Are you related to your partner? Find out with this brand-new feature

2-3 minute read

By The Findmypast Team | April 1, 2024

Ever pondered the somewhat mind-boggling thought that you could be related to your partner? Well, you can now embark on a surprising genealogical journey to instantly discover hidden family ties between you and your significant other...

Ready to explore a game-changing new genealogy tool?

With Findmypast’s brand-new feature, you can instantly discover a genealogical connection to your better half - simply upload your family tree along with your partner's. Then, Findmypast’s powerful technology will get to work, looking for common ancestors, surnames, locations, and dates, and will tell you in just a few moments if you share any forebears.

You might be like global superstar Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, American football player Travis Kelce, who share a distant ancestor – Nicholas Knapp (c.1606-1670), who emigrated to America from England in 1630. This ancestral connection was discovered by genealogist Christopher C. Child, and makes Swift and Kelce tenth cousins once removed. Or perhaps you and your partner share some royal roots, like King Charles and his first wife, Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales?

And don't worry if you’ve not yet made good progress on your family tree - the sophisticated algorithm also works behind the scenes to give you an estimated percentage of how likely it is you share an ancestor, and to spot potential familial connections.

But, if you haven't already guessed - this has arrived just in for April Fools' Day...

So while we don't have a feature that will analyse the names, locations, and dates in your family trees to provide a percentage likelihood of being connected to your partner by ancestry, there are plenty of other handy Findmypast tools to help you with your family tree research.

You might be curious about what lies in your family history, or sceptical at a family story that's been passed down the generations. Here's a list of fantastic (and very real) Findmypast tools you can take advantage of right now to start your family tree:

Family tree builder

Uncover your family's story and watch your family tree grow. This free-to-use family tree builder allows you to add names, dates, locations, photos, and more of the relatives you already know. Then, our powerful hints will get to work, helping you trace beyond known facts to find new ancestors and new stories.

Start your family tree

You can easily discover shared connections with other Findmypast members (and maybe a cousin or two) with Tree Search, which helps you search over 4.5 million trees. Explore tree-to-tree hints, which you'll see when we think we've found your ancestor in another family tree.

Plus, you can help your ancestor's story come alive with family tree profiles, and get a glimpse of their world with Stories when we find newspaper headlines from key moments in their life. Share your family tree with your loved ones to update them on your progress.

And other fun things include:

In the spirit of fun, we hope you've enjoyed our April Fools' Day offering this year. Did you know that in 2023 we said we were opening Findmypasty, a genealogy cafe?

And who knows: we might have inspired a brand-new hobby...