I received this information from FamilySearch recently:
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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—Join FamilySearch, the world’s largest nonprofit genealogy organization, in looking back at 2024 to recap some of its most notable highlights. FamilySearch celebrated its 130th anniversary as an organization in 2024, and the 25th anniversary of its popular website, FamilySearch.org. Millions of visitors made fun new ancestor discoveries during the year thanks to advancements in FamilySearch’s artificial intelligence, new historical records collections, and RootsTech by FamilySearch, which continued its global reach in helping individuals make new family connections.
FamilySearch enjoyed more than 285 million visits from across the planet in 2024. Patrons frequented FamilySearch’s growing record collections, interactive discovery experiences like Surnames and Ancestors, and helpful articles on the FamilySearch Wiki and Blog.
Free Genealogical Records
The most popular reason for visiting FamilySearch.org in 2024 was free access to massive amounts of the world’s genealogical records. FamilySearch offers online access to records for more than 170 countries and principalities. More than 2.5 billion new searchable records and images were added in 2024—totaling more than 20.5 billion for the website. FamilySearch began publishing the Africa oral genealogies with searchable indexes for 12 African countries. The country collections receiving the greatest increase on FamilySearch were the USA, Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Portugal, France, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, and Ireland. Search the expanded collections now.
The Collaborative FamilySearch Family Tree
The world’s largest online family tree grew by more than 150 million people in 2024, totaling 1.67 billion searchable people. Contributors also added 530 million sources to their ancestors in the tree—which helps increase accuracy and collaboration. In addition, three new user features were added to the FamilySearch Family Tree:
- Merge Analysis Feature simplifies the ability to review and correct merges, and you can better understand the “before and after” of each merge.
- Portrait Pedigree View Update allows you to view siblings, a single-family line, and multiple family lines at the same time; add relatives quickly without leaving the page; and distinguish living individuals more easily.
- 3 Star Record Hints introduce a broader range of record considerations for experienced researchers to explore.
FamilySearch Digital Books Online
The FamilySearch Digital Library added more than 45,000 new books in 2024. Users now have more than 630,000 free historical publications available to search. Digitized books are full-text searchable, making it easy to discover who, or what, you're searching.
FamilySearch Library and Centers
The FamilySearch Library and its global network of FamilySearch centers and affiliates help expand access to FamilySearch’s vast resources and discovery experiences. They also offer individual search assistance and free access to premium genealogy websites.
FamilySearch added 324 new FamilySearch centers in 2024, totaling more than 6,500 locations worldwide. FamilySearch Help was updated to help family history researchers get more answers to their ancestral questions.
The library offered 85 free webinars this year, including more classes in Spanish and Portuguese. It offers hundreds more on demand in multiple languages. Review the list of classes in the library’s Learning Center.
RootsTech 2024 Quick Facts
RootsTech 2024 inspired and entertained participants from all over the world. Millions more continue to enjoy the free 2024 content online year round and on demand at RootsTech.org.
- Participants joined from 232 countries and territories.
- More than 4 million participants attended in person and online.
- More than 500,000 participants viewed 5.9 million ancestral relationships through a popular, global Relatives at RootsTech experience that will be repeated in 2025.
RootsTech 2024 Keynotes included:
- Steve Rockwood, the CEO of FamilySearch International.
- Kristin Chenoweth, Emmy® and Tony Award®-winning actress and singer.
- Lynne M. Jackson, author and president and founder of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.
- Nancy Borowick, world-renowned Sony artisan photographer and humanitarian.
- Henry Cho, acclaimed comedian, and the first Asian-American to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.
- Katie James, famous Colombian singer and songwriter and guitarist was a virtual keynote.
- Kirby Heyborne, popular actor, comedian, and narrator, was the RootsTech 2024 emcee and made many appearances on the main stage.
New to RootsTech 2024 were 4 special forum sessions addressing some exciting, innovative developments contributing to new, fun, personal and family discoveries.
- Innovation and Tech Forum. Seriously cool technological developments from AI to predictive analytics will help make family connections in ways never imagined.
- Impact Forum. Distinguished researchers delved into the profoundly positive ways that knowing your family history can impact personal resilience and mental health.
- FamilySearch Tech Forum. FamilySearch tech leaders discussed the latest with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics and the positive impacts they will have on family history.
- FamilySearch Global Forum. FamilySearch’s global leadership discussed the organization's homeland efforts to make family discoveries accessible to individuals worldwide.
Other FamilySearch 2024 News
FamilySearch Get Involved: Volunteer Impact
Online volunteers continue to help FamilySearch users make even more fun family discoveries. Volunteers are integral in supporting the FamilySearch Community forums, and also Get Involved, where they help make millions of images of historical records easily searchable. They improve upon FamilySearch’s artificial intelligence by refining computer-generated indexes from hundreds of millions of record images.
100 million record images of 19th century US land records and deeds were added to the Get Involved Quick Name Review. These are the best pre-census materials available for genealogical research in the US. Other country records were also added in 2024.
If you want to help even more, consider trying out the Get Involved Full Name Review. Like Quick Name Review, you’ll improve upon FamilySearch’s computer-generated indexes. One difference is that Full Name Review has you check whether a person’s full name was indexed, including name prefixes, given names, surnames, and name suffixes.
To see the full list of projects available, and if you want to help "pay it forward" for others, learn more at FamilySearch Get Involved.
FamilySearch Labs
FamilySearch Labs was introduced in 2024 to engage interested users of FamilySearch’s potential features and improvements. Tens of thousands of users have generously logged in to use and improve features—from the FamilySearch Family Tree to mobile apps to artificial intelligence applications. If you’re the curious type or like to influence future experiences, check out FamilySearch Labs. There are currently several features available to explore: Full-Text Search, Family Group Trees, Find Help with AI Search, Together by FamilySearch, Family Group Trees, Find Help with AI Search, Together by FamilySearch, and Data Quality Score.
FamilySearch Full-text Search
Artificial Intelligence is changing the world in so many amazing ways. FamilySearch Full-text Search is training its AI to unlock hidden discoveries in millions of its handwritten historical records. Using handwriting recognition and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, FamilySearch can convert an image of text into a machine-readable text format giving users the ability to search the full text of the records. Check it out, and browse the extensive list of collections currently available in the FamilySearch Full-Text Search.
The 10 Million Names Project
FamilySearch announced its collaboration with American Ancestors on 10 Million Names, an exciting initiative to recover the names and restore information to families of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America. FamilySearch is sharing its artificial intelligence and technology solutions to help identify enslaved persons from its millions of searchable historical records and help 10 Million Names identify, digitize, transcribe, and publish new, previously unavailable collections.
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