Who in the room is closest to Brigham Young?
A famous Latter-day Saint appears on the screen. Everyone scans, checks the FamilySearch Family Tree, and the room finds out who is most closely related. Closest cousin takes the crown.
How a round works
- A face appears. The big screen shows a famous Latter-day Saint, their dates and what they're known for.
- Make a guess. Before looking, everyone guesses who in the room will be most closely related. A right guess earns 150 points.
- Scan and check. Open the person in the FamilySearch Family Tree and tap View My Relationship. Then enter what it says, such as "5th cousin 2× removed."
- Reveal. The screen counts down from the most distant relative to the closest. The closest cousin gets the crown and 250 bonus points.
Questions
What do players need?
A phone and a free FamilySearch account with at least a few generations of their family tree filled in. Ask everyone to sign in to FamilySearch before you start. Players who don't have an account can still play as Guessers: they earn points by guessing who in the room is closest.
How is "closest" worked out?
Each relationship is turned into family links: the number of parent-and-child steps from you up to the shared ancestor and back down to the famous person. A 1st cousin is 4 links away, a 5th cousin is 12, and each "removed" adds one. Fewer links means closer. A direct ancestor counts as the closest kind of connection.
Is it accurate?
The game uses whatever the FamilySearch Family Tree says, and that tree is shared and built by many people, so some links may be wrong or missing. Treat the results as a fun start for real research, not as proof.
Does anyone's information get saved?
Players use a nickname, and no accounts or emails are collected. Nicknames and answers are deleted when the host ends the game, or automatically after six hours. My Famous Family albums stay in your own browser.
What about the famous people's privacy?
The game only uses people who have died, and links to their public records in the FamilySearch Family Tree. FamilySearch keeps living people private.
Set up your game
Before you start
- Put this screen on a TV or projector.
- Ask everyone to sign in to FamilySearch on their phones.
- Allow about 90 seconds per round, so 10 people takes about 15 minutes.
- Up to 80 players can join. No accounts or emails are needed.
Or go to weakthings.com/pages/closest-cousin and enter
While people join: everyone sign in at familysearch.org now, so the Family Tree opens instantly.
Scan to open them in FamilySearch.
Then tap “View My Relationship.”
Our room's famous family
Family web: who's connected to whom
Your famous family album
Open each person in FamilySearch, tap View My Relationship, then record what you found.
Printable QR cards
Print these and post them around the room. Players walk around, scan each card with their phone, and write down how they're related. Whoever finds the closest connection wins. Each QR code opens that person in the FamilySearch Family Tree.
Where the portraits come from
Portraits come from Wikimedia Commons and are shown in sepia. Most are in the public domain. Licensed photos are credited below, with links to the original files. People without a suitable free photo are shown with their initials.