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.

Issue 2.10

In recent articles I described the three current programs that will synchronize your family history records with the New FamilySearch program.  They are Ancestral Quest, Family Insight and RootsMagic.  Recently the creator of both PAF and Ancestral Quest created a comparison chart and accompanying video discussing the three programs.  I found the video very enlightening even though I have used and am familiar with all three programs.

Gaylon Findlay, of Incline Software, the creator of PAF and Ancestral Quest said, “As a service to all who are trying to get a sense of the differences between the three current certified syncing products: Ancestral Quest, FamilyInsight and RootsMagic, I have just completed a detailed comparison.

This is the page to access the chart and accompanying video:

http://www.ancquest.com/CertCompare.htm

When I began the process of comparing these products, I had heard of one major difference, but the more I explored the more surprised I became at what I found.  I am in a position to understand better than most what these products must do to “talk” to New FamilySearch, so I was able to examine things that many folks might overlook.  I expect that the video will be very educational for all who take the time to watch it.

As one of the authors of both Ancestral Quest and PAF, I know that this video may be a bit biased, but I have tried to make it very fair and straight forward.”

I found the videos very educational and pointed out some of the differences I had noticed, but in a more detailed comparison.  There is a fourth program in the making, Legacy, which will soon be released that will also synchronize with the New FamilySearch program.

New FamilySearch’s December 2009 release contains a new pedigree view that allows you to display more information in more ways.  Some of the rules that are used to determine whether temple ordinances can be done have also been modified.  When you click the Me and My Ancestors tab, you will see the Family Pedigree with Details as usual.  If you click the Change View button, you can now switch to the Family Tree view or the Individual List view.  This Family Tree view was only available on the labs site, but has now been incorporated into the NFS program.

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

Issue 52.09

How does one prevent well-meaning patrons from combining or recombining persons who are not the same but are often thought to be?  How do you notify them in a clear and concise way to consider evidence that will dissuade them from taking the action? 

How do you identify a record that has been incorrectly combined by the system to help prevent others from combining it?  If this record is combined with other records, even if it is the same person, it creates a looping problem.  Looping problems occur when a father is linked as his own son and this is usually caused by bad combinations of records.  Users must be careful when combining names especially when a son is named the same name as his father.

Questions like this cause a lot of frustration when using the New FamilySearch program.  You can find the solution to these problems by going to the Help Center on the home page of new FamilySearch.  Then simply type in what you want to know.  I heard the word “Quarantine” at the family history center the other day.  I didn’t know I could quarantine a record, so I went to the help center and checked it out.  It was talking about creating a “Do Not Combine With” notice, which is in theory a quarantine notice.  The help center referred me to document # 107805.

After we have uncombined the erroneously combined individuals, we can mark the record to hopefully stop the problem from happening again.  Step 1: Go to the Details page of the person.  Step 2: Click on Add Information at the bottom left of the page.  Step 3: Under Personal Facts, check the box by Other (fact type not listed) at the bottom right of the page, and then click Continue.  Step 4: Fill in the Title with such words as “DO NOT COMBINE WITH THE FOLLOWING…” and add the name of the person who, when combined, causes the problem.  Step 5: In the Description field, add something such as, “Do not combine with [name of person, birth or other date, and/or place].”  If it is not the same person, then give some evidence that they are different either here or in the Source box.  If it is the same person, but the record has already been separated out and still contains multiple names, spouses and/or parents, indicate that fact in the Description field.  Step 6: Click Done, and “Do not combine” will appear on the Details page under Personal Facts. 

This same procedure can be followed to make patrons aware of other important facts or situations in the records.  If you need help, while in the Help Center, click the tab at the top: Personal Assistance.

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