Monday, March 21, 2016

Adventures with BYU Relative Finder

I have heard of Relative Finder before. But I decided to visit the web site because on March 19, 2016 I was at the Saturday Seminar at the Riverton FamilySearch Library and attended a class by Van Celaya. Van Celaya is an instructor for BYU Family History Library. His presentation was very positive and upbeat and his enthusiasm for family history is contagious.

So I decided to check out BYU Relative Finder and login in with my Family Search account and see who I am related to.

Here are some of the results:

The closest relatives of the "celebrities" on their list are:
Henry B. Eyring -- 3rd cousin
Mitt Romney -- 3rd cousin
Jeffrey Holland -- 4th cousin

Other apostles that I am related to are:
Elder Cook
Elder Oaks
Elder Stevenson
Elder Ballard
Elder Hales
Elder Bednar
Elder Anderson

I am related to a multitude of U.S. Presidents including Barack Obama!

I am related to about 20 Mayflower passengers, but the one I have thought was my relative, John Billington, was not on the list.

Movies stars that I am related to are:
Lucille Ball
Humphrey Bogart
James Stewart
Oliver Norwell Hardy
Henry Fonda

My husband is related to
Elder Haight
Elder Christofferson
Elder Perry

It is interesting that most of these relationships come through the lines of my 2nd great grandmother Laurinda Atwood. The program said it would find your closest relationship and that you might be related in other ways as well.

Of course, because of errors in FamilySearch some of these relationships may not be true.

The whole experience made me realize that virtually everyone is our relative and we need to be more kind and understanding of all of our Heavenly Father's children. We are all brothers and sisters.

6 comments:

Rebecca Gardner said...

Thanks for sharing. You are one of the kindest people I know!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mom,
We have had fun looking at this in the past and also concluded that we are all related, mostly because we are descendants of early emigrants (for example the Mayflower) or that 8 or more generations away is not really "related".

Because of my profession, it was nice to see we are related to Sir Issac Newton (1st cousin 8 times removed) and Eli Whitney Jr, inventor of the cotton gin (3rd cousin many times removed. Both these are through the Atwood and Robinson line.

Wendell Hurst said...

I believe our mitochondrial DNA comes through Laurinda Atwood.

Jeanette Drake said...

Yes, our mitochondrial DNA or matriarchal line is through Laurinda Atwood. This would not affect our relationships with the people in the BYU Relative Finder database.

Wendell Hurst said...

The BYU Relative finder is kind of screwed up. It gets the type of relationships wrong all the time. Henry B. Eyring and Mitt Romney are our second cousins. Relative finder has also told me that George Q. Cannon is some kind of cousin, when in fact he is an uncle.

jane said...

Interesting! Thanks mom!