Descendants: FamilySearch Project 3, Goal 1

Goal 1: Identify one or more lines to do Descendancy research on. Vault

Descendancy research can be an efficient way to find descendants of ancestors (such as distant cousins). For a detailed look at how cousin relationships work, see "Are Your Cousins Removed?" Remember that FamilySearch does not display information for living people, beyond your immediate family.

(17:54)

Choices

A Learn the basics of descendancy research.

Learn about the "why's" of descendancy research in this article.

FS—Finding the Past in the Present

Learn about easy steps for descendancy research.

FS—Easy Steps Handout

Get an overview of descendant research.

AAC—Descendant Research—3:34
PR—Descendant Research

Learn the basic approaches for descendancy research.

BYU—Strategies for Finding an Ancestor Through Descendancy Research—18:14 - 2016

Exercise

B Choose a Descendancy ancestor.

The articles and videos in Choice A help you decide which ancestors lend themselves well to descendancy research in FamilySearch. The basic steps are:

In Landscape view, find an ancestor several generations back, with a birth date around 1800 if possible.
Set that person as the first-position ancestor (click the name of the person in the tree, and then click Tree in the Summary card).
To switch to Descendancy view, click the Landscape button and select Descendancy.
Display the children for that ancestor.
Use the expand arrows to open up lines of descendants that you can view.
To set a person in the home position in Descendancy view, click the person's name and then click Tree in the Summary card.
Refer to Project 1, Goals 6-9 to add and update information for these descendant ancestors.

Exercises

C Use Descendancy view to see descendant lines of the ancestor you select.

Summary

In Landscape view, click an ancestor name and then click Tree. If you choose one who was born over 100 years ago, there will be more descendants to view.
Click the Landscape menu and select Descendancy. Record Hints and other icons are available in this view. You can also click Expand (upper-left corner) to select a different home person for Descendancy view.
Set the Generations to 2, 3, or 4, instead of 1.
Use the Down arrows to collapse lines in the view, and the right arrows to expand them again.
Scroll down to see descendants and their spouses.
In the upper-right corner, click the Options link. The box describes the colored icons that appear to the right of some ancestor names. You can uncheck one or more options to adjust the Descendancy view.