RootsTech and Relatives at RootsTech - FAQ

Where to Find Relatives at RootsTech:

Relatives at RootsTech is available on the website at: https://www.familysearch.org/connect/

Relatives at RootsTech is available in the mobile Family Tree apps for iOS and Android. Make sure you are running the most current version of the app. In the blue banner at the top, click Find Relatives at RootsTech.

Additional Help:

• A general RootsTech FAQ can be found here.
• Additional Frequently Asked Questions on Relatives at RootsTech can be found here, including a video demonstrating how it works.
  

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is the difference between registering for RootsTech and joining Relatives at RootsTech?
Relatives at RootsTech is an optional activity that happens around the time of the RootsTech conference. Attendees can sign up for RootsTech and access some classes and sessions without joining Relatives at RootsTech. Attendees who join Relatives at RootsTech can see how they are related to other conference attendees and, if desired, send a text message to relatives.

If I register for RootsTech, will I also be added to Relatives at RootsTech?
No. You will not automatically join Relatives at RootsTech when registering for RootsTech. You must join Relatives at RootsTech separately by going here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/connect/

What is Relatives at RootsTech?
Relatives at RootsTech is an online experience that shows if (and how) you are related to other FamilySearch users. To participate:

1. Register for Relatives at RootsTech by going here: https://www.familysearch.org/connect
2. Update your FamilySearch profile information to join the event. Make sure you agree to share basic information to view your connections with other FamilySearch guests.
3. Make sure your family is in the FamilySearch Family Tree. If you are brand new, try this: Guided Tree. For help adding a few individuals to Family Tree, click here. To add many individuals from another database, click: Learn more. You can also find additional help by going to these Frequently Asked Questions.
4. Visit the Relatives at RootsTech page (www.familysearch.org/connect) or the FamilySearch Family Tree mobile app to see any relatives and how you are related.
   

Is my information safe?
Your information is safe and protected and will not be sold to a 3rd party. Only the information that you have agreed to share is visible to other participants of Relatives at RootsTech. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for additional details.

When you join Relatives at RootsTech, we ask for your name and home country. You can optionally provide a state (where applicable) and a profile photo. This information is visible to other RootsTech attendees in order to improve communication and, with your permission, to show family relationships.

You can control what information others can see in your RootsTech Profile.

Can I opt out of Relatives at RootsTech? Can I update my profile?
Yes. You can opt out of Relatives at RootsTech, update your profile, or add a photo in your User Settings. There are opt-out and update links at the bottom of the Relatives at RootsTech main page (https://www.familysearch.org/connect/) or in the FamilySearch Family Tree mobile app.

What if it says I am not related to any other RootsTech attendees?
We use your family information from FamilySearch Family Tree to identify family relationships. There are a few reasons why you may not get many results.

1. Need to join Relatives at RootsTech: If you have not joined Relatives at RootsTech, we will not be able to show you your relatives.
2. No tree: If you have not added your family to the tree yet, we will not be able to find any relatives. For help adding a few individuals to Family Tree, click here. To add many individuals from another database, click here: Learn more.
3. Need more information: You may need to add more generations. See if you can take one of your family lines (the ancestors of one of your parents) back a few more generations. For help adding a few individuals to Family Tree, click here. To add many individuals from another database, click here: Learn more.
4. Not enough trees: There may not be enough family trees submitted yet from your particular part of the world.

What do the other numbers on the page mean?
In addition to showing you how many relatives we have found for you, we show you some other personalized facts based on the information you provide:

1. Total Number of Relatives Found: This number is found at the top of the page and shows the total number of relatives that have joined Relatives at RootsTech.
2. List of Closest Relatives: At the top of the page, when you click View Relatives, you can see your top existing relatives who have also joined Relatives at RootsTech. This is the main feature of Relatives at RootsTech. In the top list, you can view your relationship with your relatives, send messages, and add them to your Contacts List.
3. Same Surname: The feature also shows how many “cousins” have signed up for the conference. This represents the number of RootsTech attendees who share your surname. Not all will be literal cousins, though they share the same name. You can search for other last names by clicking the Check Another Last Name button.
4. Total Number of Participants: Near the bottom of the page, this number shows the total number of attendees participating in Relatives at RootsTech worldwide.

What if the information shown is wrong?
We use the relationship information found in the global Family Tree on FamilySearch to calculate relationships. If the information there is incorrect, you will see inaccuracies in Relatives at RootsTech. You can go to www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/ to update inaccurate family tree information.

I fixed my tree information. How long before I start seeing relationships?
It can take up to an hour to re-calculate relationships after a user updates person or relationship information in the global Family Tree on FamilySearch.

How can I message relatives or friends?

• Chat in Relatives at RootsTech: While viewing the list of your relatives, click the name of the relative and select the Chat option. To type in a message, click in the Message box. Click Send Message.
  
• RootsTech Chat: 
  
  • You can message another guest during the RootsTech conference using the direct chat feature on the RootsTech website. In the top right of the RootsTech website, click the Chat icon. A chat pop-up window appears. You can type the names of other users in the search box and, if they have set their permissions to be in the directory, send a private chat during the RootsTech conference.  Messages appear in your Private Chats section and remain in your FamilySearch Chats after RootsTech has ended.
  • You can also find chat groups specific to RootsTech by toggling on "Show event chats." Under event chats, you can find Session Chats, RootsTech group chats, conversations with RootsTech staff through the Ask Us Anything Chat option, groups created by attendees, and chats with Expo Hall vendors. You continue to have access to these chats specific to RootsTech after the conference ends, but some chats may be disabled.
    Note: After RootsTech ends, the chats are no longer monitored or responded to by RootsTech staff.
    
• FamilySearch Chat: 
  
  • Website: Sign in to your FamilySearch.org account on the website. In the top right corner, click the overlapping speech bubbles (that display "Chat") to contact others at any time. You see the same experience as with RootsTech Chat, and any messages sent to individuals are in the Private Chat section.
  • Mobile App: Open the mobile Family Tree app on your device. Go to the More section. You see the FamilySearch Chat and, if you have allowed notifications from the Family Tree app on your device, the same messages you see online. These notifications also include chat messages that are sent to you. The messages remain in the list in FamilySearch Chat after RootsTech ends.
    Note: You may want to add your relatives to your contacts list to maintain connections after RootsTech has ended.
    

How do I add a relative to my Contacts list on FamilySearch?
To add a relative to your contacts list, do the following:

1. On the View Relatives page, click the name of the relative to be added to your contacts list.
2. A submenu appears under the name of your relative. The submenu includes: Message, Relationship, and Contact.
3. To add your relative to your contacts list on FamilySearch, click the + Contact button. A notification in the upper right portion of the screen confirms, "This person was added to your contacts list".
4. To view your contacts list, click your name at the top right of the FamilySearch screen. From the drop-down menu, click Contacts. A list of all the users you have added to your contacts list on FamilySearch appears.

How do I remove someone from my contacts list?
To remove someone from your contacts list, do the following:
On your contacts page, find the name of the person to remove. Click the name. From the pop-out box, click Remove Contact.

What is the benefit of adding someone as a contact?
Adding someone as a contact has distinct benefits. First, it is a great way to “save” people you want to keep track of. For example, you can use the Search feature to find friends you think may have registered for RootsTech. You can then save any you find to your friend list to easily keep track of your results and even start a conversation. Second, once the conference is over, the Relatives by Location list and Search are no longer available. The Contact List remains available for a few weeks after RootsTech is over.

What does  “Close Relative” mean?
A close relative in your relative list represents someone in your immediate or closely related extended family, such as a

• Parent
• Sibling
• Child
• Spouse
• Aunt
• Uncle
• Cousin
• Niece
• Nephew
• Grandparent
• Grandchild

These are often living individuals, and the relationship is more familiar. For privacy reasons, we do not show as much information for these relatives as we do for the deceased.

Why did the number of my relatives decrease?
Scanning the entire Family Tree and calculating all the relationships requires extensive processing. If there are so many participants that system performance slows, we reduce the number of generations scanned. This may lower the number of relatives you see. Rest assured, your data is still preserved in Family Tree. We are simply calculating fewer relationships because we are scanning fewer generations of Family Tree.

How do I connect with other users with the same last name to see if I am related or to contact them?
When the RootsTech conference starts, a feature is available to search for other users who have joined Relatives at RootsTech to see how you are related to them. Use the feature to add them to your Contacts List and message them.

Can a mobile user get the banner back if he or she dismissed it once?
Yes, if users choose not to show the banner at the top, they can get it back by reinstalling the app.

Why does it show DECEASED in the relative graph?
To protect privacy, deceased persons who are 1 generation above a living person show as “Deceased.”

Why does it not show portraits for users under 18?
To protect the privacy of youth, the portrait is not displayed for any user under 18.

Does the Relatives at RootsTech Map show exact locations?
For privacy reasons, the Relatives at RootsTech experience has been simplified to show only a general location for your relatives. On the map, for example, location pins are placed in the middle of each country, state, or province, respectively. Locations on the map are based on what a user chooses in their profile for location.

Why can't I print the relationships? 
Relatives at RootsTech is intended to promote social connection as you discover relationships with living relatives. It is an in-conference experience, rather than a research tool. To protect others' privacy, we do not support printing family relationships.

Why can’t I see more than 300 relatives?
Because of the international reach of RootsTech, and the number of attendees, we are limited in how many family relationships we can show for each attendee. You can increase the scope of your results to see the closest 300 relatives for each location by changing the location in Relatives by Location. Additionally, you can also use the Search to see 300 results based on your query. You can also view your Relatives by Ancestor, which shows up to 300 results for each.

Why do my parents have more relatives than I do?
We compare 10 generations of your family tree to 10 generations from each attendee who opts into this experience. Your parents may have more relatives at RootsTech because 10 generations of their ancestry include 1 additional generation of ancestors than your ancestry. The number of relatives expands exponentially with each generation we go back.

Where can I change the photo used for myself for Relatives at RootsTech?
The photo used for Relatives at RootsTech is set here: https://www.familysearch.org/identity/settings/profile

I have a “full” tree. Why do I have NO relatives, few relatives, or only relatives from one parent?
You may have a full tree in the limited generations shown, but this limited tree is not connected to a large tree, which is needed to find lots of relatives. A "larger tree" may not mean it needs to go back more generations. It may simply mean that you are not connected to a tree that others are. The limited trees for RootsTech are not fully connected to the FamilySearch tree, which has many millions of people.

• Other issues can also limit your connections:
  
  • How deep the lines go.
  • How connected your lines are to various parts of the world or ethnicities. For example, if your line is not of English descent.
  • How accurate the relationships are in the tree on that line.

I had many relatives, and now I see NONE or very few.  What changed?
Updates have likely been made to individuals in the tree. A person may have merged, changed parents, removed relationships, or any similar update that would change the relative path or cut off a connection to a large, connected tree.

Why do I only see relatives from one parent, or when I choose the maternal filter?

1. A person may have merged, changed parents, removed relationships, or any similar update that would change the relative path or cut off a connection to a large, connected tree.
2. The maternal or paternal filter only applies to the top 300 people in the list. If the relatives are more closely connected on the paternal side, they might crowd out the maternal side. This is actually much less likely to happen if you select a location, such as a state or province. If you pick California, for example, you might only have 250 relatives from that state, so all are shown, and the paternal side will not crowd out the maternal side.
   

I have birth parents and adopted parents (or similar sets of 2 parents). Why do I see only one side, or can I choose to see only one line at a time?

1. No, setting a preferred parent does not filter or sort by that line.
2. However, the service searches ALL lines for both sets of parents to find the closest path for relatives. There are many variables that may affect why it does not seem to return any relatives. See the previous answers.

Is there a way to see more than 300 relatives?
Yes, you can search by a different location, and the search will get 300 different relatives, or whatever the count is for that location. This especially works in the United States and Canada, because you can select a state or province to see a new list of 300 relatives from that location.

Is it possible to search for Relatives at RootsTech to find family members related through a spouse? (In-laws at RootsTech?)
No, searching by in-law relationships is not part of the Relatives at RootsTech experience.

What can I do with the CONTACT list?
The contact list has a limit of 150 people. The list remains for a few weeks after RootsTech is over to give users a chance to finalize connections and communication. It is not designed or implemented to support a long-term solution on FamilySearch.org. You can, however, use the FamilySearch chat service to stay in contact with other users after the event. Once a message is sent to another user (after the RootsTech event), it appears in the FamilySearch chat inbox.

Can I see all the relatives of ONE ancestor down to all the living users?
Yes, in the mobile apps, you can filter or group relatives of a common ancestor, but it ONLY filters within the 300 limit in the current list.

Why do users who are siblings or a parent or child show as 2^nd cousin or such?
All users have their own FamilySearch account with their own tree of living persons.

In a sibling's tree, for example, if LIVING copies of your father or mother were added, whether your parents are living or not, you do not see the living copy your sibling entered. How the information is added or edited to your living space and to your sibling's living space affects the results.

Another possibility is that the relationships in each of the LIVING spaces are different for you and your sibling. One or both of you may have a different path to your parents and grandparents.

Tip: If you want to stay in touch with relatives that you found through Relatives at RootsTech, including friends you found and tagged, send the relative or friend a message by clicking Send a Message for that person. That adds the relative or friend to your FamilySearch Chat, which remains in your FamilySearch Inbox until you delete that person from your inbox. Once you have sent the person a message, there is no need to worry about the date that RootsTech Chat shuts off.

How fast will changes made in a tree be reflected in Relatives at RootsTech?
Normally, changes take 30 to 60 minutes.

Can I PRINT the relative list or the graph?
No, a printing option is not supported. However, you can friend or message those users and save them to your contact list.

Why is the location count off by 1 or a few at times?
The delay is due to changes in the tree or users opting in and out between a relative refresh, which happens approximately every 30 minutes.