October Indexing Statistics

 Autumn in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania

Photo taken by Bishop Bob Wooley

October Stake Indexing Report

484,675  YTD cum  

Total for October = 27,974

Ward Indexing & Arbitration for October

Clinton                         1504

Edmond 1st                  1966

Edmond 2nd                 2791

Okc 5th                          368

Okc 1st                         2287

Okc 4th Branch             338

Okc 3rd                        3828

Okc University                91

Quail Creek                 6016

Village                         5197

Woodward                   2810

Youth Ward Indexing

Edmond 1st                               467

Okc 5th                                       47

Village                                      264

Calling All Indexers and Arbitrators

 Kentucky Genealogy Society Web page

As you can see, by our statistics, we are falling way behind this year in Indexing in our Stake. I am asking each of you to please try to do 100 names, or more if you like, to help us reach 500,000 names by the end of December. More would be better because out of our 690 registered indexers in the Stake only 66  indexed or arbitrated in October. I know that we have, including me, really dropped the ball on indexing and arbitration this summer for many reasons.

First of all everything was disrupted and turned up side down by that tornado this spring. Many of you put a lot of time into helping with the recovery and that was greatly appreciated by all. Then the Church put a big push on for all of us to learn about FamilySearch Tree.  Adding photos, stories and sources are great features. I have to admit I am working on it almost every day and find it very addicting.

 FamilySearch set up a challenge, with a nice reward, for the person who enters the 12 Millionth Source to Family Tree. We all have to learn how to use the Tree, since NewFamilySearch is going to be a read-only status at the end of this year. With all new programs there is a learning curve. The was also a learning curve in Indexing after we finished the 1940 census records and indexing/arbitration fell off. Now there are many County marriage record projects that are not difficult to work on.  I have faith in all of you and I am praying, that with your increased assistance we can do better. 

Thank you for all that you do for family history, and remember that  indexing is doing your family history. Every name indexed and arbitrated brings an eternal blessing to a researcher or a family member. 

Happy  Veterans Day  on November 11th, 

and thank you for your service to the Nation

Sourcefull Saturday

Taken from the Kentucky Genealogical Society Website 2013

This week I woke up with a vivid "dream" that I needed to go into a family group sheet and fix all the birth dates of the children. I had no idea who's family that might be and I was telling my husband how strongly I felt about this kind of message.  So I got up, it was just 5:30 am, with the intention that this would be my sewing day, but ended up spending the whole day working on the family group sheet of Peter Seldon Transue, my mother's side of the family.

It seems that in my MyHeritage program I was looking at some "Record Matches" for Peter the night before, and I decided to see what I had done on his family. Maybe this was the family, I wasn't sure.  I discovered that I had only one child listed in Peter's family. That seemed strange, so upon opening another window and looking at my tree in  FamilySearch (FS), sure enough, I discovered that someone had added 9 children to Peter's family. The next thing I had to do was prove that these 9 children were really the children of Peter S Transue.

Thanks to "Record Search", found on the left side of a person's profile page in FS Tree, I easily located several census records that showed 7 of these children. With just a click of my mouse I added those records as SOURCES to my tree and corrected the birth dates. (Amazingly all of the children I had found in the FS tree had the wrong birth dates!!) In the 1910 U.S Census, it was reported that 9 children had been born, but only 7 were living. While I could only prove that 7 of the children belonged to this family the FS program allowed me to prepare 7 more names to take to the Temple. For the remaining children I posted a discussion note about having proof of the birth dates, opening up collaboration with the submitter.

 I know that the Spirit of Elijah was speaking to me through my dream. I listened to those promptings, and I also know that Peter S Transue wants his family sealed together forever. I am so glad to be able to do this work and must add here that all of this is possible because of the work you have been doing by indexing and arbitrating. YOU are making these records available to researchers like me. And thankfully, through the efforts of FamilySearch  hundreds of thousands of records are added every week. To all, keep up the good work!

Free Ancestry.com subscription for Schools

Pocono Township School, Tannersville, PA grades 1-12 taken between 1925 - 1930
original photo scanned from private collection by Lois Gilbert 2007

Ancestry.com has a Classroom Learning Grant that provides three month's free access to Ancestry.com's subscription for schools. If you know any teachers please tell them about this offer. Lesson plans are available to help teachers and they contain the follow topics:

• 1940 Census Lesson
• The Census and the Constitution
• The Census and the Depression
• Autobiography
• Biography
• Immigration over Time
• Civil War
• Military Lesson
• Personal Side of War ( American Revolutionary War)
• War of 1812
• WWI
• Battles (WWII)
• Local History is Your Community History
• Historical Crime
• Haunted House
• Suffrage Movement
• Trail of Tears Lesson
• How Life Influences Art
• African American Congressmen Lesson

Kim Harrison of  the Ancestry Library Team said that  "We provide lesson plans to help you integrate historical records into the classroom and teach students how to manage research projects, approach critical thinking and gain communication skills for life".
To apply write to :

http://ancestrylibrary@ancestry.com  

They will give you some more information and a grant application.

FamilySearch.org and MyHeritage.com make New Contract

FamilySearch recently entered into a new contract with MyHeritage.com which will give MyHeritage access to over 2 million records now held by FamilySearch. In return MyHeritage is going to give FamilySearch the technology of their very popular "Record Matching" and "Smart Matching" features.

Brother Dennis Brimhall of FamilySearch indicated that while MyHeritage is a paid subscription this new contract will give  access to records to people who may have never been able to see them. These records will still be available for free to all users of FamilySearch and we will be seeing more improvements with the search features. 

To me this is a win-win deal. I feel that the Church is preparing for the millennial by giving access to their records to the world, and by speeding up FamilySearch programs. We should keep in mind that some state and local genealogy groups do not make their records available for free and so companies like MyHeritage and Ancestry pay for those records. The Church does not always have that privilege.

September Report and Oklahoma Marriages

Provo City Center Temple - "Under" construction

Oklahoma City Oklahoma Stake
Cum Indexing/Arbitrating
to 10/15/2013
468,957 Names

Total for September 2013 = 29,059 Names

Indexing Results for September by Ward

• Clinton                                1342
• Edmond First                       2303
• Edmond Second                  3853
• Okc Fifth                              620
• Okc First                             1402
• Okc Third                            5578
• Quail Creek                         4762
• Village                                 5282
• Woodward                            707 

Youth

Edmond First                               1089

Okc Fifth                                          24

Okc Third                                         23

Quail Creek                                        1

Village                                           2043

Autumn in Broadheadsville, PA taken by Bishop Wooley 

Indexing Suggestions

Some of you may be wondering "what can I index?" as there are not many level 1 batches available. Please consider trying a level 3 batch. One that I would suggest is the Oklahoma County Marriages. There are two records on each image and most batches contain an overlay. If you will start by reading the PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS and clicking on the first blue link that says "click here"  you will find some very good examples of how to index an overlay. I have called SLC several times to question them even further about an overlay. You can call for help at this number 1-866-406-1830 , just ask for indexing help and you will find that they are very kind and helpful. Here are a few things in general that I have learned about overlays in the Oklahoma County Marriage project:

1. Most overlays are parental permission forms or letters.
2. Index only what you see on the overlay IF the full record underneath appears on another image. If that record does not appear on the next image, then index all information from overlay and from the record underneath as one record.
3. The record that appears underneath the overlay will be indexed as a separate record if it is the next image with the overlay flipped back.
4. By going to TOOLS, you can mark each image as having two records, if needed.
5.  A second photo of the image was normally made with the overlay folded back.
6. Always look for on the  parental consent form,  right below the application at the top of the page, for a parents signature. It may not be an overlay.
7. Marriage dates are on the bottom of the form. If they did not go through with the marriage, use the application date.
8. There are 10 images in a batch, most have 20 records in a batch.

I am excited to work on this project as I was one of the document preparation volunteers  for the Utah Genealogical Society,  when they came to the Oklahoma City Court house to microfilm these records in 1998. Our own Alice Lynn Bodyston of Woodward headed up the project at that time.

taken from the Kentucky Genealogy Society website

How do you get people to return to Indexing after they have been looking at Family Tree and preparing names for the Temple?

By teaching them the Gospel Principles of "Turning the Hearts". See D&C 110: 13 & 14.  Elder Birmhall, Head of FamilySearch, said that "Every name indexed is an opportunity for Eternal Blessings". Indexing and Temple work is doing Family History. 

Our Stake needs to get back to Indexing and Arbitrating, "behold the time has fully come". Did you know there are over 1 million records just waiting for Arbitration before they can be viewed by patrons. We need more Arbitrators. If you are interested please contact me, or your Ward Group Administrator.

Source-full Saturday

Building your Family Tree

Family Tree Webinar

Last night the Utah Genealogical Association - Virtual Chapter offered a free Webinar which featured Ron Tanner, a Product Manager for the Family History Department of the Church. Tanner discussed the newest features of FamilySearch Tree and the coming features that look very exciting to me as a contributor to the Tree.

These features include the following:

• History List - under People tab, shows the last few persons you viewed and lets you add someone who is "not connected to your tree".
• Ability to select the preferred person to display on your tree such as a second wife instead of the first wife.
• Search Records for person you have opened in profile view . It puts in all of their information into the search fields and pulls up all documents available in Family Search. Very nice feature! Then allows you to add them to your source list and attaches them to your person in your tree.
• Sorting your sources - there is now a up/down arrow on the right side of each source which allows you to move a source to a new position in the list.
• Stories and Photos - I love this feature!  You must tag your photos after you add them and they will go onto your assigned person in the tree. You will also see photos that others may have entered for you person. Stories can be written and attached to multiple people in your tree. These stories can be copied by others and edited in their word processor as they write their own stories, but as I understood things, they can not be edited in your tree.

New Features to be coming soon in FamilySearch Tree are:

• Printing out a Fan Chart for the person you are viewing and allowing you to move another person in that chart to the #1 position and printing a new chart.
• Adding Sources and Notes from New Familysearch to the Familysearch Tree. The new Family Tree will hold up to 15 pages of text in Notes. Always add a source, otherwise it is just hearsay.
• Scanning and adding documents as images and attaching them to a  source citation, which you have to write, and then attaching them to a person in the tree.
• Deleting a person - you will have to give a reason before deleting a person. If this privilege is abused then you can report the problem and the person responsible for deleting someone in the tree will get a call from the FamilySearch and if it continues they could possibly have their account deleted.
• Re-directing all users to FamilySearch Tree by the end of the year. We all must learn how to use the Tree.

One thing to remember when you are working in the Tree: When you are adding a new person, if you click on "FIND" you are only searching your tree. You should click on "SEARCH" as that will search all trees, and you never know if someone else may have already added your person. Avoiding duplication is a key thing. Always look for duplicates.

I just love the new tree. Many people who are use to using New FamilySearch may find it complicated, but like any new upgrade to a computer program, you will find that once you learn how to use it you will see that it is much better and in this case more collaborative. Be sure and check your profile and allow users to see your email address so they can contact you, but not your other personal info. Come to the library and let the Consultants show you how to use the Tree for an exciting experience.

Regional Family History Meeting

Regional Family History Meeting at South Stake

Rainbow in the Pocono Mts of Pa. taken by Bishop Bob Wooley 2013

Last Sunday, September 15th, all the Family History Consultants, High Priest Group leaders, High Councilmen, and anyone interested in Family History work were invited to attend the Regional meeting, and the place was packed.  Brother Abram who is the Area Family History Advisor was there, as well as Brent Summerhays from FamilySearch. Brother Summerhays  is the Area Manager for  the Church in the North America Southwest area. Summerhays was the main speaker and his presentation was very interesting and uplifting. He was followed by the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Temple President, Don Hanson.

Brother Abram's said that they hope we would all come away from this meeting more determined to be involved in family history. He quoted D&C 110, Vs 13; "Behold the time has fully come..." and said that was a very historic time and that the time has fully come for us all to do the sacred work spoken of in that chapter. He said " Just imagine when you get to the other side of the veil that our ancestors will either greet us with arms thrown around our necks and with tears of thanksgiving, or with looks of disappointment because we gave up and did not do their work."

Brother Summerhays  talked about  the purpose of the meeting, which was " Members with Temple Recommends and Family History responsibilities are now invited to become ambassadors for change in the work of Salvation." The work of the Lord is hastening, we need to do this work, it is our responsibility.

He presented a very nice power point program and video presentations to support the changes in Family History and the new direction it is going. But, he said first we need to turn the hearts of the people we help, let them learn the stories of their ancestors, then produce the charts. Some of the recent changes in FamilySearch  that he briefly talked about are listed below. To learn more about how to use the new features come to the Family Search Center and talk with one of the trained Family History Consultants. They will show you how to get into your Tree and add names or Photos or Stories.

• Include Photos and Stories of you Ancestors. It is easy and fun. They will be preserved in your tree.
• Family Tree display - easier to move around and see who needs Temple work completed
• Interactive Fan Chart - you can change the person in the #1 position and see what lines need more work
• Beginner Help -  Five new excellent videos and instructions to get started. A resource Guide for the Tree, in PDF format
• Turning Hearts without Technology - a new booklet called " My Family, stories that bring us together" which is free if ordered through LDS.Org and will be passed on to the youth as well as those who lack computer skills.
• Calling Youth to be Family History Consultants (FHC's)
• High Priest Group Leaders deciding whose members home  the team of FHC's should go to and help with their family history. This unifies families and brings them to the Temple to do the work for their ancestors.
• Use of the Member's Guide to Temple and Family History Work be used in Ward Council meetings.
• High Priest Group Leaders should meet regularly  with each Family History Consultant in Ward.
• All of the largest Regional Family Search Centers are, eventually, going to be transformed into Family Discovery Centers. [Read earlier blog to see what they will include]

All of these things are pointing toward Family History being done at home, on your own computer or with help from a friend with a computer. The youth are feeling the change in their hearts and are embracing family history work.

President Hanson of the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Temple said that in eight years we will have 200 Temple, and with the infrastructure in place to hasten the work, that we really need the conversion of the hearts of the members. He stated that only 3% of the Church membership have ever turned in their four generation charts. 

President Henry B Eyring said that we need to rise to our call. That your calling as a family history consultant [and Indexers or Arbitrators] has eternal consequences and that we do not work alone, the Lord is with us. 

All of these things are happening because we have a terrific force of Indexers and Arbitrators who are helping move this work along. Thank you to everyone involved in Family History work in our Stake. We are doing a great job with eternal consequences and blessings.

Thoughtful Indexing Thursday

pinned from closed-for-winter.tumblr.com

New FamilySearch/Ancestry.com Agreement

Today as I was enjoying the sound of thunder and rain in the background my attention was drawn to some recent posts on the FamilySearch blog page, The Ancestry Insider blog and  on my favorite blog, Genealogy's Star.
 A new announcement from FamilySearch recently talked about a new agreement they have made with Ancestry.com. It appears that Ancestry.com, which is a for profit genealogy company, has offered to put up over $60 million dollars over the next five years to help Familysearch bring on-line approximately 1 billion global historical records that have never been seen. You can read about the new agreement at the FamilySearch blog or on Ancestry.com .Why would they do that? For several reasons, that I can discern.

It costs a lot of money to prepare the digitized images for Indexing and Arbitration at FamilySearch. Also in the past many records have been shared with Ancestry so that they can be accessible to a bigger, worldwide, market place.  Does that mean that those of us who are indexing for FamilySearch will have to pay to now see what we have done? NO.  The records will still be available for FREE.

All historical records that are indexed and arbitrated are available to anyone for free on FamilySearch.org just has they have been in the past.  They are also free on Ancestry.com if you come to a Family Search Center and use the on-line portal. Tim Sullivan of Ancestry.com said "the two will share international sets of records more collaboratively...... A significant part of our vision for family history is helping provide a rich, and engaging experience on a global scale." FamilySearch officials said " We look forward to more exciting developments as we continue to work with leading organizations in the genealogy community."

My thoughts are that I will still continue to index and arbitrate records because I love to help people experience the joy of finding their ancestors.  Volunteer indexers play a vital role in genealogy research. Our help will be needed for many more years. Even a small donation of time and talents will make a big difference for an unknown researcher. We all benefit from our indexing efforts, in more ways than one. It is good therapy for cold rainy days or  nights when you can't sleep.

Our Ancestors are Waiting

My cousins taken in 1930's in Pennsylvania

If you are researching for the records of your ancestors you may find that  you come up empty-handed. Don't be discouraged as all records are not on-line. You may have to visit the county that they lived in to find their records.  But that can all change if we index and arbitrate the images that we can get. Your dedication to the work may provide the records that can lead researchers to their ancestors.

As you know each batch is indexed by two people. If they both agree then no more work needs to be done and they can be published. If they do not agree than a third person will compare the two batches and fix the differences. This is called arbitration. Most arbitrators have indexed at least 2000 names and have at least a 95% - 97% arbitration rate.

As reported by Jennifer Anderson, in the FamilySearch Indexing Newsletter, "FamilySearch Indexing  is behind in arbitration by nearly four million images. That represents some 10 million individuals who names cannot be published."  If you are currently an arbitrator, thank you and keep up the good work. If you have not been arbitrating for awhile, then there is a new arbitration tutorial that helps you review the instructions. Just click on Help, next time you log into indexing, and look for the New Arbitrators video.

If you would like to become an arbitrator please contact your Stake Indexing Director or the Ward Indexing Group Administrator. Arbitration is a very vital part of the Indexing Program.Training is available.

September Indexing Cumulative for 2013

 

Top 5 Youth Indexers in 2012
On Display in Stake Center, Edmond and Surrey Hills Bldgs. 
Posters made by Toni Stowell - Village Ward

Hopefully you have seen this poster in one of our Stake Buildings that honors the 5 Top Youth Indexers. If you haven't please look for them in the foyer and take a minute or two to read the youth's bio's. They are a wonderful group of youth who worked very hard to earn that distinction last year. We are proud of all of the Stake Youth Indexers and may they all realize the tremendous work that they  are doing when they index each name. Thank you Toni for taking the time and your talents to make these beautiful posters.

New Family Search animated Video about indexing

Click on the link below to view the latest video created by FamilySearch as found on Legacy Family Tree Site. It is cute and explains why we index. A good film for youth to watch too.

http://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/familysearch-indexing/

BLOSSOMING AT THE TEMPLE

Photo taken by Linda Hardy

Stake Indexing Cum for 2013

426,542

Indexing  & Arbitrating Cums to 2 Sep 2013 by Wards

Ward                   Total         

• Clinton                                  13984   
• Edmond 1st                           40875      
• Edmond 2nd                          23951
• Okc 5th                               27547
• Okc 1st                                 53032
• Okc 4th Branch                             5
• Okc 3rd                                 39582
• University                                   184
• Quail Creek                           73,323
• Village                                    53706
• Woodward                             70348

Primary Age

Primary Okc 1st                                    164

Primary Quail Creek                              223

Youth 

Edmond 1st                                         2988

Edmond 2nd                                          464

Okc 5th                                               2128

Okc 1st                                                3865

Okc 4th Branch                                        75

Okc 3rd                                                1773

Quail Creek                                           3272

Village                                                 13667        

August Indexing News

July and August Word Drought

There haven't been any posts to this blog for some time, since June as a matter of fact, and I apologize to my followers and those of you who occasionally read my posts. This has been a trying time for me. We had a death in the family the end of July which warranted a long trip to PA for a funeral. In August my husband had a total knee replacement and I am still busy taking care of him. I have to admit, to all of you, that I have not been doing much indexing. Stake wide our numbers are very low and I don't know why that is happening. I am praying that we can regain our momentum now that the youth have gone back to school.

I read several blogs about indexing and Ancestry.com and FamilySearch  they contain very exciting news about the future of indexing and family history. I would like to share some of that news with you.

 Boston, MA Temple taken by Bishop Bob Wooley

Cool  Family History Library Concepts of the Future

Diane C. Loosle is the new director of the Family History Library in SLC. "She is the first female director and the most qualified and capable to ever serve in this position" according to Don Anderson, FamilySearch Senior VP. Loosle's top priorities is the take all the Family History Research Centers and make them into Family Discovery Centers. She said " they need to offer fun experiences and activities for the entire family that will increase love, appreciation and understanding of their ancestors." The Family History Centers need to be more youth and family oriented. Changes will include the follow :

• Oral History Studios - where you can record your oral history and take it home on a jump drive.
• Photo Scanning stations -photos or documents can be scanned and can be uploaded into your Family Search account. Then you can go home and tag people and attach them to your tree.
• A Community Wall - a large touchscreen monitor  reflecting the locale and its history. You could share photos, recipes and so forth. It's your wall, your story.
• Story Center for Children - an interactive pop-up 3-D storybook.
• Monitors that will tell you things about your name- what countries your surname is found, etc.
• Computer stations - where you can still research your records on the internet.
• Time Machine - much like the holodeck of Star Trek, they hope it will be able to take people to places, such as an old blacksmith shop to learn what it was like to be a blacksmith in different time periods, 1830, 1850, etc. 

This sounds very exciting and a fun way to get the youth and families more involved with family history.  In the next 12 months FamilySearch, the Church, hopes to set up 3 - 5 of these new DISCOVERY CENTERS across the country. There is already one that you can get a sneak peak at  in Seattle Washington. Three Oral History Studios are already in operation in San Diego CA, Riverton, UT and Logan UT.  

I think this is a wonderful direction for Family Research to take.  At the present time the average age of a patron at the Family Search Center is 50 years, and they say that the youth don't feel welcome.  We are trying to make the youth feel welcome in our center and have offered many indexing sessions with various youth groups. Maybe more will come when it becomes a fun activity.

Last Wednesday night I was very pleased to see a young man from Quail Creek Ward come in to index for an hour. I was happy to be there to help him, and also a person that had never indexed was there and he wanted to learn, so I helped him. It is inspiring to me to be able to use my talents to help people with their family history research and with Indexing, which helps so many others. Our goal in the Stake is to help anyone who wants to index, learn how. How many callings have you had that offers so much help?

Family History Gathering and Stories

Summer Reunions and Family Stories

Summer is the time when most families get together and meet for family reunions. What a wonderful time to gather some family history information and stories of your ancestors. I always attend with a hand full of family group sheets and a completed pedigree chart. Most family members have no trouble helping me fill out a sheet for their family. If you aren't sure where to begin in writing your family story then you might be interested in attending this workshop down in Norman this Saturday.  

Nathan Brown, Oklahoma's poet laureate, will lead a workshop this Saturday, July 20th,

on preserving family stories at the Norman Public Library

at 10:00 a.m.  and at the Noble Public Library at 2:00 p.m. 

"Family Stories: How to Begin"

will feature tips on how to get started in research and recording of family stories

 that can be handed down from one generation to the next.

The workshops are free. No Registration is required.

Indexing Report from FamilySearch

FamilySearch recently reported that as an Indexing community we have completed 71,509,934

records, not names, (which could mean 10 - 50 names per record), this year!  Thank you from the Stake Indexing Group for helping to reach that total. I am very thankful for those who are indexing in our Stake.

You never know when the name you index may be the very name someone is looking for to document their family tree.  Below are a few recommendations from FamilySearch for new indexing projects. Try to look at them and see if you can find one you might like to work on.

• U.S., Texas, Del Rio-Allen Arrivals, 1906-1953  - Many cards are typed, if the first batch you down load is too hard, try another one. 
• U.S. Tennessee - Deaths 1956-1961
• U.S. applications for Headstones for Veterans 1941-1949 - read instructions about the way to index the back of the cards.
• U.S. Main - Vital Records Prior to 1892 for 80 Towns

Remember that a 3 level batch means you will have to add or mark lines blank, or no extractable data. A level 5 batch means you may have to add lines, and  that there are overlays that require special handling.

The Spirit of Elijah

A Special Video for the Youth 

and adults as well

At the Rootstech 2013 conference held in SLC last March, a heavy emphasis was placed on the youth and family history work. On Saturday over 2,000 youth attended special all day workshops on family history. There were also classes for Family History Consultants that day. What I learned from some of these classes was that the Church is promoting the calling of youth to positions as Family History Consultants. They are to work with the senior Consultants and to take family history into the homes of the members in their Wards and Stake. In turn they are to prepare their own names to take to the Temple.

June Indexing Results

Happy Fourth of July !!!!

Stake Indexing Cumulative for 2013

376,409

Ward total Indexing for June 

30,419

WARD                                                                TOTAL FOR JUNE

Clinton                                                                   1794

Edmond 1st                                                            2784

Edmond 2nd                                                            914

Okc 5th                                                                  3587

Okc 1st                                                                  4721

Okc 3rd                                                                 3972

Quail Creek                                                            4716

Village                                                                    4187

Woodward                                                             2597

YOUTH

Edmond 1st                                                               77

Okc 5th                                                                     10

Okc 1st                                                                    487

Village                                                                      946   

Suggestions for Easier Indexing Projects

If you are having a difficult time finding an indexing project that you can work on I would like to suggest you look at and try one of the following projects. There are lots of helpful examples under Project Instructions that clearly you show you what to do.  Look at these:

• US Massachusetts, Plymouth Colony Probate Index 1881 - 1939  (typed)  20 names/batch.

           TIPS: 

1.  If there are two names associated with a case, then put each name as a separate entry. You may need to go to tools to add another line.  
2.  If it is an adoption or name change and it says something like: "John Jones from John Edwards" then in  the Surname field put "  Jones or  Edwards" and in the Given name field put " John"  
3. Call me for help if needed.

• Massachusetts State Vital Records 1841-1920  Marriages, Births, Deaths ( some typed some handwritten all have been 1916 era with good handwriting) 

              TIPS:

1. Call me for help if needed.
2.  Do not assume the state name or county name, if it is not written on the record. 
3.  Father's surname is not on the birth records, do not put the child's surname for the father's surname, just tab past it.
4. If a child is recorded to have been "STILLBORN" do not use Stillborn as the given name. Put the word STILLBORN in the titles or terms field. Also if the child is reported to have been a "TWIN", put that in Titles or terms field.
5. You may need to add more lines for these records so go to TOOLS at the top of your page and choose NUMBER OF RECORDS PER IMAGE and add the appropriate number of lines.

Remember you can return any batch if you think it is too difficult . All batches are only keep in your work box for 7 days. After 7 days  it is taken back and any part that you might have started to index will not be counted toward your goal.  When you are finished with a batch it should automatically ask you if you want to submit it, click on OK. If you are not ready to submit it (maybe you have to ask someone a question about it) then say NO. When you are ready to submit it later, be sure you hit SUBMIT BATCH, not RETURN BATCH.  

On Line Family Trees

As most of you know Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com offer on-line family trees. FamilySearch is also using this same approach with their new FamilySearch Tree, which we all need to learn how to use. With these trees we are offered many possible matches with our own tree data. Right now I have over 5,000 possible smart matches with MyHeritage and hundreds of Shaking Leaves with matches in  my Ancestry.com tree. I am always getting emails from them saying they have found something new. Now for some this would be a wonderful opportunity or it might be a dreaded burden. How would you spend your time looking at all of those matches?

 First of all you need to look at your motivation. Do you really want to spend all day checking each and every one of them out, or do you just want to focus on the line you are working on at the time. I think I will follow the later idea and just work on the important ones. Those notices will stay out there and besides how do you even know if they are correct. You should  not  assume they are correct. Rather you should just use them as a guideline to future research. Never accept someone else's work unless there is documentation that you can follow and verify. Sources are the key to whether you should accept someone else's data.

You may ask why do I even bother with an Ancestry.com  or MyHeritage.com tree when it is all there in the  FamilySearch tree. For one thing, it is wise to have your family tree data in several different places to make sure it is going to survive. It also broadens your opportunity to collaborate with more folks. Personally, I like My Heritage because it is a company that started in Israel and  the eastern European genealogists have already entered their families. Which suggests to me that my family, that came from across the ocean, may connect with their families. Not only does MyHeritage connect to family trees but it also connects to documents like Old Newspapers and US Census records with a 97% accuracy.

Family Search Tree is adding features that makes it  very valuable  to all genealogist.  Features like the ability to add photographs and stories to your ancestors. They are working on the capability to add outside sources, like those you found in a courthouse and not on the internet. That would be wonderful since most people have a lot of those sources. The major attraction, for all genealogist, to FamilySearch Tree is that we know they are not going to be going out of business and our data will always be preserved. To me it is like putting it in the Granite Mountain Vault of computer bases.

Oklahoma's Mangled May Stake Indexing

Our deepest prayers go out to all of you who may have been affected by the terrible weather conditions we had in the month of May.  It surely is a time to give service to our neighbors and friends who need a helping hand and your support.

May Indexing Report by Ward/Branch

Total for Month of May =  54,943 Names  (and 49 returned batches)

• Clinton                                        2318
• Edmond 1st                                 6204
• Edmond 2nd                                3060
• Okc 5th                                        4121
• Okc 1st                                        5330
• Okc 3rd                                       6698
• Quail Creek                                 8890
• University                                          3
• Village                                         8714
• Woodward                                   9521    

Youth Indexing for May

• Primary Okc 1st                                172
• Youth Okc 5th                                       5
• Youth Village                                   1405

Indexing Project Suggestion

Suggestion for easy and fast records - level 1 - to do. This project would be good for the Youth who are going to work on the Young Women Olympic Challenge this summer.

Canada 1911 Census

Channel 5 News Anchors Genealogies

For those of you who did not get to see the Channel 5 presentations of the news anchors genealogy packages, prepared by  members of the Family Search Center, can do so by clicking on the links below. Paul Fogel and Jessica Schambach were very delighted when Donna Waddle , Sherry Brown, Lois Gilbert and Elizabeth Miller showed them the results of their research. Wendell Edwards and Maggie Stokes  were surprised to see how much material was found on the computer by Helen Lehmenn and Mary Lee Allen.

It was a very good experience for all of those who participated. I know that I learned a lot about researching in Puerto Rico and working as a team. To view the presentations that were aired on Channel 5 click on the links below.Each link is for a different presentation.

http://www.koco.com/news/oklahomanews/okc/wendell-learns-about-the-history-of-his-family/-/11777584/20194166/-/41t575/-/index.html

http://www.koco.com/news/oklahomanews/okc/Maggie-learns-about-the-history-of-her-family/-/11777584/20194356/-/nbiy51z/-/index.html

April Indexing Results and Digital Library

The April results are in for Indexing in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Stake:

Stake Total for 2013  = 295,044

Month of April by Ward
72,710 total

• Clinton                                 2421
• Edmond First                       3114
• Edmond Second                  6164
• Okc Fifth                             3708
• Okc First                             9227
• Okc Third                            7578
• Quail Creek                        14863
• Village                                14290
• Woodward                           6744

Primary 

Okc First                                         244

Quail Creek                                       20

Village                                               30

Youth 

Edmond First                                  75

Okc Fifth                                        10

Okc First                                        50

Okc 3rd                                        133

Village                                         5539

Wychwood Branch Library in Canada photo from Wikipedia Commons

DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARIES

There is a newly implemented Digital Public Library of America ( DPLA) which became active last week. It is one of hundreds of such library portals on the web. What makes this one so significant is that one of the partners is the Mountain West Digital Library. Mountain West provides over 700,000 free on-line resources from colleges, universality's , government agencies, counties and municipalities in the western states region. 

Some other digital libraries include the California Digital Library, The African online Digital Library, The British Library online Gallery, The Cornell University Library,and the European Library. All of these are great places to look for books, many of which are not under copyright laws anymore and may be downloaded as PDF files to keep in your personal on-line library. Try using Google Books to find books about your family surnames.