Relaxing with Relative Race
By Dale E. Lee
2021.06.23
Summary:
- Throw some fun in the mix
- Reality Shows
- Rules of the game
- Surprise twists
- Just have fun
Detail:
- Throw some fun in the mix
Some people think Family History is tough, with a lot of research, messaging and analyzing involved. Although it is true that it can be challenging, it can also be very rewarding.
However, not everything you do in Family History has to be difficult, there are things you can do just for fun, but which may trigger ideas for things you can do to find your own relatives.
- Reality Shows
Reality shows have been around for a while and have garnered the interest of many people. But what does this have to do with Family History?
Well, BYUtv and Ancertry came up with a way to make Family History fun. They created a series called Relative Race based on finding the relatives of contestants through DNA matching, then having two person teams compete with each other to see who could find the most relatives.
- Rules of the game
There are four teams designated by color (green, black, red and blue) and each have to physically go find their relatives and meet them in person, not knowing who they are or how to get there.
And it gets even more challenging. They are not allowed to use cell phones, GPS or the internet to be able to find the locations. They must use paper maps, old phones and people they encounter along the way.
And just to put a little more fun into it, the contestants have to accomplish tasks made by the relatives they are hunting for before they get the final clue to the address of those relatives.
Each episode in the season goes to a different relative and each team is given an allotted amount of time to reach that day’s objective. The team that comes closest to the allotted time to achieve the goal is given a prize. The team that takes the most time past the allotted time, receives a strike. A team that gets three strikes against them has to leave the contest.
- Surprise twists
Attempting to win turns out to be a bit more difficult than it would seem. In the first season, the team that won the first episode, got a strike against it in the next. And some of the tasks given to the contestants turn out to be a bit more difficult for some teams than others. Then just when you think you’ve figured out what Relative Race is all about, they switch things up. In one of the seasons, they required all contestants to get drivers licenses so they could drive to their relatives homes, but one team was unable to get them. When that team showed up without the required licenses, they offered them a driver, much to the frustration of the other teams, that is until they found out that the driver offered was the Father of one of the team members that didn’t have a license.
- Just have fun
So after a long day at work or at research, sit back, relax and have a bit of fun and a lot of heart warming experiences watching contestants of Relative Race find relatives they never knew before but will probably keep in contact with for a long time to come.
Relative Race: https://www.byutv.org/relativerace
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Seekerz LLC, © 2021
