Partners: Geneabloggers and Projectkin Making the “Ride Along” Sociable

The two communities of bloggers, vloggers, and content creators have announced that they'll be collaborating on the 2026 RootsTech “Ride Along,” sharing the show-going experience onsite and online

Geneabloggers and Projectkin are collaborating on a shared public “Ride Along” for the annual RootsTech conference, March 5-7, 2026.¹ Our members inspire us every day with their thoughtful research and creative ideas. Our effort will support our members by connecting them with a broader community of interested readers at the RootsTech conference. Our plan includes:

• Shared booth space on the exhibit floor at the RootsTech conference.

• Live-streamed events and programs hosted by members from both communities, highlighting programs and new discoveries.

• Shared web page to help raise the visibility of posts from members of both communities.

• Special-occasion “swag” (t-shirts, bags, buttons, and other “merch”) that gives everyone a way to share the fun of this international conclave of genealogists and family historians.

This post gets you a preview of what’s to come and invites you to tell us about your posts, recordings, and more. Best of all, you can get started now!

Projectkin first attempted a community collaboration with a speaker series in 2024. The Ride Along was introduced in 2025.² The 2026 edition of the Ride Along was announced in January and vastly expands the scope of the event.

This Time, It’s an Open Event

Although Projectkin is hosted on Substack, the January post envisioned creating a shared space where community members could share events and discover one another’s work, regardless of platform. Inviting Geneabloggers vastly expands the audience and enlivens it with a range of perspectives and interests — just like the conference itself.

This approach inverts the social media model: Hashtags will no longer constrain how find each other.

On Site & Riding Along

With her deep roots in the genealogy community, Geneabloggers’ co-founder DearMYRTLE started attending RootsTech at its inception. For many years, she celebrated the event by hosting parties for bloggers at her nearby home.

Years later, the conference has ballooned, and she’s moved to the Pacific Northwest. Traditions she started, including her generous gift of “Blogger Beads,” are still fondly remembered by visitors worldwide. This simple, inexpensive gift was like a Hawaiian lei. It created a way for bloggers to recognize one another during conference sessions and on the exhibit floor.

Mardi Gras-like Blogger Beads. Photo by isiscasalduc from Pixabay

Though Projectkin doesn’t have the same deep history with the venue, it does provide an established online platform for English-speaking writers, bloggers, and vloggers across Europe and Australia. The Ride Along collaboration will connect the on-site crowd with everyone tuning in to conference sessions at home. It was never about the beads, but they were the start of a remarkable community.

Shared Booth Space

During the three days of the conference, Geneabloggers and Projectkin members will have the opportunity to meet with show goers at their joint booth in the exhibit hall. As volunteers, they will assist visitors in preserving their family history memories in a space equipped with Vivid-Pix tools to scan photos and documents while recording themselves as they share stories.

Members of either organization who will be at the show can sign up now to volunteer at the booth in the exhibit hall. Learn more and select a slot here.

Live-streamed events

Being a guest on another member’s program, podcast, or livestream is a great way to gain experience or learn about new media. Projectkin and Geneabloggers will use a simple matching system during the conference to introduce members to one another as potential guests.

To throw your hat in the ring as a guest, please visit Projectkin.org/rootstech-livestream-guest. This page is live now.

Shared web page: Your Stories, Recordings, and Discoveries!

As you work on your blogs, recordings, and news posts that capture what you’ve learned and discovered during the show, share those posts with new audiences as embeds on our shared RootsTech Ride Along Page. This is a variation on the video-only page shared last year.

The page will be organized in reverse chronological order, with the newest posts at the top. Each day, we’ll highlight video, storytelling, and news posts from around the community. The page should be a strong complement to your social media and email distribution campaigns. Best of all, we’re ready to add to the page now!

If you already have posts to add, please visit Projectkin.org/ride-along-form.

Projectkin.org/ride-along-form

Note: To manage spammers and trolls, Barbara and DearMYRTLE will exercise curatorial discretion in deciding whether to embed posts on the page. In an era when hashtags and closed platforms like Facebook have been gamed by advertisers, the idea is to increase the visibility of posts and showcase the consistent good work of so many in this community. If you have any concerns, please send either of us a direct message or email.³

Special Occasion “Merch:” Ride Along with Swag

As with any conference or community gathering, sharing your community membership with insignia, conference wear, and unique branded items can be fun. DearMYRTLE’s legendary blogger beads created something special. This year, we thought the online “Ride Along” contingent might contribute a twist on the tradition with two forms of commemorative items you might create for yourself or give as gifts:

• DIY creative creations to share: Sharing ideas for creating your own or updating items from previous conferences.

• Purchase your printed logo items: Watch for links from print-to-order sites like Zazzle, which make it easy to print and deliver items in your local currency with minimal shipping costs.

Consistent with the spirit of my post about Skybridges, the idea is to create another way to increase visibility for the show and upcoming events.

As with much of our work at either Geneabloggers or Projectkin, this is all a bit of an experiment. We learn more about what works and doesn’t work by watching and listening. Your feedback and support make all the difference. As Myrt says, “We get by with a little help from our friends, 🎶”

GeneaBloggers is also sharing a collaboration announcement. Learn more at:

1. For your local times, please see RootsTech.org. This year, the schedule is now calibrated to the clock on your computer or other device.

2. This was introduced in partnership with MissionGenealogy.org, a sister publication started with Robin Stewart, to help genealogists get started on Substack.

3. You can reach Barbara at Substack.com/@projectkin or DearMYRTLE at Substack.com/@dearmyrtle.