RootsTech 2025 concluded on Saturday, and from the perspective of The Family History Guide it was a great experience. In a previous blog we outlined the webinar and speaker sessions by members and partners of The Family History Guide Management Team. Those sessions went well and were well-attended.
For example, Miles Meyer’s webinar on U.S. census records had over 2,000 online viewers for the session. Also, the presentation by Scott and Angelle Anderson and John and Kimberly Bytheway was held in a packed Ballroom B, the largest of the presentation rooms at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Here’s a photo of Kimberly, John, and Scott after the presentation, near The Family History Guide booth.
Booth Volunteers
We had quite a few enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers giving 2-Minute Demos of the website at the booth. From what they saw, nearly half of all the visitors who stopped by The Family History Guide booth are familiar with the website and many are using it and recommending it often.
Here are some quotes from a few of the volunteers about the experiences they had meeting with visitors:
Ann – “Over and over again as I showed people The Family History Guide, their eyes would light up and they were just amazed with what was there. As they saw the possibilities of this helping them in their family history research they were very appreciative. I think the excitement in their faces was the most fun to see.”
Brent – “A young Black man came by who was interested in learning about slavery records. He was probably in his 20s. I showed him how he could search for slavery records in The Family History Guide, and the African-American resources in the Vault. He became very vocal and so excited about what we had to offer. He said that he has hundreds of thousands of followers on his media sites, and he said he is telling them all about it.”
Diane – “I had a woman come to me the second day at RootsTech and thanked me for introducing her to The Family History Guide. She went back to her apt and spent hours looking at it very excited to find it. I had a few people almost in tears as I showed them how they could research in their foreign country or state.”
Linda – “I met and spoke with a man from France. There was a strong language barrier, but he was equipped with a translator app on his phone. On The Family History Guide website we used the Select Language feature translate to French the things he was interested in.”
James – ” In walking around the Exhibit floor, because of my logo shirt, I had a lot more comments about The Family History Guide than ever before. I think the message is getting out!”
