When I first got Relative Finder as a campaign, I thought it was a cute idea
until I looked at the links and saw that I was supposedly related to Presidents, authors, musicians, scientists, and many inventors. But when I watched the video and they said
that it was a “fun” program and that it was only as accurate as the information
on the trees, I basically dismissed it. But then I found that there were other
more practical uses for it, I got more interested.
After you get there, time to Get Started.
Next click on Login with FamilySearch
Then you sign in to FamilySearch
This is something like what you will find. A list of what Saints, Popes, constitution signers, famous Americans, etc. you are related to. Explore and enjoy but a more useful purpose is yet to come.
Click on Groups and then on the drop-down Create. We will create a group from our own tree. Not really a group since we will only be adding a single person at a time, finding out how we are related to them and then kicking them out of the group.
You have to fill in the form. No one else will see this and you don't need to remember this password. So put in anything you like.
Back at the main page, you can see that along with the public groups, you will have another group owned by YOU. If you choose that one and then on Groups again, then Manage, you can begin to add someone else to your own group.
We see our owned group and then we click on View.
At first there is just you in the group and if you click on View you will see that your relationship to yourself is "self"
Let's get out of there and back to add someone else to the group. Click on Group, Manage and View.
This is where the useful begins. We are going to Add a
deceased person. Click Show under Add Deceased Person. BTW they do have to be
deceased. I tried adding my mother who is still living and it would find her
and add her but would not show her relationship to me.
Now go back into the far reaches of your tree and pick out a person in your line (really related by blood, not a spouse. We'll discuss that later) and put their PID number into the search bar and click on search.
It
takes a few seconds and then announces that it has
found him and prompts you to Add this person.
Here you can click on View to see how you are related.
While we are on this slide, here is where you
will remove this ancestor from the list when you are finished with him. But you
don’t want to remove yourself since you are the person you want the system to
tell who the ancestor is related to.
And here it
shows that what your relationship is . And there seems to be a chart that you can view.
And
here it is, the part that I love. It shows me
the path back home if I am lost on the branches of my tree. It shows our common
ancestors .
There is
one caveat however. This program will only find people with a blood
relationship to you. After you get off the direct line, spouses are not
addable. If I went looking for my relationship to Luvena
Renner, Joseph’s wife and Oscar’s mother by entering her PID, it would find her but it will not add her to
the group or show me our relationship. So in that case I would just look for
her husband and figure out for myself that someone married to my 3rd
great uncle is my 3rd
great aunt by marriage.
One more bit
of housekeeping. If you need to update your tree, you go to More at the far
right and when you click on it and then Settings, you will see this screen
and can Update your tree. I sometimes use this when I first log on because it
seems to load quicker this way.
So, keep Relative Finder on your
favorites bar and use it when you find yourself lost in the branches of your
Family Tree or if you need to say what your relationship is to a particular
ancestor. Like if you have a question and call Support and
the very helpful support missionary asks you for your relationship to the
ancestor, instead of saying “distant cousin”
you can confidently say , he is my 1st cousin, 3 times removed. A very useful program….not just for fun.
