RootsTech: What's new from the Major Sites

RootsTech 2025 in Salt Lake City has come to an end. But there are still 503 presentations in English alone available online, so get cracking with watching them.

As is often the case, some of the major players used RootsTech to announce new features and highlighted recent ones, and all the big players have added huge numbers of new records. More details about the new features below.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a common thread among many of these additions. In fact, there were 116 talks with “AI” in the title, compared to 96 containing “DNA”. AI is the new ‘bright shiny object’ that DNA once was. This is true not just at RootsTech: the recent Australasian Conference in Brisbane, Australia (the biggest conference in Australia and New Zealand) had 6 out of the 54 talks about AI, which is about 10% of the presentations.

So, what are the announcements and updates that were made? I’m not including all of them here, just a selection, so here we go.

Last year FamilySearch announced their Full Text Search, which uses AI to transcribe documents which are then searchable. It’s come a long way since then. They originally launched with 100 million images, but now have 1.2 billion images! I’m having fun looking at the Irish Registry of Deeds records, and have been finding some very valuable records that I wouldn’t have found using the old Grantor Index or Townland Indexes. Not only are these records searchable, but there is a transcription provided. Of course, some documents have more accurate transcriptions than others, but FamilySearch are working on being able to edit any errors that AI made in the transcription.

Family Group Trees is another addition by FamilySearch. This allows families to collaborate on their part of the tree and see records for people who are still living, meaning they can share photos and so on, and get rid of living duplicates.

They have also added quality scores on the FamilySearch Family Tree, which depend on the number and quality of the sources, and the quality of the data. Warnings are given when patrons try to change well sourced entries. Further help to maintain the tree in a good shape comes in the form of a clearer change log. Both of these things will improve the integrity of the tree.

FamilySearch have also introduced an AI help chatbot. It can search lots of places in one go instead of you having to do five (or however many) different searches. Further, it remembers your previous questions, so retains the context for follow up questions. There is also an AI Research Assistant, but at the moment it is only for those living in the US and Canada ☹.

Most of these new features are available in FamilySearch Labs (www.familysearch.org/labs) though the quality scores are already available in the main tree.

The full presentation can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/familysearch-global-and-tech-forum-2025.

MyHeritage also made their announcements. Their OldNews site, which they launched last year, now has newspapers from 24 countries, with more content being constantly added.

Some of the releases they have made this year rely on AI, like “My Stories”, which sends you prompts each week and turns it into a book, and Live Memory which creates a short video from a still photo (available through the MyHeritage mobile app). In the DNA sphere they have updated the number of ethnicities they can look at, going from 42 to 79 ethnicities, and they have introduced DNA Ancient Origins.

There were only a few things in my Ancient Origins that made me raise an eyebrow, like 1.4% central Siberian in the Iron age, but on the whole, my Ancient Origins Breakdown is much as I would have expected, from European Farmers and Western Steppe dwellers in the Bronze Age; Continental and Insular Celts in the Iron age, along with that 1.4% Central Siberian; Roman Gaul, Pict and Germanic in the Roman Era; and French, Insular Celt and Germanic in the Middle Ages.

I’m not completely sure how this section (Ancient Origins Breakdown) fits in with the Hunter-Gatherer and Farmer Breakdown they also have, but perhaps I’ll understand more as time goes on. My husband’s results are basically the same groups, just different percentages. It’s not going to make any big difference to anything, and I don’t know how reliable it is, but it’s fun. But I do have one question – what about the Vikings?

The big MyHeritage announcement at the conference was Cousin Finder, which gives DNA level insights without a DNA test. It uses identified Smart Matches in family trees to make the connections.  Of course, it is only as good as the family trees that it links you to.

The MyHeritage announcements in the General (Keynote) Session can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/myheritage-sponsor-segment-general-session-2-2025.

Ancestry’s major new announcement has nothing to do with AI. It’s Ancestry Networks. This allows you to group people by community, shared experience or place. It means you can add people to your tree who are unrelated, but who appear in a common record. The idea is to help you work through your FAN (friends, associates and neighbours) group, gaining more understanding of your ancestors’ lives.

Christa Cowan’s announcement about this can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/ancestry-sponsor-segment-general-session-1-2025.

So, as always, there are lots of things to learn about on RootsTech 2025's website. Have fun watching the presentations!

DISCLOSURE: I am a RootsTech 2025 conference Media Rep and in return for my promotion of the conference I receive a free entry pass and some additional non-monetary perks. My transportation and accommodation are not compensated.