Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit

By Sam Lower

My great-great-grandparents were born about 1800. Climbing that far up my family tree was fairly easy for me. Climbing higher up the family tree will be harder. So I thought about branching out. Have you? The fruit that is easiest to pick is in the lower branches of our family tree, among the descendants of our great-great-grandparents. Our success rate in the lower branches will be greater than in the higher branches.

For example, if we have an average of five children per family and come down five generations, we can expect to find 12,496 people.

Printing a descendancy chart will show you where to look for family members on the lower, more accessible branches of your family tree. By picking the low-hanging fruit, we will be able to identify more family members, provide temple ordinances for them, and seal their families together for eternity.