Issue 12

Big things are happening at Photoloom!  Just for starters, they are now an official software affiliate with New FamilySearch, and are working to become “New FamilySearch Certified.”

With the upcoming 3.0 release, Family Photoloom members will be able to import information from New FamilySearch* and tag their pictures with New FamilySearch IDs, enabling their pictures to be associated with records stored in New FamilySearch.

What does this mean for you?

* You can import your genealogy information into your Family Photoloom account directly from New FamilySearch, so you will no longer need to type it in.

* You can help ornament the global New FamilySearch tree with your pictures and documents.  You have complete control over what is kept private and what is made available to other researchers.

* Together they are paving the way for a new generation of “image-enriched genealogy.”

* FamilySearch is a family history website provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It provides its resources free of charge to the public and is one of the most heavily used genealogy sites on the Internet.  A new website, now known as New FamilySearch, that gives users the ability to edit data was launched in 2007, and is incrementally becoming available to genealogists worldwide.  For more information, visit https://new.familysearch.org.

Family Photoloom is private and secure.  Only the people you invite can see the images and information in your account.  If you are a New FamilySearch user, they will let you pull information from, and link your images back to New FamilySearch.  If you have any questions about this service, visit the web page at: www.photoloom.com.   An individual account is free or you can upgrade to unlimited pictures and 5 Gigabytes of storage for $39.00 per year.

The site contains a quick view start up demo to show you how to upload pictures.  It is similar to uploading photos to Facebook, and you can tag photos to add them to your own family tree.  http://www.familyphotoloom.com/fplvideo.htm

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 11.10

After writing articles for the Senior Sampler for over two years now, I keep thinking I am going to run out things to tell you.  But, with new technology and the world of genealogy moving at a booming pace, I think my worries are unnecessary.  I just keep finding new advances and exciting new things to help you discover your ancestors.

The Immigrant Ancestors Project, sponsored by the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University, uses emigration registers to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries, which is not found in the port registers and naturalization documents in the destination countries.  Volunteers working with scholars and researchers at Brigham Young University are creating a database of millions of immigrants based on these emigration registers.

Between 1821 and 1924, the world saw one of the greatest migrations ever, as approximately fifty-five million Europeans emigrated.  The vast majority went to the Americas– 33 million to the United States, 5.4 million to Argentina, 4.5 million to Canada, 3.8 million to Brazil and the rest in smaller, but significant numbers to countries from Mexico to Chile as well as to Australia and other Pacific rim countries.  These immigrants, emigrants–migrants all–melded with indigenous and previous immigrants to enrich and forever change the recipient countries and their cultures.  While Ireland, Germany, Italy, and England top the list in terms of numbers departing, every country in Europe contributed to the flow.  These statistics and associated studies are only a black-and-white sketch of the rich tapestry of individual experiences that make up this great migration. 

For those tracing the story of an individual immigrant, even the best passenger lists tell only part of the story, and most do not even do that.  Over half of those in the United States do not give key details such as place of birth, and few give story details such as reasons for emigrating.  For all of these reasons the European records of emigration, which are at the heart of the Immigrant Ancestors Project, need to be consulted to give a more complete understanding of the emigration process and its individual stories.

To access the information online so far, visit http://immigrants.byu.edu/

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 10.10

I am currently the stake administrator for Little Valley Stake working with FamilySearch Indexing.  Indexing is such a great way to serve others by indexing records so they can easily be found. Not long ago we would have to order a microfilm or try to find a book and then go through looking for a particular name.  Now we can go online, type a name into a search engine and the digitized book or microfilm record shows up on our computer screen.  It has revolutionized the genealogy research process.

To volunteer to help, go to http://indexing.familysearch.org/ and click on “Register Now.”  You can also take a “Test Drive” to see if this is something you would like to become involved in.

The following is from FamilySearch

FamilySearch continues to make progress on indexing the 1910 and 1920 United States Censuses, with five new states released this week.  In addition, new international projects are available for Germany, Spain, Jamaica, and Norway.

New Projects in the Past Two Weeks

Deutschland, Baden, Achern—Kirchenbücher, 1810–1869 [Part B]

España, Malaga—Registros Civiles, 1846–1870

Jamaica—Civil Births, 1878–1899 [Part A]

Norway—1875 Census [Part B] (In partnership with DIS-Norge)

US, Alaska—1920 Federal Census

US, Hawaii—1920 Federal Census

U.S., Illinois—1910 Federal Census

U.S., Indiana—1910 Federal Census

US, Iowa—1910 Federal Census

Recently Completed Projects

Argentina, Cordoba—Matrimonios, 1642–1931

Belgique—Registres Des Décès—En Français

Deutschland, Bremen—Schiffslisten, 1904–1914

U.K., Bristol—Parish Registers, 1837–1900 [Part A]

U.S., Kansas—1910 Federal Census

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world.  Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history.  To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years.  FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 9.10

Family History Expos are fun, exciting, amazing opportunities to learn about the techniques and technology available to trace your roots. You will be so enlightened here you’ll want to come back again and again.

Family History Expos has become a beacon of light for those trying to find their way through the sea of information in which their deepest family roots are buried.  Every event is another lighthouse strategically placed to guide you through this journey.

Who: Brought to you by Family History Expos.com and sponsors: FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, Generation Maps, Ohana Software, and Ancestral Quest.

What: St. George, Utah Family History Expo 2010

Where: The Dixie Convention Center - 1835 Convention Center Drive - St. George, Utah 84790

When: Friday February 26th, 2010. 8 AM to 6 PM

Saturday February 27th, 2010. 8 AM to 6 PM

At the door registration begins at: 7 AM Friday & 7:30 AM Saturday

Cost:

Exhibit Hall: Open free to the public – Imagine a room full of exhibitors with amazing products and services all designed to make your family history research faster, easier, more productive and fun.  Here you will find hundreds of people just like you who share your passion for family history.  Network and learn.

Keynote Address: Open free to the public- On the opening day of the event, the public is invited to participate in the Family History Expos keynote address.

Classes and Workshops

At the Door: $75.00 for both days, $40.00 for a single day, or $12.00 per class

Your paid registration includes:

Printed Event Program

Name Tag

CD syllabus - An outline or a summary of the main points of a text, lecture, or course of study.

Goody Bag stuffed full of coupons, discount offers, information and free trials

Opportunity to have a FREE research consultation with a professional researcher at the Family History Expos Ask-the-Pros booth (be sure to bring your research questions and sign up at the booth)

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 8.10

“FamilySearch, historically known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, is dedicated to the discovery and preservation of a record of the family of mankind, introducing individuals to their ancestors through the widespread access of records, and collaborating with others who share this vision.”

Note the part that says “The discovery and preservation of a record of the family of mankind.”  It is a lofty goal, but they are making progress!

FamilySearch Labs: Future Tools to Dig Up The Past

As they say on the FamilySearch Labs page: “FamilySearch Labs showcases new family history technologies that aren’t ready for prime time.”

Yes, they are developing, testing, and tweaking these “tools” in the FamilySearch Lab, but some of them (like Record Search) are up and running.  Use them now and keep checking back because they add more to their databases all the time.

Go to: http://labs.familysearch.org/  You will find FamilySearch Beta, this is a major renovation to the old familysearch.org web site.  Eventually new FamilySearch and old FamilySearch will be combined, and this is the idea they are working on and you can preview it.  They hope to make it a place where people can come together and work on their family history.

You can do a search for one of your ancestors in FamilySearch Beta.  Record Search is a quick and easy way to search millions of historical records for clues about your ancestors.  Click on a map to see what records exist for a geographical area or enter what you know about an ancestor, click search, and see matching records.  They are adding millions of new records, as the indexing is completed, at http://indexing.familysearch.org/.  These are the records formerly only found on microfilm at family history libraries.

Standard Finder is one of my favorites on the labs site.  With Standard Finder you can search for a standardized name.  It will present the standards that will be used in new FamilySearch.  I use it to find the county names for places as I enter data.  It will also give you the Geo Codes for your GPS.

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 7.10

It appears that genealogy is all over the television set these days.  PBS is releasing a four-part series, “Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr.”  The special, which builds upon the Harvard University professor’s popular documentary series “African American Lives” parts 1 and 2, traces the genealogical histories of 11 luminaries of various races and backgrounds.  The list includes author Malcolm Gladwell, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, former champion figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, television actress Eva Longoria, and Oscar-winning legend Meryl Streep.

When “Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” premieres on PBS in February, viewers will first get to see Kristi Yamaguchi learn about the grandfather she never really knew.  Meanwhile, novelist Louise Erdrich is shown cheering out loud when she is told one of her ancestors was one of the founders of Detroit.

“What this special proves is that white people, Latino people and Asian people are just as ignorant about their ancestors as black people,” Gates told reporters at a Television Critics Association lunch.  “The difference was, this time we were able to go back further,” Gates said.

“Who Do You Think You Are?” premieres on NBC, Friday, March 5 (8-9 p.m. ET) and gives viewers an up-close and personal look inside the family history of some of today’s most beloved and iconic celebrities.  Among the celebrities featured are Matthew Broderick, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith.

Ancestry.com is NBC’s official partner on the series.  From executive producer Kudrow (”Friends,” “The Comeback”) “Who Do You Think You Are?” is an adaptation of the hit BBC television documentary series created and executive-produced by Alex Graham.  

“Who Do You Think You Are?” is produced by Wall to Wall productions (a Shed Media Company) in association with Is or Isn’t Entertainment.  Alex Graham and Lucy Carter from Wall to Wall and Lisa Kudrow, Dan Bucatinsky and Don Roos from Is or Isn’t Entertainment are the executive producers.  Bryn Freedman is the co-executive producer.  

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 6.10

On television the other day, appeared a commercial about the upcoming 2010 census.  My daughter-in-law asked me, what a census was.  Every ten years since 1790 the United States has taken roll of its citizens as mandated by the Constitution.  This year, we will continue that tradition by enumerating ourselves for the 23^rd time.

One of the main purposes of the census is to monitor population and adjust governmental representation accordingly.  The information you give during a census is kept confidential for 72 years.  After that, it becomes public record.  Why?  Because of the Privacy Act and 72 years is about the average life span of a person. 

Currently we can access census records up to 1930.  In 2012, the 1940 census will be released.  As you get involved in genealogy, you will definitely want to refer to census records.  While they don’t give you a lot of information, you will find the people in family units from the 1850 census forward.  You can track the migration of your relatives over time.  It is fun to track the family every ten years as the progress through their lives.  Census records used to be very difficult to search, but now due to the indexing and digitations of these records, you can easily find your family on census records.

Most of the time, census records can be very helpful.  They are not perfect and will contain spelling mistakes made by the census taker plus any errors made in the indexing of records.  The record is also only as good as the knowledge of the person who answered to door to the census taker.  FamilySearch Indexing is making many census records available online for free at http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html and you can help index more of the census records by volunteering at http://indexing.familysearch.org/

Don’t get frustrated if you can’t find a census record for 1890.  Most of those were destroyed in a Washington DC fire in 1921.  So, the census is coming this year and don’t be afraid.  He is not “big brother” coming to keep tabs on you.  At the very least, he’s going to insure your future decedents can find you and might even help Utah get another Representative in Congress.

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 5.10

The following tips are suggested by the Family History Department for using New FamilySearch:

1. New FamilySearch provides excellent online helps.  Members should view the short video tutorial and the Help section before getting started.  For additional help, members can contact FamilySearch Support by e-mail support@familysearch.org or by toll-free phone.  In the United States and Canada call 1-866-406-1830.

2. Keep in mind that the New FamilySearch reflects a community view.  The program includes everyone’s contributions, and contributors see each other’s contributions.  For members with extensive pioneer ancestry, there could be many contributions and entries for popular, shared ancestors to sort through; some of the tips below will help deal with that issue.

3. If you are surprised to find a common ancestor is missing in your family tree, search the entire database to ensure that ancestor does not already exist in another tree before creating a new individual.  This helps to avoid duplication.

4. Don’t worry about inaccurate or incorrect data that shows up in the Details section.  If you are confident that it is the correct person, then don’t worry and don’t dispute.

5. The Dispute feature should be used only in rare instances where the information is so false it would damage the summary view of the person, and you cannot contact the contributor of the wrong information to correct it.  Disputing any information locks the record, and nobody, not even the original contributor, can work with it until the dispute is removed.

6. Before you clear any name for temple work, be sure to do an extended search to ensure the work has not already been done.  Combine all records you think are about that person.  Think of this task as filing all notes on a particular person in his or her file folder.

7. Try viewing your family information with the dynamic Family Tree tool.  To do this from the home page of new.familysearch.org, click on See Me and My Ancestors; then click on the arrow next to Change View in the upper left corner.  Choose Family Tree.  This view will allow you to see more generations at a time.  You can also easily see the descendants of a person to determine if they need temple work.

8. Take advantage of products from certified FamilySearch affiliates.  These programs are compatible with the New FamilySearch and provide additional capacity, tools and services like you might find in a robust desktop software program.  These products include: FamilyInsight by Ohana Software, RootsMagic by Roots Magic, Ancestral Quest by Incline Software, All My Cousins by GeneSys Foundation, MobileTree by AppTime, Charting Companion by Progeny Software.

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 4.10

This information was taken from an article by Chanae Landeen, For Mormon Times

There has been so much time spent fixing problems with family history resources that we don’t spend enough time finding ancestors, said Don Anderson, director of the Family History Library and Worldwide Support Services Division of the Family History Department of the LDS Church.

“We need to stop this cycle of re-researching what many generations have researched before,” said Anderson, who spoke Saturday, Oct. 17, during the biannual Family History Conference at BYU-Idaho.

Anderson spoke of the new programs that the Family History Library is introducing and programs being phased out to make the family historians’ jobs easier.

Programs nearing the end are the Personal Ancestral File, compact disc products, International Genealogical Index, Pedigree Resource File, Family History Library catalog on CD, universal data entry, Vietnam and Korean war casualties, Scottish church records, research guidance and FamilySearch paper publications.

According to Anderson, “nearing the end” means sometime within the next decade.

The programs, Anderson said, are a part of a product cycle.  It starts with a vision of a way to make family history better.  Then it goes into the planning stage.  Next, the vision is designed and developed. Then it is tested, released and goes through the cycle again.  This is why the Family History Library is coming out with new programs.

The programs in the “beginning of product cycle” are Online Training, Family Tree Feature, Preparing Family Names for the Temple simplified, FamilySearch Wiki, Standard Finder, Record Search Pilot, FamilySearch Indexing and FamilySearch Book Scanning.

Anderson invited those unfamiliar with these programs to go to the FamilySearch Labs Web site. http://labs.familysearch.org/

“It’s a good place to get users to interact with programs to see if they work well,” Anderson said.

Anderson gave the audience a promise that he gives to everyone who works on family history.

“Jump in, get started and I promise you’ll get help from the other side … neighbors, family and, believe it or not, really unknown sources that just show up at your doorstep.”

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.

Issue 3.10

(The following article is excerpted from Chapter One of Drew Smith’s new book, Social Networking for Genealogists)

If we weren’t talking about computers or the World Wide Web, the term “social networking” might bring to mind the idea of joining clubs, attending parties, engaging in office politics, or volunteering for a community project.  Human beings are social animals, and we have a long history of building relationships with others, making new friends, and strengthening existing ties.  We enjoy activities that put us in contact with others who share our interests: sporting and recreational events, cultural events, political rallies, religious services, educational lectures, conventions, shopping trips … the list goes on.  We value the existence of special places that make these kinds of social networking possible: stadiums, auditoriums, houses of worship, classrooms, convention centers, shopping malls.  Within these places, we can find those who share our interests and who enjoy talking with us about them.  If these places did not exist, we would feel more isolated and cut off from the rest of society.

What happens when computer technology advances to a point where there are “virtual” places people “can go” in order to engage in social networking?  We “go” to our electronic mailbox as if it were the physical mailbox in front of our home.  We “go” to a website as if it were a store or clubhouse.  Although computer networks date back to the late 1960s, and the Web itself to the early 1990s, it has been only in the past decade that we’ve seen an explosion of social networking sites and services appear online, and even more recently that a large number of these have been designed specifically for genealogists.

Social Networking for Genealogists is about the type of social networking made possible by the development of international computer networks; availability of network access to most homes (especially broadband access); creation of websites dedicated to particular kinds of networking (posting photos, viewing and commenting on videos, seeing what books friends have in their libraries, etc.); and ease of participating in these sites without having to be a computer expert.

More to the point, the book is intended to identify those kinds of social networking sites and services that will be of the most interest to genealogists.  After all, most social networking sites were never developed with genealogists in mind (although this book will certainly discuss those sites that were). There are so many different sites that it can be confusing and overwhelming to explore them. Blog address: http://snfg.blogspot.com/

Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.