Key Indicators & Family History Report - 1st 4 generations

Is there a place where I can get a definitive explanation of "First Four Generations of Family in the Tree" as it appears in Key Indicators and in the Family History Activity Report. The number is expressed as a percentage.

The first assumption would be that it is the percentage of members in the ward or stake that have completed all 15 names of a four generation family tree. The problem is that the number is near 50%. That would suggest that every active member (of every age) and a percentage of inactive members have four generations in Family Tree. I find this to be extremely unlikely,.especially since many of the other stats indicates a weak participation in FamilyTree.

Thanks for any insight.

Barry

Good question. The first thing I wonder about is how easily it would be for one member to ride on the coat tails of another family member. For example, if the parents have completed a their 4 generation, then would the children (adult or not) be counted even if they've never signed into FamilySearch? What about the siblings of those who have completed their work?

It should be noted that the push for 4 generations is not new. And since this is a stat that counts a once in a lifetime accomplishment (as opposed to an annual one), I could see how it might be possible that some people are counted based on the old submissions (Ancestral File? Paper group sheets?) even if they have not logged into FamilySearch in many years.

Add to that the fact that everyone's living relatives are unique to their personal tree and can't be shared across members of a family and it adds to the intrigue . . .

barryhill wrote:Is there a place where I can get a definitive explanation of "First Four Generations of Family in the Tree" as it appears in Key Indicators and in the Family History Activity Report. The number is expressed as a percentage.

See this post for the answer.

Basically, each person has 15 possible persons in their 4-generation tree (self, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents). The statistic is what percentage of those 15 persons are actually in the tree for the adult members of the ward/stake.

russellhltn wrote:The first thing I wonder about is how easily it would be for one member to ride on the coat tails of another family member. For example, if the parents have completed a their 4 generation, then would the children (adult or not) be counted even if they've never signed into FamilySearch? What about the siblings of those who have completed their work?

It doesn't matter whether these people have signed in to FamilySearch. Members have their own entry in the Family Tree regardless of whether they have ever signed in to FamilySearch. That entry will be connected to parents listed on their membership record as well. But since we're talking about living members, these records won't be visible to anyone else (except FamilySearch administrators).

And the answer is yes, as with every shared person on the Family Tree, it's possible for a person's statistics to be enhanced by the work of others. If someone connected my deceased parents to their parents, then I will benefit from those linkages in this particular statistic even if I've never signed in to FamilySearch.

russellhltn wrote:It should be noted that the push for 4 generations is not new. And since this is a stat that counts a once in a lifetime accomplishment (as opposed to an annual one), I could see how it might be possible that some people are counted based on the old submissions (Ancestral File? Paper group sheets?) even if they have not logged into FamilySearch in many years.

This statistic has nothing to do with old submissions, except to the extent that those old submissions actually somehow got into Family Tree.

Also, this is not a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment. It is a reflection of the status of the current Family Tree. If someone were to disconnect my parents from my grandparents, my statistic would go down. Of course that would be unusual, but it could happen.

jstracy13 wrote:Add to that the fact that everyone's living relatives are unique to their personal tree and can't be shared across members of a family and it adds to the intrigue . . .

Not really. The statistic is counted from the perspective of each person, including people in their private spaces. The fact that living persons are in private spaces could affect the ability of siblings and other relatives to affect a person's count, but the statistic is simply what I said. If each adult member of the stake were to sign in to FamilySearch and look at their Family Tree, what percentage of the 15 people do they see? These numbers are added up and turned into an overall percentage.

It would be nice if this statistic was a percent of those that have 100% of their 15 names. But, it is not that. If there are 100 people in your ward, then you have 1500 people that make up the 1st 4 gen number. They just calculate how many have at least a name (of the 15 people) and that is the percentage. So, if all 100 people have 12 names (out of the 15), then your percentage would be 80%. It would be nice to know the percentage of those that are missing at least one name out of the 15. In this case, all the ward members need to add someone into their 4 generation list, as opposed to thinking that the ward was 80% done.

Is there a way to access this metric on an individual basis? We'd like to know if recent converts have this completed or not.

hedeliusk wrote:Is there a way to access this metric on an individual basis?

So far that metric has not been made available at the ward or stake level. But your Temple and Family History Consultants should know how well your recent converts are doing.

lajackson wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 10:02 pm

hedeliusk wrote:Is there a way to access this metric on an individual basis?

So far that metric has not been made available at the ward or stake level.

Hi there

Any update as to when the individual statistics will be made available to the wards and stakes or how we can see them? Our stake is on a family history drive and this metric is one of the focuses but we have no mechanism of working on it as we can’t identify who in the ward hasn’t completed their 4 gen chart

Thanks

jatkins wrote: Mon Nov 22, 2021 11:52 pmAny update as to when the individual statistics will be made available to the wards and stakes or how we can see them? Our stake is on a family history drive and this metric is one of the focuses but we have no mechanism of working on it as we can’t identify who in the ward hasn’t completed their 4 gen chart

I have not heard of any plans to change this.

How to generate list of members by same age

Team, I understand that the percentage in the report is based on how many of the 15 Names across the whole ward are in one’s tree. With that in mind, in our January report, we show 47.2% in this area. In December 2020, we had 70.8%. How did we lose 23.6%?p in a month?

jlsteffen wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:13 pm Team, I understand that the percentage in the report is based on how many of the 15 Names across the whole ward are in one’s tree. With that in mind, in our January report, we show 47.2% in this area. In December 2020, we had 70.8%. How did we lose 23.6%?p in a month?

Something has certainly changed. I'm seeing a similar difference in our stake report. 2021 was at 70.0%. 2022 YTD shows 41.2.

See this thread: Change in Family Activity report

Same thing with our ward. The number is half of what it was last month. Maybe the definition of the report has changed?

brucebre wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 12:41 pm Same thing with our ward. The number is half of what it was last month. Maybe the definition of the report has changed?

In the post just before yours, there is a link to another thread with more information (and a link to a FamilySearch article describing the change).

A basic question...given the new focus approach to having up to the 4th generation complete to members who have an active FamilySearch account, my question is simple: Is a member everyone baptized? If yes, then the newest 8yr old member would need to start constructing his/her tree to affect this data point...right?

Just trying to ensure I understand our definitions...

I believe the minimum age for having an account is 13. So, we can leave the primary alone.

Still, that leaves open the question when someone is added to the denominator when calculating the percentage.

russellhltn wrote: Sat Feb 12, 2022 11:37 pm I believe the minimum age for having an account is 13. So, we can leave the primary alone.

Still, that leaves open the question when someone is added to the denominator when calculating the percentage.

Children 8-12 can have a FamilySearch account with parental permission. See here (may require login to view): https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/he ... or-a-child

From reading the description earlier in the thread, I take it that that children of parents who have 4 generations in their family tree will be counted as having 4 generations also if they have an account (and are linked properly to their ancestors). The question I have is, are children under 8 counted in the denominator since children under 8 are not permitted to have a FamilySearch account and thus cannot establish a link to their ancestors (in FamilySearch).

jlsteffen wrote: Sat Feb 12, 2022 7:24 pm A basic question...given the new focus approach to having up to the 4th generation complete to members who have an active FamilySearch account, my question is simple: Is a member everyone baptized? If yes, then the newest 8yr old member would need to start constructing his/her tree to affect this data point...right?

Just trying to ensure I understand our definitions...

The denominator for the 4-generation ancestors statistic (and for every other statistic on the FHAR) includes all youth and adult members of the ward. So that means every one who turns 12 or older sometime in the calendar year. That has been true for several years.

The only change this year is who is included in the numerator -- you have to have signed in at least once to a FamilySearch account that is linked to your Membership Record Number (previously members who had never signed in to FamilySearch could still be included).

russellhltn wrote: Sat Feb 12, 2022 11:37 pm I believe the minimum age for having an account is 13. So, we can leave the primary alone.

13 is the minimum for creating an account on your own, but members age 8-12 can create an account with parental permission.

russellhltn wrote: Sat Feb 12, 2022 11:37 pmStill, that leaves open the question when someone is added to the denominator when calculating the percentage.

At the beginning of each year, youth who are turning 12 in that calendar year are added to the Young Men and Young Women organizations. That is also precisely the list of members who are added to the denominator of all the statistics on the FHAR.

Of course, members who move in and out of the ward throughout the year also change the denominator (and can change the numerator of the various statistics as well).

Is there a way we can generate a list of who has already completed the first 4 generations?
Thank you,