This document discusses FamilySearch Family Tree and finding one's own family tree within the larger collaborative "Our Tree" on FamilySearch. It describes Family Tree as a wiki that allows many users to collaboratively edit profiles and add information. While users want to see and work with just their own family, they are reminded that they share ancestors with many other users on Family Tree. The document provides tips on using relationship charts, maps, memories, and other features to navigate Family Tree and find one's own relatives within the larger context of collaborative genealogical research.

1. © 2013 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Finding ‘My Tree’ Within
FamilySearch Family Tree’s
‘Our Tree’
BYU Conference on
Family History and Genealogy
July 30, 2014
Ben Baker
bakerb@familysearch.org

2. What is Family Tree?
Why Do People Refer to Family Tree as ‘Our Tree’?

3. Main Types of Family Trees
User Specific
FamilySearch
Genealogies
…
Most other online trees and
desktop records managers
Collaborative
FamilySearch
Family Tree
…

4. User Specific Family Trees
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
User1
… …
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
User2
… …
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
User3
… …

5. Collaborative Family Trees
…
User1
…
User3
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
User2
… …

6. Goals of Family Tree
• Freely available to anyone worldwide
• Reduce duplication of effort
• Increase collaboration to arrive at the best
information
• Information added outlives contributors
• Link person profiles to additional information
We can all go further faster by working together

7. How is Family Tree Like a Wiki?
“A wiki is a web application which allows people
to add, modify, or delete content in collaboration
with others.” – Wikipedia
Like Wikipedia and other wikis, Family Tree is
maintained by volunteers and changes made to
data on pages is reflected to all users and
change tracked.

8. What Does Finding ‘My Tree’ Mean?

9. What is my-tree-itus?
mytreeitus mī-trē-ˈī-təs (noun)
An inflammation common to many genealogists,
particularly heavy users of PAF. Symptoms include
extreme anxiety over others modifying their extensive
genealogical research, possessiveness of ancestors
and unwillingness to work in collaborative family trees.
Usually occurring in more mature adults and rarely
seen in those under 40. Learning to use FamilySearch
Family Tree has been shown to be an effective
treatment for this affliction.

10. But I Just Want To See “My Family”
I’ve had people ask me or others I know questions like:
“Can’t I just print out my family from Family Tree?”
“Can’t I export all of my relatives from Family Tree?”
Sadly the current answer is mostly no, but a follow up
question to ask is:
“Who do you consider to be your relatives?”

11. How Many People Are Really in ‘My Tree’?
<400,000 persons
related to you very
closely
~1,000,000,000
total persons in
Family Tree
Your Relatives Everybody Else
Even if you go back 10 generations and
down 2 more to have all the children and
grandchildren of your direct ancestors, this
is still likely less than 0.04% of the number
of people in Family Tree.
Of course you haven’t found them all yet or
you wouldn’t be at this conference. 
Regardless, you aren’t very closely related
to the vast majority of persons in Family
Tree, even if you are relatively closely to
tens or hundreds of thousands of them.

12. Remember You Are In ‘Our Tree’
…
User1
…
User3
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
User2
… …
In other words, multiple
users ‘My Trees’ intersect
and collapse into the same
‘Our Tree’. Another way to
say this is your 3rd great
grandfather is also many
others 3rd great grandfather,
2nd great grandfather, 2nd
great uncle, etc.

13. Get The Big Picture
Print out Charts of Your Relatives

14. Printed Charts from a Person Page

15. Printing Charts from a Tree View

16. Fillable Pedigree Charts and
Family Group Sheets
• Same as official LDS paper forms
• Can save and modify later
• Easy to share with others
Insider Techie Tips
• If you are LDS and want to print without LDS temple
ordinances, change show_ords to false in the URL
Ex. https://familysearch.org/tree-data/pedigree/K2V7-PV5/spouse/K2V7-P92/pdf?show_ords=false&locale=en
• If you’d like to print without Family Tree person IDs, add
&showPIDs=false to the URL
Ex. https://familysearch.org/tree-data/pedigree/K2V7-PV5/spouse/K2V7-P92/pdf?show_ords=false&locale=en&showPIDs=false

18. Difference Between Family and
Family With Sources Options

19. 7-Generation Fan Chart

20. Portrait
Pedigree

21. View Memories of Your Relatives

23. Scope of Interest
Internal term used to define those persons who will
show up in this section of memories and also in
temple opportunities.
The system is showing you persons four
generations above you along with their spouses,
children and grandchildren.

26. Use the Watch List

27. Use Underused and Powerful
Features of the Watch List
• Navigation to distant relatives
• Filtering by various criteria
• Sorting by various criteria
• View latest changes over the past 30 days
• Filter and sort latest changes

28. Navigation

29. Filtering on Names

30. Filtering on Places

31. Filtering on Dates

32. Filtering on Deleted Persons

33. Sorting – Part 1

34. Sorting – Part 2

35. Changes to People I’m Watching

36. Changes to a Specific Person

37. Changes by a Specific User

38. Changes of a Specific Type

39. Use the History List

40. Use the History List Dropdowns
• Use Tree and Person Lists to Jump to Tree View or
Person Page View
• Use the Go To: textbox to jump directly to a person ID
• Click on your own name to go back to you
• Click on your starting person ID to jump to that person
• Click on a person in the list to jump to that person
• Select Add Unconnected Person to add a new person to
the tree that isn’t connected to anyone else with
relationships.

41. View Your Family in Other Ways and Directions

42. Use Other “Tree” Views

43. Descendancy View

44. Fan Chart View

45. Portrait Pedigree View

46. Use a Desktop Records Manager
Synchronize It With Family Tree

47. Many Family History products are
compatible with FamilySearch.
For a full list, see
https://familysearch.org/products/.
Different products have varying
levels of support with Family Tree
• Tree Access – Can read data
from Family Tree
• Tree Share – Can read/write
data in Family Tree
• Sources – Supports attaching
sources from the product
• Discussions – Supports adding
discussions from the product
• Change History – Can view
change history from the product
• LDS Features – Product supports
LDS temple ordinance features

48. Synchronize With a
Desktop Records Manager

49. How Desktop Records Managers and
Family Tree Interact
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
User1
… …
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
User2
… …
…
Mary
Beus
1851 - 1936
Michael
Beus
1811 - 1888
Marianne
Combe
1813 - 1910
All Family Tree
Users
… …

50. Exporting GEDCOMs from Family Tree
via a Desktop Records Manager

51. GEDCOM Upload Is Not Evil
I promise!

52. GEDCOM Upload is Not Evil

53. Process to Submit a Tree
1. Upload GEDCOM to FamilySearch
2. Compare each person with those
in Family Tree
3. Add persons not already in Family
Tree
Note: Contrary to popular belief,
duplicates are no longer automatically
added to Family Tree when uploading.

54. New Research

55. Research Questions
1. How do I most effectively traverse and retain
information about the relatives most closely related
to a particular user?
2. How do I sort or prioritize these relatives by
closeness despite many different types of
relationships?
3. How can I provide a human-understandable
representation of how the user is related to
persons in their tree?

56. Weighted Relationship Distance
WRD(g, c, m) = α(|g| + 1) eβc eγm
g – Generational or “vertical” distance
Number of generations from base person
c – Collateral or “horizontal” distance
Minimum generations to a closest common ancestor
m – Marriage distance
Number of marriages between base person
α, β, γ – Weighting factors to control growth rates
2013 Family History Technology Workshop – Beyond the Relationship Calculator
Using a Weighted Relationship Distance Metric to Prioritize, Categorize and Visualize Relatives
http://fht.byu.edu/prev_workshops/workshop13/papers/baker-beyond-fhtw2013.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/131495480/Beyond-the-Relationship-Calculator-Poster
2014 Family History Technology Workshop – Retrieving a Sorted List of Hundreds Closest Relatives from
FamilySearch Family Tree in Seconds
http://fhtw.byu.edu/static/conf/2014/baker-retrieving-fhtw2014.pdf
http://fhtw.byu.edu/static/conf/2014/baker-retrieving-presentation-fhtw2014.pdf

57. Father-in-law
WRD (1, 0, 1) = 8.27
Husband of Grandmother
WRD (2, 0, 0.5) = 6.10
Sample Relatives
and WRD values
Base Person
WRD (0, 0, 0) = 1.0
Father
WRD (1, 0, 0) = 2.0
Grandfather
WRD (2, 0, 0) = 3.0
Grandmother
WRD (2, 0, 0) = 3.0
Uncle
WRD (1, 1, 1) = 22.49
1st Cousin
WRD (0, 2, 0) = 7.39
Brother
WRD (0, 1, 0) = 2.72
Niece
WRD (-1, 1, 0) = 9.57
Son
WRD (-1, 0, 0) = 3.52
Wife
WRD (0, 0, 1) = 4.14
Mother-in-law
WRD (1, 0, 1) = 8.27
Brother-in-law
WRD (0, 1, 1) = 11.25
Niece
WRD (-1, 1, 1) = 39.59
Sister-in-law
WRD (0, 1, 1) = 11.25
Sister-in-law
WRD (0, 1, 2) = 46.53
Mother
WRD (1, 0, 0) = 2.0
Daughter-in-law
WRD (-1, 0, 1) = 14.56
Aunt
WRD (1, 1, 0) = 5.44
Uncle
WRD (1, 1, 0) = 5.44
Aunt
WRD (1, 1, 1) = 22.49

58. Thomas French
Alice French
Thomas Howlett
Mary Howlett
Mary Hazen
Peabody Mosely
Jonathan Mosely
Mary Mosely
Jirah Eaton Baker
Sarah Helen
Baker
Helen Cornelia
Buck
Helen Lucille
Cockle
George Richard
Baker
Benjamin Baker
Thomas French
Mary French
Samuel Smith
Samuel Smith
Asael Smith
Joseph Smith Sr.
Joseph Smith Jr.
John Huckins
Eliza Huckins
Gersham Lewis
Nathaniel Lewis
Elizabeth Lewis
Emma Hale
Hope Huckins
Hannah Nelson
Jabez Wood
Joanna Wood
Sarah Horton
Betsy Wheeler
Elizabeth Shade
Pierce
Mary Elizabeth
Butler
Flora Sheldon
Prescott Sheldon
Bush
George Herbert
Walker Bush
George Walker
Bush
Laura Welch
WRD(0,0,0) = 1.0
Base Person
WRD(1,0,0) = 2.0
Father
WRD(2,0,0) = 3.0
Grandmother
WRD(3,0,0) = 4.0
Great Grandmother
WRD(4,0,0) = 5.0
2nd Great Grandmother
WRD(5,0,0) = 6.0
3rd Great Grandfather
WRD(6,0,0) = 7.0
4G Grandmother
WRD(7,0,0) = 8.0
5G Grandfather
WRD(8,0,0) = 9.0
6G Grandfather
WRD(9,0,0) = 10.0
7G Grandmother
WRD(10,0,0) = 11.0
8th Great Grandmother
WRD(11,0,0) = 12.0
9th Great Grandfather
WRD(12,0,0) = 13.0
10th Great Grandmother
WRD(13,0,0) = 14.0
11th Great Grandfather
WRD(12,1,0) = 35.3
11th Great Uncle
WRD(11,2,0) = 88.7
1st cousin 11times removed
WRD(10,3,0) = 220.9
2nd cousin
10times removed
WRD(9,4,0) = 546.0
3rd cousin 9times removed
WRD(8,5,0) = 1,335.7
4th cousin 8times removed
WRD(7,6,0) = 3,227.4
5th cousin 7times removed
WRD(6,7,0) = 7,676.4
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(6,7,1) = 31,758.3
Wife of 6th cousin 6 times removed
WRD(7,7,1) = 36,295.2
Mother of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(8,7,1) = 40,832.1
Grandfather of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(9,7,1) = 45,369.0
Great Grandfather of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(10,7,1) = 49,905.9
2nd Great Grandmother of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(11,7,1) = 54,442.8
3rd Great Grandfather of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(10,8,1) = 135,658.4
3rd Great Aunt of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(9,9,1) = 335,234.3
1st cousin 3 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(8,10,1) = 820,135.3
2nd cousin 2 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(7,11,1) = 1,981,652
3rd cousin 1 time removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(6,12,1) = 4,713,353
4th cousin of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(5,13,1) = 10,981,904
4th cousin 1 time removed of wife of
6th cousin 6 times removed
WRD(4,14,1) = 24,876,593
4th cousin 2 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(3,15,1) = 54,097,274
4th cousin 3 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(2,16,1) = 110,288,728
4th cousin 4 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(1,17,1) = 199,863,897
4th cousin 5 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(0,18,1) = 271,643,200
4th cousin 6 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(-1,18,1) = 956,184,065
4th cousin 7 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
WRD(-1,18,2) = 3,955,848,641
Wife of 4th cousin 7 times removed of wife of
6th cousin 6times removed
Extreme Example
Relationships Between
Benjamin Baker and
Laura Welch (Bush)

59. Future Applications Enabled
• Identifying the closest relatives where historical record hints have been identified but
not attached yet as sources.
• Promoting e-mail campaigns to point out what others have added to your relatives
such as new photos, sources, stories, etc. to draw users back to the site.
• Easily identifying end of line relatives and likely places for successful descendancy
research.
• Facilitate LDS temple work for closest relatives first and sharing more distantly related
people with others.
• Producing to-do lists sorted by closeness of relation on any task a user may want to
undertake (Ex. fixing data anomalies, merging possible duplicates, providing missing
data, etc.)
• Automatic watching of relatives via e-mail alerts based on closeness.
• Applications across a set of users (Ex. closeness of relation to the user for all LDS
temple submissions or photo uploads on FamilySearch)
• Sorting items such as memories, watched persons, LDS temple reservation lists, etc.
in order of those closest to the user.
• Pointing out relatives who have been identified as prominent or have participated in
significant events.
• More . . .

61. Alpha Test Invitation
To participate in an alpha test of this research:
• E-mail a RootsMagic database or GEDCOM file to
bakerb@familysearch.org
• If you send a RootsMagic database that has been
synchronized with Family Tree, I will be able to include
information on FamilySearch, including temple ordinance
status
• Indicate which person you’d like to compute the relationships
from
• Sometime later, you will receive an Excel spreadsheet similar
to what I showed at the conference.
• I would appreciate any feedback on how useful you think this
is and any suggestions for improvement

62. Thank You!