Highlights From RootsTech 2019

We’re back from RootsTech in Salt Lake City, Utah! From February 27 – March 2, 2019, thousands of genealogists and family history enthusiasts gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center to attend the largest genealogy conference in the world.

The Geni booth before the exhibit hall opened

Geni had a booth in the exhibit hall with computers available for attendees to get a chance to get started with some hands-on help from Geni staff and curators. The booth’s computers had free access to all of Geni’s premium features as well as MyHeritage’s SuperSearch database of historical records and family trees. This meant that current Geni members were also able to take advantage of the free premium access at the booth.

Visitors learning about Geni

Many were interested in learning more about collaborating in a single, shared family tree of the entire world. Just a week before the conference, we announced the return of GEDCOM imports and this caught the attention of many new users who were happy to know that they could get started quickly and not have to add every single profile one at a time.

Our Geni notebook giveaways were a big hit at the conference. Several attendees praised these handy notebooks and how useful they were for jotting down notes during sessions or when meeting other attendees throughout the conference.

Geni notebook giveaways

One of the things we look forward to most at every genealogy conference is the opportunity to meet members of the Geni community and get together with Geni curators in person. Curators Ashley Odell and Anne Brannen were on hand at the booth to help answer questions and get people started on Geni. It was also fun to see curators Randy Stebbing and Jarrett Ross again. They often came by to chat and hang out in between lectures.

Geni curators Jarrett Ross, Randy Stebbing, Ashley Odell, and Anne Brannen

Some may also know Jarrett as the GeneaVlogger and watched his helpful Geni video tutorials on YouTube. At the booth, Jarrett took some time talk with Geni’s General Manager Mike Stangel for a new GeneaVlogger video. Keep a look out for the video soon!

Jarrett and Mike filming a new GeneaVlogger video

We also gave a special demo at the MyHeritage booth in their live demo theater. Mike presented “Using MyHeritage Record Matches with Geni,” where he explained how to use Record Matches and how they help  users of Geni and MyHeritage with their family history research.

Mike giving a demo at the MyHeritage booth

We had an amazing time at RootsTech and great fun spending time with curators and Geni users. We’re looking forward to RootsTech 2020 and hope to see you there!