How many of you are related - PART II (America, church)

[SoyLeche]

I hope this works.

This is going to be much more complicated than Becky's thread. I want to find out how many of us are related that we didn't know about. The Computer Science department at BYU has a website that you can use to figure that sort of stuff out. I'll try and explain how this will work:

Go to http://roots.cs.byu.edu/digroots2/

I don't think you need a username (I think only the person that set up the group needs one), but I could be wrong.

Go to #3: I have been referred by someone, and I have their group name and password to go to their group page.

Group Name: ReligiousForums
Password: Welcome

Select "Add a Person" from the list on the left.

Now comes the hard part

You need to add your ancestral information via AFN (Ancestral File Number). These can be found (if they exist for the person) at www.familysearch.org

At the top of the home page, there is a tab for "Search" - go there

Select "Ancestral File" from the menu on the left, and start looking for your ancestors.

You only need the AFN for the closest relation to yourself (If you have your mother's AFN, you don't need your maternal grandparents).

If you have AFNs for your parents or grandparents, you need to put them into the pedigree chart that shows up. Most of us won't have AFNs for family members that close (the usually won't show up while someone is alive) - so we'll have to go to the ">> Advanced"

You put the relation that the person with the AFN has to you in the following format:

S = Self
F = Father
M = Mother

Your maternal grandmother would be SMM (Self's Mother's Mother), SFFM is your Paternal Grandfather's Mother. It seems more complicated than it is.

It looks like it will only allow 9 AFNs per person, so you may not be able to get your whole history into it.

Oh, and you should probably put your RF username in the "Self's Name" field, so we know who you are.

I think I will need to run the report, so I will do that every so often, if there are new names there, and we'll see if we are family.

[Bishka]

I think I did it, but I don't know. It's taking forever to calculate.

[Feathers in Hair]

Thanks! I've been looking for this link (which was generously posted a year or so ago, I think) for awhile! I'll enjoy this thread, I think! (Though there are several mommies and daddies, aunties and uncles and brothers and sisters in spirit here that I already know belong in my 'soul's geneology'!)

[SoyLeche]

You can run reports on yourself too - to famous people. Since it's a BYU thing, you can see how you are related to church leaders - I'm Gordon B. Hinckley's 9th cousin once removed for example.

It will tell you about famous Americans too - I'm Franklin D. Roosavelt's 10th cousin 3 times removed, and John Adam's 5th cousin 7 times removed, among others.

Me and Philo T. Farnsworth (the inventor of the Television) are 8th cousins twice removed.

Kinda fun.

[dawny0826]

I think this is an awesome idea but I couldn't get an AFN for any of my relatives.

[SoyLeche]

Here ya go Becky - Doens't look like you and I are connected yet though

Relatives among U.S. Presidents
James Monroe
(5th cousin 7 times removed)Common Ancestor(s):
R. LEE(1613,England)

Richard Nixon
(8th cousin 2 times removed)Common Ancestor(s):
H. DIXON(1633,Ireland)

Relatives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Francis_Lightfoot Lee
(2nd cousin 10 times removed)Common Ancestor(s):
R. LEE(1613,England)

Relatives among Early LDS Apostles
JReuben Clark
(5th cousin 3 times removed)Common Ancestor(s):
W. PUSEY(1682,England)

Relatives among the Wives of the Prophets
Margaret_Pierce Young
(4th cousin 4 times removed)Common Ancestor(s):
W. PUSEY(1682,England)

Mary_H_Pierce Young
(4th cousin 4 times removed)Common Ancestor(s):
W. PUSEY(1682,England)

[Bishka]

Hey cool.

[SoyLeche]

Originally Posted by dawny0826

I think this is an awesome idea but I couldn't get an AFN for any of my relatives.

Yeah, there are probably a lot that just don't have them yet. I'm sure you could do something about that, but I'm not an expert in Family History, so I don't know the procedure.

[literal visionary]

Everybody in the world is at least I think 35th or 36th cousins anyways...