[MUSIC PLAYING]

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage your host and emcee, Jason Hewlett. [MUSIC PLAYING] [APPLAUSE] Wow. Thank you. Welcome to RootsTech, where our aim is to make you cry in the intro video. We welcome everyone here in this beautiful hall with us in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as on the live stream joining us. Thank you for being here. Yesterday, we talked about having a hashtag for those that are joining us somewhere in the world. It was the hashtag #notatRootsTech. And we appreciate those that actually used it. We're going to have a little bit of a contest right now. Because we chose some of our favorite to show to the whole world up on the screen. We want to see by applause which ones the audience prefers the best and will win something from Dell, one of our main sponsors. How about this one? Feeling #RootsTech. Oh, yeah. FAMOUS! I like that. That's selfie magic, with all the mirroring going on. Heather Johnson--she did good. Let's try the next one. Multitasking work, and #notatRootsTech this morning. She's got her planner. She's got Jen over in the Expo Hall. That's a nice one. I like that. Okay, and let's see the other one. Oh, babies. It's hard not to want to just hold that one. Kharyn Summer--very cute. Okay, so let's find out by applause which one of these three this audience in this room really, really loved the best. How about the baby and Kharyn Summer? [APPLAUSE] Oh, okay. Let's go back. How about Sumsy? [APPLAUSE] Give it up for Sumsy. She's doing the work and the other work. Okay, and then, of course, Heather Johnson. [APPLAUSE] You know what? I think we need to go to number three--don't we?--with the baby. Did the baby one win? Okay. [APPLAUSE] Kharyn Summer. Kharyn Summer, if you're watching, you need to just email infoatrootstech.org so we can send you your prize. I think, actually, somebody also tried to take one and get, you know, my favor in there for some reason. Let's see if we have that slide. Oh, yeah. That's not my dad, but we look very much like we could be related. I'm sure we are at least to the 10th degree. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me right now in welcoming our platinum sponsor for Friday. His name is Ben Bennett. And he's here representing today's sponsor, Findmypast. Ben is executive vice president of International at Findmypast. And Findmypast is a UK-based online genealogy company owned since 2007 by D.C. Thomas. Findmypast connects people around the world to their ancestors through their impressive access to four billion searchable names. Please give a warm welcome to Ben Bennett. [APPLAUSE AND MUSIC PLAYING]

Good morning.

Hey, thank you. It's great to be here at RootsTech. It's sort of--you know it's time for RootsTech when there's really blustery weather here in Salt Lake; is that right? It's time. Well, I wanted to begin with a bit of a walk down memory lane. So two years ago at RootsTech, we introduced the U.S. Marriage Collection, the most comprehensive collection of U.S. marriages ever. [APPLAUSE] Hey, thank you. [APPLAUSE] To date, we've published nearly 70 million records and 280 million names. We expect to complete this project later this year with more than 100 million marriages online totaling more than 400 million names. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Now, last year, it's sort of--how do you top marriages?--but last year at RootsTech, we announced the Catholic Heritage Archive, which included a goal to publish millions of vital Catholic records that had never been seen before. Today, as part of the Catholic Heritage Archive, we are pleased to announce the release of more than 8 million new records from over 200 Catholic parishes across New York. [APPLAUSE]

So all of you who have been calling asking when New York's coming, it's here. In addition to New York, we'll continue to publish Catholic records from other North American locales, including Baltimore, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Toronto, Wilmington, and more. We'll also publish Catholic records from across the pond, including Catholic records from Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Please visit findmypast.com/catholicrecords to search these. Even better, forget about searching. Just upload your tree to Findmypast, and you'll get free record hits as soon as they become available. Now, for many you, many of you have ancestors who came from the British Isles. Their journey coming to North America was difficult. We think that finding their records should not be nearly as hard. [APPLAUSE] As the home of the most comprehensive British and Irish collection on the planet, Findmypast is committed to making these discoveries easier. Findmypast is also excited to introduce the new British and Irish Roots Collection. You may not think to search for your English ancestors in a California state census. But now, we've pulled together any record that has a migration event. This includes over 100 million records spanning 400 million years put together in one unique collection. You can search this all at once, finding those ancestors even easier. [APPLAUSE] Now, even with great records, we know that we all sometimes need a little help from our friends. Findmypast is launching a new British and Irish Ultimate Package. This combines our expert educational resources with world-leading records. Now, in other news, you may remember Twile, who was featured on this stage winning two awards--not one, but two awards. Findmypast is pleased to announce that we have acquired Twile and welcome them to Findmypast family. [APPLAUSE]

We're excited to be able to show you the great work that Twile's done in the near future on Findmypast, including their popular infographic and some of the timeline features. Now, we have a little more. We have another addition to our family at Findmypast. Tamsin Todd, who herself is part British and part American, has held executive positions at Amazon and Microsoft and is known for building products that customers love. We are so excited to have Tamsin join our team. Please join me in welcoming Findmypast new CEO to the stage, Tamsin Todd. Thank you, Ben. Good morning, everyone. [APPLAUSE] I am so excited to be part of a company that has done so much to transform the way that people learn about their family history. What gets me most excited about this wonderful industry is the way that we combine deep data and technology with a very human mission to help people discover and share their family stories. In my first month with Findmypast, I've been struck by the powerful ability of the genealogical community to solve problems together. I knew that other people had already done some work on my family tree that I didn't want to duplicate. And with the help of others in the community, I was able to trace one of my American lines back to John Alden, a Mayflower crew member who was the ship's cooper. That's the person who makes the barrels and the buckets for my American friends. [APPLAUSE]

Without the community's help, I wouldn't have made this amazing discovery about my family. While Findmypast has and will continue to focus on publishing the best British and Irish records, we're also focusing on creating great products that help our customers discover more about their family history. During the past year, our team has spent time deeply researching how we evolve our family tree. Now, we know that trees are central to all of us in the family history community. At some point in time, we each started with a small seed. And then our trees grew from there. Trees are how we organize our research, cite our sources, and share stories and photos and share our family history with others. As a company, we've discussed the merits of shared trees versus searchable trees versus private trees, as we have on Findmypast today. In a collaborative shared tree, the community is brought together to determine the best and most accurate version of genealogical relationships, adding evidence and sources to support those conclusions. As we thought hard about what our new family tree might look like, we reached a number of conclusions. We decided that a successful Findmypast family tree experience would combine both the wisdom of the crowd as well as the contributions of experts whose published reference trees provide credible signposts for newer members of the community. These reference trees will usually be provided by genealogists with competent research skills. We will be seeking feedback from the genealogical community. And we'll share our thinking as we go on how the shared tree, maintained by the community, and the reference trees, built by experts, can interact and support each other. Now, some of you-- [APPLAUSE] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] That's great. Some of you may be asking, do we really need another shared tree? Don't we have enough in this industry that is so vibrant, when different companies and organizations have already developed shared trees? Well, we agree. We also believe that the benefits of a shared tree can be watered down if we have too many shared trees. And so we asked ourselves, what if we didn't actually build another shared tree? Instead, what if we focused our efforts on contributing to a community that is already alive and progressing instead of duplicating what's already been built?

To this end, FamilySearch has agreed to partner with Findmypast, as they have done with others, to provide their family tree to underpin Findmypast's new tree offering. We are confident that this approach of adding to an already thriving-- [APPLAUSE]

Thank you. We're confident that this approach of adding to an already thriving family tree and encouraging evidence-based assertions is the right one to help our users make more discoveries about their British and Irish ancestry. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Our new suite of family tree products, including our shared tree, reference trees, and updates to our private trees, is still in development. So this isn't a product launch. It's an early preview for the RootsTech community. We wanted to give each of you an opportunity to provide feedback and be part of its creation. You can preview some of our work at findmypast.com/newtree or visit our booth and tell us what you think. [APPLAUSE]

In conclusion, when you think of Findmypast, we hope you think of the best in British and Irish records and expertise, the most comprehensive collection of U.S. marriages in the world, the only place you can find the Catholic Heritage Archive and the U.S.-based British roots collection, and the new Findmypast family tree, coming soon, focused on collaboration to benefit the new and experienced alike. [APPLAUSE]

Thank you. And enjoy your day at RootsTech. Thank you. [APPLAUSE AND MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you, Ben and Tamsin, with Findmypast. Unbelievable. Isn't that cool? Ladies and gentlemen, we have an amazing keynote we're going to connect with today. Yeah, you can do that. That's encouraged. One of the most popular figure skating stars in the world of all time, Scott Hamilton, is an Olympic gold medalist, motivational speaker, television broadcaster. You may have seen him recently somewhere far, far away from here. He's not even tired. I was just talking to him. He has endless energy, this man. He's a best-selling author, a humanitarian, and a cancer survivor and eternal optimist. His motto is "The only disability in life is a bad attitude." Ladies and gentlemen, what an honor to welcome America's favorite champion, Scott Hamilton.

[APPLAUSE AND MUSIC PLAYING]

Wow. Do a backflip. Do a backflip. You do a backflip, and I'll do a backflip. How are you guys? [APPLAUSE] I was warned that you're a rowdy bunch. Is that true? [APPLAUSE] Okay. It is so great--I mean, every time I come back to Salt Lake, I'm flooded with memories. You know, it's like anytime I go anywhere, it's like, have you ever been here before? It's like, yeah, a million times. But Salt Lake holds so many spectacular memories for me. My goodness, in 1984, it was a big year in my life. The U.S. Figure Skating Championships were right here, the old Salt Palace. And that was my last U.S. national championship victory--set me up for the Olympics--and there we go. And then being in this room again is almost surreal because I think it was right about there that I was here for the Ice Capades. And there just happened to be a gymnastics convention going on here. And right there, I was working with a coach on how to kind of get that over on a backflip, trying to figure out how I can learn that motion. And just about a few days later, I did my very first backflip ever right here in Salt Lake. [APPLAUSE] And then there was this little event I attended a few years ago called the Winter Olympic Games that were here. And I'm in the same hotel that we stayed in then. And it's all these crazy memories are coming back from that time, and what an amazing show Salt Lake put on. But I know you're all from all over the country, all over the world. And you're here to find answers. And you know, honestly, so am I, you know? It's just this crazy thing. It's like, we all have an identity, right? We all have kind of who we are. But it's like, where did it come from? Where did I come from? And for me, that's kind of like this crazy question. I have an outrageous friend who loves to, you know, kind of joke around about everything. And we were watching football on TV one day. And he goes, "I got a new one," because he always has these crazy things that he does. I go, "What's your new one?" He goes, "Personal ads." Y'all remember personal ads? You put in the newspaper--remember newspapers? [LAUGHTER] So anyway, you put yourself up in a personal ad, a short description. He goes, "But here's the thing: you've got to be 100 percent honest." And I thought, "Okay. All right. Okay, got it." And he goes, "All right, let's hear it." And I go, "Short, bald, half-neutered, chemo-ed, radiated, surgically repaired, retired male figure skater of unknown ethnic origin seeks a beautiful woman for long walks, laughter, and an interest in my hobby for collecting life-threatening illnesses." [LAUGHTER] Believe it or not, I got a taker. So let's start with the unknown ethnic origin. I was adopted at six weeks of age. Look at that. [APPLAUSE] You know that's me, right? Same hairline. [LAUGHTER] Anyway, I was an oops, I guess, and was adopted at six weeks of age by an amazing family. They wanted a big family. My mom, especially, was a nurturer. My dad was a very strict professor of biology. It goes like this. If you had my mom for a class at Bowling Green State University, I'd say, "Oh, you are so lucky. I mean, what's your fondest memory?" And they always have one where they tear up, because she was an amazing woman. If they had my dad for biology, the first thing I do is apologize and ask them, "Please, don't let that reflect on me at all, okay?" Because if you went and had his class, you were going to learn something. You weren't going to be in his class for the grade. So that's kind of how I grew up. My mom was the absolute center of my universe. She was the best woman I've ever known. She was sensitive, strong, and very compassionate. But she wanted a big family. But the problem was she would carry a child full term, and the child wouldn't make it through birth. She did have one birth child, survivor of twins, my sister. And when they brought me home, her line was--I mean, I was six weeks of age, right? I'm all wrapped up in these beautiful, you know, swaddling clothes. And she brings me home. And my sister looked at me, and she went, "He's not very cute." [LAUGHTER] "Can you take him back and exchange him for another baby?" I think we've gotten past that. It took some time in therapy, but we're better now. But my mom was this great lady. She was a 4x4 and loved every single person she ever met and was just the driving force in my family. I was the first adopted child. My brother came on board a few years later. We're four years apart. And so it's that whole four years, four years, four years thing. And looking at this picture, like every time I see this picture in front of the stoop, you can see how my dad, you know, is really kind of--he's smart guy, you know, never took a drink in college, boom, smart, PhD, full-tenure professor. And we're sitting on this fireplace stoop. And every time I see this picture I go, "It looks like five total strangers you put together." But a lot of people thought that I looked like my mom. And my mom would always say, "It's because you always resemble the ones that love you the most." Isn't that beautiful? [APPLAUSE] But it was through, you know, kind of that whole idea that, you know, I was adopted. And we'd celebrate that every single day. And you know, my grandparents were in our lives all the time. My grandparents on my father's side lived with us. And we just had all this amazing, just this beautiful family situation. My grandparents from Boston would come down all the time. And we were just involved. It was just this really beautiful family situation. But what happened throughout, what happened next, was, you know, I got sick. I got very sick as a child. And I'd always joke--you know that counter that's in your kitchen, you know, that your kids run under all the time? And you just know that one of these days, they're going to run under that counter, and they're going to bash their head because they'd grown a little bit. That never happened to me. [LAUGHTER] So you know, all of a sudden I was going to hospitals. And I was on this never-ending journey of hospitals. I even went back to my birth parents to try to figure out if there was anything, family medical history, that could help solve the mystery. But it was a four-year mystery that was really never solved.

We went from hospital to hospital to hospital to hospital. And it just came down to "We don't know. We don't know. We have no idea what's going on. And we just think you need to go home and live a normal life." And so I went back to Bowling Green, Ohio. And my parents, you know, were just shattered and exhausted from this four-year adventure, I guess, where my mom would end up sleeping in my hospital room in a chair in the corner. And she was under a great deal of stress. And you know, it just became a situation where our family doctor--who was our dearest friend, lived right down the street; we spent more time with him, I guess, than anybody else--he just said to my parents, "You need a morning off."

"We can't take a morning off." And they said, "Yes, you can. There's a brand-new ice skating rink at the university. And every Saturday morning they have these classes. And just put Scott in the classes. And you know, he'll be totally supervised. And everything will be great. And you can go on and just have a morning just to shore up as a family and just take a morning to yourselves." And so when I got to the rink, you know, I had a nose tube coming out, because of a supplement that I wouldn't drink. And so the compromise was they put a tube up through my nose, down my esophagus. And I would drink it that way because there was no way in the world. You know how now they have flavor of the month, you know? Flavor of the month back then was chalk, and not chocolate chalk or vanilla chalk; it was just chalk. And so I went to the rink the first day. I had this tube coming out of my nose. And I was really excited to be with well kids. And all the well kids kind of looked at me like, what's wrong with you? And they go, "What's that coming out of your nose?" And I said, "It's a nose tube. You've never been fed through your nose before?" [LAUGHTER] "Who's the weird one here?" [LAUGHTER] So I just started to skate. And as I started to skate, my health got better. And they couldn't figure out exactly why or what happened. But my health just continued to improve. And so there was never a chance I was going to be anything but a skater. That was going to be my life. I was just going to skate. [APPLAUSE]

The problem with that was I wasn't very good. I failed tests all the time. I didn't have any focus. All I wanted to do was play tag and jump and spin and run. And there were these things called compulsory figures that I just couldn't stand doing. It was just boring. And I just hated it. So, of course, you know, I wasn't very good at something you just, you know, don't like to do. And so I kind of plodded along and plodded along. And you know, I'd kind of do okay in a competition, then fail and, you know, was kind of on that road. The thing is, if you're a male figure skater--well, let's go back. If you're a female figure skater and you medal, you're really good. If you're a male figure skater and you don't medal, you probably should be doing something else. And so I was kind of in that point where, eh, I was just okay. And my parents were doing everything they could, both school teachers, doing everything they could to keep me in skating. And it finally got to a point where I needed to be sent to a skating place where they had great coaching and everything else. And it was there that I took the quantum leap of making it to the national championships, of which--17,500 people in the arena. Picture this, novice men's event, little boys' event--went out, and I rose to the occasion five times. I fell five times-- [LAUGHTER] --in front of 17,000 people. And it was humiliating and devastating. And I said, "I'm never doing that again. I'm going to go back. And I'm going to work real hard." And the next year, I went back and only fell twice and came in next to last. So I was on this kind of [MAKES SOUND EFFECT]..

By then I was getting up to the junior level. And it was after my first year on the junior level, where I beat two guys-- [LAUGHTER] I'm getting a big head now, right? Seventh out of nine--that my mom said, "We're broke.

We have no money. And I just came from the doctor, and I was diagnosed with this illness called cancer."

And I didn't really know what cancer was. And she didn't seem to be upset about it. So I figured that she was going to be okay. And she said, "I'm just going to go through some treatments, and I'm going to need some help," because she was raising a family, going to school, and teaching all at the same time to make enough money to keep me in skating. And I knew that, you know, times were hard. She sacrificed everything for her children--everything. And she just said, you know, "We're broke. We can keep you in skating one more year. Have a great year. You'll graduate high school this year. And the next year, since we're both professors at the university, you can go to school here for free. And your future will be, you know, set." "Okay, I'll do the best I can." Well, that year, weird things started happening, like I decided to actually work. Where normally I'd show up for a session, not do anything, this time I was all in. And I got to the nationals. And my mom showed up. And her arm was in a sling. They'd removed her left breast and most of the inside of her left arm. She was wearing a wig because the chemotherapy took all of her hair. But she had this twinkle in her eye that I'd never seen before. And I go, "What's going on with you?" And she goes, "I'm great." And it's like, "You're great? Are you on drugs? Is that what's going on right now?" And she just said, "No, we'll talk at the end of your competition. Just go out and have a good time." So about a week before that competition, I started landing my first triple. And it was kind of a big deal, you know, finally getting around on a triple jump. And my coach on the night of the long program at that nationals said, "You know what? You're in a really good position to have your best finish ever. Don't warm up the triple in the warm-up before you skate, because we don't want to know if it's there or not. Just if you feel like doing it"--and I've had this history of just wiping out all over the ice at nationals--"if you feel like doing it, what do you got to lose? It's your last competition. Do it." So I didn't warm it up. And I went around, and I hit my first couple jumps. And then I went, and I threw this triple salchow--everybody's favorite word, salchow, right?--and I'm like standing like this. And it's like, "I am not looking at the ceiling right now. This is unusual." And I realized that I landed my first triple ever in competition. And I won the junior national title-- [APPLAUSE] --in my last competition ever.

Okay, I think you probably figured out by introduction that wasn't my last competition ever. My parents on the way to that national championship stopped in Chicago. And they met this really extraordinary family. It's a husband and wife. They were older. And they had a lot of money. And they loved skating. And they realized that without children of their own, they could support other kids in their dreams. And they loved skating. So they heard about me through a coach. And they just decided to kind of look after my skating.

[APPLAUSE] This is Helen.

Helen is the most spectacular woman. She was just generous, smart, a young woman entrepreneur, my goodness. And in a time when only men got the big job, she figured out a way to leverage the small inheritance into a very big, huge business. And she just decided that I was a good investment. And so she and her husband started looking after me. And that very next year--I call it "the trifecta." The trifecta is I'm sponsored, I'm 18, and I have my own apartment. [LAUGHTER] There's obviously parents in the audience. It was an epic fail. I went out for the nationals, and I fell so hard in the first jump of my program. I was undertrained. I wasn't prepared. I was lost. I was this clueless 18-year-old kid. So the rest of the time I'm out there, my right leg was kind of doing this because that sciatica thing or whatever is in the rear end muscle just was not working. And I joke about it, but it was the worst thing ever because that was the last time my mother would ever see me skate in competition. She lost her battle to cancer. And right after that, I just decided that I wanted to honor her in every single thing that I did--every single thing that I did. [APPLAUSE]

So I took her on the ice with me every single day. And Helen was there to support me. And she and her husband were amazing. They just said, "We'd like to step in and fill the role of your mother. We know we love her. We don't think that we could ever replace her, but we just want to fill that role the best we could." So Helen was my mom. She was my mom. And she was a really strong and powerful and tough lady. And she gave me a lot to think about. And she was always there to support me, unbelievably, in everything that I was to do. And that next year, with her support, I actually made it to the world championships. I went from being 9th in the country the last time my mom saw me skate to being 11th in the world the very next year because of one decision to honor my mother. [APPLAUSE]

And then, you know, as things go, change happens. My coach, even though I was doing much better, lost interest in me. And so it came time to go to Philadelphia. Meet Barb Camp, my other mom. Barb stepped in at a time when I really needed nurturing. Helen was there always. And I needed to be in a different city taking from a new coach. And this coach was going to be the one that took me through two Olympics, four world championship titles, and an Olympic gold medal. But Barb was there to give me that home that I needed so desperately and that I craved so much. She just brought me in as, as she called them, one of her chickens. And I'd live at their house in Philadelphia. I loved it so much. And you know, her children were my siblings. And I loved her very much. And my coach, Don Laws, stepped in as my dad. He looked after me. My father was still alive. He'd come to the competitions. But I spent every single day with this man, who was a man of incredible integrity and quality and instilled in me, you know, so much discipline. My leash was this long when I went to Don Laws. And every year, he'd hand out a little bit more leash to--by the time I got to the Olympics, he'd let the leash go. When we were in Sarajevo at the Olympics, he said maybe 10 words to me the whole time we were there because he knew that he nurtured me enough to be able to--I could stand up to this moment without having somebody coaching me and looking over me the whole time. My preparation through him was to prepare me for any circumstance under the harshest conditions. And that little orange ribbon around my neck was the Olympic gold medal that he allowed me to win by just his miraculous training. My father-- [APPLAUSE] Yeah, he was a good man.

He was my dad. But, you know, my biological--my father father--it's so confusing. But that's the blessing. The confusion is the blessing, right? So my father--at the '94 Olympics, I was calling the Tonya-Nancy circus on television. And, you know, I went back right after the long program that night. And I called the nurse's station in Orlando, the Florida hospital, and they told me that my father had passed. And I wasn't with him. And I think about that all the time, especially when I am at an Olympics and just coming home from one. But Don was there, you know, to step in as he always did. And I spent a lot of time with him. And then his health started to fail. And he went into hospice on several occasions. And he was just always so joyful to be with. That beard that you can see on my face, you know--I call it a sod farm for the top of my head.

It was Movember. You know, it was raise money for cancer. I raised a lot of money growing that beard that year. But everything I always heard from the people looking after Don while I was with my family was that he was waiting for me to come see him. And so this was my visit with Don. And you can see the smile on his face and the joy in his eyes. And we spent a day together. And I held his hand, and we talked. And I talked to him. And he just looked at me. And every time he dosed off, he'd open his eyes. He'd look at me, and his eyes would come alive. And I just knew how much it meant to him to reminisce about all our times together and all those wonderful moments we had, him raising me up to be the man that I am today. The next morning, he took his last breath. He waited for me, and it was beautiful. But as, you know, life works, you know, we fill voids. And we press on. And it was this, the greatest day of my life, when I married this incredible woman named Tracie Rose Robinson, who became Tracie Hamilton. And it was really odd that, you know, I look at days and kind of the symmetry of life, and I was diagnosed with cancer on March 17, 1997. And I met her March 17, 2000. And so every St. Paddy's Day that comes around, we celebrate it as best-worst day. And to know that my life had worked out in a situation where I've been knocked down enough times and I'd gotten up enough times and knocked down enough times and gotten up enough times to be able to recognize that the greatest gift I've ever received was her--extraordinary woman, extraordinary. [APPLAUSE] You know, there's always a little bit of a "But then there's this." Having, you know, survived testicular cancer and--my goodness, what a story that was--but knowing we wanted to have a family, you know, I didn't know what it was going to be like. You know, I don't know if I'm even able to produce a child. And on this day, my wife said something really magnificent. She said, "It's a great day to get married." And I said, "It is. It's beautiful outside." And I can see the ocean. And it's just so romantic. She goes, "No, no, it's a great day to get married." And it's like, "It is. I'll never forget our anniversary, you know?" She goes, "Never mind."

A couple of months later, we're visiting my crazy friend--you know, the personal ads friend. And we're at his house, hanging out. As a joke, they bought her a pregnancy test. This is a couple months after we got married. And we were laughing about that, and "Wouldn't that be something?" And so sure enough, I'm sitting on the couch, watching sports, and you know, "Where's Tracie?" And so I found her in the guest room. And she's pacing back and forth. And I go, "What's wrong?" And she goes--and I look. And there's an empty bag with the joke pregnancy test in it. And she holds up this piece of plastic in front of me. And I said, "What's that?" She goes--

"What's that?" And she said, "It's positive."

I grab the bag because my world was going away. And I was--nine months and two days after we got married, this happens. [APPLAUSE]

It was a great day to get married.

But as an adopted child, this was the first time I saw a flash of my own flesh.

And I was staring directly into my own eyes. And it was a feeling like no other. It was extraordinary. And I'm a father. My goodness. I'm starting my own family tree. And as I look and as we're raising this child, more health issues come. I have another brain tumor, which now I have a pituitary brain tumor and testicular cancer. Man, how are we going to ever have another child? Because we so desperately wanted one. And so we just got to work. [LAUGHTER] We prayed. [LAUGHTER] You people went right there, didn't you? [LAUGHTER] We prayed. And we prayed hard. And, you know, it was really one of those things. I went in for my brain scan on my tumor. And I got this pix message on the phone when I came out. And it was like, "What is that? I can't see." It was one of those old flip phones. And it was a blurry picture. And I couldn't see what it was. And underneath it, all it said was in text, "I hope you have a bag handy." [LAUGHTER] So Max was born. Now, Max, as you can see, has a flaming crop of red hair. I did not see that one coming. And as I'm looking at this redheaded child, my mind was just racing. And I came up with "I'm Irish!" [LAUGHTER] Unknown ethnic origin--it solves that problem, right? So Max turns out to be this incredible gift, where, you know, Aidan is the "Oh my goodness." He was just my best buddy. And we would hang out and everything else. Max was a little bit more second birth, a little more free spirited, a little less disciplined. I'd say, "Max, look at me." [LAUGHTER]

"Okay, I'm looking at you." Life was full. Life was really full. Both boys were just thriving. And everything was absolutely as it should be. Our lives were full and complete. And as I was preparing for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, an earthquake shattered Port-au-Prince, Haiti. And it also shattered my wife's heart to the point where she had to do something. Three hundred thousand lives taken in less than 30 seconds--she had to do something. And so she went down, and she started to serve. And it was a medical mission group. And she would go down, and she would help people with nutrition and help people that had skin problems or injuries or whatever they were. And in that, through a certain outrageous set of circumstances, we met these two children. And it was a situation where the more time we spent down there--my wife's been to Haiti 27 times. [APPLAUSE]

We knew. We knew that God was totally directing our steps and that we needed to do something, because in all those visits with these children, we realized that without us, they have very little chance at a better life. And we could give them a great one. And so we went to work. We prayed. And we prayed a lot. And oh my goodness, it's just amazing what prayer can do. Because-- [APPLAUSE] --this is us now. [APPLAUSE]

Throughout every situation, whether it be being an unwanted child, birth, finding a birth mother--you know, it's funny. When I was younger and I was in school and kids found out I was adopted, they always would say things like, "You were adopted. You were adopted. You were adopted." And I always thought it was a good thing, right? And so my mom--I'd go home. And I said, "I'm getting bullied at school because I was adopted." And she said, "Really? Well, say this next time." I go, "Okay." So sure enough, after a little while--I'm the shortest one in my class--the bullying would start. "Well, you were adopted. You were adopted. You were adopted." I go, "Yes, I was adopted. My parents chose me. Your parents got stuck with whatever came out." [APPLAUSE] Yeah! [APPLAUSE]

So it comes full circle. I was given an incredible gift of a family. And everyone here, all of you, are fascinated with the whole understanding of family--where it begins, you know, my goodness, all the mysteries of life. You know, years ago, figure skating went through a bit of a recession. And they had to decide whether or not they were going to hang on to the museum. Because they had to make--"Do do we athlete development? What do we do? I mean, a museum's expensive. I don't know if we can afford to hang onto the museum." And I sat down with the president of U.S. Figure Skating and the executive director, and I said, "Let me just tell you this one thing. We have to celebrate and honor our past. We have to. Our past is the foundation for everything that comes of it." Am I right? [APPLAUSE]

Because without our past, our present has no meaning and our future is worthless. We honor our past. We honor those that came before us. And we honor them in a way of gratitude by remembering them, by celebrating them, by finding out who they are, which I love so much about this organization. I'm getting some answers this afternoon that I never thought to ask. And I'm excited and scared out of my mind. But I'm mostly excited about finding out my genealogy, finding out where I came from, finding out what my parents, what their story is. And that's why we're here, right? [APPLAUSE]

So as I think back and remember of all those amazing times where I had so many mothers and a couple of great fathers, I just am charmed and almost taken aback by how it all starts with a first date.

Those two people had dreams. They had aspirations. And they desperately wanted to forge a bond that would change everything. And they did.

My mom, my dad came together and, without knowing exactly what their future held, decided to go ahead and just do it in faith, integrity, and abundance of love.

That's why we're all here. [APPLAUSE]

We're here to celebrate love. We're here to celebrate family. We're here to solve mysteries and to truly understand our identity. Oh, boy. Does it get any richer than that? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. [APPLAUSE] My heart is full. And I am just so excited. I'm almost at a loss for what to leave you with. But I will leave you with this: That life is what we make it. But it's also the life that we've been given that comes with incredible responsibility to make the next generation's choices and opportunities better than the ones that we were given. Does that make sense? [APPLAUSE]

And so in my inexplicable long life--because, you know, when you have a unique hobby of collecting life-threatening illness, life expectancy is not really what it should be--I decided, you know, that I just get to work and I'd write a book. And I'm hoping you'll all join me today in celebrating a book signing a little bit later on this afternoon, where I'm taking everything I've learned to pass on to this next generation or whoever really wants to take charge of their lives and look at their next chapter, with a winning mentality of just trying to be better than we've ever been before. I look at the current generation and screen time and disconnectivity with cell phones and just what comes with that, and I worry, you know, that we're all kind of losing our way. This conference is a great way to find our way. But it's also about, what do we do? What's next? And so I wrote Finish First with an open heart as a gift to people that are really trying to figure out how to get off the bench and really live their lives joyfully and productively. And if you've ever been putting anything off, if this book doesn't help you get busy, I don't know what will. So I hope you'll join me this afternoon for the book signing. And I'd love to meet you and shake your hand. And man, I wish I could be here the whole week just to hear about everything that everybody is experiencing and to know that--even when I was at Disney World this last year with my kids, and I just sat down for a minute because, man, you really want to sit down when you spend a day at a amusement park like that, but every single face I saw there that day I knew had a magnificent story to tell, had an amazing thing to share. And I'm looking into all these faces today. And oh my goodness, I just do this with everything that you have in your own experiences and everything you're learning about what came before you. Man, it gets no better than this. So I thank you for having me. I thank you for everything that you're doing to improve and enhance your lives by really understanding the foundation of where we are now. And oh my goodness, i just want to say, God bless you all for everything that you're doing and everything you're doing to honor your past and to celebrate your future. I wish you the absolute best in this life and for the lives of your family. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE AND MUSIC PLAYING]

Scott Hamilton! Oh! That was unbelievable. Oh, thank you. Just know, I've never given that talk before. And I probably will never again because it was unique. I've never talked about my family or showed them like that before. Thank you so much for being so attentive and your support. And thank you all so much. Awesome. Thank you.

Scott, you just connected to us in a major way. It's rare to see an entire crew backstage crying their eyes out. [LAUGHTER] Oh, sorry, gang. Oh my goodness. Because they hear a lot of speakers, but you just connected the dots in such a way. And I'll tell you, as a dad myself, I can tell you're the kind of dad, I'm sure, that any kid would want to have. I know it. Thank you. And we welcome you to the RootsTech family. [APPLAUSE] All right. And that nine months, two days bit? Yeah. That was funny, man. Oh, man. That was funny. Yeah, it's a great day to get married. Why are men clueless? Women know. You don't ever need to grow a beard again. Just tell that story. So ladies and gentlemen, it's our opportunity now to give something back to Scott. We have with us today Diane Loosle, director of Patron Services for FamilySearch International. Diane has been looking into your family history-- Uh-oh. --and has some stories that she'd like to connect and share with you. And she has been crying more than anyone backstage. Oh my goodness. So please, welcome to the stage Diane Loosle. [APPLAUSE AND MUSIC PLAYING] Can I get the clicker from you? Oh, yeah. I am so scared right now. You have no idea. Well, it is true. I was crying. Thank you so much. And I appreciate your height. It's very rare that I get to-- We're concentrated. I know. It's great. Every seat in an airplane is first class. I know. It's awesome. [LAUGHTER] And now, let me tell you. Shopping in the boys department--way cheaper. [LAUGHTER] I never had any problem dancing with men. They were all taller. It's awesome. I had problems. Yeah. Yeah, in crowds. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, as you said, we're going to share some things this afternoon with you. Oh my goodness. But right now, we're going to give you a little bit of a sneak peek. Okay. So one of the things that you're known for is your positive attitude and your never-give-up attitude about life. And this actually comes from your family and your adopted family. So let me show you a little bit about your mother, Dorothy. Aw, I love my mom. Now, this is her high school yearbook in 1946. And Dorothy--you can see that it says that "she enjoys life in an easy way." And I think that you learned that trait from your mother-- Yeah. --as she taught you that. But this is generational. Because if we go and take a look at her mother's yearbook-- Aw. --then it says that her nickname in 1922 was Happy. I think we can call you Happy, your nickname. Oh, yeah, I remember her. I visited her in the nursing home. She got thrown out of many nursing homes. [LAUGHTER] She did. This woman here, Helen, she actually got hit by a fire truck twice. I guess she was hard of hearing. [LAUGHTER] But, yeah, she always kept a little flask of scotch under her pillow in the nursing home. She was a party waiting to happen. Yeah. Yeah.

So your family has taught you very well how to have a positive outlook on life and to be happy. But they also had to overcome some adversity. So in your family, we found a story about your great-grandfather on your mother's side, John A. Macintosh. We went to the newspapers. And newspapers--you have to be careful about those because, as you probably are well aware, reporters don't always get it right. And so there are several different accounts about this story in the newspapers. Your great-grandfather, John, was out fishing one night in November in the Fore River, fishing for eels-- Oh. --with his friend Mr. DeYoung. Now, he was 62 years old, his friend. So they were out fishing. And they got their spear stuck in the mud. And as they were trying to get it out, the boat capsized. And both of the men went into the water. Now, the waters were frigid. And John, your great-grandfather, clung to the boat and tried to hold his friend up. But he couldn't hold him up, so his friend drowned. But your great-grandfather tried to get on top of the boat and couldn't. So he started swimming to shore. Luckily, some people had seen that this happened. So they headed out to rescue him, but he just kept swimming. And you just kept skating. And it's such a wonderful legacy. And he survived. They rescued him. And so you come from a great heritage both on your adoptive side and your biological side-- Uh-oh. --which we'll find out more about later. Yeah, I don't know anything about that. So thank you. And I'm excited to show that to you later. Oh my, what I gift. I mean, these are things that I've never known, you know. I knew about my grandparents. My great-grandparents I met on several occasions. But this is truly a beautiful gift and why we're all here, I guess, right? To hear these stories. It's beautiful, amazing. Thank you, Diane. Thank you, Scott Hamilton. Thank you. [APPLAUSE AND MUSIC PLAYING]

Wow. Beautiful. Ladies and gentlemen, we're not done yet because I think--did we want to show the slide one more time?--he will be available in the Expo Hall in a little while to sign the books and to take pictures with you. Selfies with Scott Hamilton--that's fun. And so make sure that you go and check that out. But we hope you enjoy your classes today and the activities we have planned. Be sure to check out the Expo Hall and discover what kind of connections you can make today. But we're not done. So we'd like to go live to the trade show floor and check in with Jennifer Kerns Davis. Jennifer, who are you with today? Well, I have with me Jen Baldwin, who is the North America Data Acquisition manager for Findmypast. Jen, will you tell us what you guys have in store for us this week at RootsTech? Jennifer, we're so excited to be at RootsTech again in 2018. It's such a vibrant community and such an incredible show to be at. We're really excited to have our team here from around the world. We've got representatives from Ireland, Scotland, England, and America to answer all of the questions from our attendees across the community. We're so excited about our New York Catholic initiative, announced today at the keynote. These records are incredible. So if people have questions, come by the booth and talk to us about their New York ancestors, their Catholic ancestors. It's such an incredible project. We also have our new British and Irish Roots Collection. So for those who have British and Irish ancestry, we are absolutely the place to come and find those records, find those crucial paths across the pond. Our new tree is really exciting. We have so much to offer our American customers and those who are a part of this community. It's such an incredible, incredible day for Findmypast. So come by the booth. Say hello to our incredible, amazing international team. Grab a button. Show off your British and Irish heritage, all your pride for your overseas lineage. Great. Thanks, Jen. You heard the invitation. Come stop by and visit the Findmypast booth. Jason, back to you. All right, everyone. The day is yours. So please make sure to go to your great classes. The Expo Hall, everything we have planned, is for you. And please don't forget: if you're here participating now, #RootsTech is the hashtag. If you're online, #notatRootsTech. We still want you to keep posting, because we're giving more and more awards away. Hey, thank you so much for being here this morning. And let's hear it one more time for Scott Hamilton. Have a great day.

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