Family Organizations

(Note: All questions concerning Family History or Genealogy should be addressed to The Genealogy Lady at the New Jerusalem web site.) To find a family History Center in your area, call (U.S.) 1-800-346-6044 or visit http://www.kbyu.byu.edu/ancestors.html

Platt and Wilma Ward (front row), with their children (second row), their children's spouses (third row), grandchildren and great-grandchildren 1988). Family reunions draw the extended family together to support and sustain family traditions an values. Courtesy Craig Law.

by Phillip R. Kunz

Latter-day Saints think of families with respect to both this life and the next. They strive to organize family groups at the individual family level and in extended family relationships and organizations. Family organizations provide social and familial support, historical awareness, instruction, and genealogical information necessary to bind generations together by temple ordinances (see Family History; Temple Ordinances).

From the early days of the Church, LDS families have regularly established family organizations, held reunions, and worked to make strong family identity. In 1978 the Church asked all families to organize themselves at three levels: immediate families, grandparent families, and ancestral families.

The immediate family consists of husband and wife, and begins when they are married. Later, if a couple is blessed with children, the size and concerns of this unit grow. When the children marry and have children of their own, the grandparent organization is initiated. Beyond that, each family is ideally involved in an ancestral organization, which consists of all the descendants of an earlier common progenitors couple.

The immediate family holds family home evenings and family councils, encourages and assists in missionary work, family preparedness, family history, temple work, and teaching the gospel, and provides cultural and social activities for its members. The grandparent organization is involved in similar activities, but is also concerned with family reunions, which include the grandparents' children and grandchildren. The purpose of the ancestral organization is to coordinate genealogical activity on common lines. Such organizations frequently raise money for family history research, publish family histories, and generally direct the activities of the larger family.

Many families use the ancestral organization as a repository of photographs, journals, family histories, and other materials that might be used by family members or general researchers as they prepare their own histories. Some families occasionally have an ancestral family reunion, but more usually they have representatives who meet to coordinate family history and genealogical activities. Some may be organized as nonprofit corporations or trusts that may be recognized as charitable organizations if their purposes are limited to religious activities.

The benefits of a family organization can be significant. One benefit is that involvement with family organizations increases one's sense of identity and heritage. For example, in a recent survey of university students who were LDS, Catholic, Protestant, or of no particular religion, the number of ancestors' names and origins known by the LDS students was significantly higher than for the other groups.

(See Daily Living home page; Family History home page)

Bibliography

Benson, Ezra Taft. "Worthy of All Acceptation." Ensign 8 (Nov. 1978):30-32.

Jacobson, Cardell K.; Phillip R. Kunz; and Melanie W. Conlin. "Extended Family Ties: Genealogical Researchers." In S. Bahr and E. Peterson, eds., Aging and the Family. Lexington, Mass., 1989.

Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 2, Family Organizations

Family Organizations

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