Jonny's RootsTech 2026 recap | DNA Painter Blog

This year’s RootsTech conference took place in Salt Lake City and online from March 5th to 7th. As I descended the escalator to enter, I realized I was looking directly at the spot where I took part in the DNA Innovation contest eight years earlier!

I had a great time, giving a lecture, meeting up with friends, and somehow managing to dodge illness. In this post, I’ll talk more about my trip, and include links to a selection of DNA-related presentations that are available online.

The buzz at RootsTech 2026

There was no escaping the feeling that the unofficial theme for this year’s conference was artificial intelligence. Steve Rockwood, the FamilySearch president, talked about AI at the speaker dinner, and it also featured heavily in lectures and Expo hall booths.

Fittingly, the new company release that I’ve heard most enthusiasm about is also AI-based: MyHeritage’s new transcription tool, Scribe AI. I have not had a chance to try this yet but here’s a very detailed blog post by Louis Kessler that’s full of praise.

As usual, I spent a good amount of time in the busy Expo hall:

I enjoyed plotting my next artifact DNA experiment with Genetic Legacies
Having listened to him on the podcast for a while, I got to meet Andrew Koch of Family Tree Magazine in person
In a role reversal, I visited Jason Simmons’s booth to chat about his Y-DNA research and his service creating stunning visualizations of this data (Jason has been a regular at the DNA Painter booth over the years!)
One year late, I picked up a copy of Forensic Genealogy from the NGS booth
It was fascinating to chat to Brian at ConnectMyVariant
It’s always great to catch up with Geoff and Marian at Family Tree Webinars

I also got to catch up with friends old and new at the MyHeritage social.

Jonny with Jason Simmons in the RootsTech 2026 Expo Hall — Jonny with Jason Simmons

Jonny with Diahan Southard at RootsTech 2026 — Jonny with Jason Simmons

My lecture and the Expo Hall

I tried something different this year: I skipped having a booth in the Expo hall and also opted to speak on a topic that was not DNA Painter-specific! My talk was rather unsexily titled “Using shared match grids and matrices in your family history research,” and my audience agreed I should probably have just called it “Jonny talks about clustering.” Either way, I enjoyed speaking and would like to thank everyone who attended for the warm welcome and reception. It wasn’t live-streamed, but if you’re curious you can read the syllabus at the RootsTech site.

I also did a couple of short interviews, both of which were shot in the Expo hall:

I was a bit starstruck when I met Jen Shaffer aka The Formidable Genealogist, who features prominently in my social media feeds! You can watch our short chat here
I also caught up with Connie Knox of Genealogy TV, and you can see our chat at around 14:30 of her Expo Hall Walkabout video

Here are some other impressions of the conference and Expo hall:

RootsTech 2026 sessions available online

Diahan Southard of Your DNA Guide presented a three-part series, DNA Swim school:

Some other sessions available online:

You can search the on-demand library here.

Some vendor-specific videos:

Family Tree DNA have some great shortform videos at their online Expo Hall booth
Gilad Japhet, the MyHeritage CEO, provided his annual updates, and the session is available here.
Daniel Horowitz provides a recap on MyHeritage’s announcements, including a detailed explanation of Scribe AI
Ancestry at RootsTech 2026: Key Announcements, Insights and Discoveries; What’s new at Ancestry?

Travel

As a former New York City resident, I took the opportunity to stop off there for a few days at the start of my trip. As well as giving me the chance to renew old friendships and visit my favourite art gallery, this helped me conquer my jet lag more quickly (jumping to UK time minus 7 is easier if you have already managed UK time minus 5), so it’s something I will definitely do again.

Once I arrived in Salt Lake City, the $2.50 TRAX green line train took me straight to Arena station, from where the Radisson hotel was a simple 3 minute walk. It’s the third time I’ve stayed at this hotel, which is directly adjacent to the Salt Palace Convention Center where the conference is held. This keeps things simple, and also means it’s straightforward to pop back to the hotel during the day as needed.

If I have one gripe about the conference, it would be the lack of palatable vegetarian food at the Salt Palace. I guess you can’t have everything!

A bonus extra day

On my way home, my flight was cancelled and rescheduled for the next day. However, everything turned out so well that I was actually really happy about it in the end.

I caught the TRAX back into town on Saturday evening. I was just early enough to be able to toast the conference with a large group at the hotel bar. When I woke up on Sunday (back in the Radisson), the sun was shining and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. It was the perfect day to repeat last year’s hike to Ensign Peak. This is an enjoyable hour’s walk from downtown Salt Lake City.

After this, I was able to do something I’ve never managed before: attend a mesmerising organ recital at the Tabernacle in Temple Square. My flight took off successfully, and as you’ll have gathered, I was delighted with my bonus day.

Incredibly, this was my seventh in-person RootsTech (you can also read about previous trips) I’m looking forward to next year’s conference, but for now, it’s back to work on DNA Painter!

Contact info: @dnapainter.bsky.social / jonny@dnapainter.com