March 9, 2026
Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega shows how the free RootsTech Video Library offers recorded presentations and downloadable handouts, so that you can continue to enjoy RootsTech all year long. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
Even though RootsTech 2026 ended Saturday, March 7, that doesn’t mean that it’s really over. Yes, the in-person event at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah, is over for this year – but there’s more to RootsTech than the three-day conference.
Lucky for us there is one aspect of RootsTech that is available year-round, that you can access whenever it’s convenient for you: recorded videos with downloadable handouts.
Online Education
Presentations at RootsTech were available to the in-person audience and, in many cases, also available online, in which case they were recorded and archived on the RootsTech website. While there is an obvious benefit to attending RootsTech in person, those of us who couldn’t attend can still benefit – and that benefit is not limited to one week in March.
To access the recorded lectures from this year and previous years, go to the RootsTech homepage. At the top right corner is a link to Watch Videos.
Click on that link to reveal the drop-down menu. The link for Browse the Library takes you to the Video Library page where you can browse by trending topics or video thumbnails, or do a search. The first videos you will see are those from this year’s conference.
Recorded RootsTech 2026 presentations will be available online for years to come, as are recorded presentations from previous years. Once again, remember: not all RootsTech presentations were recorded, so if you don’t see a video for a presentation you remember from attending RootsTech a previous year, it’s possible that particular presentation was for the in-person audience only.
Genealogy Tip: Not sure what to watch? You can find recommendations by those who attended in person and online by searching the hashtags #RootsTech, #RootsTech2026, or #NotAtRootsTech on your favorite social media website such as Facebook or Instagram.
You can search the RootsTech video library by a topic you are interested in, such as AI or DNA. You could also search by the name of a genealogy speaker you enjoy. Keynotes are one of the types of presentations you will find here. Keynotes from this year’s conference including one by Tara Roberts, who is a National Geographic Explorer and scuba diver. In this presentation, she discusses her work uncovering the stories of those who perished on sunken slave ships. This is a great example of uncovering stories that were once seemingly impossible to discover.
Once you are on the web page for a presentation you have chosen, you will want to take note of a few features.
An Example of a RootsTech 2026 Video: Bonnie Wade Mucia
In this example we are looking at the web page for the 2026 presentation, “Untangling the Darling Web: Advanced Strategies for Same Name Resolution” by Bonnie Wade Mucia.
This lecture was presented in person and online, so it was recorded and archived on the website’s Video Library. On this web page you will see at the top center a video with a “play” button in the middle. This is the website’s video viewer; just press the button to start the presentation. Once you start the video, other options will appear in the viewer, including a volume control and the ability to make the video full screen.
To the right of the viewer is a chat feature. This chat feature was used during RootsTech. In this example I am not signed into the RootsTech website. So, the archived chat text is not available.
Genealogy Tip: You can sign into the RootsTech website at the top right. The sign-in is your FamilySearch account credentials. This is a free account.
If I sign into the website I can see what was entered into the chat, which might include questions for the speaker and comments about the presentation. This is an added benefit as you watch the video. You may learn of additional resources from the presenter or the audience.
Now, scroll down the page to see if a handout and presentation slides are available to download.
Not every presentation will include the speaker’s slides. These are great tools to help you in studying the topic the speaker is presenting. Please remember that the handout and slides are for your personal study. Respect the speaker’s copyright by not sharing or using them for any other purpose.
Further down the presentation’s web page, under Suggested Content, are other videos in the library that are on a similar topic that you may be interested in.
Some Presentations That Were Not Recorded Can Still Offer Valuable Content
Now remember that some in-person presentations were not made available to the online audience and thus not recorded. Such was the case with Bonnie Wade Mucia’s second RootsTech presentation, “Writing Beyond the Records: Using Historical Context to Strengthen Genealogy.”
However, she did allow RootsTech to share her presentation’s handout and slides online. So, though we can’t watch the video, we can benefit from the handout and slides.
Once again, remember: not every speaker provided a handout or slides, so you will need to consult the individual web page for each presentation you are interested in to see if they are available.
Create Your Playlists
Genealogy Tip: Another benefit of signing into the RootsTech website with your FamilySearch account is that you can create your own playlists of videos to watch from this and previous years.
What Will You Watch?
I watched some of the presentations live during RootsTech, but life got in the way and I missed others on my must-watch list. That’s ok; now that the conference is over, I’m going to spend some time curating a list of videos that I want to see and dedicate some time each week to watching a video or two. The Video Library gives you that luxury of time and the ability to benefit from RootsTech all year round!
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Note on the header image: a past RootsTech genealogy conference. Credit: mormonnewsroom.org.