FamilySearch International President and CEO Steve Rockwood welcomed the RootsTech 2017 crowd and an estimated online audience of 100,000 and compared a family tree to a pando of aspen trees, considered to be a singular organism given life underground by an extensive connected root system. "We at FamilySearch look at all family trees as a part of a single worldwide living organism or worldwide collaborative tree. Here...at RootsTech we are cultivating...a family history pando,” he said. With a replica living room and kitchen as part of the stage, Rockwood said everything people learn at RootsTech will come with an invitation to "try this at home." Through the internet it is indeed possible to listen to the RootsTech 2017 presentations at home.
RootsTech is organized by FamilySearch International, a nonprofit family history organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch provides free online access to millions of people around the world, both Church members and nonmembers, who are researching their genealogy. In fact, FamilySearch reports that more people not affiliated with the Church have accounts to access their family trees than do Latter-day Saints.
RootsTech 2017 featured something for every family, from preserving family recipes and traditions to the latest DNA research and newspaper searching app. Go here for recordings of four days of RootsTech 2017 sessions.