Find family tree roots for free this weekend in world's largest online conference - Times Union

The world's biggest family history conference is free this weekend to anyone who registers online at Roots Tech.org.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (famous for its vast FamilySearch digitalized trove of birth, death and marital records dating back centuries) hosts an annual genealogy event and it's open to everyone, regardless of faith. This year, many workshops and speakers focus on Black family history and the African diaspora.  Ancestry.com and Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society will be on hand to lecture and take questions. Roots Tech will start live-streaming select programming at 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 25, and through Saturday.

As of Wednesday, more than 501,000 people from 224 countries had registered. More than 85 percent of them are new to the conference. The Albany spokesperson for Roots Tech, Tarra Rust, vows there will be plenty of experts available to guide newbies through a whole cosmos of online genealogical records.

At some point, every researcher, novice or pro, will hit a point in time where written history for his family may not exist. A family of  Europe's 18th century peasants, for example, lacked the literacy skills to keep diaries or log their funerals or christenings in the family Bible.

Black studies historians have documented how vigorously bigoted whites suppressed biographical information about Blacks kidnapped in Africa and brought to America enslaved. Oral histories can become crucial for Black family researchers. There will be presentations on where to find such oral histories in different countries.

"There will also be people like me who are passionate about family history and have been deeply involved in genealogical research for our adult lives," said Rust, who's been researching her family's European history since she was a teen. "We call them Family Search Service Missionaries. They go to the conference, wear shirts with messages on them saying they're happy to help."

Mormon Family History consultant  Linda Miller says the passion for genealogy is part of the church's spiritual life. Mormons believe that their ancestors who died before the LDS prophet Joseph Smith lived can be baptized posthumously as Mormons.

"For us, it's our version of lighting a candle for the departed or having a Mass said," Miller explained.

Miller has adopted and raised three children, all of whom were able to trace their ancestry back to India. She doesn't see adoption as an obstacle to drawing an accurate family tree.

She and Rust share a keen curiosity that is contagious. When she discovered an ancestor, who died at 19 in a railroad accident, a sweet-natured Canadian librarian who Rust called offered to sift through a stack of microfiche to find a 19th century newspaper article about the fatal accident.

Over the past decade, Rust said the conferences were often held in Salt Lake City, where the Church's central temple is a landmark. This year, online attendees from different nations will have chances to enter online spaces where they can "share knowledge and tips." Presentations will be available in 11 languages.

There are also special programs designed for Gen Z and children kindergarten through 12th-grade. All registered users can create personal playlists of all the sessions they want to watch.

Albany Mormon congregation member Brett Brimhall said that he enjoys an app that allows small groups of random people, usually less than 10, to search resources and rapidly discover if and how they are related.

"Usually, they find out they are related in some distant way even if it was hundreds of years ago," he said.

After the conference, Rust says there will still be free  resources available for family history buffs. Kristie and Steven Heyborne are local Family Search service missionaries who are happy to help the public learn how to use FamilySearch.

They can be contacted at: Heyborne.steven70@gmail.com

And the Church of LDS house of worship at 411 Loudon Road in Loudonville allows the public to use its research center free of charge by appointment. FamilySearch volunteers can be arranged to help.

"We have a subscription to Ancestry.com so that service would be free to any member of the public who requests to come in and use it," Rust said. "We're closed now for the pandemic but I can hardly until we open again so people can visit."