DESCENDANCY RESEARCH - FINDING YOUR COUSINS
©2016 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
- Welcome and Introduction
- Descendants of Your Ancestors Are Your Cousins
- Programs and Helps for Descendancy Research
- Conclusions
This page was last updated 2016-01-17.
Return to the Utah
Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page
or Don's
Class Listings Page .
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
- Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu
) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
- These Class Notes and the Supplementary Notes
are posted on http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
with all the links, so you don't have to type
them in yourself.
- Tips: (1) To put an icon on your
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drag the icon from in front of the address in
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To open a link, but keep your place in these
notes, hold down the Control key while clicking
the link.
- Definition of cousins: descendants of the same
person, so your cousins are descendants of any
of your ancestors (except your own parent, since
then you are siblings)
- Today's class will discuss finding
your cousins and why you would want
to
DESCENDANTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS ARE YOUR COUSINS
- Relationship between cousins -- go back to
their common ancestor and count down the number
of generations to each; the smaller number minus
one is the cousin level and the difference of
generations down is the removeds; that is, if
the smaller number is two (common ancestor is
the grandparent of one or both), they are first
cousins, if smaller number is three (common
ancestor is great-grandparent of one or both),
they are second cousins; if one line has an
extra generation down, so they are one
generation apart, they are once removed; if two
extra generations down on one line, they are
twice removed; Example: 3 generations back to
common ancestor on one line and 4 generations
back on the other means second cousins once
removed, sometimes abbreviated 2C1R.
.
/ \
S S
/ \
1C 1C
/
\
2C
2C
\
2C1R
- Several reasons for doing descendancy
research, e.g. helps you understand your
ancestry; helps make the FamilySearch Family
Tree database complete and accurate; may provide
clues to extend your pedigree; will probably
show people needing temple work
- Keep track of what you find WITH THE SOURCES
in your own genealogy records management program
(Ancestral Quest, PAF, RootsMagic, etc.) and in
FamilySearch Family Tree (FS FT)
PROGRAMS AND HELPS FOR DESCENDANCY RESEARCH
- Helps on FamilySearch
- 5-min video on Temple Names Submission -- http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/FHD/Local_Support/Consultant/Temple_Policy-Name_Submissions/player.html
- 4-min video on Descendancy View and
finding cousins in FS FT -- https://familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/finding-our-cousins-using-new-tools-on-familysearch-org/931
- Article -- https://familysearch.org/ask/salesforce/viewArticle?urlname=Finding-your-missing-cousins&lang=en
- Help Center -- https://familysearch.org/ask/#/
(scroll down to see the search box and enter
"find cousins" or something similar)
- Research
Wiki on FamilySearch -- type in things
like "descendancy research"
- The Family History Guide -- http://www.thefhguide.com/index.html --
Very helpful website for learning FH; completely
free; several articles on descendancy and temple
work -- http://www.thefhguide.com/project-3-descendants.html
- Descendants View on FamilySearch Family
Tree http://www.familysearch.org
- Click on Descendancy at top left corner;
default is 2 generations down, but can set
it for 3 or 4 down
- Can set it to show portraits and various
icons by clicking on Show (top right); you
see more info without the portraits
- Various ways to copy the entire
scrolling descendancy screen
- Programs to help with descendancy research
- Relative-Finder -- https://www.relativefinder.org/#/main
-- by BYU Computer Science Dept; uses your
FamilySearch information to show how you
are related to famous people including LDS
Church leaders, US presidents, kings and
queens, and others; can also set up a
group, e.g. your ward, for people to join
to show how they are related to each
other; very helpful to get people
interested in family history;
Relative-Finder now has a Virtual Pedigree
chart with descendants view and clues to
"Low Hanging Fruit" to work on
- Puzzilla -- https://puzzilla.org/
-- commercial program, but free at
FHCs, and has free parts available with
LDS accounts -- it starts with you and
shows a diagram of your ancestors with
colored and shape coded icons; clicking on
one allows generating a descendants chart
of that person with color and shape coded
icons so you can see where possible
further work, temple and research, need to
be done
- All My Cousins -- https://www.allmycousins.com
-- free program that uses your FS FT data
to find and download your cousins -- gives
lists of people in various relationships
to you, e.g. 1C3R -- see more info
at http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2015/11/exploring-allmycousins-app.html
by James Tanner
- Find-A-Record -- https://www.findarecord.com/en/
--has a descendants mode and gives
clues of data needed
- Hope Chest (used to be called
Pandora's Hope Chest) -- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hope-chest/gjneklbanpnnjdeddbnkkgeljkhpblhp?hl=en
-- Chrome browser add-on to look
for "green temples or arrows" --
FamilySearch says it's not for novices,
since it leads to lots of temple
duplication -- https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Pandora's_Hope_Chest
- Record searches that may help with
descendancy research
- Many good records are available in the
U.S. during the 1800-1900s to help with
descendancy research; hints on
FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and
other places are very helpful
- GenSmarts -- http://www.gensmarts.com/
-- helpful to analyze your genealogy data
offline, e.g. through a database or
GEDCOM, and finds "holes" where data is
missing and gives ideas of databases to
check based on localities and dates; does
not edit your data; commercial,
but inexpensive with free
trial period giving slightly limited
results, so you can see how it works
- Census records help put families
together: available on FamilySearch
, on Ancestry, and on Heritage Quest
Online at home with your public library
card
- Death and cemetery records: Social
Security Death Index -- http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/
; FindAGrave -- http://www.findagrave.com
; BillionGraves -- http://www.billiongraves.com
; obituaries on FamilySearch and
elsewhere
- Surname search on FamilySearch Catalog
on https://familysearch.org
- Can print temple ordinance cards at home
now in some temple districts (includes St.
George now)
CONCLUSIONS
- Descendancy research helps fill in
FamilySearch Family Tree and may provide
clues for extending your pedigree and for
temple work.
- The Descendancy
Supplementary Notes on Don's
webpage have more information and additional
sections of material.
- Many programs and resources are now
available to help you find your cousins,
descendants of your ancestors.
Return to the Utah Valley Technology and
Genealogy Users Group Home Page or Don's Class Listings Page
.