One of the "fun" things to do at RootsTech 2023 is the Relatives at RootsTech app - on your browser or on the mobile app. The 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 2023.
1) After signing into FamilySearch on the browser (https://www.familysearch.org/en/connect/), I saw that I had 30,350 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 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 24,390 Relatives at RootsTech from the United States, and 809 from Canada, but only 33 from the United Kingdom.
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 "Nathan Gates Sr. (4)" 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 "Vaux" and had two persons with that username in their user name. I chose "Vaux" and saw two Relatives:
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. I clicked on the first Relative on my list and saw:
There are links to three screens for this Relative - "Message," "Relationship" and "Contact."
The "Message" permits you to send a message to the Relative using the FamilySearch email system of the Relative.
The "Contact" screen puts the Relative in your Contacts list on FamilySearch.
The "Relationship" screen shows how you are related to the Relative, starting with the Common Ancestor at the top of the chart:
The chart hides the names of living persons, but includes the username at the end of the Relative's line.
I have been using 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.
7) This process doesn't take very long to learn, and it may uncover a close Relative at RootsTech. Unfortunately, my closest Relative at RootsTech is a 4th cousin.
On the Relatives list, I am "randyseaver1."
8) 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 2023 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 13 years of RootsTech. I will be a Virtual attendee at the RootsTech 2023 conference.
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Copyright (c) 2023, Randall J. Seaver
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