Welcome to March! Daylight Savings begins tomorrow (Yeah!) and it’s RootsTech 2026 weekend.

I am #NotAtRootsTech but have watched several sessions online. Not surprisingly, Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun topic this week is definitely RootsTech-related:

1)  RootsTech 2026 just finished today.  Did you watch any classes online?  

2)  Which online class was your favorite, perhaps the most informative, most helpful, or most entertaining, for you?  

These days, I’m all about the methodology in genealogy research because the people in the early branches of the family tree often led to some type of brick wall.

I love to hear talks about others who have solved mysteries in the family tree, learning about the many, many steps, resources and modifications they face.

Nick Barratt gave an absolutely fascinating account called The Lost Child on Saturday morning about how he was finally able to identify his grandmother’s father – a search which covered several continents.

Not many talks hold my attention online from start to finish, but his did.

Thursday morning’s panel discussion titled Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy in 2026 was definitely on trend.

Speaker Katherine Borges, who was an early expert in DNA, made a comment that, in the early days of personal DNA kits, there were no formal guidelines for use, sharing of information, etc. and that we are pretty much in the same developmental state regarding the use of AI in genealogical work. Each speaker highlighted issues and resolutions. Very informative even though I’m not much of an AI user outside of an occasional research or locality plan.

I’m always on the lookout for talks that cover less common subjects so I viewed Kelly Richardson’s Provenance & Proof: Advanced Strategies for Finding and Using Manuscripts in Your Research, given on Thursday afternoon.

I haven’t been fortunate to find any manuscripts that have helped me with a research problem, but the provenance and proof steps she outlined apply to all genealogical evidence.

All three of these talks were excellent and I was very pleased to see RootsTech adding in many more intermediate/advanced sessions on a wide range of topics.

However, Nick Barratt’s talk was, by far, my favorite.

I’m looking forward to everyone else’s picks.

Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge.