I'm getting ready to teach a class to the Relief Society Sisters [women in my church] this coming Wednesday. Always before I teach I need to thoroughly poke around on familysearch.org and their blog in order to make sure that I am on top of what is new and current. I've been caught off guard SO MANY TIMES. The technology is plowing ahead at an amazing speed and sometimes I have a hard time keeping up.
Not only do I need to be aware of what is new, but I have made handouts for my classes and I have a hard time keeping up with them and all the changes that are taking place. Tonight I came across a gold mine though!
There is a Familysearch Library located in Riverton, Utah (South of the "Mecca library"- aka THE Family History Library in Salt Lake). Personally I have yet to go there, but I have heard great things about it. I have even more reason to love it... it looks like they do regular classes (another reason I would love to visit) but they are kind enough to post their handouts ONLINE!
If you are doing anything from using familysearch, to adding sources, to doing google searches, check out their handouts. [As of today] many of them are current including familysearch and I personally found them helpful so you are sure to as well. I just printed out the Search tools handout and I'm heading back to print off the general familysearch one.
Now the question is what to include in my class this week and how to keep the number of pages down? :)
I've included a link to their guides on my blog on the left for future reference.
Happy Tree Climbing!
Showing posts with label General Family History Info. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Family History Info. Show all posts
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Small and Simple Things
Simple things you can do NOW to get yourself and your family
involved in family history work and thus gain access to the promised blessings
that come with it.
These tips come from a class I taught a few months ago.
1. Interview Family Members and Share Their Stories Online
There is a lot of information available online about interview relatives as well as fabulous tools to make it easier. I encourage you to learn more.
A few simple tips are:
•Decide who you want to
interview.
•Prepare a list of
questions. •Avoid questions that can be answered Yes or No.
•Make an appointment beforehand.
•Keep the interview to a reasonable amount of time.
•Use a digital recorder, smartphone app, or camera to record your interview
•Take notes.
•Transcribe and share notes as a courtesy and to check accuracy.
FamilySearch.org has made it easy to upload and share memories -stories and photos- online. Be sure to check them out at https://familysearch.org/photos/
2. Take and Share PhotosThis goes along with sharing stories.
Taking photos of living relatives, heirlooms, and so forth, can provide powerful experiences for future generations. Sharing photos in your possession is an important part of preserving them. Technology has made it really simple to do.
The photo sharing application on familysearch.org allows patrons to upload photos and add names, descriptions, and other information. https://familysearch.org/photos/
3. Discover Your Fan Chart
Fan charts allow you to see four+ generations at one time. They are a helpful tool that is easy to understand that you can use when sharing your tree with fellow family members. They also easily allow you to see holes in your family tree.
There are various places where you can get your fan chart printed. One website that pulls your information from familysearch and creates a fan chart for you that you can print is www.createfan.com.
4. Record Your Life
Remember that telling your own story is a part of doing family history. Keeping a record of your life is important. Your way of capturing your own story can be as unique as you are.
5. Get Involved in Indexing
FamilySearch indexing unlocks access to the world's records by making them searchable for free at familysearch.org. This is a monumental effort that anyone can participate in. Every little bit helps and we all benefit.
Check it out at https://familysearch.org/indexing
6. Find Your Cousins
Also known as descendancy research this is the process of finding the descendants of your ancestors. There are many benefits to doing descendancy research. Some of these include:
•Researching forward in time can help you break down your brick walls
•Find relatives researching the same line
•Find relatives who know stories and have photos of your common ancestor
•Records are more readily available as you move forward in time
7. Search Out Your Ancestors
Probably obvious, but always continue to research your ancestors. Record availability is always changing and doors open every day.
Just keep climbing...
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Familysearch.org and Family Tree
My ward (congregation) has sure put me to work. Since my assignment as family history consultant I have given a presentation about small and simple things you can do in family history for a women's class, started teaching a seven lesson class once a week, given a brief presentation to about 100 people about familysearch, and I am now preparing to teach two more classes to youth groups in the next couple weeks. Oh and I'm working in our local family history center a few hours this week.
I'm feeling BUSY!
It's a good busy and it is exciting to be a part of it all!
Amid all these assignments I have had to quickly become very familiar with Familysearch.org. And lucky me it had recently gone through a complete overhaul shortly before I was called. I have worked with new.familysearch.org and I have searched records on labs.familysearch.org but both of those are old hat to this new system.
There are so many wonderful features on familysearch.org now. Be sure to check them out!
Family Tree:
This is where you can keep track of your pedigree. It is similar to new.familysearch.org but so much smoother and user friendly. The ability to add sources is greatly improved over the new system. Especially with sources that are coming directly off of familysearch.org. I've been spending a lot of time just adding sources to the information that is already on my tree. It makes me feel so much better when information can be supported and verified by sources!
Photos and Stories:
This new feature is AWESOME! You can find and/or share heritage photos on the website and link them to your family lines. This is a great way to preserve and share important photos that you have inherited. I have been slowly working on adding the photos I digitized at my grandma's a few years ago. My husband has benefited from other family members uploading photos and stories onto his family line. He has a second cousin that is transcribing a personal history and we have been able to read the stories and share them with our children. It is amazing to read about Josh's pioneer heritage and the sacrifices they made for their families and the gospel.
Search:
This is where you can gain access to all the millions of records being indexed by thousands of volunteers worldwide. It is an amazing collection that is FREE and growing daily.
Familysearch.org has also made it really easy to find, prepare, request and manage the temple work for our ancestors. So much better that when I started doing family history and you had to go to a FHC and work on a dos program. :P
Another thing I am really impressed with is familysearch's helpcenter. They have dozens of videos to help you with familysearch, teach you how to do family history research, online research help, etc...
This has been particularly helpful as I have been learning about familysearch.
The ease and accessibility of this website and many more popping up all over the internet is a testimony to me of the importance of family work. It is a blessing to be a part of this work that is accelerating a such an exciting speed.
I'm feeling BUSY!
It's a good busy and it is exciting to be a part of it all!
Amid all these assignments I have had to quickly become very familiar with Familysearch.org. And lucky me it had recently gone through a complete overhaul shortly before I was called. I have worked with new.familysearch.org and I have searched records on labs.familysearch.org but both of those are old hat to this new system.
Family Tree:
This is where you can keep track of your pedigree. It is similar to new.familysearch.org but so much smoother and user friendly. The ability to add sources is greatly improved over the new system. Especially with sources that are coming directly off of familysearch.org. I've been spending a lot of time just adding sources to the information that is already on my tree. It makes me feel so much better when information can be supported and verified by sources!
Photos and Stories:
This new feature is AWESOME! You can find and/or share heritage photos on the website and link them to your family lines. This is a great way to preserve and share important photos that you have inherited. I have been slowly working on adding the photos I digitized at my grandma's a few years ago. My husband has benefited from other family members uploading photos and stories onto his family line. He has a second cousin that is transcribing a personal history and we have been able to read the stories and share them with our children. It is amazing to read about Josh's pioneer heritage and the sacrifices they made for their families and the gospel.
Search:
This is where you can gain access to all the millions of records being indexed by thousands of volunteers worldwide. It is an amazing collection that is FREE and growing daily.
Familysearch.org has also made it really easy to find, prepare, request and manage the temple work for our ancestors. So much better that when I started doing family history and you had to go to a FHC and work on a dos program. :P
Another thing I am really impressed with is familysearch's helpcenter. They have dozens of videos to help you with familysearch, teach you how to do family history research, online research help, etc...This has been particularly helpful as I have been learning about familysearch.
The ease and accessibility of this website and many more popping up all over the internet is a testimony to me of the importance of family work. It is a blessing to be a part of this work that is accelerating a such an exciting speed.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Finding Buried Treasure!
You may have noticed my absence throughout the month of July. July was full of traveling between Utah, Minnesota, and Colorado but now I am back, the laundry is caught up, and life is returning to normal.
I returned from my trip to Minnesota to visit my grandma with even more to blog about than before. I went out there with a goal to take note of and steps to preserve the family heirlooms, photos, and documents in my grandma's hands. It turned out to be a bit more work than I thought it would be. It was all literally buried. I went through just about every nook and cranny of her basement apartment, 27 years worth of stuff, looking for family photos and turning up all sorts of interesting things (along with a lot of garbage like bank statements from the 80's). In the end it was very rewarding. I was able to pull together a lot of her original photos some from the mid 1800's, as well as funeral cards, obituaries, my grandpa's honorable discharge, marriage certificates and notices, birth records, and much more. A GOLD MINE! I then set to work to scan it all and then put it in a binder so it will all be in one place (Grandma wasn't ready to let it out of her hands, yet). My goal is to share the stuff I found here in the months to come. It's going to take me awhile, I came away with about 600 images between scans and photos (I was able to use my new table top tripod) I took of heirlooms that my aunt and grandma have. I also came away with a stack of old (legal size) family group sheets to go through.
In addition to family history items I also found a stash of personal history items for myself. My grandma had a lot of my family photos that my mother doesn't even have copies of as well as original art work from when I was 2 years old on up.
If any of you have older relatives I would strongly encourage going through their stuff with them and I learned ALL their stuff, pictures and documents were stuffed everywhere! I came across a few items that only have meaning when you know their history and that history will be lost unless someone takes the steps to record and preserve it.
I've got my work cut out for me. Lots of pictures, documents, and information to come!
I returned from my trip to Minnesota to visit my grandma with even more to blog about than before. I went out there with a goal to take note of and steps to preserve the family heirlooms, photos, and documents in my grandma's hands. It turned out to be a bit more work than I thought it would be. It was all literally buried. I went through just about every nook and cranny of her basement apartment, 27 years worth of stuff, looking for family photos and turning up all sorts of interesting things (along with a lot of garbage like bank statements from the 80's). In the end it was very rewarding. I was able to pull together a lot of her original photos some from the mid 1800's, as well as funeral cards, obituaries, my grandpa's honorable discharge, marriage certificates and notices, birth records, and much more. A GOLD MINE! I then set to work to scan it all and then put it in a binder so it will all be in one place (Grandma wasn't ready to let it out of her hands, yet). My goal is to share the stuff I found here in the months to come. It's going to take me awhile, I came away with about 600 images between scans and photos (I was able to use my new table top tripod) I took of heirlooms that my aunt and grandma have. I also came away with a stack of old (legal size) family group sheets to go through.In addition to family history items I also found a stash of personal history items for myself. My grandma had a lot of my family photos that my mother doesn't even have copies of as well as original art work from when I was 2 years old on up.
If any of you have older relatives I would strongly encourage going through their stuff with them and I learned ALL their stuff, pictures and documents were stuffed everywhere! I came across a few items that only have meaning when you know their history and that history will be lost unless someone takes the steps to record and preserve it.
I've got my work cut out for me. Lots of pictures, documents, and information to come!
Friday, July 3, 2009
1850 Land Patent for George Daniels
Federal Land Patents:
The Bureau of Land Managment's website of General Land Office Records offers researchers a source of information on the initial transfer of land titles from the Federal government to individuals. In addition to verifying title transfer, this information will allow the researcher to associate an individual (Patentee, Assignee, Warrantee, Widow, or Heir) with a specific location (Legal Land Description) and time (Issue Date).
Information on how the Rectangular Survey System works can be found here.
The earliest verified record I have for George Daniels is his Land Patent dated 2 Dec 1850 for 40 acres in Clay County, Illinois.
AliquotParts: SWSE
Sec./Block: 35/
Township: 4-N
Range: 7-E
Fract.Section: No
Meridian: 3rd PM
State: Illinois
Counties: Clay
SurveyNr.
There are a few things that make this record valuable as far as genealogical research. First of all it puts George Daniels in Clay County at a specific time. Secondly, looking closely at where the land acutally is and then looking at the neighbors you find that his neighbor is Levi Daniel, father to George's wife. There is also a neighbor by the name of Whitely, the unverified maiden name of Levi's wife, Louisa. An interesting example of geoproximity and familial relationships in small areas. More research in the actual land records might prove to turn up more details.
A question though, where did George probably in his early 20's get the money to buy the land?
The Bureau of Land Managment's website of General Land Office Records offers researchers a source of information on the initial transfer of land titles from the Federal government to individuals. In addition to verifying title transfer, this information will allow the researcher to associate an individual (Patentee, Assignee, Warrantee, Widow, or Heir) with a specific location (Legal Land Description) and time (Issue Date).
Information on how the Rectangular Survey System works can be found here.
The earliest verified record I have for George Daniels is his Land Patent dated 2 Dec 1850 for 40 acres in Clay County, Illinois.
AliquotParts: SWSE
Sec./Block: 35/
Township: 4-N
Range: 7-E
Fract.Section: No
Meridian: 3rd PM
State: Illinois
Counties: Clay
SurveyNr.
There are a few things that make this record valuable as far as genealogical research. First of all it puts George Daniels in Clay County at a specific time. Secondly, looking closely at where the land acutally is and then looking at the neighbors you find that his neighbor is Levi Daniel, father to George's wife. There is also a neighbor by the name of Whitely, the unverified maiden name of Levi's wife, Louisa. An interesting example of geoproximity and familial relationships in small areas. More research in the actual land records might prove to turn up more details.
A question though, where did George probably in his early 20's get the money to buy the land?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Exciting Family History Purchases
This week I have made a few purchases that are family history related that I am very excited about. Two of them are a direct result of my attending the Family History Expo last week.
I splurged and bought Legacy Family Tree 7.0 from one of the vendors at the expo. It is a pedigree software that I had heard great things about. The reviews were great online and I attended their "product plug" class at the expo and was very impressed. I was using an old version of FTM but was unhappy with the search capabilities within the program and the research reports and I had also heard that people were not satisfied with the upgrade version. One of the big selling points for Legacy was their SourceWriter which takes a lot of the guess work out of citing sources (which is very important to me). There also has the ability to copy things to multiple individuals and events as well as the ability to map out where those events took place. I've been slowly copying over my information along with my sources and so far I really like it. There is a free download version available on their website. It does not have all the features of the deluxe version (which I would recommend) but would give you a feel for the program.
The second thing I bought as a result of the Expo is a Foldable Photo Camera Tabletop Stand (I got mine from overstock.com, you can also find it on amazon). I attended a class by Barry Ewell who demonstrated digital photography techniques for genealogists. He recommended the tabletop stand and demonstrated it in class. The stand is really a glorified tripod that allows you to direct your camera straight down, as well as any other angle, to take pictures of documents, books, and vintage photos on a flat surface. A tripod is necessary because you need a longer exposure time without a flash in order to get a good digital image. Barry Ewell says he even uses the tripod to take digital pictures of microfilm ON THE READER, saving him time walking down to the copy machine and messing with the film and copy card. He also said it makes it very easy to copy pages out of books and a lot faster and more convenient than using a scanner (though a scanner, when possible, is the ideal way to get the best quality image). I'm excited to get my package in the mail! I'll be sure to let you know how it works for me.
The third, and most thrilling (and expensive) purchase I made this week were airline tickets to Minnesota to visit my Grandma! I have felt like I needed to go and have been talking about going for years. But no more talking, the tickets are bought and I am leaving in less than a month. I am excited to see my Grandma, talk to her, hear all her stories (over and over), take stock of her pictures and documents, photograph heirlooms, eat Lil' Debbie cakes, and simply hug her. To be sure I will be toting along my digital camera, laptop, and table stand with me on the airplane (but I will be kid free, what will I do on a plane for 2 hours without kids?!?) in anticipation of doing some family history with the oldest living relative I have. I'm excited!
I splurged and bought Legacy Family Tree 7.0 from one of the vendors at the expo. It is a pedigree software that I had heard great things about. The reviews were great online and I attended their "product plug" class at the expo and was very impressed. I was using an old version of FTM but was unhappy with the search capabilities within the program and the research reports and I had also heard that people were not satisfied with the upgrade version. One of the big selling points for Legacy was their SourceWriter which takes a lot of the guess work out of citing sources (which is very important to me). There also has the ability to copy things to multiple individuals and events as well as the ability to map out where those events took place. I've been slowly copying over my information along with my sources and so far I really like it. There is a free download version available on their website. It does not have all the features of the deluxe version (which I would recommend) but would give you a feel for the program.
The second thing I bought as a result of the Expo is a Foldable Photo Camera Tabletop Stand (I got mine from overstock.com, you can also find it on amazon). I attended a class by Barry Ewell who demonstrated digital photography techniques for genealogists. He recommended the tabletop stand and demonstrated it in class. The stand is really a glorified tripod that allows you to direct your camera straight down, as well as any other angle, to take pictures of documents, books, and vintage photos on a flat surface. A tripod is necessary because you need a longer exposure time without a flash in order to get a good digital image. Barry Ewell says he even uses the tripod to take digital pictures of microfilm ON THE READER, saving him time walking down to the copy machine and messing with the film and copy card. He also said it makes it very easy to copy pages out of books and a lot faster and more convenient than using a scanner (though a scanner, when possible, is the ideal way to get the best quality image). I'm excited to get my package in the mail! I'll be sure to let you know how it works for me.
The third, and most thrilling (and expensive) purchase I made this week were airline tickets to Minnesota to visit my Grandma! I have felt like I needed to go and have been talking about going for years. But no more talking, the tickets are bought and I am leaving in less than a month. I am excited to see my Grandma, talk to her, hear all her stories (over and over), take stock of her pictures and documents, photograph heirlooms, eat Lil' Debbie cakes, and simply hug her. To be sure I will be toting along my digital camera, laptop, and table stand with me on the airplane (but I will be kid free, what will I do on a plane for 2 hours without kids?!?) in anticipation of doing some family history with the oldest living relative I have. I'm excited!
Monday, June 15, 2009
FHL: Summer of Sleuthing
Last week I came across mention of the Family History Library's summer program for youth and families. I looked and looked for more information on Familysearch but was unable to find anything. Then while at the Expo one of the speakers mentioned the program and gave reference to it being on Familysearch Wiki. I looked it up today and I'm excited to share it.
Family History Library SUMMER of SLEUTHING - SOS!
- Are you looking for a fun activity to keep your children occupied this summer?
- Would you like to learn more about your family?
- Do you need a kick start to organize your family records?
The program includes a series of family history related challenges and activites that will help you learn more about yourself and your ancestors.
It is divided into age levels: preschool children, children, teenagers, and adults. There is also a series focused for LDS families that includes activites to complete activity day, young women, and young men requirements.
There is also a link to a website for children: Family Tree Kids which has many games and activites for kids focused on family history.
I am very excited to do this with my little boys. I'm all for starting 'em young.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
More Twitter Info
Well, I've been searching around on Twitter today looking for family history related "Tweets". I will be honest and say that there are quite a few out there and some of them are rather interesting. I even found a link to a post about "10 Ways to Use Twitter for Genealogy". I found the information very interesting. Here are the ways they gave:
1. Find other genealogists. Click Find People to search for folks with genealogy in their username. If you regularly read a blog, look on the blog for a link to Twitter. Once you find people you like following, see who they follow (listed on the right side of the person's Twitter profile).
2. Learn about research resources. Many bloggers (including yours truly) feed their posts to Twitter, so you click the "tweet" to see the whole post. You’ll also pick up tips in people’s tweets about the latest records they’ve found.
3. Get opinions on genealogy Web sites and products.
4. Ask questions. You can just throw it out to your followers, or direct your question to someone using @ and the user name, like this: @FamilyTreeMag.
5. Be heard by people who work at genealogy companies. Use Find People to search for the company name.
6. Get links to how-to advice. Tweets are 140 characters at most, but people often link to helpful articles they’ve found online.
7. Hear about industry news. It’s like having thousands of eyes and ears looking for even obscure and not-yet-announced stories. If you see RT in a tweet, that means someone is repeating the tweet of someone he or she follows—you can see how the news gets around.
8. See how funny genealogists can be. One to follow: @TheGenealogue
9. Find events. Genealogy societies, libraries, museums, and conferences often tweet upcoming events.
10. Get cheap stuff. Many companies use Twitter to publicize sales and giveaways (some are exclusive to Twitter followers). Online backup service @Mozy, for example, has regular Twitter giveaways.
Well, I think I will join the twitter flock aiming to focus on family history (though I am sure my personal life will creep in there as well). There is no guarantee how involved I will actually get. You can look for me on Twitter @climbingmytree
1. Find other genealogists. Click Find People to search for folks with genealogy in their username. If you regularly read a blog, look on the blog for a link to Twitter. Once you find people you like following, see who they follow (listed on the right side of the person's Twitter profile).
2. Learn about research resources. Many bloggers (including yours truly) feed their posts to Twitter, so you click the "tweet" to see the whole post. You’ll also pick up tips in people’s tweets about the latest records they’ve found.
3. Get opinions on genealogy Web sites and products.
4. Ask questions. You can just throw it out to your followers, or direct your question to someone using @ and the user name, like this: @FamilyTreeMag.
5. Be heard by people who work at genealogy companies. Use Find People to search for the company name.
6. Get links to how-to advice. Tweets are 140 characters at most, but people often link to helpful articles they’ve found online.
7. Hear about industry news. It’s like having thousands of eyes and ears looking for even obscure and not-yet-announced stories. If you see RT in a tweet, that means someone is repeating the tweet of someone he or she follows—you can see how the news gets around.
8. See how funny genealogists can be. One to follow: @TheGenealogue
9. Find events. Genealogy societies, libraries, museums, and conferences often tweet upcoming events.
10. Get cheap stuff. Many companies use Twitter to publicize sales and giveaways (some are exclusive to Twitter followers). Online backup service @Mozy, for example, has regular Twitter giveaways.
Well, I think I will join the twitter flock aiming to focus on family history (though I am sure my personal life will creep in there as well). There is no guarantee how involved I will actually get. You can look for me on Twitter @climbingmytree
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
TWITTER and Family History???
It seems that Twitter has been thrown in front of me a lot in the last few weeks. For the Family History Expo this weekend in Loveland, Colorado (which I am very excited to attend) I was encouraged to look into Twitter as a way to share my experiences while at the conference. TIME magazine this week had a cover article as well as a smaller one on Twitter and how it is changing the way people communicate. Then while looking through the schedule for the Expo I noticed that there is a class focused on Twitter:
"Twitter: A Promising Tool for Genealogy Microblogging by Dean Richardson (his blog)
(Beginner-Experienced) Perhaps you've thought of starting a "Geneablog"--an online journal in which you share your research discoveries and brick walls with the Web-connected world--but recoiled at the time commitment involved or at the sheer effort required to write polished, fun-to-read posts on a consistent basis. If so, why not try "Tweeting" instead? In this talk we'll discuss Twitter, the new online phenomenon that lets you publish brief, spontaneous thoughts (genealogy-related or not) to a receptive audience in 140 characters or less."
I think I understand what Twitter is BUT I still don't understand the value of it in general or even more specifically the value of it to Family History Research and collaboration. I guess I might just have to take the class.
Do any of you use Twitter and have found it to be more than just another distraction but something useful?
"Twitter: A Promising Tool for Genealogy Microblogging by Dean Richardson (his blog)
(Beginner-Experienced) Perhaps you've thought of starting a "Geneablog"--an online journal in which you share your research discoveries and brick walls with the Web-connected world--but recoiled at the time commitment involved or at the sheer effort required to write polished, fun-to-read posts on a consistent basis. If so, why not try "Tweeting" instead? In this talk we'll discuss Twitter, the new online phenomenon that lets you publish brief, spontaneous thoughts (genealogy-related or not) to a receptive audience in 140 characters or less."
I think I understand what Twitter is BUT I still don't understand the value of it in general or even more specifically the value of it to Family History Research and collaboration. I guess I might just have to take the class.
Do any of you use Twitter and have found it to be more than just another distraction but something useful?
Friday, September 5, 2008
Website: GenDisasters
I came across this cool website a few weeks ago. It is a database that collects information about various disasters that have happend in the United States (and Canada) throughout history. The events are not necessarily major ones that make it into the history books, but ones that affected everyday people, even our ancestors. Many of them are gleaned from newspapers and other odd sources. You can search by state, disaster, or browse by year. It is also set up so you can comment and add information to an entry. I think it is so interesting to go through and read how they described the disaster and the people involved.Take a look and see what sparks your interest.
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