The Relatives at RootsTech 2024 Experience

 One of the "fun" things to do at RootsTech 2024 (29 February to 2 March 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is the Relatives at RootsTech app - on your browser or on the mobile RootsTech app.  

The Relatives at RootsTech app uses the FamilySearch Family Tree to find your relatives, so if you are not connected to the Family Tree the app will not work for you.  It will be available for use until 31 March 2024.

NOTE:  As of 4 February, there is no link for Relatives at RootsTech on the RootsTech home page.  I'm sure there will be soon!

1)  After signing into FamilySearch on the browser (https://www.familysearch.org/en/connect/), I saw that I have 6,142 relatives who had joined as of today.  

I can see them on an interactive map (really only country based), see my relationship to them, and send a message to them.

2)  I clicked on the "View Relatives" button and saw some of my relatives, listed by closest relationship first:

There are four options on this screen (below the "RootsTech Relatives" title) - "By Location," "By Ancestor," "By Family Line," and "Search" (drag the line to the left to get to this).

3)  The "By Location" screen shows the countries that have your Relatives along with the number of Relatives in that country.

I have 5,176 Relatives at RootsTech from the United States, and 117 from Canada, but only 12 from Australia at this time.

I chose "All Locations" and saw the list in the second slide above.  There is a limit of 300 Relatives to show on the list, and for the United States when you click on the country you can then see the States and you can see up to 300 Relatives in the State.  Canada has a Provinces listing, but the other countries do not.

4)  The "By Ancestor" screen shows the list of your ancestors in the Family Tree back to the 5th  great-grandparents:

I chose "Capt. Norman Seaver (4)" (my 5th great-grandfather) and saw the four Relatives who have that ancestor of mine:

5)  The "By Family Line" screen provides a list of your parents and grandparents, and the number of Relatives at RootsTech in each of those Family Lines: 

The "Search" screen permits to to put in a name so that you can find a specific Relative.  I searched for "Kemp" and had ten persons with that username in their user name. 

6)  The most useful part of the Relatives at RootsTech app is the Relationship screen, which appears when you click on one of the Relatives you have.  It shows the Uername of the Relative, and your relationship to the Relative based on the FamilySearch Family Tree.  

I clicked on the  "By Location" list, then clicked on the Relative at the top of my list,  and saw my closest relatives (at this time - it will definitely change over the next four weeks!):

 There are links to three screens for this Relative - "Chat," "Relationship" and "Contact."

The "Chat" permits you to send a message to the Relative using the FamilySearch email system.

The "Contact" screen puts the Relative in your Contacts list on FamilySearch.

7)  The "Relationship" screen shows how you are related to the Relative, starting with the Common Ancestor at the top of the chart:

The chart has the names of the most recent common ancestors at the top, and then the lines down to me and the Relative.  It hides the names of living persons from the FamilySearch Family Tree, but it includes my username and the Relative's username at the end of the Relative's line.

If I was going to RootsTech 2024, I would contact the closest cousins above using the "Chat" and see if they were at RootsTech also, and perhaps meet up with them to share information.  I did that several times the last two years I was at RootsTech.  

I use these Relationship charts as leads to identify the persons in the Relative's line from the Common Ancestor, but only for 6th cousins or closer.

8)  This process doesn't take very long to learn, and it may uncover a close Relative at RootsTech.  At this time, my closest Relative at RootsTech right now is a 4th cousin 3x removed.  But that will change as we get closer to the event.  I ended up with over 70,000 Relatives at RootsTech in 2023.

Are you my cousin?  On the Relatives list, I am "randyseaver1."

9)  NOTE:  Since this process uses only the FamilySearch Family Tree to find your relationship to your Relatives at RootsTech, you need to treat the information with skepticism.  If the Family Tree is wrong, then the line to your Relative may be wrong.  

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Disclosure:  I am a RootsTech Connect 2024 Influencer and have committed to providing regular publicity about the conference.  I have received free registration, snacks, meals and other benefits from FamilySearch over the 14 years of RootsTech.  I will be a Virtual attendee at the RootsTech 2024 conference.

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Copyright (c) 2024, Randall J. Seaver

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