RootsTech 2023 | What’s New at Ancestry?

The speaker shares personal experiences of family history exploration, starting from their parents' decision to take a family history class at Brigham Young University while they were students. The speaker was taken to the family history library as a child, which sparked their interest in genealogy. The speaker grew up surrounded by family stories, with multiple family members being great storytellers. This environment led to the speaker's involvement in family history, starting with data entry of family records during high school and later turning it into a career.

The speaker reflects on the importance of being a 'Story Keeper' within a family, someone who preserves and shares family stories. They realized the value of these stories after college when they met people who did not have the same rich family history. The speaker emphasizes the responsibility of sharing these stories with the next generation. They also discuss their career shift towards family history research and the realization that genealogy can be a profession. The speaker's perspective on family history was further enriched by the birth of their nephews, making them more than just a story keeper but also a storyteller.

The speaker discusses the technological advancements at Ancestry that have revolutionized genealogy. They mention the introduction of artificial intelligence in 2006 with the 'shaky leaf' feature and the launch of Ancestry DNA in 2012. The speaker also highlights the rapid digitization of the 1950 census, a task that took only nine days due to advancements in AI and handwriting recognition technology. They express pride in Ancestry's work to make historical records more accessible and the expectation of publishing 15 billion new records in the current year.

The speaker delves into the specifics of historical records at Ancestry, including the acquisition and digitization of the 1950 U.S. census and the upcoming release of the Canadian census. They also discuss the importance of birth, marriage, and death records, as well as UK military records. The speaker talks about the innovative use of AI to extract valuable information from newspapers, which served as a primary source of personal and family information in the past. This technology allows for the creation of indexes for marriages, obituaries, and other significant life events from newspaper articles.

The speaker talks about Ancestry's continuous efforts to expand its record collections, including the addition of 5.2 billion new historical records in 2022 and the expectation to publish 15 billion new records in the current year. They mention the variety of records being added, such as the Canadian census, UK military records, and newspapers. The speaker also emphasizes the community aspect of genealogy, thanking contributors to Find A Grave and highlighting the importance of collaboration in solving genealogical puzzles.

The speaker discusses the growth of Ancestry's consumer DNA network and the importance of having more people test to increase the chances of discoveries. They share personal experiences of going through DNA matches with their father and the joy of finding lost connections and photos. The speaker introduces new features such as the side view technology for DNA, which allows users to view their DNA inheritance from each parent separately, and the DNA Compare tool, which enables users to compare their DNA with up to 10 other tests, including those of their siblings and DNA matches.

The speaker talks about the collaborative aspect of family history and the importance of involving multiple family members in the process. They share their experience of giving editorial access to their parents and the peace of mind provided by the tree edit history feature, which allows them to track changes made to the family tree. The speaker also discusses the value of group messaging on Ancestry, which enables users to communicate with multiple people at once, facilitating collaboration and information sharing among those working on the same family tree or DNA cluster.

The speaker talks about the challenges of storytelling in genealogy and introduces Ancestry's new feature, Story Maker Studio. This tool is designed to help users create engaging stories from their family history, using records, photos, and other information in their tree. The speaker also mentions the addition of community stories on the mobile app, which provides prompts and ideas for users to share their family stories. They emphasize the power of stories to connect people and the potential of every individual to be a storyteller with the right tools and skills.