When expanding a tree, do I really need to enter records for living ancestors?
I have been told by several people that records for living ancestors need to be entered until deceased ancestors are reached. This should result in expansion of the tree beyond the deceased ancestors. I was recently helping a young woman in the Ward set up her Church and FamilySearch accounts. After these accounts were created, we clicked on "Family Tree" and then "Tree" to start entering living ancestors. However, I don't recall entering any living ancestors, when MANY generations, living and dead, appeared in her tree! I was very surprised! Has FamilySearch been made smart enough to recognize her parents' family trees and allow her to access their tree info. I really hope this is so because it would greatly simplify account set up and tree expansion for the youth whose parents already have significant tree information.
Thank you,
David Robison
[location removed for privacy]
Answers
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@David Earl Robison This young woman benefitted from her Church membership being connected to her account as she created it. When that is done, FamilySearch uses its integration with Church membership records to create living ancestor profiles for parents (and grandparents and even great-grandparents) and establish relationships back to deceased ancestors. As long as all these people are listed on connected membership records (which list spouses, children, and parents), then a new user will have a nice tree created for their first time they sign into FamilySearch with their new account.
Just make sure that as you are helping ward members, that you connect their Church membership to their FamilySearch account. The easiest way to do that reliably for new users is to sign in with their Church Account. That's much easier than manually creating a FamilySearch account and trying to remember to connect their Church membership number.
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