1: FamilySearch Icons and Policies   2: Temple Opportunities   3: Descendancy Lines   4: Other Resources   5: Printing Temple Names   6: Reserved Ordinances   7: Inspiration   8: Discover, Gather, and Connect   9: Weekly Family History Activities              Print Friendly and PDF

  










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Goal 3: Descendancy Lines

       Vault


Goal 3: Use FamilySearch to identify descendancy lines with relatives who need ordinances.

Descendancy research can be an efficient way to find descendants of ancestors (such as distant cousins) who need temple work done. For a detailed look at how cousin relationships work, see "Are Your Cousins Removed?"


Choices


A Get started with descendancy research.


  1. View this intro video on descendancy research.

     FS—Easy Steps to Descendancy Research—4:07
  2. Based on what you learned in the video, choose an ancestor to start descendancy research.
  3. For more information on descendancy research, watch this video.

    BYU—Strategies for Finding an Ancestor through Descendancy Research—18:15




B Find descendants of your selected ancestor who need ordinances done.


    descendants
  1. Open the Descendancy view for the ancestor, and choose to view 2 or 3 generations.
  2. Search for green temple icons indicating that ordinances need to be done.
  3. When you find one, click it to see what ordinances are needed for the ancestor.
  4. Carefully check that this person is not a duplicate entry in Family Tree, and that dates and family information all appear correct.

    This article shares an approach to checking information in names you have found for temple work.
  5. If the information appears accurate, check the boxes for the ordinances that need to be done. These will be saved in your All Reserved list under the Temple menu.
  6. For a visual review of these steps, read this article.

    FS—Using the Descendancy Pedigree View


C Explore descendancy research in more depth.


  1. Read the article for a summary of using descendancy research in FamilySearch.

    FS—9 Ingredients for Descendancy View

  2. Watch this Ancestry video for more ideas on using descendancy research.

    AC—Descendancy Research—30:53



D Explore descendancy from other views: Landscape, Portrait, and Fan Chart.

    landscape     portrait     fan chart
  1. Choose an alternate view.
  2. Set an ancestor several generations back as the first-position ancestor.
  3. Display the children for that ancestor.
  4. To open up lines of descendants that you can view, use the expand arrows.

E Use the Descendancy Explorer program to find temple opportunities for ancestors or their descendants.

    Descendancy Explorer
  1. Access the Descendancy Explorer program on the BYU Family History Technology Lab site. You will then be prompted to sign in to FamilySearch.
  2. Click Start searching your part of the tree or enter a Person ID and click Start search with PID as root. Note : The search could take a while if you have a large number of ancestors in Family Tree.
  3. To restrict the types of ordinances to search for, in the left pane select any of the following: Baptism, Confirmation, Initiatory, Endowment, Sealing to Spouse, or Sealing Child to Parent.
  4. To search for only male or female names, select the corresponding Gender Filter.
  5. To change the number of sources required for the search, move the Sources Required slider. The default number of sources required is 1.

    6. The results are shown in the right pane. Gray = completed ordinances; dark blue = reserved; yellow = more information needed; green = ready to be reserved; orange info circle = possible duplicate record.

    DE name
  6. To show details for a person, click the person's name (or the rectangle containing it).
  7. To see the ordinance information for a person on FamilySearch, click View on FamilySearch.
  8. To save the results in a .PDF file, click Save to PDF.
  9. To start a new search, click New Search; or to log out of Descendancy Explorer, click Log Out.