Hundreds of classes offered at RootsTech 2026 taught family history researchers how to use records from specific regions and countries, such as Africa, Australia, Europe and more.
Though many presentations focused on faraway places, at least two were rooted in the history of Salt Lake City — where the conference took place — and highlighted Utah pioneers.
RootsTech is a three-day global online and in-person family celebration conference hosted by FamilySearch International and is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other leading genealogy organizations.
It is the world’s largest genealogy event and features classes, new technologies and notable speakers such as Elder Ronald A. Rasband and Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The 2026 event was held March 5-7, with an in-person event in Salt Lake City and online at RootsTech.org.
See below for summaries of two presentations given at RootsTech about Utah pioneers.
Searching early pioneer records
Julie Merrill is an accredited genealogist and a research manager at AncestryProGenealogists. She also previously served a five-year service mission at FamilySearch.
Merrill taught a class on Saturday, March 7, titled “Pioneer Temple Records and the Untapped Information and Relationships They Contain.” The course explored some of the reasons that family history research involving Utah pioneers can be difficult and tips for navigating those challenges.
For instance, Merrill said early pioneers weren’t encouraged to organize their family history records until 1894, when then-Church President Wilford Woodruff asked Church members to begin sealing deceased people to their own families as much as possible.
The resulting “temple records,” Merrill said, are now kept in the Special Collections room of the FamilySearch library. These microfilms are rich with information but aren’t alphabetized or otherwise organized; so Merrill recommended using a resource available on FamilySearch called “Annotated record of baptisms for the dead, 1840-1845,” which is a series of indexes that helps researchers find specific people within the microfilm records.
Merrill recommended using the “Annotated records” resource to first find the ancestor in question, then use that information to search for an original record in Special Collections. She also gave examples of how these and other records can help researchers clear up duplicates, fix mistaken duplicate merges and clarify which proxy temple ordinances have and haven’t been performed for particular people.
“So I hope today I kind of opened your eyes a little bit to what could be missing in our pioneer ancestors’ histories and what maybe [happened to] those names that they did that are forgotten,” Merrill said. “Go and check it out, go explore and go have fun.”
Remembering women pioneers
Ellen Jeppson, 26th president of the International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, gave a presentation on Thursday, March 5, titled “Daughters of Utah Pioneers: Preserving the History of the Utah Pioneers Who Came to Utah 1847-1869.”
Jeppson shared stories from the lives of several brave, faithful women who crossed the plains to Utah. For instance, Ruth May Fox was born in 1853 in Wiltshire, England, where her parents joined the Church when she was about a year old. As a teenager, she made the journey to Utah, where she later married and had 12 children.
Jeppson said that Ruth May Fox also participated in the women’s suffrage movement, served as the Church’s Young Women general president and wrote the hymn “Carry On.” She died in 1958 at age 104.
“She had lived through the era of wagons, automobiles, airplanes and the beginning of the space age,” Jeppson said. “[She was] an amazing woman and a terrific representative of the many pioneers who left their homes and came to Utah and made a successful and wonderful life. I love Ruth May Fox. I’m ready to meet her someday.”
Jeppson also shared how the Daughters of Utah Pioneers organization was started in 1901 by Annie Taylor Hyde, daughter of pioneers John Taylor and Jane Ballantyne. The organization will celebrate its 125th anniversary on April 11, Jeppson said, and today has 101,000 members and 120 museums across North America.
“Annie Taylor Hyde had no idea what the pioneers would come to mean to their descendants and people around the world,” Jeppson said, “but she was sure that remembering them would give courage, strength and faith. I think she would be happy that her children and her children’s children, throughout all time, are remembering their pioneer ancestors.”
