Yesterday, I covered the Innovation Showcase plus some of the many new companies in the Expo Hall at RootsTech this year.

To repeat yesterday’s message, I need to clearly state that I am NOT promoting the purchase or use of any of these products and I have received NO special consideration from any vendor.

The purpose of my Expo Hall post is to give those of you who were unable to attend RootsTech an overview of the huge amount of genealogically related products on the market and a sampling of new companies.

If you see products of interest, click on the link and it will take you to more information on the company website. I will note whether each product is FREE, FEE or FREEMIUM (free version available, but additional perks on a fee version).

STimaging – FEE It isn’t likely that the average researcher would own a VIEWSCAN 4, but share this information with your local family history center, historical society or library.

This looked like a terrific machine that not only scans but edits images. I watched a demo where a newspaper page that was splotchy and faded was edited and darkened to the extent that the entire page had a uniform look to the ink! Images can be printed or saved to a flash drive as a PDF, TIFF, etc.

International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies – FEE and FREE, depending on individual society websites. IAJGS hosted a table with lots of fliers and information on Jewish Genealogy Societies.

The big upcoming event is the IAJGS 2018 conference in Warsaw, Poland from 5-10 August 2018.

Nathan Dylan Goodwin – FEE Genealogical Crime Mystery Author

I didn’t realize until later that I have one of his books on my iPad – The Missing Man – and thoroughly enjoyed it! I also didn’t remember to take a picture of him in his booth, but I did hear that 6 full suitcases full of books were hauled all the way from England to RootsTech and he pretty much sold out.

Called to Serve – FREE, iOS only,  I am not LDS, but this looks like a wonderful app for missionaries and their parents to use.

With Called to Serve, it is possible to track an unlimit4ed number of missionaries, map locations, send email, pictures and audio recordings, view schedules and much more.

Geneanet – FREE and FEE This Eurocentric website allows you to build an online family tree and search for ancestors, with a FOCUS on France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Having a good Palatine German family name, I searched for Stufflebean, Stoppelbein and variations. (I already know that this is a unique family name and everyone with it is related in some way.) A number of hits came up in both U.S. records and a handful of German records. The search feature is free; the advance options require a subscription.

GeneRosity Registry – FREE If you have raw DNA results and would like to participate in Intermountain Helathcare’s new global DNA database for medical research, signing up is online and easy.

Research will use data to understand the genetic make-up of diseases and treatment responses, testing and/or validating genetic and disease findings and discovering genetic mutation frequencies and pattern.

LifeTimes – FREE This Australian company advertises “a highly engaging, new family history platform. It’s innovative design combines the concepts of a tree, timeline, map, social media and wiki. Just upload a gedcom and you are ready to go.

I didn’t make it to this booth, but a flier was included in my RootsTech bag.

Cairnica – Startup Company, no set pricing yet. This family software program is very interesting as it shows family trees in a 3D navigable format. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

Cairnica’s website explains the motivation:

We believe that many people are discouraged from participating in genealogy because it is hard to visualize and navigate family relationships.

In the latter part of 2016, we started working on a solution. We surmised that if we could create a three dimensional framework for visually modeling genealogical data, we could leverage techniques commonly used in product modeling software- techniques which would make it possible to visualize, navigate and build very complex family trees. We formed Cairnica almost a year later.

The name Cairnica is derived from the word cairn. A cairn is a stack of stones erected as a visual marker to guide travelers or memorialize a person or event. Cairnica Trees are a visualization of family relationships using a series of markers to not only guide people through their family history but also memorialize their relatives. Cairnica is an environment for growing Cairnica Trees.

Last, but not least, Family Tree Maker is partnering with several companies that offer products that complement FTM 2017. One such company is:

Progeny Genealogy – FREE (Trial) and FEE  Charting Companion was one of the programs with its own table alongside FTM’s booth.

Note that Charting Companion also is compatible with many genealogy software programs.

Wow! You’ve made it to the end of the Expo Hall! I hope this has given you a taste of the 2018 products in the genealogy marketplace.