learned right after. 
  28. To find topics or speakers you want use those terms in the search box.
  29. Several topics are grouped in series; these include Getting Started, FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, using genealogy software, DNA, and ethnic genealogy research -- The Guide Me tutorial button includes the different series topics and all sessions in a series can be saved to your Playlist by clicking the Save To My Playlist button.
  30. The Getting Started series is a good introduction to family history for anyone interested.
  31. The emphasis for the entire conference was on Connections, so there is information about finding relatives, stories, local customs, food, traditions, and more.
  32. Besides being a help for genealogists, I see this as a major help for schools, students, and parents for information about people, history, and countries.

    33. RELATIVES AT ROOTSTECH

  33. This was a fun activity that showed how you were related to other RootsTech attendees, but it was only in operation during the live conference.
  34. You had to sign up for this after logging in and it took your information from FamilySearch Family Tree and went back 10 generations to see which ancestors you had in common with other attendees.
  35. I was related to 110,000 other attendees! I don't know what that shows, except that I'm old and have a lot of relatives interested in family history. :=)

    LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATIONS

  36. One of the video tutorials mentioned above discusses the language translation feature; for any session you can turn on different language subtitles.
  37. In my class, at the start, I pointed out that by copying the URL for the notes for my class from my website (listed near the top of these notes) and pasting it into Google Translate, it translates my notes into any other language that you choose; it is a fairly good translation and any links from that page are also translated until you enter a new URL in Google Translate. That's a Google Translate feature, not just a RootsTech feature.
  38. The sessions for genealogy research in many countries are done by people from those countries in those languages, so you might need the RootsTech subtitles feature, if that's a language you don't speak.

    39. FOR MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

  39. Saturday, 27 Feb 2021 was Discovery Day for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
  40. There were presentations by 4 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and several other general authorities. 
  41. Elder and Sister Jeffrey and Patricia Holland and their family did a wonderful presentation of their experiences growing up in the St. George area of Southern Utah.
  42. There were sessions for leaders of the Church about how to organize family history in their wards and stakes and how to use FamilySearch and about temple work.
  43. With the emphasis on connecting, many classes discussed keeping track of our own stories, since we are ancestors of our own descendants. 
  44. In the video tutorials there is a video especially for Church members and in the Members section there are entire session series about helping everyone, including children, do family history. 
  45. One class you might want to watch about indexing is Magic Fingers, but I'll warn you, it's tear-jerking.

    46. A FEW THINGS WE HAVEN'T DISCUSSED

  46. There is much that we haven't discussed here and below are some examples.
  47. Research Help from Experts at RootsTech -- https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/RootsTech_Connect_Research_Help
  48. FAQs -- https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/faq
  49. Food -- https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/series/food
  50.  My Hometown -- https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/series/my-hometown 
  51. Traditions -- https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/series/traditions   
  52. RootsTech World Maze -- https://discoveryplatformexperience.azurewebsites.net/rootstech2021/WorldMaze_RootsTech.pdf  

    53. CONCLUSIONS

  53. RootsTech Connect 2021 was a wonderful conference and its influence will be felt worldwide for many years; a major success by any measure.
  54. For a good overview watch the Website Tutorials mentioned above.
  55. Search for something that interests you, e.g. Getting Started, and see what's there; you'll be surprised at the wealth of information it has now and they are adding more.
  56. RootsTech Connect 2021 will be available online for free until Mar 2022 when the next RootsTech will take its place.
  57. Info on RootsTech Connect 2022 -- https://media.familysearch.org/rootstech-connect-2022-aims-to-repeat-success/ .
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