Easiest Way To Do Research In FamilySearch's Tree

There are two basic ways to do expand your family tree. You can try to add more direct ancestors or you can work on fleshing out the families of your ancestors by finding their spouses and descendants.

Finding descendants is what I spend most of my time on. What follows is my approach. Hopefully it is helpful for you.

1. Pick an ancestor fairly far back. Right now I'm starting with one of my 3-great grandmothers,
   Margaret Hackston (1832-?). I prefer an ancestor born in the early 1800s because there are good records in the 1800s and therefore progress is much easier.
   
   
2. Bring up the "Tree" for the ancestor.
   
   
3. Switch to the Decendancy View by clicking the icon in the upper left corner.
   
   
4. Look for the blue "Record Hints" icons beside the descendants. Clicking on this icon will show a list of historical records that FamilySearch has found that they think involve this person. Each is an opportunity to improve your tree. If you do not see any then you may need to expand the number of generations shown and scroll down.
   
   

Adding sources to existing persons in the tree is real genealogical research. Often the records include new information about the person or their parents, spouses, or children that needs to be added to your tree.

If you have any troubles or I can help in any way please let me know.

How To Fix An Incomplete Pedigree Caused By Multiple Parents

I recently helped someone with a very common problem. His pedigree was incomplete because his grandmother was missing - yet when he looked she was definitely there. Here's a video that explains the solution.

The problem was caused by his mother have two sets of parents. There are three different types of records in Family Tree: Persons, Couple Relationships, and Parent-Child Relationships. In this case his mother had two different Parent-Child Relationships. One contained both her parents and was the right one. The other contained only her father. This is confusing but it does enable Family Tree to properly handle many of the complicated situations that arise in families.

The solution is to delete the incomplete relationship:

1. Go to the Person Page for the child that has the "missing" parent.
2. Scroll down to the "Family Members" section.
3. If two sets of parents are shown on the right then the solution is to delete the erroneous set.
4. If needed, click the down arrow to expand the "Children" list under the parents.
5. Click the pencil icon that is to the right of the name of the child. This will enable you to edit the relationship to their parents.
6. At the bottom of the window that pops up click the "Show All Information about this Relationship" link.
7. You will be taken to the Parent-Child Relationship page. Make sure this is the relationship you want to delete.
8. Click the "Delete Relationship" link on the right.
9. Fill you the form and then click the "Delete" button. You will have to complete the form before the button will work.
10. Your pedigree is fixed!

Still confused? Respond in the comments or send me a message!

The Doctor Is In

How can I help you with your genealogy? I've been doing genealogy for more than 20 years - though never professionally. If you are a novice wondering where to start I can probably help you. If you are a Mormon* who's Family History "is all done" I can probably help you. If FamilySearch has just been driving you crazy and you could use some help, I can probably help you.

Just send me a message and I'll see what I can do.

* Yes, I'm Mormon also. I just find that Mormons with pioneer ancestry are often of this belief that somehow the whole human family is "done".