Family History Report

[aebrown]

I just saw this report recently also. I have a question about the meaning of the "submitting" indicator. Does it indicate the number of members who added names to family search, or does it indicate the number of members who reserved an ordinance, or does it indicate the number of names in family search who had at least one ordinance reserved for them by a member of your stake?

It is none of the above. For a submission to happen, one of these three things has to happen:

• An ordinance is shared with the temple
• A Family Ordinance Request (FOR) is printed/created
• Family Ordinance Cards (often colloquially called "temple cards") are printed

That's it. Adding names to the tree doesn't count, nor does reserving names, nor sharing with another person.

And note that what is counted is the number of members who did one of the above 3 activities in the specified time period. It doesn't matter how many ordinances any particular member submits.

[aebrown]

– Sharing someone that you have reserved with family or friends, through FamilySearch.

Your list was mostly accurate, but this one does not count as a submission. A reservation does not count as a submission, and simply moving that reservation to someone else's list doesn't count either.

[aebrown]

For instance, the 1st-4th Gen ancestors in family tree percentage is easily misunderstood. It does not mean the number of members in the stake with all of their 4 generations entered in family search, but rather how many of the adult members of the stake, their parents, grandparents and great grandparents are entered into family search. There is a total of 15 possible names per member of the stake, and the percentage is how many of those names are entered.

What is your source for this conclusion? I'll admit that the wording is a bit ambiguous, but it seems more likely to me that it refers to the percentage of members who have their four generations in the Family Tree. Your definition of 4 generations is correct -- some people fail to count the individual as the 1st generation, but that has always been the definition of "4 generations". However, the focus of the Key Indicator report is members (except for the "Baptisms Submitted data), and so it makes more sense for that to be a percentage of members, not of those 15 slots in the tree.

I'll see if I can find a definitive answer to this question, but since you seemed so confident in your statement, it made me wonder if you had some authoritative source, or if this was simply your analysis of the meaning of the term "1st-4th Gen. Ancestors in Tree" that appears on the report.

[aebrown]

For instance, the 1st-4th Gen ancestors in family tree percentage is easily misunderstood. It does not mean the number of members in the stake with all of their 4 generations entered in family search, but rather how many of the adult members of the stake, their parents, grandparents and great grandparents are entered into family search. There is a total of 15 possible names per member of the stake, and the percentage is how many of those names are entered.

What is your source for this conclusion? I'll admit that the wording is a bit ambiguous, but it seems more likely to me that it refers to the percentage of members who have their four generations in the Family Tree. Your definition of 4 generations is correct -- some people fail to count the individual as the 1st generation, but that has always been the definition of "4 generations". However, the focus of the Key Indicator report is members (except for the "Baptisms Submitted data), and so it makes more sense for that to be a percentage of members, not of those 15 slots in the tree.

I'll see if I can find a definitive answer to this question...

Well, I was able to contact someone in the Business Intelligence team at FamilySearch, and it turns out that user Swift is indeed correct now.

Originally, this statistic did refer to the percentage of members with a full four generations (all 15 people filled in), but then it was changed a few years ago to be exactly what Swift said -- it is the percentage of those 15 people filled in for the members of the ward/stake. One reason for the change is that some people may have a situation where a person or two is essentially impossible to fill in (e.g., the father of a person in the tree is simply unknown), and it was felt that a 93% completeness percentage was a more accurate reflection of the situation for someone with an essentially full 4 generations than a 0% because it was not completely full.

Thanks, Swift, for making the community aware of this detail.

[girand]

Stake Family History Key Indicator is a great report. Thanks. I notice that there are negative number for some wards in the column of "Nbr of Submitters", which I interpret to mean that the 12 month rule is being applied and so the number of new submissions is overwhelmed but the number of submitters who dropped off, causing a negative number. This is fine.

My question, is there anyway to find out the names of who the submitters are and when they submitted names. We would like to work with those people who dropped off and "reactivate" them in their family history work. It would also be good to know who is doing the work in our ward so we can include them in our efforts.
mike

[russellhltn]

I notice that there are negative number for some wards in the column of "Nbr of Submitters", which I interpret to mean that the 12 month rule is being applied and so the number of new submissions is overwhelmed but the number of submitters who dropped off, causing a negative number.

I'm wondering what effect a move-out or death of a submitter would do to your numbers.

I know in HT/VT we will see the stats history get revised when a family moves out of the ward taking the record of being visited with them. Likewise, when a submitter leaves your stake, their record of submissions attributed to your stake might go "poof".

[lajackson]

My question, is there anyway to find out the names of who the submitters are and when they submitted names. . . . It would also be good to know who is doing the work in our ward so we can include them in our efforts.

As far as I am aware, this information is not available to leaders.

[GomezMA]

¿Quien tiene conocimiento de un reporte de 4 generaciones?, Quién tiene acceso a él? Cómo se puede obtener? Cada cuanto tiempo se puede solicitar?

[edk012]

Is there a way for the bishop to get this report without having to go through a family history director? We typically get it from the Stake High Counselor assigned to family history, but I wish it was available under "Reports" in the Leader Clerk Resources section of LDS.org when the bishop logs in. This would eliminate the work effort of the Stake High Counselor having to manually send it out to the wards.

[sbradshaw]

According to Rod DeGiulio's presentation at RootsTech 2017, family history reports should be available through Leader and Clerk Resources "soon."