The whole idea for this RootsTech Ride Along was to come up with a series of Substack live streams that would help us share the experience as a community. Just four of us are chiming into the Ride Along from the Salt Lake City, Utah venue, but with a little video magic we can make the most of the experience together.
Our post from Saturday includes the details on timing for sessions featuring not only my
partner, , but also Lori Olson White, Kyla Bayang, and ConferenceKeeper by Tami Mize — all of whom are on site. But wait! There’s more as our friends and members Jennifer Jones (Australia), Kathy Stone (Canada), Bill Moore (US), and Emma - Journeys into Genealogy (UK) join us1 to share their insights and resources.I’m also pooling all of these posts on a special page on Projectkin.org
Resources
We covered a lot of ground today, considering that the whole program was about 20 minutes long. Here are the notes that I took. Did I miss any?
As she mentions in the recording, Robin started her day at
’s spectacular Mondays with Myrt program livestreamed from the FamilySearch Center in Salt Lake City. This library, legendary in the genealogy community, houses some of the most extraordinary collections of materials and experts. Myrt invited members of her live audience to join her panel. Among them, Robin and our own . Joining Robin and Kyla was Rick Voight from Vivid-Pix whom you just might see in his RootsTech booth, (that’s both in person or online!)Watch the live stream here:
On the topic of RootsTech, we also discussed a few special programs FamilySearch is offering as outreach for their remarkable database. Among them:
Relatives at RootsTech: familysearch.org/connect
In yesterday’s post, I included a poll which is tending to support the idea of a form to capture and share our RootsTech registration names so we can look each other up. Think it’s a good idea? Let me know
This special program is only live until April 11, 2026, and as of this writing, nearly 400K have already joined!
Famous Relatives at RootsTech: familysearch.org/connect/famous
This variation on the program ☝️ adds the family trees for famous people so you can see how you might be related (though… some linking data could be a little squishy.) Elvis is Barbara’s 8C1R. (Is he though?)
Also available only until April 11, 2026.
Cemeteries on FamilySearch: familysearch.org/cemeteries
In the context of fun things you can do with the data in FamilySearch, the organization has mapped people in their databases to major global cemeteries. Searching in this database and tapping “Relatives” in the filter lets you see where your ancestors are buried.
This is available all year round, but you do have to be logged in to your FamilySearch account.
Coming up in the chat during our discussion was the Ancestral Women challenge from
.
This and Future Programs
That led us to a conversation of what’s ahead. Our special guest for the Ride Along tomorrow will be the unflappable
, author behind two extraordinary publications. Learn more about that and check your local times here.Today’s program and all programs in this series will be available here on
, pooled into a special playlist on YouTube.com/@projectkin.Join our Next Gathering
is a collaboration of ours. We put this together to create a home or welcome wagon of sorts for family historians and genealogists first finding their way to Substack. The language, user interface, and elements can be confusing to first timers — as it was for both of us. We realized this would all be easier if we could do it together, so… each a month we hold two “Gatherings” timed for Atlantic and Pacific regions of the planet to be sure everyone can find a convenient time. (Learn more about Gatherings here, and our monthly calendar here.) This month, with RootsTech falling in the first week of the month, we decided to combine both on a single day, Tuesday, Oct. 11 (for the Americas and Atlantic region) or Wednesday, Oct. 12 (for the Pacific Rim region.) I hope you can join us.
Got your comfy shoes and bunny slippers ready? Let’s do this thing!
Stay tuned, with a special add feature, there just might be a few surprise guests joining us.
