HP : RTR

Roots to Records is Historical Present's genealogical research service. Each research request becomes a ticket with its own reference number. The research team works it, on stream or off, and delivers a cited record.

RTR Login Request research
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A ticket's journey

From a question to a request: to a genealogical record

Your ticket shows its status at every step. These are the statuses it moves through.

  1. Submittedsubmitted

    A request comes in one of two ways:

    • By the request slip on historicalpresent.com. It asks for the person you're researching, their last known place, the years of interest, and what you already know and where you're stuck. You can also give your stream or social handle, ask about funding, and say whether the research may be worked on stream. The slip arrives by email. An admin enters it as a ticket dated to your email and replies with your reference number. If you'd like to follow the request online, say so: you'll get an RTR sign-in with a temporary password, which you change the first time you sign in.
    • From your RTR account, under New research request. You give it a title, choose what it's about (a family, an individual, or your account or an existing request), and describe what you're researching. It becomes a ticket straight away.

    Either way, the ticket gets its reference number, such as 260820-VHRH: 260820 is the submission date (20 August 2026) and VHRH are four characters that never include I, L, O or U, so the number survives being read aloud. The number never changes. The ticket then joins the end of the queue.

  2. Queuedqueued

    A researcher claims the ticket and becomes its assignee: the person working it. You stay the ticket's owner throughout; a claim never changes that. Once a ticket has an assignee, only an admin can reassign it. From here, research notes on your ticket are written only by the people working it: the assignee, the researcher and collaborator on the ticket, or an admin. Comments and files come from you and from them.

  3. In sessionin_session

    The ticket is worked in a live stream session on Historical Present's TikTok, searches and dead ends included. A ticket can also be resolved without going on stream.

  4. Resolvedresolved

    The findings are attached to your request as the deliverable record, with the sources cited.

  5. Closedclosed

    The ticket is finished. Your ticket and its record stay available to you.

What your ticket shows

Research notes

Plan of Action, Actions Taken and Next Steps, kept up to date by the researcher working your ticket.

Comments

Messages between you and the research team.

Files

Photos and documents you or the team attach. Photo location data is removed on upload.

Deliverable record

The finished, cited research, once your ticket is resolved.

Roles and Teams

Who works a ticket.

On each ticket

Owner
The person the ticket belongs to: the member who submitted the request. A claim never changes the owner.
Assignee
The researcher who claimed the ticket and is working it.
Researcher
A second researcher on the ticket, brought on by the assignee or an admin.
Collaborator
A further research-team member on the ticket, brought on by the assignee or an admin.

Roles

Contributors hold a Role. Ticket owners, who are members, may also be assigned a Role.

Family Research SpecialistFRS
Family requests: lineages, households, family groups.
Individual Case ServicesICS
Individual requests: one person's life and records.
Location Team EngagementLTE
Place-based research.
Pro Genealogist ResearcherPGR
Professional genealogists working the tickets they're assigned.
Assistant Collaboration ResearcherACR
Assists on the tickets they're brought onto.
Adaptor House Archivist/AuthorAHA
Research and citation across RTR.
Historical Present AdminHPA
Oversees RTR research.

Teams and titles

Team
A title for the people on one ticket who share a role. A life that crosses several countries can call for a location team: one LTE researcher for each place the person lived.
Streamer
A title for a researcher, in any role, who works tickets live on stream.
Admin
Runs RTR: accounts, the queue and funding.
Member
Anyone outside the research team with an RTR account: the owners of the requests.
Terminology

Terms you'll see in RTR.

Assignee
The researcher working a ticket: whoever claimed it.
Claim
A researcher taking a ticket to work it, which makes them its assignee. The owner stays the same.
Deliverable record
The finished research a resolved ticket delivers, with its sources cited.
Member
Anyone outside the research team with an RTR account.
Owner
The person a ticket belongs to: the member who submitted the request.
Queue
The tickets waiting to be worked or being worked.
Reference number
Your ticket's permanent number, such as 260820-VHRH: the date it was submitted, then four letters and numbers chosen so it can be read aloud without confusion. Quote it in any message about your request.
Request
What you submit: the question you want researched. Each request becomes one ticket.
Request kind
Family (lineages, households, family groups), individual (one person's life and records), or about your account or an existing request.
Research notes
Plan of Action, Actions Taken and Next Steps, shown on your ticket.
Resolve
Attaching the deliverable record to a ticket.
Status
Where a ticket stands: submitted, queued, in session, resolved or closed. See A ticket's journey.
Stream session
A scheduled live stream in which tickets are researched on camera.
Ticket
One research request, tracked from submission to its delivered record.