Family Search Family Tree 101
To get on FamilySearch.org, you can either type familysearch.org into the address line or Google FamilySearch and click on the link there. The page that you bring up will look similar to this... If you have an LDS account, you can sign in with your LDS sign-in. If not, you can create an account easily. Click on the Join for Free link shown above. A form will pop up; fill in the blanks. After you fill in the blanks, click on Create an Account. It is a good idea to write down your user name and password and keep in a safe place, preferably with your genealogy records. FamilySearch will send an email to you that you will need to respond to to activate your account. The same user name and password will work on LDS. org or any of the church websites. After you activate your account, go back to FamilySearch and sign in.
After you have signed in, you will see the following screen. Now, click on Family Tree, then on the pull-down menu, click on Tree. You will see a page with a pedigree chart. If a fan chart comes up first, go to the upper left corner and click on View, then Traditional and the pedigree will show up. Your name should be on the first square, with boxes extending out for expanding your tree. You will add your father and mother; father where it says Add Husband; mother where it says Add Wife. Be careful to put them in the correct areas.
Husband's Parents Husband Wife Wife's Parents When you click on Add Husband or Add Wife, a screen will pop up with Add or Find Person. If the person that you add is alive, you will use the Add Person link. If they are not alive, use the Find Person first, to see if they are in the system already. If they are, just attach them to your tree.
If they are not in the system, click on Add at the bottom of the page that pops up. Once you have your names on Family Tree, you can see which names are eligible for temple ordinances. If a small green arrow shows up by the little temple, there are ordinances that need to be done for someone in that family group. If there is a small yellow triangle, it means that there is possibly ordinances to do, but more information is needed, or they are in progress. If a black check mark shows up, all ordinances are done for that family group. To find out what ordinances need to be done, click on the names of the couple or the children, which will be the arrow below the parents as you move your mouse over the square. The children will show up, as shown above.
Here I have clicked on a child and their individual box pops up, as below. Here you will be able to see the ordinances that need to be done, depending on the colors of the ordinance boxes. After bringing up this box, click on the Person link, which will bring up the individual detail page.
On the detail page, you will see all of the information about that person; name, life information, spouse, children, etc. You will also be able to see who made changes, and when, and sources if there are any. If you see that ordinances need to be done and you wish to reserve them to do, you will start from this page. At the top, click on the ordinance tab. This will open up the page where you will see all of the ordinances available and will be able to choose them and reserve them. Choose Request Ordinances under the Effective Ordinances heading.
After clicking on the Request Ordinances link, you will see the following window. If you want to do all of the ordinances, click in the little box by Name. That will put a checkmark in each of the other boxes. If you just want to do ordinances for one of the persons, just click on their little box.
After clicking on Continue, you will see this page. This page is to inform you on the rules and regulations of temple ordinance submission. You will need to read it and then click on the little box signifying that you have done so and understand the rules. After doing that, you will be able to click on the Add to Temple Ordinance list button. Next, you will see this page.
This page shows that you have reserved the names and that they are not printed. You will be able to see exactly what you have reserved, with the date of the reservation, and who has reserved them. If you click on the tab that says Temple (see arrow above), you will be able to see all of the reservations on your account and then you can choose which ones that you want to print to do now. You can choose just baptisms and confirmations or all of the ordinances, just by clicking in the small boxes to the left of the name. After choosing which of the ordinances you would like to do, click on the Print button. This page will show up, listing all of the ordinances that you've chosen.
If it all looks okay to you, click Print. You will print a page that looks like this one. It will have a bar code on it. It will have the date, your name and address and all of the information of those whom you have chosen. Take this page to the temple, to the office. They will print up the pink, blue and yellow cards that you will need to do the ordinances at the temple. Congratulations! You have successfully navigated the Family Tree and prepared names for the temple. If you have questions, please call the Family History consultants in your ward and they can help you. You can also go to this website https://familysearch.org/ask/#/tree/ or to your local Family History Center for help. If you are using a computer in a public place, go to the upper right corner, click on your name, and click log out. You're done!