What’s New at FamilySearch.org as of June 23, 2012

There is always something new to learn at FamilySearch.org – either something you didn’t realize was there or something that has been recently added to help us with our Family History.

How do you keep up?

Try to regularly – at least once a month – go to familysearch.org then click on the blog and look to the right to the link under the heading Categories to What’s New at FamilySearch?

Since the beginning of May 2012 there are 5 items:

1.  Site Scoop – May 9 – details some changes to FamilySearch -

“Search Form Refinements – Small tweaks in formatting and presentation.. .  For example, the search fields now have a descriptive word or two to help you know exactly what information should go into a field.

The All Record Collections Page – FamilySearch adds new records collections almost daily.  . . .  Some have noticed that the system seems to be responding slowly when uploading a record collection. We have fixed that problem so that all record collections upload nearly 400% faster. Several other behind the scene changes were made that users will probably not notice but will make the search experience in FamilySearch a better experience for everyone.. . .

Looking Ahead – We’re currently engaged in focus group testing of a new main page interface that allows for easier search, location of records, and an improved new user experience. Look for that in second quarter.”

2. Ron Tanner Live from Salt Lake City – May 17 – product manager for FamilySearch (and stand up comedian!) – this is a link to his presentation at Rootstech in Feb 2012.  Besides being entertained, you will learn why and how Family Tree is going to work.

3.  New FamilySearch Feature – IGI – May 25 – this doesn’t mean new.familysearch.org but a new feature being added to FamilySearch.org!  Reminds us that the IGI consisted of inputs from 2 sources – “Community Indexed IGI: This collection consists of sources that were indexed by the genealogical community from collections of vital and Church records” – generally very dependable and a good research tool, and “Community Contributed IGI: This collection consists of personal family information submitted by individuals to the LDS Church.” – varied in quality but still can be helpful.  The article then goes on to tell you how to access the IGI at FamilySearch.  At the time of writing this article the community contributed IGI was not yet available.

4.  My Source Box – May 25 – ““FamilySearch now provides a new feature called My Source Box. This Source Box serves as a place to capture a record source and preserve it. Your source box contains the sources that you want to attach to your ancestors. It lets you reuse sources instead of retyping a source each time you need to use it.

If you have access to the Family Tree, you can find a record, add it to the source box, and then attach it to an ancestor on the Tree immediately or at a later date.

If you don’t have access to the tree, it can be a very useful way to bookmark or store records you find for later use. You won’t have to re-do searches to find and bring in sources you want to use to document an event.

To use the Source Box you must be signed into the FamilySearch system.

The Source Box option is located in the upper-right of the a record page.

5.   Robert Kehrer presents a FamilySearch webinar – June 15 – “On Tuesday, June 19, 2012, at 2pm Mountain Time, we will present a 60 minute webinar with Robert Kehrer. The purpose of this webinar is to help instruct and educate users on the FamilySearch search experience. We will focus the discussion on the Library Catalog, the Historical Records Collection and especially on the IGI (International Genealogical Collection.”  A recorded version of the presentation will be made available after this date.

6.  New Books at the FH Library – 21 June – not really of interest unless you are close to the FH Library in Salt Lake or planning a visit . . . . .

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Summer Discovery Club

We are always delighted when you share the great things you are doing! . . . . so we were very pleased to get the following from the Calgary FH Centre – although it is set up for FHC staff we think all of us would benefit by doing it!

CFHC Summer Discovery Club

CFHC Staff members: Make this a summer of discovery.

Each week choose a Question and/or an Activity to complete and then fill in the calendar chart provided. At our staff training meetings in the fall come and we’ll share something that we have learned.

Questions - Choose a question for which you don’t know the answer and fill in the calendar chart provided.

Most important is to record how to find the answer so you will be able to find it again. (If you need help with some of these questions or activities, see what you can find out through the FamilySearch Help Center or the Research Wiki or ask a fellow staff member)

1. When do Vital Records begin in Ontario?
2. How do I find an Irish birth civil registration? Record the film number one would need to order for the birth registration of James Robinson, born 10 March 1905 in County Armagh, Ireland. Include the volume and page number and Quarter. (Clue: The answer is not film number 101070. That is the index film which will tell you the volume, page and quarter.) Record the steps needed to find the actual registration.
3. How do I order a film?
4. Where do I go to find the new policy, as of this Feb 2012, relating to getting permission before doing temple work?
5. Where can I go to find pre-civil registration records in Scotland? Record three places to find these.
6. In British Free BMD’s how do you find a birth registration?
7. Where in the CFHC can you find a blank Family Group Sheet or Pedigree Chart?
8. What is the British Parish Locator. Where is it? How do I use it?
9. On new.FamilySearch how do I remove (delete) an individual that does not belong to my family if I did not contribute the information? Find a Knowledge Document for this situation and record the document number and how you found it.
10. If you have a Knowledge Document number and want to know what it says, how do you find it?
11. What are two sites where you can find Border Crossings between Canada and the US? Record how to navigate in these sites to get to the Border Crossings.
12. LDS Family History Suite #2. Where is it and what can you find there?
13. What kinds of things do you find at the Godfrey Memorial Library subscription site (free at the FHC)

Activities -Do the activity and record something you learned and where you found it.

14. Watch a research course video from the Learn Tab on FamilySearch. There are hundreds of videos that range from 5 minutes to an hour in length.

15. Watch to a Roots Tech 2012 Video: http://rootstech.org/videos. Scroll down and choose from19 great videos.

16. Do a batch of Indexing.

17. Read the Darby’s weekly article http://peterfh.wordpress.com

18. Record something you learned from What’s New on FamilySearch

19. Register for access to FS Family Tree and record where to go to do that.

20. Learn how to Use FastStone Capture. Copy and Caption and Save an image to a flash drive. (If you don’t have a flash drive, know how to help a patron to do this.) If you wish, copy the FastStone Capture tool to your flash drive and also to your home computer for your personal use.

21. On findagrave.com -find Hans Dietrich in the Manti Cemetery in Utah.

-find James C Cahoon in the Cardston, AB Cemetery.

-try to find one of your own ancestors on this site.

22. Google: Peel’s Prairie Provinces. In the Henderson Directories for Calgary in 1912 find Thomas D Smith, living at 313 11 Ave W in the Street Index which begins on page 197. Then find him again in the Alphabetical Index which begins on Page 325. What are the two page numbers where Thomas D Smith is found?

23. Read an article from the Research Wiki. E.g. “Principles of Family History Research” or “Preserving Photographs and Documents” or “Creating a Personal Journal” or read an article relating to the locality you are researching. There are over 67,000 articles to choose from.

Each week answer a question or do an activity of your choice so that you learn something new.

CFHC Summer Discovery Club Calendar Chart

Goal: Learn and record something new each week

Unfortunately this chart can’t be shown properly in this article. It has 3 columns – headings shown below – the boxes under each heading of about 5 cm high – under the question or activity column the first item is the dates for a week e.g. Week of June 3 to 9, then Week of June 10 to 16, and so on for the summer.

Question or Activity What did I learn? How/Where to find this information

Obviously you can change the questions and activities to suit your FH Consultants. It would be great to learn something new each week throughout the summer.

The Calgary FH Centre would appreciate your suggestions to improve this project. Just put them in Comments.

Thank you to the Director and Staff of the Calgary FH Centre for sharing this with us.
!

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Talking With the Public About Family History

Again we are very fortunate to have an article written by Ralph and Linda Miller, Area FH Advisers in New England.  We thank them for sharing

Family history is one of the most popular hobbies there is, and the church’s contributions toward family history research are well known.  However, we are not using family history to create missionary opportunities as much as we could. What could we do better? Here are some of our thoughts.

When the members of the public are engaged in family history, it is a win-win-win.  As they learn more about their ancestors, they feel the Spirit of Elijah, which is the Holy Ghost.  As they gather identifying information, it becomes available for potential submission for temple ordinances.  As they learn more about their ancestors characters and accomplishments, important lessons are gathered which help them better face life’s challenges.  As they learn more about the church’s interest in building eternal families, they may wish to find out more about the church and its doctrines.

Too often, we miss some of the most important opportunities associated with family history.  Or in an effort to save time for our nonmember friends, we deny them the excitement of discovery.

Why family history?  We often begin presentations about LDS resources by reading Malachi 4:5-6 as a basis for LDS interest in family history.  We explain that turning “the heart of the children to their fathers” is tracing your ancestors, and “the heart of the fathers to the children” is recording our own personal history and keeping journals.  Besides explaining the importance of family history, this reaffirms our belief in the Bible as scripture.

People are interested in stories and interesting facts.  Sometimes we think more is better, so we rush to gather names, dates and places, without bothering to learn much about the individuals.  If you’ve watched some of ancestry.com’s commercials lately, you’ve seen that what they think is most exciting are seemingly minor facts like occupation or address.  People were more interested in knowing that an aunt lived in a building just a couple blocks away, or that their grandfather was the first doctor in town.

Help people discover facts – perhaps their occupation, where they lived, or interesting stories.  These bring the people to life – much more than a chart full of names, dates and places. Working from those facts, see what more you can help them discover.  This may be a different approach than the LDS name-identifying, but it appeals to those who really want to understand their ancestors.

People feel the Holy Ghost when they research their families, and it is a good feeling.  In our efforts to interest people in family history, we may offer to do research for them – saving time but stealing the thrill.  Rather than doing the work for them, sit down together and show them some actual documents, such as census record or birth, marriage and death certificate.  Show them the additional clues the document provides.  Let them be the explorer.

As they discover clues about an ancestor’s identify, their hearts turn and they feel the Holy Ghost confirm the eternal nature of families – that this person is truly part of them.  Don’t skip this important step.

Methodology is less interesting than people.  If you plan a family-history-oriented event for the general public, emphasize families, individuals and relationships more than research methodology.  Experts find research strategies or resources interesting, but most people do not.  They don’t want to become experts – they just want to learn more about their family.  Save technical topics for classes for advanced researchers.

One of the opportunities many LDS researchers miss is talking with relatives.  While genealogists are more comfortable in quiet archives, the real heart-turning comes when you are face-to-face with someone who can tell you about his or her life and relatives.  Spend time in meaningful conversation rather than just gathering facts in quiet solitude.

Listen, listen, listen.  As Steve Covey says, seek first to understand than to be understood.  People aren’t going to listen if they don’t think you understand what they are interested in.  When talking with someone about family history, ask questions to discover what they are really interested in.  Don’t have your explanations planned in advance. What do they want?  Do they want to know about their heritage, or are there certain family members they really feel drawn to?  Do they miss someone who has passed on and want to preserve their memory somehow?  Would the idea of eternal marriage or eternal family relationships be something they are interested in right now?

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Ward Activity for Genealogy

by guest author

Sue Maxwell

(Sue always has interesting articles on her blog - http://granitegenealogy.blogspot.ca/ )

I thought I would share a ward activity we held last week. Our Bishop  feels strongly that a ward activity is just that — for the ward,  including children. I put together a round robin of classes on Saturday beginning at 5:30 pm. That’s important because of the children.

I had 5 stops and each stop was in a different room at the church. I  made rotating handouts so that we could start everyone at the same time but in different rooms. I tried to focus the families with small children into the (1) “food” room first and then move on from there. I had a class on indexing (2), one on using the Fan Chart and new FamilySearch (3), one on Involving children in genealogy (4), and one on the “gathering” portion of family history (5) (unique ways of gathering information from family and building your story). We only had 20 minutes each – so about 15 minutes in each class with a few minutes to change rooms. Two of the classes were taught by our YM and YW who I had been working with.

In every room I had a table in the back of the room with activities for the children of the parents who were attending the class. This kept the families together but the children were occupied. I also used YW to teach the various games in each room.

Our Primary President put together and taught the class on “involving children in genealogy” and also put together the activities for each room. All of them were family history related in some way. For example, one of the activities for the children was looking for things in the Where’s Waldo books. As each child found what they were looking for, she gave them a census record and had them look for a name. It was so fun. In her room she used the object lesson of brushing your hair without bending your arm at the elbow. This taught the children about using a proxy to get the job done.

What surprised me the most was the families that attended were mostly the young families with children! And they had the best things to say. They were so exciting to be able to learn about family history without having to worry about their children or chase them around. The whole activity was over in about 90 minutes. And the adults were so impressed that the youth were teaching.

The bishop later told me that he went home and discussed the activity with his children and he was so surprised at all the concepts they learned. Great activity.

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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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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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Finding Birth Certificates

by Peter Calver, Founder, Lost Cousins http://www.lostcousins.com/ Used with permission of author.

It’s very frustrating when you can’t find an ancestor’s birth certificate – but often the ‘brick wall’ only exists in our imagination. Let’s look at some of the key reasons why a certificate can’t be found….

• The forename you know your ancestor by may not be the one on the birth certificate: sometimes the name(s) given at the time of baptism would differ from the name(s) given to the registrar of births; sometimes a middle name was preferred, perhaps to avoid confusion with another family member, often the father. There can be all sorts of reasons why a different forename is used – one of my ancestors appears on some censuses as ‘Ebenezer’ and on others as ‘John’ (which I imagine was the name he was generally known by).
• Middle names come and go: at the beginning of the 19th century it was rare to have a middle name, but by the beginning of the 20th century it was unusual not to have one. Some people invented middle names, some people dropped middle names they didn’t like, and sometimes people simply forgot what was on the birth certificate. For example, one of my relatives was registered as Fred, but in 1911 his father – my great-grandfather – gave his name as Frederick.
• The surname on the certificate may not be the one you expect: if the parents weren’t married at the time of the birth then usually (but not always) the birth will be recorded under the mother’s maiden name (the exception is where the mother was using the father’s surname and failed to disclose to the registrar that they weren’t married).
• You’re looking for the wrong father: often the best clue you have to the identity of your ancestor’s father is the information on his or her marriage certificate. Unfortunately marriage certificates are often incorrect – the father’s name and/or occupation may be wrong. This is particularly likely if your ancestor never knew his or her father, whether as a result of early death or illegitimacy. Not many people admit to being illegitimate on their wedding day – and in Victorian Britain illegitimacy was frowned upon, so single mothers often made up stories to tell their children (as well as the neighbours). Whether or not the birth was legitimate young children often took the name of the man their mother later married, so always bear in mind the possibility that the father whose name is shown on the marriage certificate is actually a step-father.
• You may be looking in the wrong place: a child’s birthplace is likely to be shown correctly when he or she is living at home, but could well be incorrect after leaving home. Many people simply didn’t know where they were born, and assumed it was the place they remembered growing up. The most accurate birthplace is the one given by the father or (especially) the mother of the person whose birth you’re trying to track down; the least accurate is likely to be the one in the first census after they leave home.
• You may be looking in the wrong period: ages on censuses are often wrong, as are the ages shown on marriage certificates – especially if there is an age gap between the parties, or one or both is below the age of consent (21). Sometimes people didn’t know how old they were, and ages on death certificates can be little more than guesses. Remember too that births could be registered up to 42 days afterwards without penalty, so many will be recorded in the following quarter – and they could be registered up to 365 days afterwards on payment of a fine. In my experience, where the marriage certificate shows ‘of full age’ it’s often an indication that they were under 21!
• The birth was not registered at all: this is usually the least likely situation, but it did happen occasionally – most often in the first few years of registration, though it wasn’t until 1874 that there was a penalty for failing to register a birth.
•  The GRO indexes are wrong: this is also quite rare, but did happen occasionally despite the checks that were carried out.

 How can you overcome these problems? First and foremost keep an open mind – be prepared to accept that any or all of the information you already have may be wrong. This is particularly likely if you have been unable to find your relative at home with their parents on any of the censuses.

Obtain all the information that you can from censuses, certificates, and other sources (such as Army records): the less information you can find, the more likely it is that the little you already have is wrong or misleading in some way. For example, if you can’t find your ancestor on any censuses prior to his marriage, you can be pretty certain that the information on the marriage certificate and later censuses is wrong in some material way.

Don’t assume that just because something appears in an official document, it must be right. Over half of marriage certificates I have seen include at least one error, and as many as half of all census entries are wrong in some respect (I’m not talking about transcription errors, by the way). Army records are particularly unreliable – one of my relatives added 2 years to his age when he joined the British Army in 1880, and knocked 7 years off when he signed up for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914.

Consider how and why the information you have might be wrong by working your way through the list above – then come up with a strategy to deal with each possibility. Sometimes it’s as easy as ordering the birth certificate for a sibling to find out the mother’s maiden name; often discovering when the parents married is a vital clue.

If you can’t find your ancestor on the census with his or her parents then you should be particularly suspicious of the information you have – it’s very likely that some element is wrong, and it is quite conceivable that it is ALL wrong.

Middle names that could also be surnames often indicate illegitimacy – it was usually the only way to get the father’s name on the birth certificate. Unusual middle names can provide clues – I remember helping one member find an ancestor whose birth was under a completely different surname by taking advantage of the fact that his middle name was Ptolemy!

Make use of local BMD indexes (start at UKBMD), and also look for your ancestor’s baptism – sometimes we forget that parents continued to have their children baptised after Civil Registration began. Consider the possibility that one or both of the parents died when your ancestor was young – perhaps there will be evidence in workhouse records. Have you looked for wills?

Could the witnesses to your ancestor’s marriage be relatives? When my great-great-great grandfather Joseph Harrison married, one of the witnesses was a Sarah Salter – who I discovered (after many years of fruitless searching) was his mother. Her maiden name wasn’t Salter, by the way – nor was it Harrison – but I’ll save the story of how that particular mystery came to be solved for another time!

Finally, remember that you’re probably not the only one researching this particular ancestor – and one of your cousins may already have the answers you’re seeking. So make sure that you have entered ALL your relatives from 1881 on your My Ancestors page, as this is the census that is most likely to link you to your ‘lost cousins’.

Peter Calver, Founder, LostCousins

© Copyright 2012 Peter Calver

You may link to this newsletter, but please email Peter first if you would like to re-publish any part of it.

From Lost Cousins Newsletter 29 Jan 2012

http://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters/latejan12news.htm

Lost Cousins, though in the UK, does include the Canada 1881 Census and has lots of Free things on their website!

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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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