Issue 31.09
Picture in your mind the cleaning of a really messy closet or a garage. First of all you pull everything out and make an even bigger mess than you had to start with. Then you go through and put things back in, organizing as you go, putting similar items together, and getting rid of things that didn’t belong in there in the first place. You know that the time you spend sorting and organizing will save you more time in the future as you will be able to quickly find what you need when you need it.
This same principle applies to the new FamilySearch. Church headquarters has dubbed us “the clean up generation” because we have the tools to do the job. New FamilySearch was created using the International Genealogical Index (IGI), the Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File entries, LDS Church Membership records and other extracted and submitted data. Now that everything is in its place, it needs to be organized. We only need one record for each person who has ever lived, so if a person is included more than once, he needs to be combined into one folder.
We need to recognize our ancestors in spite of discrepancies in the information. Using the new FamilySearch as our tool, we will search for and combine duplicate records. Any conflicting or variant data will appear in one file folder, making it easier for others to find. For example, if I go in and combine all of Archibald Sullivan’s duplicate records, no one else will have to combine them for him, unless they submit a GEDCOM file of duplicates, which is an article for another day!
We need to make any corrections, especially if they are our own mistakes. For example my great-grandmother liked the name Veronica so she had written her name as Hattie Veronica Parry. Her maiden name was Rees and it was not spelled with an e at the end. I didn’t know all of those details when I first submitted her in 1992. There are 15 records for Hattie in the new FamilySearch. I have combined them all into one folder and corrected her actual given name as Hattie Rees. The file in the IGI with Hattie Veronica Rees is still there, so is the Hattie Reese record, but since they are all the same person, they have been combined into one folder. I have corrected her birth date of about 1882 in Wales to 30 Apr 1892 in Butte, Silver Bow, Montana.
Shanna Sullivan Jones is a professional genealogist now accepting new clients. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.