Classic FamilySearch is No More

Many of you are familiar with the ongoing changes at FamilySearch and the following will be no surprise.  The following is extracted from a recent posting from The Ancestry Insider blog, dated June 24,  outlining the demise of the classic familysearch site.   For Family History Consultants and Family History Center staff, you may want to remind your patrons of the changes.

Once again, our sincere thanks to Peter and Linda as we move through this transition.  We’ve decided to not publish any articles on the blog for the summer with resumption of postings in September.  We wish you a marvellous summer !

Don & Glenda

Classic FamilySearch is No More

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 11:05 PM PDT

Without fanfare last Monday FamilySearch turned off the home page of its Classic.FamilySearch.org website, redirecting traffic to the current www.familysearch.org home page. (The old catalog remains available, however.)

Some users are not pleased with the retirement. Elaine Lee said, “Please can you tell me WHY you have RUINED a perfectly good website. I have used this website for 12 years and now find it so confusing.”

First released to the public in May 1999, the site was an instant success. The traffic load in the first few days was overwhelming and crashed the website.

FamilySearch.org, May 1999

For many years, site navigation was enabled via four color-coded menu pages; the home page was green.

FamilySearch.org, June 2001

In later years, a search form was added to the home page and color coding was eliminating. This home page design continued until it was shut down Monday.

The original FamilySearch.org as it appeared in its final years

In December 2010, this original FamilySearch.org website became classic.familysearch.org. (See “Beta.familysearch.org Replaces www.familysearch.org.”) It was replaced with the current FamilySearch.org (not to be confused with new.familysearch.org, which will be replaced by FamilySearch Family Tree).

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Please welcome our new Area Family History Advisers

Brother and Sister Don and Glenda Evans from Calgary have been called as the new Area Family History Advisers.  Please join us in welcoming them and helping them as they start their new calling.  We know they would appreciate our prayers.

For us this means a sad farewell.  We have served for just over 5 years, and had a wonderful time.  What will we remember most?  Will it be all the exciting new resources for FH?  Will it be all the updates and changes?  Will it be combining IOUs?  No, it will be each of you!  We appreciate your special spirit.  We appreciate your faith, courage, patience, and determination.  We have met thousands of wonderful people.  There is a special spirit that comes when we teach and talk about Temple work and Family History.  We will miss the abundance of that spirit that we have felt.  We have a testimony of the importance of this great work.  We look forward to doing more of our own Family History!  We send our love and best wishes to each of you.

For the next few weeks we will be working with Brother and Sister Evans during a transition period.  Brother and Sister Evans are wonderful and well qualified for the work.

We will let them introduce themselves.

Farewell, Peter and Linda

Hello Fellow Subscribers,

As with many opportunities to serve in the church, we accept this calling with feelings of inadequacy and excitement at the same time.  We very much look forward serving the Lord in this work that is such a significant part of the plan of salvation.  The world of genealogy is going through massive change – particularly with continued technology advances lending so much to new opportunities for research and record keeping.  FamilySearch will continue to evolve its resources as well, with the coming of Family Tree as an example.

We know there will be a chorus of thank-yous for the Darbys and the work they’ve done so diligently over the past six years, and we add ours to that chorus as well!  They have left a rich legacy that will be drawn on for many years.

For the sake of establishing our roots, Glenda was born and raised in Australia with her ancestry going back to England, and has been involved with her research for many years.  Don is a native Albertan with his ancestors coming to Ontario from all parts of the United Kingdom.

It’s fortunate that the calling has come to us at this time of year.  The summer months will give us time to get up to speed and prepare for visits throughout Alberta.  The most exciting event on our itinerary will be the opening of the Calgary Temple this October.  We look forward to connecting with the 23 Stake Presidents and their assigned High Councillors and having the opportunity to catch their vision for family history work in their stakes.

Again, our sincere thanks to Peter and Linda for their diligent attention to this work and we wish them nothing but health and success in their continued church service.  We look forward to playing our role in the Lord’s work and assisting all of you in your efforts.  And we look forward to meeting all of you in the coming months…

Don and Glenda

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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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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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1. Genealogy Conference in Alberta and 2. Subscribing to weekly articles

What’s happening? First no regular article on Sunday morning (we posted it by accident 2 days early) and now an article on Sunday afternoon!

1.  Genealogy Conference in Alberta.

We have been asked to share the following information with you:

“Dick Eastman is coming to Red Deer as one of three keynote guest speakers at a Genealogical Conference April 13 and 14. There are 14 speakers in all speaking on a wide variety of genealogical subjects from begining to advanced topics. Great opportunity to hear “big” names in the genealogy world.”

Registration and Information are online at:  http://rdgensoc.ab.ca/conference/

2.  Subscribing to weekly articles by email

We are always pleased to hear feedback about our weekly articles.  We are always saddened when someone tells us that the weekly article did not arrive.

We have also heard of people who subscribed to receive the article by email and then the articles mysteriously stopped coming.  We leave the management of the email list entirely to the website.   The website has we notice updated some of their management tools.  Sometimes the security settings on your computer or email program get changed or updated.  Check your spam/junk email box. If you have an option to unblock specific email addresses, try allowing   *@wordpress.com (all emails from the domain) and/or no-reply@wordpress.com addresses.

If you want to receive the articles weekly and they for any reason stop then please go to the website and click on the link Email Subscription (lower right on webpage) and put in your email address again.  Please invite anyone you think would be interested to subscribe.  We worry that some FH Consultants do not know about the weekly articles.

Of course you can always go to the website to read the article and look at the archive of past articles.  Thank you for your encouragement and support.  Comments, articles and suggested topics for articles are welcome.

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Making a Fan Chart from nFS for Someone Else and one other important item

Many of us have been enjoying our 9 generation fan charts based on data from nFS (using createfan.com).   We sometimes get asked, can we make a fan chart for someone in our ward or family?  Thanks to Charles Schmalz, the Director of the Ogden FH Center here are the instructions to make a fan chart for someone else (from his March 2012 Newsletter):

“To print a chart stating with yourself:

1. Go to https://createfan.com

2. Click Login

3. Type in nFS Username and Password

4. Click Sign In

5. Click Create

6.  Open or Save the resultant Fan Chart (PDF format) Starting with You (9 generations)

To view other Fan Charts starting with other PID Numbers

1. Click on TreeSeek.com hyperlink – you MUST complete steps 1-6 above before going to TreeSeek.com

2. Click on Start Now!

3. Click on Login underneath the tree

4. Type in nFS Username and Password

5. Click on Create Tree if you wish to enter another Person ID (PID) as shown below. Your results are stored to the website server.

6. Enter Person PID number in the box you desire to be the start of Ancestor Fan Chart

7. Click Create data set button and wait patiently for process to complete

8. Click the Starting Person For the fan chart you desire as directed from

the following menu given below: Just click the pull-down above, make your

selection, and then do the next step below.

9. Click Create Chart button

10. Open or Save the resultant Fan Chart (PDF format) Starting with input PID (9

generations)

NOTE: When you complete the above process once, you only need to return to the TreeSeek.com website for additional charts.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to print a large colour fan chart?  Bill reminds us that if you have Adobe Reader v 10 you can print as tiles – and then put the tiles together.

Our American colleagues always tell us about being able to get large charts printed at places like Kinkos (didn’t they get bought out by FedEx?) or services like genealogycharts.org and generationmaps.com/familychartist .  Shipping of the charts to Canada might be prohibitive (? has any tried it?).  Where in Canada can we get large charts printed? Staples will print a 24″ by 36″ colour chart for $29.99 from a pdf file.  You can upload the file to their website and pick the print up at the store.  I tried Costco but they only print jpg and tiff files and not pdf. Does anyone know where you can get a large colour chart printed in Canada?

How to become a FamilySearch Missionary 

Have you noticed that there are some delays in getting your telephone calls to FamilySearch Support answered?  There is a shortage of missionaries!  Please consider helping or look for people you know and gently persuade them to help.  You can serve from home!  15 or more hours a week.  This knowledge document gives the details:

Document ID: 100134

Part-Time Church-Service Missionaries Needed

FamilySearch Patron Services Division

Interested in FamilySearch?

Church-service missionaries help provide e-mail and phone support for users of FamilySearch websites and FamilySearch computer programs by answering questions about family history products, programs, and services. Missionaries will receive training and can then offer e-mail and phone support from their own homes.

Availability: Missionaries are expected to serve a minimum of 15 hours per week for at least a year. Days and times for actual service are scheduled with a Mission Leader once the first eight weeks of training have been completed.

Requirements:

• Contact Elder Whiting before talking to your local priesthood leaders–there are some technical requirements that must be met before you can serve.
• Minimum requirements for a home computer: 1.0 GB RAM, Pentium 4 processor, Windows XP, and a high-speed (broadband, DSL, or cable) Internet connection. When you contact us we can help you determine if your computer will be suitable for the services you will be providing. Click here to see a more detailed list of computer system requirements.
• Church-service missionaries are called by their stake president and set apart by their bishop.

Skills: Missionaries should have a good understanding of computers, along with good troubleshooting and communication skills. It is helpful if they have experience in one or more FamilySearch areas including Historical Records, Indexing, FamilySearch Centers, Research and new FamilySearch. Previous experience as a ward family history consultant, as a family history center director or staff member, or as an indexing program director or worker is also very helpful.

For more information, contact:

Elder Whiting, Coordinator
FamilySearch Field Missionaries
Toll Free: 1-800-453-3860 ext. 20850
E-mail: WhitingJ@familysearch.org

To obtain additional information about becoming FamilySearch Missionary:

1. Go to http://www.lds.org/.
2. Click Menu.
3. Click Missionary Service.
4. Under Church-Service Mission Opportunities click Current Opportunities in the middle column.
5. Click View “At Home” Service Opportunities.
6. Click FamilySearch Missionary (#1321)
7. Click Request Information
8. Enter your name and email address and then click Submit Information

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Follow up to Rootstech 2012

Rootstech 2012 is over!  Did you get to go?  We didn’t!  I am told that there were over 4000 people in attendance – an increase from the 3000 last year.  Would any of you who attended please share what you learned in the comments field.

Even those who didn’t attend were able to participate.  There were an unprecendented 14 sesssions broadcast live.  For many of the live sessions the handouts were available online.

If you missed the main events you can:

1. Go to Rootstech.org.  Individual videos are going to be added.  There is already a link download of the entire syllabus (go to Downloads) which is 82 MB!  Or you can select the syllabus for individual sessions.
2. Go to Dick Eastman’s Online Newsletter. http://blog.eogn.com/  He had summaries of each day of Rootstech. By the way do you realize that Dick will be speaking at the joint AGS/AFHS Conference in Red Deer on April 13 and 14? (Go to http://rdgensoc.ab.ca/registration.html  for more information)
3. The Ancestry Insider also reported on Rootstech http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/

There is another way to catch up on Rootstech!  There is a free app for iphones/ipods/ipads and a version for Android devices! The app has a very original name – Rootstech.  Although the app was designed to use during Rootstech it gives you more access to news, and summaries of the keynote addresses – I haven’t explored all the links yet!

Rootstech was used as the opportunity to release the beta version of an app to do indexing!  This is available for both ipod/ipad/iphone (IOS) and Android mobile devices!  It is a beta so I don’t know if I would rush out and share with everyone right now, but I was very impressed with the features and stability of the app.

Some of you might wonder just how good it is to do indexing on a mobile device.  I installed it and tried it on my ipad.  I was very impressed.  After you sign in check the settings – just so you know what they are . . . All I got on the screen was the image of someone’s first name and last name.  I typed this in and clicked submit.  I missed seeing the name in context of the rest of the page and being able to see other words on the page to help with handwriting recognition.  Then I looked at the top of the screen and saw 2 icons – one of which looked like a page.  I clicked on it and got the whole page with the ease of zooming in and out any time I wanted to.  Then I just toggled between name and seeing whole document.  Maybe this was in the instructions?  Maybe I am just a slow learner?  i never did get to the end of a batch.  The names kept coming and coming and coming.  I had to stop so I could write this article so I just Signed out!   When I felt guilty and signed back in the names just seemed to continue from where I left off.  I have a lot more to learn about mobile indexing!  The App has a lot more features than you first realize – and seemed excellent.

The following information on the app was provided in the app by FamilySearch:

“This mobile app is expected to complement the FamilySearch indexing program, which has been operating since 2006. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world have contributed their time to index genealogical records using the FamilySearch indexing desktop software. Today there are more than 2.5 billion freely searchable names in the familysearch.org database, thanks largely to their efforts. Your mobile contribution to this effort, however large or small, is greatly appreciated. To ensure quality and accuracy, the system compares your work with answers from other volunteers until a “consensus” is reached.

While you use the same account information as you would when using the desktop indexing program, it is not necessary to have the desktop program in order to use this app. This beta app is in its early stages of development and is not yet fully integrated into the indexing system. So, if you also index using standard FamilySearch indexing, your contributions and points from using this app will not be displayed in your history in the desktop program. We plan to include this integration in future versions.

In this version of the app, you may see image snippets from collections that have already been indexed or from new collections. Reusing previously indexed snippets will help us determine the quality of results from this app and make future improvements to the system.

If you have questions or suggestions, or if you experience problems with the app, please e-mail us at indexing@familysearch.org.”

Try it – share your experiences!

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Linkpendium – a new gateway web site for genealogy

Well, it may not be new to all of you, but it was new to me!  Seems to have excellent links to United States web sites – over 1 million links.  Good start to a section on the UK and Ireland – over 10,000 links.  There is also a section of links to web sites for Surnames – over 8 million links.

Go to

http://linkpendium.com/

What is a gateway web site?

A gateway web site is one that is organized by topic or location and provides hyperlinks to other web sites.  In other words a directory of links to other web sites.

Background to Linkpendium

This site is being developed by the original developers of Rootsweb.

Other gateway sites:

My favourite is Mary’s Genealogy Treasures – this is a great web site maintained by Mary! – who is a delightful presenter too!  I like the way it is organized!  It has good Canadian content.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/mtoll/

Also look at:

Cyndi’s List of Genealogical Web Sites – been around for over 15 years – over 300,000 links – and now on a new web site

http://www.cyndislist.com/

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