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

Read Full Post »

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!

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

Teaching Members to Understand and Follow Policies for Submitting Names

Note:  apologies for the duplicate article to those of you who subscribe by email.  We have had a computer operator error! – i.e. Peter pressed the wrong key, sent out the article by email, but didn’t post it to the website! – it’s an important article anyway which is only emphasized by sending it out twice!

Much has been reported in the media regarding baptism for the dead in recent weeks.   This is a good time for us to review and teach people to understand and follow policies regarding submission of names to the temple

There have been reports of members of the church not following temple policies and entering names of deceased holocaust victims or famous people to whom they are not related.  People rightfully have been offended.  We should be following our own temple policies.

We have also become aware of other members ignoring temple policies and taking names of unrelated persons to the temple.

On 29 February the First Presidency sent a letter to every unit of the church asking us to follow temple policies. The letter asks members to seek assistance from their Family History Consultant – so be prepared. On 9 March you should have received a letter from the FH Dept to Family History Consultants, Family History Center Directors, and Staff (if you did not receive this letter then go to https://www.familysearch.org/consultant/and register).

Please help members to understand and follow the direction of the First Presidency.

Here are some useful links:

1. There are 2 articles in the Church News and Events section at lds,org:  http://www.lds.org/church/news/church-asks-members-to-understand-policies?lang=eng and http://www.lds.org/church/news/names-submitted-for-temple-ordinances?lang=eng – the second link is the text of the First Presidency letter
2. Church News 1 March 2012 – this article includes comments by Dennis C. Brimhall, the new managing director of the Church’s Family History Department – http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/62066/Family-history—Church-asks-members-to-understand-policies.html# 
3. CNN offers an interesting article on the topic from the public perspective (link shared with me by a good friend):  http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/09/mormons-crack-down-on-proxy-baptisms-whistleblowers-access-blocked/?hpt=hp_t3

No doubt you will find many other references.  There was a segment of the CBC radio  program “The Current” devoted to Baptism for the Dead.

People asking about our beliefs is a good thing.  Helping people understand our beliefs is wonderful.

You might want to read the following article from Mormon.org under the menu Values:  http://mormon.org/family-history/ The first article is entitled “Why Family History is Important.”

Where can you read about temple policies other than the letter from the First Presidency? We would suggest that you use page 30 of the Member’s Guide to Temple and Family History Work (bearing in mind the one change from 95 to 110 years when needing permission from the nearest living relative).  You can also use the Tutorials and Guides from the Help panel or Learn How to use FamilySearch from the new FamilySearch home page.  A search in the Help Centre for Temple Policies will take you to the Users Guide for nFS.  If we need more information the church will provide it for us.

Here is a quote from page 30 of the Member’s Guide :

“Do not submit the names of persons who are not related to you, including names of famous people or names gathered from unapproved extraction projects, such as victims of the Jewish Holocaust.”

May we strongly suggest that you do not become the judge of what is appropriate to submit.  If asked a question about submission policy then quote the relevant section.  Avoid contention or debate.  If pressed further then suggest the person talk to their priesthood leader.

When we started writing this article a few weeks ago the objective was to make sure everyone was aware that the policy for obtaining permission to perform ordinances has changed from 95 years to 110 years - this is the only change in temple policy of which we are aware.  Here is the policy (remember to sign in before accessing knowledge documents):

Knowledge Document ID 113599

“The policy for obtaining permission to perform ordinances has changed from 95 years to 110 years

At the RootsTech 2012 conference, it was announced that the 95 year rule relating to getting permission before doing living ordinances is changing.

The new policy is as follows:

Before doing ordinances for a deceased person born in the last 110 years, please remember that close relatives may not want the ordinances performed, or they may want to do the ordinances themselves.

You may do ordinances for your own deceased spouse, child, parent, or sibling, but please consider the wishes of other close living relatives, especially a living spouse.

If you are not a spouse, child, parent, or sibling of the deceased, please obtain permission from the closest living relative before doing the ordinances. The closest living relatives are, in this order: an undivorced spouse (the spouse to whom the individual was married when he or she died), an adult child, a parent, or a brother or sister.

Verbal approval is acceptable. Family members should work together to determine when the ordinances will be done and who will do them.

For information on what to do with family ordinance cards that were printed by mistake, see 1008370.”

Thank you for all that you do to help people understand how to do Temple and Family History work.

Read Full Post »

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!

Read Full Post »

FamilySearch.org Update January 2012 and Rootstech 2012

FamilySearch.org continues to get better and better!  On or about January 26 there was an update to the website – how do they do that while we are all still using the site?  Please note an update to the website is different from the frequent almost weekly additions of data and images.

What changed?

1. Main Search Screen.  There were changes in the wording of the search screens on the main page at FamilySearch.org, which allows you to search in the collection of Historical records.
2. Browse by Collection (lower part of main screen). Canada now has its own link!  This should save time when you are trying to get to Canadian Historical Record collections.  Similarly there is a new direct link to the United Kingdom.  The All Record Collections link has been moved to the top of the list.
3. Books.  Clicking on the Books tab on the main page takes you to the new FamilySearch Books search rather than the old link which took you to the BYU Books Collection.  There was problems with capacity on the BYU servers so the collection has been moved and additional books have already been added – there are now over 40,000 digitized FH books.  There are also improvements to the search tools. Please try searching for your main family names.
4. Trees.  Take the link to Trees from the main page and you see that the search screen for Trees has undergone major changes.  Most important is the ability to select if you want to search in the Ancestral File, or the Pedigree Resource File (PRF) or both!
5. Uploads to Trees. There is a new link to upload GEDCOMs on the Trees page.  This will shortly replace the old upload to PRF link on the previous FamilySearch.org site (i.e. the old version of FamilySearch.org).   FamilySearch.org has more names in the PRF collection than the old FamilySearch website, and provides more information on the names in PRF including sources – it is no longer just an index.  FamilySearch is discontinuing the distribution of PRF on disk.

What is the Ancestral File (AF)?

A collection of 40 million names submitted to FamilySearch between 1979 and 2003.  See the article in the FamilySearch Research wiki  https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Ancestral_File for more information

What is the Pedigree Resource File (PRF)?

Collection of genealogies submitted to FamilySearch since 1999 in GEDCOM format.  PRF includes some sources which makes it different from AF.  The collection on FamilySearch.org contains over 200 million records (compared to 120 million on the old version of FamilySearch). Initially the information was shared on CD and then later submissions were shared on DVD.  There are about 150 disks. FamilySearch is discontinuing the distribution on disk.  For more information go to the FamilySearch Research Wiki https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Pedigree_Resource_File

What is a GEDCOM?

An  ”acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunications. GEDCOM is a data structure created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for storing and exchanging genealogical information so that many different computer programs can use it. It is identified by the file type “.ged”.” See the wiki article for the rest of the information on GEDCOMs.   https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/GEDCOM

Rootstech Sessions available live online!

We hope that you got the notice that 14 sessions of the Rootstech conference being held in Salt Lake City on Feb 2 to 4 will be broadcast live!!!  Go to http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b0de542dc933cfcb848d187ea&id=e0eae27d25&e=1944fc8d1d for details.

If you didn’t get the notice please go to familyseach.org/serve and make sure that you are registered as a consultant, FH Centre Director or priesthood leader so that you are on the email list to receive updates from FamilySearch.

Read Full Post »

1. Angel Moroni, 2. Consultant’s Guide, 3. YouTube

1.  This week I was pleased to be able to attend the placing of the spire and Angel Moroni on the top of the Calgary Temple.  Most of the granite seemed to be in place around the outside of the building.  We look forward to hearing the opening date hopefully in the 3rd quarter of this year (?).

2. Thanks to a thoughtful comment and question by one of our readers recently, I was reminded that the Consultant’s Guide needs to be updated!  The guide is still available as a download – go to familysearch.org/consultant – and hopefully will be updated soon.  In the meantime be cautious in using the Guide. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between new.familysearch.org and familysearch.org – which has a new version.  Now who hasn’t had that problem!

3. FamilySearch has a YouTube channel where you can access videos. Go to youtube.com and search for FamilySearch.  Look for the link that says Channel.  You can subscribe to the Channel to make it easier to get there.  Why not just watch the videos on FamilySearch.org?  I prefer to have the videos downloaded before the training session.  Once you find a video on YouTube you can use a website such as keepvid.com to download a copy.

Read Full Post »

1. Advice on Helping the Youth with Family History and 2. New FH materials available to order

 Helping the Youth with Family History

I recently read this quote from Jim Greene, a manager at FamilySearch.  Please note his caveats in the second paragraph.  I added the underlining.  Please consider his advice.

“Even though it was developed for youth, it is ok for adults to go look at and use the new youth website that Elder Bednar introduced last conference. It is at http://lds.org/fhy the fhy stands for family history youth. It teaches the youth the importance of temple and family history work, shows them 5 steps for searching for and clearing names, and has many opportunities for them to comment and see other’s experiences. There is also a whole section with videos on ideas how to serve others through family history. I would recommend this as a wonderful resource.

That said, let me offer a couple of caveats. First, the youth won’t need technology or computer lessons, in fact, they could be called as consultants to teach new.familysearch.org after just a few minutes using it. They get it. Second, you will lose them if you try to teach them to become genealogists. Get them to the temple with their own names, set them up to help and serve others, and you will be successful. Teach them how to correctly document jurisdictional place names, or to correctly enter sources and citations and you will lose them. They are a wonderful resource and can help and be blessed in so many ways.

We are going to continually update the site with new videos, ideas and stories. We are even considering games and contests.  I hope you find it enjoyable and that it gives you some ideas.”

To Turn the Hearts Guide and DVD Available to Order

The guides and DVDs were made available to order by phone effective 21 Dec 2011, and online in mid January:

The Global Service Center is where you have to call to place orders, 1-800-537-5971. The part numbers are:

08886000-To Turn the Hearts Leaders Guide (English)

08885000-DVD (English)

Read Full Post »

5 Minute Genealogy Videos

(From Ralph and Linda Miller, Area Advisers, New England)

We’re all busy, so what if you can do key things in family history in five minutes or less?  That’s the purpose behind a new series of videos produced by the Family History Department called 5 Minute Genealogy.

Several videos (each less than 5 minutes long) show how simple it is to find a record, organizing what you know, and getting information from family members.

You can find these videos several ways:

1. Go to familysearch.org, click on “learn” and select “research courses.”  The 5-minute genealogy courses are listed there.
2. Go to youtube.com and type in 5 minute genealogy.  The courses should pop up.  Once you have one, you should be able to find more.
3. http://bcove.me/f7gspq8l  – this link should take you there.

While you’re at familysearch.org, “learn” and “research courses,” check out the other videos, such as “getting started.”

Read Full Post »