FamilySearch shared its most notable highlights in this 2025 year-in-review.

The FamilySearch website received more than 297 million visits from around the world in 2025. Patrons frequented FamilySearch’s growing record collections, interactive discovery experiences such as Surnames and Ancestors, and helpful articles in the FamilySearch Blog and Research Wiki.

Free Genealogical Records

Free access to FamilySearch’s massive collection of genealogical records is one of the most popular reasons visitors came to FamilySearch.org in 2025. FamilySearch offers online access to records from 170 countries and principalities. More than 2.2 billion new searchable names and images in historical records were added in 2025—totaling more than 22.7 billion for the website. FamilySearch focused on increasing access to records from Italy, French Polynesia, the Philippines, and Ukraine in 2025 and also made significant updates to its collections from Brazil, France, the Philippines, and Venezuela. Search the record collections now.

Full-Text Search

FamilySearch Full-Text Search has been a crowd favorite and a game-changer for many researchers. It is ushering in a new era in search technology, making handwriting in digital images of historical genealogical records as easily searchable as if they had been indexed. FamilySearch will add more searchable image collections and handwritten languages to this breakthrough research tool in 2026.

FamilySearch Family Tree

The world’s largest online family tree grew by more than 163 million people in 2025, totaling 1.8 billion searchable people. Contributors also added 467 million sources to their ancestors in the tree, which helps increase accuracy and collaboration. In addition, 3 new features were added to the FamilySearch Family Tree:

• Improved Merge Experience. This improved experience helps address the challenge of incorrect user merges. The new interface is simpler and provides better guidance, yielding greater confidence that a merge is being made correctly.
• Updated Family Tree Mobile App for Android. Enhancements make the mobile app even more enjoyable to use, including screen reader support and adjustable text sizes, an improved pedigree view, and the capability to reach out to living relatives shown in the relationship viewer. 
• New Mobile App Search. Searching in the mobile app now delivers a fast, unified experience that enables users to search FamilySearch Family Tree profiles, historical records, and memories all at once, all within the app. Additionally, the improved filter options and results layout are simple and powerful. Other upgrades help users make more connections and discoveries as they add information to Family Tree through the app.
• Data Quality Score. This score, now available on some ancestor profiles in Family Tree, provides a quick way to evaluate the information present for that ancestor, making it easier to identify details that may need attention. User suggestions in the FamilySearch Community helped prioritize enhancements to this feature. The tool looks at data conflicts and checks if sources are attached and tagged. Ultimately, it increases contributor confidence by protecting high-quality information from incorrect changes.

FamilySearch Digital Books Online

The FamilySearch Digital Library added more than 41,000 new books in 2025. Users now have access to more than 655,000 free historical publications for searching. Digitized books are full-text searchable, making it easy to discover who, or what, you’re researching. In 2025, the FamilySearch Catalog was also upgraded. The improvements enabled the catalog to better ingest FamilySearch’s billions of digital records, as well as other printed material. Users will enjoy an enhanced search experience, with expanded place lists, additional filters, and improved results. Learn more.

FamilySearch Library and Centers

The FamilySearch Library and its global network of FamilySearch centers and affiliates help expand access to FamilySearch’s vast resources and discovery experiences. They also offer individual search assistance and free access to premium genealogy websites.

FamilySearch added 310 new FamilySearch centers in 2025, bringing the total to more than 6,400 locations worldwide. FamilySearch Help continues to be updated to help family history researchers get more answers to their ancestral questions through self-help services, one-on-one assistance, and the online community.

The library offered more than 100 free webinars across 6 languages this year. It offers hundreds more on demand in multiple languages. Review the list of classes in the library’s Learning Center.

RootsTech 2025 Quick Facts

RootsTech, the world’s largest family history celebration, inspired and entertained participants from all over the world in 2025. Millions more people continue to enjoy RootsTech’s vast and diverse free learning library year-round on demand at RootsTech.org. Here are some fun facts about the 2025 conference.

• Participants joined from 235 countries and territories.
• Millions of participants attended in person and online.
• More than 660,000 participants viewed 6.6 million family relationships through a popular, global Relatives at RootsTech web and mobile app experience.

Other FamilySearch 2025 News

The 2025 Archives and Records Custodians (ARC) Symposium, hosted by FamilySearch International in Salt Lake City, united global archivists to share strategies for preserving and managing historical records. These records protect humanity’s memory, provide cultural context, and help build accurate family histories. Sessions addressed the balance between public access and privacy, the protection of fragile materials, and ethical dilemmas and technological solutions for handling sensitive data—all in response to rising demand for genealogical access. View on-demand ARC sessions. 

FamilySearch Labs

FamilySearch Labs engages users who are interested in exploring potential new features or helping to improve their experiences. In 2025, tens of thousands of users generously helped test features, ranging from the FamilySearch Family Tree and FamilySearch Full-Text Search to mobile apps and artificial intelligence applications. If you’re the curious type or like to influence future experiences, check out FamilySearch Labs.