Putting our FAMILY in Family History – The First Annual Raymond Stake “Family” Family History Fair

Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending and helping with the Raymond Stake Family History Fair.  We thought this was a very very successful event which other stakes might want to try.  The Raymond Stake has been kind enough to share their plan with us.  About 150 people attended the Fireside and over 160 people attended the classes on Saturday.  The lunch of soup, whole wheat bread, cookies, and apple crumble (made from dried apples) was delicious.  Obviously a lot of planning and preparation went into the event and we have included some of the outlines. Another element that made the event so successful was the large number of presenters and helpers from organizations throughout the stake.   Congratulations Raymond Stake!

The following is an extract of their outline for the fair.  Please contact us if you need a complete copy of the outline and contact information for the FH leaders in the Raymond Stake.

On Friday evening, April 20^th and during the day, Saturday April 21^st, The Raymond Stake will host a Family History Fair, centered in Family History activities that we can do as families.

Our Goals

• Help our stake families to understand their ancestors and how they contribute to who and what we are today
• Provide family centered activities to help us learn about and enjoy our family backgrounds and history
• Show what is available and build interest within our Stake in family history and genealogy work

The Format

Our fair will be in two parts. It will begin with a family fireside on Friday evening at 7:00 pm at the Stake Center Chapel. Peter & Linda Darby, our Area Family History Advisors, will be the speakers. During the day Saturday we will host a “drop in” smorgasbord of family centered Family History activities at the Stake Centre and Cultural Hall. This will begin at 9 am and continue till around 4:30 pm. Attendees will be able to choose from a range of concurrent activities, classes, displays and programs, each one repeating 6 times, at 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30. Some of the activities may require a previous signup with designated times for attending. Others will be “free form” and “drop in”. All will be designed for entire families to participate in. Each will take about 45 minutes, and allow 5 to 10 minutes for questions after, and 5 minutes to move the group out and a new one in. Lunch will be provided in the Cultural Hall between 12:30 and 1:30 (the Stake Emergency Preparedness group will be handling this so it could be interesting as well as filling).

The planned activities and their coordinating/sponsoring High Priests groups are: 

#1 – Build Your Family Tree and put it on your mantle, save it for a rainy day. (1^st Ward)

#2 – How can I write a journal when I can’t even write a note? (4^th Ward)

#3 – Can I really learn anything useful from my grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles? (7^th Ward)

#4 – What is indexing and do I need a dictionary to do it? (5^th Ward)

#5 – What does our family stand for, how are we unique, and where did we get our family traditions, traits, habits, recipes and all these things that make us who we are? (3^rd Ward)

#6 – How were the lives of our ancestors different from ours, and how were they similar (9^th Ward)

#7 – What is this whole NewFamilySearch thing, why is it “new” and is my family really lost enough that I need to be searching for it? (8^th Ward)

#8 – I’ve got all these old photos and artifacts and stuff – are they good for anything and if so, how can I save and use them? (6^th Ward)

#9 – What’s at the Family History Centre and what can it do for my family? (2^nd Ward)

There will be two additional activities that are not repeating “classes” but will be more of a service booth approach:

#10 – “The Doctors are IN” – what FH problems can we help you solve? (Area FH Advisors)

#11 – Haven’t registered for new FamilySearch yet? – Here is your chance – (Stake Clerk and FHC Staff)

What’s next

We are working with the High Priest Group Leaders to define and refine the activities and help find ways to make them whole family experiences. Someone has been assigned to coordinate a publicity campaign and we will all keep reinforcing in a positive way that this is a “Family” Family History event. We also plan to have family history related displays in the Cultural Hall and North Stake Centre foyers, – posters, materials, some artifacts and such.

Please contact (member of HC or FHC Directors) with suggestions, feedback and ideas.

 

Putting our FAMILY in Family History – April 21, 2012

Activity #1 – Build Your Family Tree (and put it on your mantle) – First Ward

Message – Families are made of real people who are connected in ways we can understand

Activity Description – As a family, talk about what a family tree is. Families can make a physical family tree that can be taken home and displayed, and can also register and receive a fanchart printout showing 9 generations of their family ancestors.

Target Group – Families with younger children for the physical tree and any family for the fanchart

Coordinator – 1^st Ward High Priests

Possible assisting organization – Stake Primary people and ward people as needed

What we need

• A simple way that people can select pieces, put names on them and construct a tree form showing their family relationships
• Some posters and discussion points or illustrations about relationships, what they are called and how they fit together
• A computer and printer setup to load and print fancharts from the NewFamilySearch website

The Take-home – an individual family tree, a visual reminder of how and who makes up our family

 

Activity #3 – Can I really learn anything new or useful from my grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles? – Seventh Ward

Message – Our ancestors and their experiences can be a blessing to us, but only if we know who they are and what they did. We can find these things out by talking to them about their lives and keeping notes or a recording in some way

Activity Description – Examples of Q and A family firesides, possibly a church video on interviewing, ask some of the questions and get the answers, talk about recording with ink and ipods

Target Group – Families with living relatives (that’s most of us)

Coordinator – 7^th Ward High Priests

Possible assisting organization – Stake YW, YM

What we need

• Illustrations of things learned from our progenitors and family members
• An opportunity to interview someone about a specific event as a learning process
• Discussion and examples about ways to preserve an interview
• A real interview with a family member about some significant event – marriage, first child, mission

The Take-home – a better knowledge of a family event or member and an understanding of how to find out about other events that have meaning from our past

 

Activity #4 – What is indexing and do I need a dictionary to do it? – Fifth Ward

Message – Indexing can be fun and it blesses us all – it is a powerful way to help Family History efforts

Activity Description – A presentation/demonstration about indexing along with actual involvement in indexing records

Target Group – All, with some emphasis on the “gadgetized” youth

Coordinator – 5^th Ward High Priests

Possible assisting organization – Stake Indexing director

What we need

• A location with a computer or two, a large monitor or projector and internet access
• Some demonstrations and illustrations about  the Church indexing program and why it helps us
• Discussion about the youth site at LDS.Org/youth/family-history
• Demonstrations on a smartphone/iphone and/or a tablet
• Some fairly easy record sets to work with
• Those taking this class will need their membership number and birth date if they are not registered already

The Take-home – an understanding of indexing and its importance in family history work

 

Activity #9 – What is at the Family History Centre and what can it do for my family? – Second Ward

Message – Tools, resources and training for our research needs can be found at the FHC

Activity Description – Show what is available at the FHC and what help we can receive there

Target Group – all

Coordinator – 2^nd Ward High Priests

Possible assisting organization – Family History Directors

What we need

• Sample setups from the FHC, one computer workstation, one microfilm reader, one microfiche reader, internet
• A presentation/discussion about what you can do at home and what you can do at the Center
• Illustrations of ways the FHC can complement family research at home

The Take-home – an understanding of where a Family History centre can help a family in their Family History program.

 

 

 

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Keynote Speakers at the AGS/AFHS Conference 2012

Congratulations to the Alberta Genealogical Society and Alberta Family History Society for the great conference they put on in Red Deer on April 13 and 14.  It was great to see the 2 organizations put on the conference together!  Over 250 people were in attendance.  You can get information on presentations including handouts by going to http://rdgensoc.ab.ca/conferenceindex.html  . To get any handouts (not all speakers had handouts) click on the link to Presenters and then click on the presenter’s name.

The 2 keynote speakers were Gena Ortega on the Friday evening and Dick Eastman on  Saturday morning.  They were both excellent. I know many of you couldn’t come so here are my notes from their presentations – certainly not comprehensive notes, but some of the things that caught my attention.  Apologies for any errors I am about to make!  Please don’t share my errors!

Gena Philibert-Ortega – Researching Like a History Detective

(Gena is an author and blogger from California.  Her blogs include  http://philibertfamily.blogspot.ca/   Gena serves as Vice-President for the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She is also a Regional Director for the California State Genealogical Alliance).  Gena has a handout on the conference website.

Context is everything.  Without context we make assumptions – draw false conclusions – may research someone else’s family.  We tend to stick to government documents and don’t stray too far from it  – need to consider other sources.

What is context?  Set of circumstances that surround a particular event

PBS Show History Detectives

Genealogists are History Detectives

People in family tell us whacky stories – & we try to work it out

What do Detectives do?

Listen to witnesses – what they say and what they don’t say

Observe

Question experts

Gather evidence

Aha moment

What makes genealogy interesting ?

Not the forms

About going to cemeteries

Bringing ancestors to life

There is much more than Ancestry and FamilySearch websites

Analyzed some old picture

Enlarge – look for details – religious collar with SA on it

Look for unseen clues

Gather evidence from lots of people

Research Salvation Army

Use eBay – searched for vintage Salvation Army photos

Think like an historian

Find all the books you can about the locality

Genealogy is history on the micro level

Look for articles

Call reference librarians – maybe through a chat feature

Get past vital record, census, and surname searches

Don’t make assumptions

1911 England – person not in census? – suffragettes refused to be included in the census! What documents existed at this time period? History at that time? Neighbors?

Do you use library websites?  University websites? Worldcat? Repositories ?

Try to recreate the community your ancestor lived in

Libcat – guide to libraries on the internet – not just USA

Repositories of Primary Sources – google search term

Library and Archives Canada – archivianet and online maps

David Rumsey map collection – can also be an add on to Google Earth

Alberta Women’s Institute website – look at the Tweedsmuir Histories

Experts are important in genealogy

How do you find experts?

Social networking – such as genealogywise – ask questions

APG – Association of Professional Genealogists

Message boards

Books

Universities

Ask local historians

Google books – can be very good – to research a topic

Put in ancestors name

5 steps to research:

1. Research the individual – look at Internet genealogy databases – know sources – google person – identify primary documents – newspapers – home sources (inherited by others ) – family members – websites
2. Research the family
3. Research the history
4. Research the locality
5. Research the neighbors and community – how do you find neighbors? – research area – reconstruct community – manuscript collections

Get to know all the sources.

Look for finding aids, research books, how to books

Cluster genealogy – identifying and reconstructing a persons social network – increase the pool of people – FAN principle (Family, Associates and Neighbours – from Elizabeth Shown Mills) – Where they lived, occupations

Use Google images

Stories behind people create interest

Look at different kinds of collections

Search the catalog – special collections, digital collections – many times surnames as search terms won’t help you

Worldcat  http://www.worldcat.org/ – catalog of libraries – give it your postal code -and it will find library near you that has book – can copy citations and sources.  Search terms may not be what you think.  Cookbooks equal cookery in catalog.  Good to look at subject headings.

University libraries online – often have chat features or ask a librarian

Women’s collections

Be flexible in what you use as key words

PERSI valuable resource – available at ancestry.com – look for articles

Reconstructing lives

Context is everything

Genealogy is a puzzle

(interesting fact: US women until c 1936 who married non US males lost their citizenship)

Dick Eastman – The Family History World in 10 years time

(Owner and writer of  Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and Blog – which I read every morning before breakfast!  You can find out how to subscribe to receive by email if you go to http://blog.eogn.com/ and click on subscribe to free standard edition.  Dick is from Florida – so he really appreciated our spring time snow!)

For handouts go to:  eogn.com/handouts/10years

Genealogy 0.5 – until c 1920 – original records – compiled sources – no microfilm – expensive – few societies – elitist

Genealogy 1.0 – 1920 – 1980 – microfilm – Alex Haley

Genealogy 2.0 – 1980- 2012 – digital records – social networks – TV shows – expanded audience

Genealogy 3.0 – 2012 and beyond – now – many records online – google books – see werelate.org – bloggers

The Future? – more records online – focus on putting images online – with transcripts and indexes – wifim (what’s in it for me) – dealing with inertia – genealogists interrupt bureaucrats real work? – archive email? Archive of Facebook – archives.org has a wayback machine

- online all the time everywhere – ease of access – information moving to the cloud – google glasses are coming

- new and better software – cloud based – comparing and matching records – collaborative – so more faster and easier – software that works on any platform – hardware OS is currently an impediment – data privacy issues?

- changing audience – getting younger! – busy family members can do genealogy in spare moments – driven by technology – TV programs – new audience has different interests such as stories of ancestors, not charts, may not join societies (not joiners) , not classified by age, gender or nationality – Boston University class 40% born a outside US, 90% had one or more grandparents born outside US – traditional data sources like census don’t work well – 50% non white – 50% did not share a surname with their own father – need global resources

Shane Robison VP HP at Rootstech 2011 said – desktop sales declining – tablet and smart phones soaring – within 5 years 60% of Internet access not from traditional computers

How is our society going to serve this audience?

Will traditional libraries cease to exist?  Will all books be digitized?  At what cost to access?

Share online!

Back it up!

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Research Basics: Primary and Secondary Sources

(From the Monthly Newsletter published by Ralph and Linda Miller, Area Advisers in New England – we thank them for letting us use their article)

In family history research, we use a variety of sources to get information – people, books, internet, religious and government records.  All of these are “sources.”

Often we find conflicting information from different records.  Ages may vary – a little or a lot.  Name spellings may vary.  Sometimes the differences are slight; sometimes they are major – completely different names or places, for instance.  So which source is right?  What information do we select and what do we discard?

Sources are classified as primary and secondary sources.  Which type they are is determined by time – how soon after the event the record was made.  

Primary source documents are records made at or very near the time of the event.  Who made the record is not important – when it was made is the key factor.  A birth certificate, for example, is a primary record for date and place of birth and the name at birth.  A diary or letter could be a primary source – Susie had a baby last Tuesday, or I went to Harry’s funeral yesterday – both of these are primary source records for the event they describe.

Secondary source records are records that are made later.  This is all the other records not made at or very near the time of the event.  There is no specific amount of time that determines which kind the record is.

Most records are both primary and secondary source documents.  A birth record, as stated above, is primary for the name, date and place of birth, and the mother’s name and occupation..  However, it is secondary for the mother’s age and place of birth. A death record is primary for the date and place of death, and secondary for other information – the birth date, birth place, parents’ names, etc.

Secondary records aren’t bad – we depend on them.  Sometimes they are the only information we can get.  But when there are conflicts, evaluate the sources to determine which is most reliable.

Government records are not necessarily more or less reliable than personal records like journals or letters.  Again, it comes down to how close to the event the record was made.  A letter that says “I went to Harry’s funeral yesterday” is a better source than even Harry’s headstone.

Likewise, a story from a letter describing an incident (such as a battle in a war) may be more accurate than a regimental history of the same incident written many years later.

Census records are always secondary records.  They are good, but they are simply a record of what the enumerator was told about who lived in the house.  They are very useful, but they are not primary for proper name, age or birth date, or place of birth.  Still, they give a lot of information and sometimes are the only source available to us (vital records may not have been kept then).

Likewise, books are always secondary sources.  They may contain information gathered from primary sources (or they may not), but they are secondary records.  Internet sites with compiled genealogies are secondary sources.  Even if they name the source they used, they are still secondary sources for you.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them,  just understand that they aren’t primary.

What records are acceptable sources for temple ordinances?  We are asked to find the best information we can.  If a better source is easily available, we should use it, but we do not need to rely only on primary sources – because many times they do not exist.  New FamilySearch uses relationships as well as dates and places to identify someone.  If Harry was John and Susie’s son, it is clear which Harry we are talking about, even if the birth date is a year or two off (Harry would probably appreciate that).

What if you find better information after an ordinance has been performed?  You can always update the record in New FamilySearch, using either the “edit” feature on the detail view (if you submitted the information you want to change), or adding corrected information in the “summary” view (if someone else submitted the information you want to correct).  You also can add notes to clarify, and you should enter the source with enough detail that someone else can evaluate your source.

Ordinances are valid even if dates, spellings or places are incorrect.  Never re-submit a name for ordinances if the ordinance was done for the person but the date or place was wrong.

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1940 US Census and 1921 Canada Census

On 2 April 2012 the 1940 US Census was made available and the rush began to both make the images available and create an index to the images.  They are going state by state, so parts of it – at least some images – should already be available.  Want to help?  Go to https://the1940census.com for information in how to help FamilySearch with the indexing.

As Canadians we must be feeling a least a little envy for our American cousins getting access to new genealogical information, so I was pleased to read in Dick Eastman’s Online Genealogical Newsletter – http://blog.eogn.com/ 29 March entry – about the 1921 Canada Census.  He reminds us that in Canada we have to wait 92 years before the census information becomes available, and that only means the data is transferred to Library and Archives Canada – which will happen on 1 June 2013.  Let’s hope LAC is able to make the information available as soon as possible as they promise. No word on a timeline yet.  For more information read the LAC blog at http://thediscoverblog.com/2012/03/27/1921-census-countdown/ .  8 3/4 million people in the census!  The prairie provinces population grew 47% since the 1911 census!  Should be exciting for the Canadian researcher.

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New Look for labs.familysearch.org and Conference Update

Time to check out labs.familysearch.org if you haven’t been there recently.  The web site has been re-designed.  Some old favourites are still there and some new things are being added.

What is still there?

1.  Research Wiki – also available under Learn at Familysearch.org – “The FamilySearch Research Wiki provides free family history research advice for the community, from the community. The wiki is a free and growing resource fueled by the largest network of volunteer genealogical researchers and enthusiasts in the world.

Now is the time to join in and contribute to this free and rapidly growing resource that is available to everyone. FamilySearch invites those with expertise in genealogical research all over the world to contribute to these resources. Choose your preferred language, sign in (registration is free), and join many volunteers in making a huge difference helping others with their own family history.

The wiki is available in the following languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish”

2.   Forums  – also available under Learn at Familysearch.org – “The Forums project is aimed at providing the most up to date information to anyone who uses FamilySearch products to work on their family history. Through the Forums anyone can ask questions about product features, research techniques, hints and tips, or even about specific families in specific locations. And anyone who knows the answer can reply. Come participate and give us your feedback. The more who use it the better the information.

The forums are available in the following languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish.”

3.  England Jurisdictions 1851 – a great tool – do I have lots of English research?  – “The England Jurisdictions 1851 project simplifies research by consolidating data from many finding aids into a single searchable repository that can be accessed by clicking in a parish boundary. Features include contiguous parish and radius search lists and relevant jurisdictions as they existed in England in 1851. Data includes changes to parishes prior to 1851 and lists of non-conformist denominations in a parish. (requires Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Safari 3 or newer)”

4.  Standard Finder – do you get frustrated “occasionally” by standardized place names?  This is a huge undertaking . . .  . – and actually a great project that is very helpful and getting better. Place and Preview were very interesting – didn’t realize there were so many places named Norfolk in the world.  Using this project will give you greater understanding of the project and a link to send Feedback on names that need correction! – “Standard Finder is a FamilySearch Labs application which provides access to standardized information for names, locations, and dates. These databases are used by several FamilySearch applications to assist researchers in searching for exact spellings as well as for indexers who enter information used for RecordSearch.”

5.   Community Trees – a good resource – need to know how to look at the collections – click on See Community Trees so you can browse the collections – “Community Trees are lineage-linked genealogies from specific time periods and geographic localities around the world. The information also includes the supporting sources. Most of the genealogies are joint projects between FamilySearch and others who live locally or have expertise in the area or records used to create the genealogies.”

New (or relatively new!) – as of 30 March 2012 only Submit Your Tree was available – the others are yet to arrive! :

1.  Submit your tree – I was asked to try this last summer, but just haven’t got there yet . . .  “This beta test of Submit Your Tree is an easy way to upload a GEDCOM file and compare it to millions of records that are already in new.familysearch.org. The process distinguishes between ancestors who are already in new.familysearch.org and those that are not. Once you have gone through this process, please use the orange feedback link to provide your input.”

2.   Fresh – can’t wait to see what this is going to be! – “This project represents the new face of FamilySearch for people who have never participated in their family history before.”

3.   FamilySearch Maps – “Get the help you need in person. It may be closer than you think. Search for family history around the world.”

4.  Ohio Research Assistance – OK I admit I was at first underwhelmed as I have no ancestry in Ohio, but they are developing this tool to provide research help for other areas of the world too – “We are experimenting with how to best provide research help to our users throughout the world. Our first phase is to provide research assistance to those needing help finding their ancestors in records involving the State of Ohio.”

Genealogy Conference update!

Registrations already over 200!  Don’t miss your chance to hear Gena Philibert Ortega (author, blogger Vice-President for the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists & a Regional Director for the California State Genealogical Alliance) the keynote speaker on Friday night, Dick Eastman (Owner and writer of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and Blog) on Saturday, and attend a live webinar with Thomas MacEntee (Founder of High-Definition Genealogy and a professional genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research)

Go to http://rdgensoc.ab.ca/conferenceindex.html for details.

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