Friday Finds – Relatives at RootsTech

Are you ‘going’ to RootsTech 2022? If so, are you participating in Relatives at RootsTech? Although it is fun clicking on a post to see whether I’m related to one of the professional genealogists participating in RootsTech, they usually end up being very distant cousins.

Thus, when I say Roberta Estes’ post on DNA-Explained, RootsTech Launches “Relatives at RootsTech” App – Are We Related? I decided to do a better job this year of working with these potential relatives.

Following the tips in the post, I started working on a spreadsheet for those ‘relatives’ sharing a common ancestor. As I was working on my spreadsheet, I started noticing some missing surnames. Thus, I tried looking at relatives and our common ancestors in a different way.

I printed out the fan chart for my dad and my mom and then outlined the ancestral couples appearing on my list of ancestors in Relatives at RootsTech. I then wrote in the number of relatives I have for each. Below is the finished chart for my dad.

While I hoped to find more 3rd cousins, the chart isn’t that surprising for my dad since I have relatives identified for his lines. However, when I look at my mom’s side of the tree, there are some glaring holes. I don’t have any relatives for her Thompson, Evans, Mentzer or Minnick surnames.

While these charts show the holes, I need to continue working on my spreadsheet. I have modified it a bit by adding columns so I can record the descendancy from the common ancestor to my RootsTech relative. With that information recorded, I can later go back and review our possible relationship.

Not only will I be able to compare their lineage with what I have for the family, but I will also be able to check Ancestry’s ThruLines to see if they (or their line) show up.

This spreadsheet will also help me make contact with these cousins. Even though I have already contacted my Crawford cousins, the post on DNA-Explained has made me think of other pieces of information I want to include in future messages:

• My Ancestry username
• Name of my tree on Ancestry with link to our common ancestor
• Fact that I manage Ancestry DNA tests for myself, my 2 brothers and my mom
• Where I have uploaded my Ancestry DNA
• My Gedmatch numbers
• Link to my blog
• If I’ve completed one, a link on my blog to a descendancy report for the common ancestor

While I have way too many ‘relatives’ at RootsTech, I do hope to continue working on my spreadsheet so I can track my contact with them and my work to verify our relationship.

In the meantime, where are my Mentzer, Minnick, Thompson and Evans relatives?