SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – It’s a place to discover your own family, and who you are – the 15th annual FamilySearch RootsTech 2025 conference kicked off with an exciting main stage presentation by CEO Steve Rockwood on March 6. Rockwood presented the new offerings at RootsTech including the use of generative AI to aid in genealogy research.
“Technology is really creating all kinds of opportunities for people. There are some companies here, and their technology makes it very easy for you to tell your family stories, to interview anyone in your family and capture those stories for the future,” RootsTech Spokesperson Paul Nauta said.
Rockwood shared from his own family history a unique discovery about his great, great grandfather Albert Perry Rockwood who attempted to farm lobsters and oysters in the Great Salt Lake in the mid-1800s – after finding this unique information about his ancestor, Steve Rockwood encouraged others to make their ‘lobster discoveries.’
“Go discover your lobster, go feel the joy,” Rockwood said.
I ran into Steve on the last day of the conference, and I was curious if people had been telling him about their lobster discoveries. He said, yes.
“I’m glad — many a lobster has been discovered this weekend,” Rockwood said.
Along with family discoveries, RootsTech boasts 300 classes with over 250 speakers, both virtual and in-person. The event hosted thousands of participants in person, and hundreds of thousands online. They also had an expo hall packed with vendors like Ancestry, and Storied ready to help participants make family connections.
“I really am excited to share the things that I’ve learned with my kids. I have a 12-year-old, and a 14-year-old…my older kids are already excited about doing family history and I got to learn all about the family history guide, and they have activities for the youth and for families that are already right there,” participant Liz Batt says.
RootsTech also featured eight keynote speakers including the iconic sports couple Olympian Tara Davis Woodhall and Paralympian Hunter Woodhall, Emmy Award-winning multi-platinum artist of ‘Fight Song’ Rachel Platten, and New York City Artist Dana Tanamachi to name a few.
During a media conference Saturday we asked Hunter and Tara how they’re helping encourage youth to connect and form interpersonal relationships like they first did during Pocatello’s Simplot Games in 2017.
“I guess it starts with just getting out, getting out of the house and being present with the people that your around and put the phone, and just try to connect. Ask someone their favorite color… That’s really how met is at a track meet. It’s something that we both enjoy, something that we both passion and then for me to go up on the track and hug him and we sit here eight years later it’s pretty insane. I would just say get up and get out, go touch some grass. We have other change this social media influence life— there’s still life out there,” Tara Davis Woodhall said.
“We love being outside, we love spending time with our friends, family, and community, that’s what makes all of this worth it so I think just leading through action,” Hunter Woodhall said. “Who knows what could happen we met at a track meeting high school. Maybe there’s some other little love birds out there making it work.”
The President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jeffrey R. Holland was also presenting on the main stage joining Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife Kathy Andersen during a Family Discovery Day Event. During his presentation Elder Andersen made a historic announcement about global temple construction.
"80% of all temple recommend holders in the Church will be within an hour of a temple,” Andersen said.
Rockwood says Family history has a reputation of being overwhelming or intimidating. He says --“Don’t think of it that way, just think of it as family discovery, everyone can discover, and everyone has fun doing it. So start with discover and if you choose you can start doing family history,” Rockwood says.
RootsTech videos are still available for people to watch at FamilySearch.org.