Tech Forum

I have received the identical message from two FamilySearch users, one yesterday, and another today. Is this message automatically generated, or is this a phishing attempt?

It would be nice to see how we are related as we work together on our shared family tree.

Please go to FamilySearch settings and enable relationship viewing, so we can see how we are related.

Curious. So far my contacts have asked how I was related to a specific person of interest. Does this person have their relationship showing? Has their name showed up as contributing to common ancestors? (That last one is going to be hard, I know.)

I received one a couple of months ago. We chatted back and forth via FamilySearch for a few days and then I found there is a setting on the mobile version of family search that allows this - not available on the web version.

davesudweeks wrote:not available on the web version.

Click on your name in the upper right corner, click on settings, go to the "Contact" tab. I'll admit it wasn't the first tab I checked.

russellhltn wrote:

davesudweeks wrote:not available on the web version.

Click on your name in the upper right corner, click on settings, go to the "Contact" tab. I'll admit it wasn't the first tab I checked.

Must be a new update. I submitted feedback when I couldn't find it and was told it was not on the web version but was available on the mobile version.

I got the same message recently so need to find out if this is a legitimate request.

"It would be nice to see how we are related as we work together on our shared family tree.

Please go to FamilySearch settings and enable relationship viewing, so we can see how we are related."

I replied: I went to every tab and couldn't find "enable relationship". Can you tell me how to do that please? Thx much, Joan

She/he replied: I don't know either. We can call Family search I just haven't had time

I replied: Ok, I'll give them a call this week so they can tell me how to do that. Thx. (And then thought to check to see if this is bogus)

Any info would be appreciated. Thx.

No, it isn't bogus. The answer to your question is given 2 posts before your post (here)?

If you're reading the message on-line in FamilySearch, you can click on the sender's name. In the menu that pops up, there's an "Enable Relationship Viewing" selection. I haven't tried it,

What irritates me is that under the sender's name (in the menu), I see "relationship not available". It appears the sender is asking for something they themselves haven't turned on. If they're the one wanting it, why should I go first?

Personally, I think this is a poorly thought out feature.

russellhltn wrote:If you're reading the message on-line in FamilySearch, you can click on the sender's name. In the menu that pops up, there's an "Enable Relationship Viewing" selection. I haven't tried it,

What irritates me is that under the sender's name (in the menu), I see "relationship not available". It appears the sender is asking for something they themselves haven't turned on. If they're the one wanting it, why should I go first?

Personally, I think this is a poorly thought out feature.

I just had one of these requests come from someone last week, and I did use the feature. The wording did make it confusing. What would have made it more clear is if it said that the relationship would not be available until I enabled relationship viewing for my account.

If I recall correctly, when I clicked to enable it, an explanation of what would happen, if I continued, popped up. I had the option to confirm or cancel. I believe that the explanation indicated that I would be enabling relationship viewing for anyone. As soon as I confirmed, I was shown a tree diagram of how I was related to the person.

I just got one of these requests, too, and am concerned about what it shares. I found two articles on this:
https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/vi ... her-users/
http://genealogytrot.blogspot.com/2019/ ... ewing.html

So it just looks like it shares my photo (if present) and how I'm related to a contributor (e.g, Second Cousin Twice Removed).

It is a little concerning that this is an all-or-nothing setting. I don't know how such data could used for phishing or other conditioning. I think it would be interesting to see how some of these people are related, but I'm concerned about potential unintended consequences.