An outstanding article about family history was published in last year's "Ensign".
Here is the reference: George D. Durrant, “Branching Out on Your Family Tree,” Ensign, Apr 2007, 44–47. https://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/04/branching-out-on-your-family-tree
This article is one of the best on family history from the "Ensign" in recent years.
One reason I appreciate this article so much stems from the practical and wise approach of Br. Durrant. He doesn't just tell us to "do family history" but gives ideas of how we can accomplish this great task.
The main idea that Br. Durrant proposes is that we trace our family tree back and then we follow the descendants of ancestors. This way we can submit other descendants of our ancestors -- as long as we keep our integrity and remember not to submit work that falls within the "rights of precedence" timeframes.
The article quotes President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
"Members of the Church as individuals and families are responsible to identify their own direct-line ancestral families and see that temple ordinances are performed for them. They may also do family history research and temple work for their deceased relatives who are collaterally related (not their direct lines).”
Apparently the Church is reminding members to gather and submit the names of other descendants from common ancestors. This used to be so difficult to accomplish because it is more difficult to trace descendants than ancestors.
Today there are some other ways to find descendants now that weren't available before -- ie. FamilySearch Indexing and the resulting indices.
We have many resources which have not been available even a few years ago. By learning how to use these resources, we can locate other members of our families.
