Focusing on the theme “Discover,” millions of participants worldwide were encouraged to make meaningful discoveries at RootsTech 2025, the largest family history gathering in the world, March 6-8 in Salt Lake City and online.
The three-day event was hosted by FamilySearch International, a family history website sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that provides billions of genealogical records and resources free of charge.
Seeing the energy and excitement among so many family historians and genealogists was a highlight for Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, a General Authority Seventy who serves as executive director of the Church’s Family History Department.
“Why do people want to participate in a family history conference?” he asked news media representatives on March 6.
“The answer to that is that this is hardwired into our DNA,” Elder Hamilton said. “This is something that we all care about. We want to connect. We want to belong. We want to be part of a family. We want to know where we come from. We are just delighted to be able to facilitate this.”
He continued: “It’s really quite an event. We had about 5 million international online visitors last year. We will be up significantly over that this year, and they come from every country on earth, which underscores a fundamental common denominator here, which is families want to connect. ... I think the future is very bright for RootsTech. We will see tens of millions of people come to RootsTech. It’s exciting.”
RootsTech 2025 featured several keynote speakers, new technological advancements and hundreds of classes, online and in person. The conference was also broadcast in multiple languages.
Latter-day Saints who participated were treated to messages from Church leaders at the first-ever Global Youth Activity and during the Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction, and President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined fellow quorum member Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, for their Family Discovery Day keynote presentation.
The conference featured musical performances by Strive To Be artist Ysabelle Cuevas, father-daughter duo Mat and Savanna Shaw, The Piano Guys and Russian bar performers.
Here are some highlights from the global family history conference.
‘Have you added what you know?’
Steve Rockwood, president and CEO of FamilySearch International and managing director of the Church’s Family History Department, opened RootsTech on March 6 by sharing that his great-great-grandfather once tried to introduce oysters and lobsters into the Great Salt Lake. It didn’t work, but if it had, Rockwood joked that his ancestor might have started the “Rockwood Lobster Shack” dynasty.
Rockwood said he learned this story about his great-great-grandfather thanks to “one other source” who simply added what they knew to the global family history research pool. Now Rockwood, his children and grandchildren know their own family story better — and therefore know themselves better.
“What is your ‘lobster’ waiting to be discovered? … Have you added what you know in order to unleash the technology and all of us in the industry to begin your journey?” Rockwood said.
“Our ultimate goal is to simply unite families — past, present and future.”
‘Everybody can do this’
One thing Elder Hamilton wishes more Latter-day Saints understood about temple and family history work is that with the latest technology and online tools available, everyone is capable of doing it.
“Every family has an ‘Aunt Sally’ that loves genealogy and does it all for the family. This is not just Aunt Sally’s project anymore,” he said. “Everybody can do this. Our goal at FamilySearch has been to make it so easy that even children can do it. Everybody can do it.”
During a March 7 event, Elder Hamilton spoke about how “the entire world can build a family tree.”
In 2024, millions of individuals registered for a FamilySearch account, with many not being Latter-day Saints. The same year, a significant number of names were added to FamilySearch data, and many of these names were contributed by those outside the Church.
“The world is coming to FamilySearch,” Elder Hamilton said. “The world’s coming to RootsTech, where they’re helping build this family tree. … We’re trying to build a family tree of humanity.”
The Church’s Family History Department estimates that somewhere around 100 billion people have lived on Earth since Adam and Eve’s time, Elder Hamilton continued. “So we’re trying to link that group of people on both sides of the veil, link them into one large tree so that Latter-day Saints using tools like Ordinances Ready can find the names of their ancestors and perform temple ordinances.”
Keynote messages
In-person keynote speakers this year were:
- Emmy Award-winning singer and songwriter Rachel Platten was scheduled to come but did not due to “unforeseen complications.” She did livestream a short message and performed one song for attendees.
- New York City-based artist and designer Dana Tanamachi.
- Olympic and Paralympic gold medalists Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall.
Prerecorded virtual keynote talks were provided by:
- Author Ndaba Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela.
- Latin American social media family Los Chicaneros.
- Filipina musician and pediatric nurse Ysabelle Cuevas.
- Italian TV personality and entertainer Marco Lui.
Cuevas spoke about how her parents, ancestry and Latter-day Saint faith helped her become the person she is and achieve what she has achieved.
“Our faith is the glue that kept us going in the years that my parents were struggling with being separated from each other [because of employment]. There’s so much love that sustains us even in those times,” she said.
The Woodhalls reflected on their journey to winning Olympic gold in separate competitions and the importance of their marriage and family.
“I believe that the gifts that we were given to be track-and-field [athletes] was a gift from God,” Hunter Woodhall said, “and us not pouring ourselves into that and doing everything we can to use that gift to glorify God and glorify our family and the sacrifice and decisions they’ve made growing up is a disservice to ourselves and to our family.”
Tanamachi learned from her ancestors, some of whom lived in U.S. internment camps during World War II, that “you can make something beautiful from whatever you have.” She is inspired by and finds strength in her ancestors’ examples of endurance and perseverance.
“I will continue in the footsteps of women in my family whose quiet strength gave them the audacity to create beauty even in the midst of dire and bleak circumstances,” she said.
Ndaba Mandela shared fragments of his experience and the life lessons he gained while being raised by his grandfather in the years following Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. Among many lessons, he learned what it means to be a leader.
“A leader, actually, is not about being the best,” Ndaba Mandela said. “It’s not about being No. 1. A leader is about serving your community.”
Opportunities to learn
RootsTech featured hundreds of classes available in person and online. Content from RootsTech will continue to be available on demand throughout the year.
One class focused on how replacing busy aspects of life, such as scrolling on social media, with family history tasks through the Family Tree app can help an individual feel more spiritual and better connected to their ancestors.
“It’s the easiest way to bring the Spirit in the moment, along with prayer and scripture reading,” said Joe Price, a professor of economics at Brigham Young University and the director of the BYU Record Linking Lab. “I love the fact that every time I do family history I feel the spirit of Elijah, which is the Holy Ghost, and I love using that as a form of protection in my life against temptation or depression.”
In another class, Latter-day Saint Rachel Trotter presented on “The Beauty of Oral History.”
“Whose voice would you give anything to hear?” asked Trotter, noting she could think of several, including her paternal grandparents. She then added, “Whose voice would you like to save now?”
— Mary Richards, Amy Ortiz, Leah Haynes and Joel Randall contributed to this article.
