Beta Version of Relative Finder now available

The above notice has appeared on the Relative Finder website.

The new version of Relative Finder from the BYU Family History Technology Lab is much easier to use and has a more comprehensive interface. Here is a screenshot of the list of my "relatives" using the new Beta version of the program:

The changes make the program more useful, but as a caution, they do not make the program any more accurate. The data used by the program still consists of the information in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree program. If that information is inaccurate, then the results showing a relationship will obviously not be accurate. Using the new Beta version of the program, I checked to see if me and my wife were related and found that the program reported that her father and I share a 5th Great-grandmother. Here is the chart showing how we are supposed to be related:

Unfortunately, in this case the remote ancestor family, the Springthorpes, is exactly that family we are currently researching and our preliminary findings call into question the relationships shown in the Family Tree. But it is interesting and may get my wife's family interested in doing some more research on this same line.

What I do find, is that Relative Finder is a good way to identify suspicious relationships shown in the Family Tree. If you look carefully at this chart, you can see that the dates from the remote ancestor don't match up at all with reality. William Springthorp on the chart was born in 1686 and died in 1751 while both John Springthorp and Elizabeth is wife, on the right hand side of the chart, were born after he died.

Relative Finder is turning out to be more useful than just a game or diversion.