Descendancy Research

LegacyUser

Karl G Tippets said: I am distressed and disappointed to see FamilySearch continue the migration to the Scrapbook world of timelines, photos, memories, and biographies at the expense of ordinance management. I am referring to the 2017 policy of limiting ordinance crawlers. A term almost as offensive as Green Icon Hunter. I am referring specifically to Descendancy Research. There are hundreds of “end of line” people in every family tree. I have found that descendacy searches are a good way to find them and people who have incomplete ordinance work. After checking for standardization, sources and eliminating duplicates I move these names to Temple File. I freely admit that Temple File has been the dead sea of genealogy for decades. There are indications that the exit from Temple File is not totally blocked. In the last three months of 2019 I saw about 50 people from my family tree move from Temple File to ordinances completed.

There are two Descendancy Research tools available to us. Descendancy Explorer from the BYU FH Lab does very limited searches. Hope Chest is a very use able desecendancy research tool. If the best features of each of these were incorporated into FamilySearch it would be make end of line research much more efficient.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: Apparently ordinance crawlers were talking far to much in the way of FamilySearch computing resources. That had nothing to do with descendancy research.

A good way to do descendancy research is to just start with one set of great-great-great-grandparents, develop a system to keep track of where you are, then start with their children, then their grandchildren then their great-grandchildren following each line until you hit only living people. To not miss anyone, you want to follow each line forward one person at a time, checking each person for correct and complete data, all appropriately sourced, fixing everything, including finding duplicates and merging as needed. You really don't need any tools such as you mention to do this. In fact, they may lead you astray in skipping over generations that have major data problems or incorrect merges and point you to "descendants" that you are not related to at all.

This one person, one family, one generation at a time process will find you plenty of work to do.

LegacyUser

Jessie Hearle said: The Family Tree app has a great research aid—Descendants with Tasks.
You can choose any person, select 3, 4, or 5 generations & see record Hints, Temple opportunities (green or yellow icon) or both.

For the names I have looked at, the green temple icons do not have previously reserved & shared ordinances, but I do not know how universal that is.

I find descendants with tasks a wonderful aid to focus my efforts.

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/...

LegacyUser

Jordi Kloosterboer said: That's what I do. I use bookmarks and notes to understand where I am at and what I need to do.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I use my local family tree management program to print a descendancy chart and then use a yellow highlighter to indicate that I'm done with a person.

LegacyUser

Karl G Tippets said: While doing Descendant Research one person, one family, one generation at a time will work, using a computer search tool to find the one person makes it possible to correct and complete data for more people in the same amount of time.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: The recommended tasks on a person's home page can be set up to display only Temple tasks. Furthermore, if the task has already been looked at, it can be ignored and will not appear in the future for that user.

LegacyUser

Karl G Tippets said: This could be helpful. How are the tasks generated?

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: https://www.familysearch.org/help/hel...

Recommended Tasks (website)
This list is found on the FamilySearch.org home page once you have signed in. It suggests tasks and gives information to help you get started. As you enter more information about your family, the system identifies places in the first few generations of your tree where direct ancestors are missing. It also searches the historical records database for matching information about your ancestors. These record hints appear on this list and are marked with a blue icon.

LegacyUser

Karl G Tippets said: This has some potential but note that Tasks are generated by searching "the first few generations of your tree where direct ancestors are missing" To me Descendancy Research reaches beyond our direct line to those who do not have an advocate within FamilySearch.

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: Read the link above and consider using the mobile app. If I remember correctly you can get tasks or hints for descendants. (However, the small screen can make it a bit more difficult to use.)