The Jared Pratt Family Association, founded in 1881, is one of the oldest family history organizations in the nation. Jared Pratt (1769-1839) was the father of one daughter and five sons--Anson, William, Parley, Orson and Nelson--four of whom joined the early Mormon Church. One of these sons, Orson Pratt, founded the association in order to engage in ancestral genealogy research, as well as to keep track of the Pratt descendants. He gave this charge to the family:

"This record is written, to be handed down to future generations, not only to preserve the genealogy of my forefathers, but to collect and register therein, from generation to generation, the dates of births, marriages, places of residence and deaths of all the descendants of my four brothers and myself. . . . It is to be hoped that all our posterity of whatever branch or name will be sufficiently interested to preserve their genealogy to the latest generation."

2007 has been designated a Pratt family "Year of Remembrance", not only in honor of the 200th anniversary of Parley P. Pratt's birth and 150th anniversary of his death, but the entire legacy of the Pratt family.