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

1. Log in or create a FamilySearch account.
2. Make sure your family is in the FamilySearch Family Tree. Add family.
3. Return to the Relatives at RootsTech page or the FamilySearch Family Tree mobile app to see any relatives and how you are related. You can even send a message.

Once you are signed in, go to the family tree builder. You will see a place to add your parents. After adding what you know about them, keep adding living and deceased relatives as far back as you can. A quick phone call or text to an older relative might help you fill in some gaps.

As you add names to the tree we’ll look for matches. So, if your deceased grandmother is already in the tree, we’ll find her and make the connection.

Finding matches is common—the Family Tree has millions of branches from all over the world.

Start adding your family

You can also watch a video that shows how to manually add your branches to FamilySearch Family Tree.

Because of the large 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 by changing the location in Relatives by Location to see the closest 300 for each location or use the Search to see 300 results based on your query. You can also view your Relatives by Ancestor, which will show up to 300 results for each.

Your information will be protected and won’t be sold to a 3rd party. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for additional details.

When you register, 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 attendees in order to improve communication and, with your permission, to show family relationships.

You can control what information others can see in your profile.

Family tree is a worldwide, community family tree. Once we know where you fit into the Tree we can use search technology to find if you have a relationship to anyone else in the Tree. It's about finding deceased ancestors that you both have in common.

Get Started With Family Tree

We use your family information from FamilySearch Family Tree to identify family relationships. There are a few reasons why you may not be getting many results.

1. Need to join Relatives at RootsTech: If you haven’t yet joined Relatives at RootsTech, we won’t be able to show you your relatives.
2. No tree: If you haven’t added your family into the tree yet, we won’t be able to find any relatives. Add family.
3. Need more information: It’s possible that you 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. Add family.
4. Not enough trees: There may not be enough family trees submitted yet from your particular part of the world.

The Relatives at RootsTech experience is part of the conference. Afterward, we will stop finding relationships. Any relatives you save to your Contacts List, however, will be available on FamilySearch after the conference. Add relatives as contacts on the Relatives@ page using the "+ CONTACT" option on the relative's information card.

To access your Contacts list:

• On the web, you can access your Contacts in the Account drop-down menu at the top right of the screen when you are signed in (look for your name).
• In the mobile app, select the More menu in the bottom right (iOS) or the three lines at the top left (Android), and then choose Contacts.

View Contacts

As part of the Relatives at RootsTech experience, you can add the relatives you find to your FamilySearch Contacts list.

On the web, you can access your Contacts in the Account drop-down menu at the top right of the screen when you are signed in (look for your name). In the mobile app, select the More menu in the bottom right (iOS) or the three lines at the top left (Android), and then choose Contacts.

View Contacts

You can update your Relatives at RootsTech profile information or opt out of the experience in your User Settings.

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

It can take up to an hour to re-calculate relationships after a user updates person or relationship information in FamilySearch Tree.

There are TWO ways to message other FamilySearch users:

• Anytime: Using FamilySearch Messaging.  On both the mobile and web version of Relatives at RootsTech there is an option to Send a Message to other users via FamilySearch messages. These messages will remain in your account after the conference. If you send the message in the Family Tree mobile app the other user will get a notification in their inbox that a message has been sent. 
• During the event: Using the direct chat on the FamilySearch site. Select the chat icon at the top right of the homepage. This is a great way to correspond with other attendees.

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

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

To protect the privacy of youth, portraits are not displayed for any user under age 18.