1 / 5

Jordin Sparks entertains during her keynote visit at RootsTech on Thursday, March 2, 2023.

Courtesy Intellectual Reserve

2 / 5

Sheikh Salem bin Sultan bin Saqr Al-Qasimi, a major contributor to achieving sustainability and food security in the United Arab Emirates, was awarded the Medal of Excellence at RootsTech.

Courtesy Intellectual Reserve

3 / 5

Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Sister Susan Gong look at family photos and documents at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, where tens of thousands of images and records about Elder Gong's grandfather are archived.

Courtesy Intellectual Reserve

4 / 5

Sean Astin, one of the keynote speakers at RootsTech.

Courtesy Intellectual Reserve

5 / 5

Me Ra Koh, one the keynote speakers at RootsTech 2023.

Courtesy Intellectual Reserve

❮ ❯

For two years, RootsTech, the largest family history gathering in the world, could not meet face to face. But in that time, the annual event grew its audience worldwide, fulfilling this year’s theme of “Uniting.”

According to data, in 2020 — just prior to the COVID-19 shutdown — 30,000 people attended RootsTech in person. By going online, the event grew in 2021 to 1 million and in 2022 to over 3 million. When numbers come in, it is expected the 2023 event just completed will see even further growth.

“We’re back!” said Emcee Kirby Heyborne as he opened the three-day event.

Not only did the participation grow but the number of classes rose to more than 300. Some started in the early morning hours for those in international time zones.

The classes ranged from learning how to tell your own story to finding your ancestors. One class was devoted to finding names in cemeteries in the U.K. and Europe while another class was helping people learn how to take care of textiles, quilts and tapestries that have been handed down through family generations. There were classes from several countries and classes on the latest research technology and DNA testing.

Sheikh Salem bin Sultan bin Saqr Al-Qasimi was awarded the Medal of Excellence for his contributions toward achieving sustainability and food security in the United Arab Emirates. He is saving bees and producing honey from unique sources. He shared insights and stories of how working together, tolerance and uniting helps all people prosper and become family.

On Thursday, “American Idol” star and musician Jordin Sparks was the guest keynote interview. Sparks grew up between Arizona and New Jersey and noted that she comes from a very musical family.

Nat King Cole is Sparks’ favorite artist with Whitney Houston coming in a close second.

“It’s fun to sing songs I really love,” Sparks said.

Sparks also noted that families are important, saying, “My family helps me keep my head on and brings me back to center.”

On Friday, Heyborne introduced Me Ra Koh, a popular photographer for Sony who is helping fostered children connect with their biological families that often get lost.

“There is a misunderstanding about children in foster care — they have people,” Koh said.

Her own story involves a once-loving Korean emigrant father who turned on her about the time she hit puberty, misdirecting his stress on to her.

“How he hated me and wished I had never been born,” she said. “At 18 I was pretty broken. I started dating and it became violent. I had lost my dignity, my voice and my innocence.”

Her father disowned her and told her she was off the family list. She became suicidal and eventually checked herself into a mental institution.

“God takes a shattered heart and pieces it together,” Koh said. “I’ll spend the rest of my life building hope in people.”

Sony later asked her to start taking photos that capture people’s resilience.

Koh said the one thing she would like to be known for is that “she’s messy but she is kind.”

As a gift for being at RootsTech, FamilySearch connected with Korean genealogists and surprisingly found over 1,000 years of her family names and history. They put it in a long list on a scroll.

When she opened the scroll on Friday, it was the first time she realized she was on a list and that Koreans make family lists to record. She was recognizably moved and tearful at the gesture.

On Saturday, it was actor Sean Astin’s turn. He is the son of actors John Astin and Patty Duke. Most know him from his role as the hobbit Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings.”

Astin spoke about his career, family and the importance of not only having connection to your ancestors but to you posterity too.

He spoke fondly of his relationship with his wife and daughter and stated proudly that his Hollywood marriage was more than 30 years strong.

Astin was given his family history prior to speaking and said he was “blown away” by the gift.

As part of Saturday’s free Family Discovery Day, Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, dove into their Chinese and Irish ancestries.

In Hawaii, they visited a sugar cane plantation where some of Elder Gong’s Chinese ancestors worked after immigrating to Hawaii as contract laborers in the late 1800s. They walked across lava fields that his maternal grandfather traversed to get to Kona. They visited his grandparents’ graves. And they stopped at Honolulu’s Bishop Museum, which contains some 90,000 negatives donated by his photographer grandfather.

In Ireland, they met James Lindsay, a distant cousin of Sister Gong. They visited a cemetery where some of her Lindsay relatives are buried. They also stopped in Athenry to see the land farmed by her Cunningham ancestors.

“Sometimes we think our decisions affect only ourselves,” Elder Gong said. “Discovering our family reminds us otherwise. We’re more connected in our generations than we usually think.”

FamilySearch and sponsors of RootsTech collaborate with more than 160 countries to find records. Thousands of volunteers have helped find and record 16.8 billion searchable names at FamilySearch.

Newsletter