Issue 30.16
In 1965, the Priesthood Genealogy Committee announced the three-generation program. Each family in the LDS Church was asked to prepare documented family group record forms for the first three generations: one form for you and your spouse and your children; one form for your parents, with you appearing as a child on the form; and two forms on your two sets of grandparents, with your father appearing as a child on one form and your mother appearing as a child on the other form.
Later this program was expanded to include the fourth generation – families of great-grandparents with each of the four grandparents appearing as a child on one of the four forms. They were to be documented, submitted to the ward, checked by ward records examiners, and then sent to the stake, where they were alphabetized for the stake and submitted at the end of each year to the Genealogical Society.
That became the beginnings of what we now know as the FamilySearch Family Tree. Four generations take you back to your great grandparents. It is the portion of your family tree which you know best. Also, it is the portion of your family tree which is most intimately yours, so it is the portion of the family tree for which you have the greatest personal responsibility.
Everyone should ensure that the information on https://familysearch.org/tree/ about themselves, their parents, their uncles and aunts, their grandparents, their grandparents’ sibling, and their great grandparents is accurate and complete. This may require you to research these family members, or the research may have been done by others. If the data was contributed to Family Tree by other relatives, you should review it to make sure it appears correct.
With the recent major update to Family Tree and the demise of newFamilySearch, it is a great time to check it out. Whether you are researching or checking the research of others, you should look for source records for your close family members among the indexed records at familysearch.org. When you find source records for your grandparents, etc., link them into their records in Family Tree. You can only link source records for deceased people. Family Tree does not allow sources for living persons.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com www.searchshanna.com