I just finished reading the book God's Greatest Gift by Theodore M. Burton, published in 1977.  He was pretty adamant that our collateral lines should not be worked on.  Does anyone know the Church's policy on this.  I think I read somewhere it was OK to do our collateral lines. Thanks, Janet

I have also read "God's Greatest Gift" and like it a lot. However, a lot has happened since Elder Burton wrote the book. I think that policies change as technology and available records open up avenues that were difficult to explore earlier. Of course, the main reason that policies change is due to revelation received by the modern prophets, apostles, and other leaders of the Church. When the Church was quite young, members were advised to only research their direct paternal lines (their surname). This is why the temple ordinances were often done just for the woman and not the parents and siblings of ancestors. The idea was that the sons of ancestors would end up following their paterrnal lines. (This works if their were sons and daughters but not in an ancestor's descendants stopped having male heirs.) Later (perhaps in the 1920s), the direct maternal lines were added to the responsibilities. This meant that Latter-day Saints traced their direct lines for their fathers and mothers but not necessarily the paternal grandmother's line nor the maternal grandmother's line. This is why the four-generation program was such a big deal in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. The members never had to worry about their grandmothers' ancestors before. It is important to keep in mind the current policies and guidelines when reading genealogical books such as "God's Greatest Gift". The book is correct for the time it was written but a lot has changed since then. It can be a bit misleading if one is not familiar with the Church Handbook (Section 9) and other places where the policies and guidelines are explained. When researching descendants of ancestors, it is important to remember the rights of precedence and respect the right of living generations to do the temple ordinances or refuse to do them. Mary Scott Northville Ward Westland Michigan Stake Detroit Michigan Temple   ________________________________ From: Janet Nielsen <mendgen@yahoo.com> To: lds-ward-consultant@rootsweb.com Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:57:33 PM Subject: [LDS-WC] (no subject) I just finished reading the book God's Greatest Gift by Theodore M. Burton, published in 1977.  He was pretty adamant that our collateral lines should not be worked on.  Does anyone know the Church's policy on this.  I think I read somewhere it was OK to do our collateral lines. Thanks, Janet       Please send the one word message SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to LDS-WARD-CONSULTANT-L-REQUEST@ROOTSWEB.COM ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LDS-WARD-CONSULTANT-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message