Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

RootsTech 2026: My Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Recap

RootsTech 2026 wrapped up today, and like many genealogists who couldn’t travel to Salt Lake City, I attended several sessions online. Since Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun prompt asked participants to share what they watched and what they enjoyed most, I thought I’d turn my notes into a recap of the sessions I followed over the past three days.

As usual, RootsTech offered a wide variety of topics—from DNA and traditional research strategies to the rapidly expanding role of artificial intelligence in genealogy.

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Thursday Sessions

Your AI Toolkit: Essential Tools for Family History Stories — Laryn Brown

This session provided a solid overview of AI tools available to genealogists. For me, it was mostly a review rather than introducing something entirely new to add to my workflow. Still, it was a helpful reminder of how many tools now exist for storytelling and presentation.

DNA Swim School – Part 1: Floating with One DNA Match — Diahan Southard

I always enjoy Diahan Southard’s presentations. However, early in the session I realized I was “out in the water with my tree as my only flotation device,” so I decided to switch sessions before getting too lost in the deep end of DNA analysis.

FamilySearch Global Tech Forum — Robby Parker, Ian James & Michelle Barber

This session caught my attention because of the idea that FamilySearch may connect researchers to archival collections around the world.

As a volunteer with the Nemaha County Historical Society, I immediately wondered how valuable it would be if small local archives—like our historical society collections and our Archive.org materials—could eventually connect with systems like FamilySearch.

Another takeaway was the reminder to explore the FamilySearch Labs area, where experimental tools and new features are often introduced.

General Sessions

I try to watch the general sessions every year. Historically, many of the biggest announcements about new genealogy technology are introduced during these presentations.

What’s New at Ancestry — Crista Cowan

This presentation covered several upcoming changes and tools on the Ancestry platform.

I had already seen some previews through other genealogy creators, but Crista’s presentation helped clarify what those updates might mean for everyday researchers.

For additional context, these videos also discuss the new features:

• Ancestry Aimee – 3 New Game Changing Features on Ancestry
• Connie Knox – New Features at Ancestry with Crista Cowan at RootsTech 2026

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Friday Sessions

FamilySearch Full-Text Search — David Ouimette

This was one of the most practical sessions I attended. I learned that FamilySearch’s full-text search capability can be accessed through the catalog, which opens up new ways to search digitized collections.

AI and Family History — Steve Little

As expected from the title, this session focused on foundational concepts about using artificial intelligence in genealogy. Even though much of it was introductory, it provided a good overview of practical ways AI can assist genealogists.

The Search Party Clues Strategy — Janet Hovorka, Diahan Southard & Crista Cowan

This session was both informative and fun. It emphasized a structured research process:

1. Spotlight
2. Clues
3. Sift
4. Map
5. Dig

This year’s presentation focused specifically on how to work with clues:

• Collect clues
• Lift information from records
• Use those clues to form hypotheses
• Enter the information into your research system

It was a great reminder that even with new technology, the fundamentals of genealogical research still matter.

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Saturday Sessions

Wanted! Seeking the Identity of Unknown Parents — Dana Palmer

This session was encouraging. It demonstrated that even when researchers begin with very little information, careful analysis and persistence can sometimes lead to identifying unknown parents.

Future of AI in Genealogy — Dave Vance, David Ouimette, Diana Elder, Mark Thompson & Steve Little

This panel discussion explored where artificial intelligence may take genealogy in the future.

Several points stood out to me:

• AI is evolving rapidly, and genealogists need to stay informed about new developments.
• Privacy matters, especially when using AI tools that may involve living people.
• Researchers must continue to verify AI-generated conclusions with traditional records.

The discussion about family reconstitution also made me wonder whether similar approaches might help untangle my own Crawford research problem.

The panel also recommended staying connected with leaders in the field. Some resources mentioned included:

• Ethan Mollick’s newsletter One Useful Thing
• The Facebook group Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence (moderated by Blaine Bettinger)
• The Family History AI Show
• The Research Like a Pro podcast

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DNA Swim School – Part 3: Diahan Southard

By Saturday, I decided to jump back into Diahan Southard’s DNA Swim School series.

This session focused on moving beyond simply identifying DNA matches and instead actively using them in research.

Some key takeaways:

• Don’t be afraid to “jump in the water” and work directly with your DNA match list.
• Genetic relationships should align with genealogical relationships.
• Identify matches in the correct centimorgan (cM) range that could descend from your mystery ancestor.
• Build other people’s trees when necessary to identify possible connections.

A particularly important reminder:

Sharing DNA with someone does not automatically guarantee a shared ancestor in the timeframe you expect—especially in populations affected by endogamy.

Ultimately, Diahan emphasized a critical point:

DNA alone cannot prove the relationship.
The connection must still be verified with traditional genealogical records.

In other words:

Sometimes you need to pause the DNA analysis and go back to doing genealogy.

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Final Thoughts

Overall, RootsTech 2026 reinforced something I’ve been noticing for the past couple of years: genealogy is entering a period of rapid technological change.

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into research, analysis, and storytelling—but the fundamentals of genealogy remain the same:

• Careful research
• Source evaluation
• Evidence analysis
• Documenting conclusions

Technology may give us new tools, but records still prove relationships.

And that reminder might be the most valuable takeaway of all.