Collectively, the articles in this special double issue of the ""Journal of Family Communication journey into uncharted theoretical and methodological space on the family communication frontier. This issue celebrates the status and continuing development of theory in family communication. The first part begins with four "Narratives of Family Communication Theory Development" in which communication theorists write the story of developing their theories and discuss the contributions and anticipated future directions of the theories. Next are competitively-selected articles on family communication theory and theoretical work that is making important contributions to family communication scholarship. The second part of this double issue brings together a diverse, multidisciplinary compilation of papers and approaches that identify a challenge or opportunity in family communication research, and then advances and explains an appropriate method(s) for addressing those challenges or opportunities. The first article in this section offers two well-developed methodological techniques for studying data from multiple family members. In the next paper the author advocates collaboration among family communication researchers and physiological scientists to further examine the associations between physiological markers and communication processes and outcomes. The third article presents an approach to family communication research that advances beyond traditional concepts of verbal and nonverbal interaction and explores how family members communicate with one another on the level of human energy fields. Finally-in a point of view piece-the authors pull together key factors that will be fundamental tothe continued evolution or family research methodology and keep researchers looking beyond the traditional boundaries of family communication research.