The FamilySearch Global Forum at RootsTech 2024 was a powerful reminder of the importance of remembering our ancestors, something that applies across the globe. FamilySearch expressed its commitment to helping people from all backgrounds connect with their family—their family from the past, present, and also the future. Let's delve into the key takeaways from the Global Forum, exploring how FamilySearch is helping people remember their own story and their family's stories, across all continents.
Recordings from RootsTech (the world's largest genealogy conference) are available online for free. Watch the full FamilySearch Global Forum here, or read more about it below.
Worldwide Record Collections Are Crucial
Capturing records—documents that have vital information about people's ancestors—is crucial for what FamilySearch offers its patrons. Records can give genealogical clues, answers to family mysteries, and pieces to family stories. FamilySearch expressed during the forum that every person has family documents and memories that are important to remember, but many are at risk of being lost. FamilySearch's work is to reach out to individuals and areas all around the world and ask—how can we help?
Michael Colemere, FamilySearch's Homeland Director for Asia, Africa, and Oceania, stressed the importance of preserving records to remember stories worldwide. He highlighted FamilySearch's commitment since 1894 to gather information from around the globe. "The sun never sets on our record collection, because it is worldwide," he said. FamilySearch has collected records in over 200 countries, and during this forum at RootsTech, they gave insights into how well these collection efforts are going in many regions of the world (see the breakdown at the end of this article).
Technology Is Playing an Increasingly Important Role in Remembering the Past
As they presented, the homeland directors from FamilySearch spoke of how technology is playing a role in many experiences, even beyond digitizing record images.
Navigating Cemeteries and Memorials
Stephen J. Valentine, Homeland Director for Europe and North America, spoke of a recent FamilySearch innovation, the Cemeteries Search feature. This groundbreaking tool seamlessly integrates technology with the timeless practice of remembering our ancestors. With just a few clicks, users can explore the final resting places of their loved ones across over 300,000 cemeteries worldwide.
If you are logged in with a free FamilySearch account, the Cemeteries tool also allows you to see just how many relatives you have in a particular cemetery, based on the information in your family tree. The FamilySearch Cemeteries tool also links users to BillionGraves and Find a Grave, organizations that may have photos of a relative's headstone and information about where the headstone is located. All together, this creates a powerful experience that transcends time and distance, ensuring that the memories of our loved ones endure for generations to come.
Try the Cemeteries feature for yourself.
Getting Involved and Making Discoveries Possible
The Get Involved mobile app lets people around the world collaborate in making records searchable online for free. This app lets you easily review family names that have been indexed by a computer, helping others to find information about their ancestors.
Here's how it works: FamilySearch uses innovative technology and handwriting recognition software to find and index ancestor names in historical record images. Many times, the computer indexes the name correctly, but sometimes it makes mistakes. The Get Involved app lets anyone willing to volunteer even a minute or so of their time to quickly check and fix these errors.
This tool has been particularly helpful in the Latin American areas of the world, as computer-aided indexing has helped index millions of local records in these areas. Volunteers through Get Involved have reviewed many names in these Spanish and Portuguese records, helping people connect with their ancestors and discover their family history.
Learn more about Get Involved here.
Discovering More about Your Surname and Easily Building Your Family Tree Online
Although not covered in-depth in the Global forum, FamilySearch surname and guided tree experiences were also mentioned as tools that have helped engage FamilySearch users from different places in the world.
In many areas, including Latin America and Korea, the meanings and origins of surnames are of high interest. FamilySearch's surname tool is available in many languages to help people find out more about their surname. The Korean FamilySearch home page has treasure troves of information about Korean names and clans.
Once you have discovered a little about your family, FamilySearch wants to help you find more. Building a family tree is a great way to do this, as it opens the doors to sharing family information with other relatives, finding record hints, and more. In an effort to help new users start their tree in the easiest way possible, FamilySearch has begun to try out a guided tree building experience on parts of its site.
When Was the Last Time You Visited a FamilySearch Center?
Tom Gill, Homeland Director for Latin America, talked about another resource for helping people discover and remember their family history. FamilySearch has over 5,000 FamilySearch centers worldwide. These centers serve as gathering spots for people to connect, share stories, and learn from each other. They provide in-person family history resources and guidance and help visitors make discoveries about their family and preserve family memories and documents.
Find your local FamilySearch Center.
FamilySearch Personalizes Experiences, with a Goal of Enabling Everyone to Connect with Their Heritage Globally
More and more, FamilySearch is using localized pages to offer a more relevant, personalized experience for users. These pages take into account a user's language and location, and they even consider common needs, interests, and practices from their culture. For example, FamilySearch users from some Asia areas are used to considering their genealogies from top-down, starting with one common or influential ancestor. FamilySearch's homeland team for Asia helped develop a version of the Family Tree that accommodates this, called First Ancestor View. This dedication to accessibility empowers individuals from many walks of life to connect with their heritage.
To see examples of localized pages on FamilySearch, check out the list below. Each was built based on localized research and collaboration with people in or from these areas of the world:
- Africa Home Page
- United Kingdom Home Page
- Australia Home Page
- Chinese Home Page
- Korean Home Page
- German Home Page
- Thailand Home Page
FamilySearch Knows Oral Family Histories Are Important, Especially in Africa and the Pacific Islands, Where Written Records Might Be Rare
FamilySearch has been capturing these spoken, memorized histories since the 1960s, starting in the Pacific Islands. They saw the importance of saving these stories, so they expanded their work to Africa.
FamilySearch started small in Ghana in 2004, but by 2016, they worked in 15 African countries with over 5,000 interviewers. Millions of interviews have now been conducted. This massive effort ensures these stories won't be lost and can be enjoyed by future generations.
You can search oral genealogies for free here and can learn more about them on the FamilySearch wiki.
Are You Inspired to Learn More about Each Area in More Detail?
Read on to see how significant the global efforts to connect generations are. Here are some of the latest statistics highlighting FamilySearch's reach across different regions:
Asia, Africa, and Pacific Areas
FamilySearch's reach extends far and wide, but they also realize the areas they are serving are large and diverse. Those who oversee experiences for the Asia, Africa, and Pacific areas serve over 100 countries in these regions. This area of the world holds over 77% of the world's population, boasting a rich tapestry of languages and cultures. With over 100 official languages and a mind-boggling 3,000+ dialects in these combined regions, FamilySearch understands the importance of local representation.
China
FamilySearch houses the world's most extensive online collection of Jiapu, traditional Chinese family histories. Each history can potentially cover thousands of years of ancestor information. With about 70,000 preserved Jiapu titles and a staggering 60 million digital images, this collection is invaluable to many doing Chinese genealogy. The collection covers over 500 Chinese surnames, and a dedicated team currently operates 26 digitizing cameras to expand this valuable resource.
Search the Jiapu collection on FamilySearch for free here (currently available in Chinese).
Philippines
For over 50 years, FamilySearch has played a vital role in preserving Filipino historical and cultural information. Their collection includes over 150 million record images from the Philippines, including 8 million images from Catholic parish records. Microfilming efforts began in 1973, ensuring the preservation of records dating back to the 1620s.
Africa
Oral histories in Africa, kept by memorization, can include information for anywhere from 6 to 30 generations. Through personal interviews, documented on paper and with digital recordings, FamilySearch has been working to preserve these African family histories and make them available for descendants to search online. With permission from local authorities, they have interviewed over 2 million individuals across 20 sub-Saharan African countries. This impressive collection includes information on over 236 million family names, along with 8.3 million photos, 3.3 million recordings, and 1.7 million documented family stories. This initiative safeguards a rich cultural heritage that might otherwise be lost. You can find it at FamilySearch.org/africa.
Latin America
Many people in Latin America are using FamilySearch to learn about their families! Around a third of all FamilySearch users come from this part of the world, with Brazil leading out at 20% of all users. Nearly half of all the new accounts created on FamilySearch.org in 2023 were from Latin America!
FamilySearch is making it easier for people in Latin America to find their ancestors. They've indexed 360 million regional records using computer aided indexing, making these records text-searchable so that those with Latin American heritage can discover their past. These records come from countries like Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Guatemala, Chile, Peru, and nearly every other Latin American country.
You can search indexed historical records here on FamilySearch.org. To narrow your search to a specific location, scroll down to the Search By Place option.
North America
FamilySearch's roots run deep in North America. The organization's roots began in 1894 with the Genealogical Society of Utah, laying the groundwork for their mission of preserving family history. Since then, they've become a leader in capturing important collections, ensuring these records are accessible for generations.
FamilySearch understands the importance of local history. They have ongoing projects in all 50 states, diligently collecting and preserving valuable records. They have an impressive fleet of 73 cameras actively capturing these historical documents.
Europe
FamilySearch's reach also extends across the large and diverse continent of Europe. This area of the world has about 50 countries and 26 languages, and the FamilySearch team who oversees outreach in this area understands the importance of preserving the unique stories of each region.
FamilySearch's commitment to digitizing European records began in 1948 with the expansion of microfilming projects into Scandinavia and beyond. Today, this dedication continues with 159 cameras operating in nearly every European country.
Recognizing that many European records can benefit families in other areas of the world, FamilySearch shared a few examples of country-specific efforts they know will impact other regions. In Portugal, 130 million new images with 727 million names are being put online this year. In Italy, the single largest digitization project that FamilySearch has ever undertaken to date will soon release 223 new images with over 583 million names. Digitization efforts in Ukraine have been going on for the last 3 years, and are up to 41 million images and 121 million names.
How Can We Help?
Presenters at the forum predicted that FamilySearch can bring in another 200 million new record images this year, considering just the work its own collection teams are doing with archivists around the world. They invited the audience to consider how many more people could be helped, with the combined efforts of other individuals and organizations working in collaboration. During the question and answer part of the forum, the audience was also very curious about what they could do to help. Here are some things to consider:
- Individuals can help improve record access through Get Involved.
- In-person and online volunteer opportunities are also available on the FamilySearch Volunteer page.
- Libraries interested in providing in-person access to genealogy resources for their local patrons can apply to join the FamilySearch Affiliate Library program.
- Archivists and other record custodians can contact FamilySearch record preservation and digitization services.
- Innovators and organizations wishing to collaborate on software projects can apply to become a qualified third-party service provider.
"We thank you for everything you do to help us, and we are all about helping to remember those around us," Michael Colemere said, as the final remarks for the forum.
The recording for this forum and many other RootsTech sessions are available to view online for free:
What Is RootsTech?
RootsTech is a place to learn, be inspired, and make connections through family history. Hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by other leading genealogy organizations, we have hundreds of expert classes, tips and tricks videos, and inspiring stories that can help you experience family history like never before. Visit our on-demand learning library, or make plans to join us for our next virtual or in-person conference event.
