Get Involved, Unite Families

January 2024

A major FamilySearch milestone in 2022 was the introduction of  FamilySearch Get Involved, a new online volunteer tool that, coupled with artificial intelligence and handwriting recognition technology, will vastly increase the searchability rate of non-English documents. Billions of additional historical records will be accessible online for free.  

More than 100 million records have already been made searchable at FamilySearch.org since Get Involved launched in 2022. Because users can review names and fix mistakes in only a few minutes at a time on their phone, the app is in step with FamilySearch’s goal to make genealogical resources more accessible and engaging. 

In a recent Treehouse Talks event hosted at the FamilySearch Library for young adults to share ideas, Natalia Soto Cerna told a story that demonstrates how FamilySearch’s extensive resources like Get Involved are bringing families together. Soto was able to discover extended family members who are still living and connect with them to fill in gaps in her own history. While comparing together their research, they discovered they are related through a woman whose surnames include Tupac Yupanqui, an ancient Incan ruler who was known for discovering Oceania.  

Soto’s extended family was unaware of FamilySearch until she told them about it. After learning about FamilySearch, they opened accounts and began looking through records and building their family tree. Soto says it was “a great opportunity to learn about my own family history and dive into it more than before.”