I am an experienced speaker with a large repertoire of talks, covering a variety of family history-based topics. I have spoken at RootsTech, The Genealogy Show, Who Do You Think You Are Live? and o…

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

NEW RESOURCES State of Kentucky: Auditor Ball Launches Online Tool to Track Public Benefit Processing Errors. "The Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts is launching a new Public Benefit Error Rate Tracker. This online, public-facing tool will display monthly error rates and estimated wasted taxpayer dollars measured by the Ombudsman within the Beshear administration's processing of major public benefit programs. The displayed error rates measure how often a state agency processes a public benefit case incorrectly."

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

Registration is now open for RootsTech 2027, which takes place March 4–6, 2027, both online and in person in Salt Lake City, Utah.

With “Celebrate!” as its theme, RootsTech 2027 will help usher in celebrations for the historic Salt Lake Temple’s six-month open house next year. RootsTech — the world’s largest family history and genealogy conference — will take place next year on March 4-6, about a month before public tours of the landmark temple begin on April 5. The three-day genealogy conference will feature upward of 500 classes, interactive experiences and a virtual and in-person expo hall showcasing the latest technological advancements in family history. With the approaching temple open house, the conference will also incorporate themes and activities tied to the historic Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More Salt Lake Temple open house tickets dropping in 2 upcoming waves RootsTech is “a great event for Salt Lake City,” said Paul Nauta, senior marketing communications manager for FamilySearch, during a recent media briefing about the conference. RootsTech “brings people virtually and in person from all over the world,” he said, “and it’ll be a great kind of precursor to the Salt Lake Temple celebration.” The conference’s theme — “Celebrate!” — mirrors the announced theme for the Salt Lake Temple open house, which is “Rejoice in Christ.” It also positions RootsTech as another celebration paving the way for the temple’s long-awaited open house. Details about the conference’s specific ties to the temple open house will be released at a later date. ‘Rejoice in Christ’ — Salt Lake Temple Celebration theme is announced The FamilySearch Library — located near the temple in Salt Lake City and the Salt Palace Convention Center, where RootsTech will be held in person — will also feature experiences enabling visitors to connect with each other and the history of the Salt Lake Temple. Early bird registration for RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch International, is now available here. Registration to attend online is free, while registration to attend in person costs $69 for a one-day pass and $99 for a three-day pass. Prices will rise closer to the conference dates. Three of the conference’s keynote speakers have also been announced. They are: 1. CeCe Moore — A DNA expert and pioneer in the field of genetic genealogy whose work has appeared in many articles and TV programs, including PBS’s documentary series “Finding Your Roots.” 2. Jane Seymour — An award-winning actress, author and philanthropist who launched the Open Hearts Foundation in 2010 to empower others to “turn adversity into possibility.” 3. Steve Rockwood — President and CEO of FamilySearch International and the managing director of the family history department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those interested can preview the conference’s hundreds of classes here. More information about the conference is available at RootsTech.org.

Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.

This update has been updated. It's been a minute since we've had an update to the database growth chart.  At RootsTech last week, I was able to get some new numbers to share, particularly from AncestryDNA and 23andMe. The AncestryDNA database will be at 30 million DNA kits any day now.  It is larger than all of the other genealogical DNA databases combined.  If you are in an English-speaking country, this is the place to start your DNA journey! 23andMe dropped from about 15 million in October 2024 to a little under 14 million due to a credential stuffing attack and consequent bankruptcy.  23andMe has since been acquired by a nonprofit public benefit corporation and continues to offer both genealogical, health, and scientific research services.  Approximately 11.1 million users participate in relative matching, and about 8.8 million of those are opted into segment matching via the chromosome browser. MyHeritage updates their numbers regularly on their About page, so it's easy to keep tabs on their growth.  When we consider only kits that are available for genealogical matching, MyHeritage is a close third behind 23andMe, with 9.6 million kits.  MyHeritage is probably your best bet if you live in continental Europe. FamilyTreeDNA reports that their autosomal DNA database (called Family Finder) is just under 1.8 million.  This number includes only the Family Finder database.  FamilyTreeDNA also offers Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA kits. I'm still waiting on updated numbers from GEDmatch.  Based on prior growth rates, I project that they're at about 2.2 million.  I will update the graph (and this post) when I am able. All of the companies—with the exception of 23andMe, as noted above—are showing remarkably steady growth, so much so that I am able to extrapolate from prior reports to predict the current databases sizes fairly accurately.  AncestryDNA outpaced my prediction by about 4%, MyHeritage undershot the mark by about 7%, and FamilyTreeDNA was almost spot on, less than half a percent off from my prediction. This is good news!  Gone are the heady days of 2017–2018, when every company was outperforming its prior sales.  However, the market has clearly adjusted to the disruption and has not yet reached a saturation point. Updates to This Post 16 March 2026 — Added the current database size for FamilyTreeDNA and a comment about steady growth.

The new GEDmatch is here to see. Product Manager Tom Osypian walks through the completely rebuilt GEDmatch interface — the first full public preview outside a brief demo at RootsTech — and it's the…

I met Jill Ball, the Australian Genealogist, at RootsTech last week .  We had been "virtual friends" online for a long time, but there...