The theme of Rootstech 2022 is Choose Connection. I find that interesting because that is exactly what I have been trying to use Rootstech for since 2019 for The Edwin Project.

Given the world circumstances of the last several years and the most recent war developments in Ukraine, Rootstech is really emphasizing the need for unity, inclusion and especially connection. They even put out this great new video to promote the message:

As of today (March 3rd), using the data from our family tree on Family Search, Rootstech is telling me I’ve got more than 65,000 relatives registered for Rootstech.

Let’s break that number down a little bit and see exactly what that means.

They say better than 335,000 people worldwide are registered for Rootstech. That means about 1 in 5 of those registered are my relatives. Mind blowing, eh?

Of course, those 65,000 relatives come from ALL the data in my tree, which includes the now pretty well developed lines of both my mother and my father.

The Edwin Project is focused on the posterity of Edwin Westover. Using the search function of the Relatives at Rootstech feature I can see 443 descendants of Edwin Ruthven Westover are registered at Rootstech this year.

I am, over the next few days, going to reach out personally and individually to every last one of them. Watch your message box at Family Search, I’m coming for ya.

Why?

Because we have about 2 years left to find all the living descendants of Edwin.

What am I on this crazy course?

There are many reasons. They range from the just plain curious to absolutely sacred.

But my reasons do not need to be your reasons.

Your reason can be simply to connect.

And that’s my number 1. I just want to know who you are and a little bit about your story.

If you start with this timeline you can begin with the story of Edwin in pretty extraordinary detail. We’re taking it decade by decade and we have a good start.

But I know we’re going to face some headwinds in this project as we approach the 20th century.

Edwin had a prolific family in his time. Can you imagine how much it has grown just from the time he passed this world in 1878?

I think the future of our family history pursuits can best be served by finding and documenting the family of Edwin in the present.

Please think of helping with The Edwin Project – we would love to get to know you.