Relatives at RootsTech is an experience where you can see if you’re related to your friends. It has been an extremely popular feature of the in-person RootsTech conference for several years. The experience went worldwide in 2021 when the RootsTech conference became a virtual event and Relatives at RootsTech welcomed nearly 500,000 visitors in just 4 days. With the success of Relatives at RootsTech, FamilySearch engineers have been hard at work to make the celebration of fun family connections even better for 2022.
What Does Relatives at RootsTech Look Like This Year?
Todd Powell, product manager for mobile apps at FamilySearch, highlighted some of the things that his engineering team have been working on for Relatives at RootsTech 2022. The experience at the 2021 event reached it’s maximum limit, but Powell says they are working to make sure that upwards of 10 million people will be able to log in to the experience simultaneously and find new cousins and other relatives.
Powell said, “This is a wonderful experience for people when they find, discover, and connect with others that they’re related to, especially for those that are discovering new relatives. There’s this amazing connection experience.” There are lots of exciting enhancements to this year’s experience, including being able to chat with living relatives! Let’s take a look at some of these new enhancements, and how it all works.
Where Is Relatives at RootsTech?
Up to now, the Relatives at RootsTech experience has been strictly app-based for smartphones, but this year there will be a browser-based version on the RootsTech website. The experience uses results from names of ancestors found in the FamilySearch Family Tree. Users who do not have any ancestors in the Tree will be prompted to add a few names to help them get connected to the over 1 billion names in the Tree so they can more easily find new cousins and discover if they’re related to their friends.
How Do I Sign Up for Relatives at RootsTech?
To sign up for Relatives at RootsTech, go to the Relatives at RootsTech site. If you have a FamilySearch account, just sign in to your account by clicking Sign In, and be sure to check the box at the bottom allowing your information to be shared with your relatives (see image). If you don’t have a FamilySearch account, click on Create an Account.
Navigating the Home Page
When you sign in to Relatives at RootsTech, you’ll see a screen with a lot of cool features. At the top of the page, you’ll see the number of how many relatives you have connected with. You can see this list of your relatives by clicking View Relatives.
In addition to your list of relatives, you can also see how many people at Relatives at RootsTech share the same last name as you, how many have joined Relatives at RootsTech, and see where these participants have joined around the world. Keep checking in on these features each week as more and more people join the experience!
If you are interested in how you might be related to your friends, you can click on the Share button to invite your friends to join Relatives at RootsTech.
Your Relatives List
To see your list of relatives, click on the View Relatives button on the home page. On your relatives list, you can do many things to enhance your experience. You can search through your list by location, by ancestor, and even search for specific people who are opted in to the experience. To make sure others can find you by your location, be sure to change your location from private to public in your settings.
When you click on a name on your relatives list, there are a few fun things you can do. You can message users, view your relationship to them according to the FamilySearch family tree, and add them as contacts. Adding a user as a contact will add him or her to your contacts list so communication with newfound cousins can continue long after the RootsTech event has ended.
If you’ve ever taken a DNA test, you can even connect with your DNA matches on your relatives list. Click here to learn more!
