Family History and Indexing

Voting

Monday, March 25, 2013

ROOTS and Updates on March Madness.

Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City - taken by Lois Gilbert

Family Research Conference

April 12th Fireside - Saturday April 13th Conference From
8:30 - 5:00 at the Stake Center
Great Classes and ideas.
See your ward Family History Consultants for a registration form.

March Madness Indexing
total from 2/24 - 3/24

93824

Ward                            total indexed 2/24 - 3/24
Clinton                                                2167
Edmond 1st                                        8986
Edmond 2nd                                      6374
Okc 5th                                               5818
Okc 1st                                              13067
Okc 3rd                                               6895
Quail Creek                                       18264
Village                                                  8091
Woodward                                         11,318


Youth                           total indexed 2/24 - 3/24
Edmond 1st                                        2440
Edmond 2nd                                        429
Okc 5th                                               1651
Okc 1st                                                  619
Okc 4th Branch                         53
Okc 3rd                                                 358
Quail Creek                                        3001
Village                                                  3849




Youth Rock Climbers
Three more Youth have made their goal of 1500 names and will be going to the Indoor Rock Climbing  event courtesy of President Baclawski.

  1. Courtney Wilkinson -  1584 names Village Ward
  2. Rylan Pierson           - 1647 names Quail Creek Ward
  3. Jalen Pierson            - 1740 names Quail Creek Ward
  4. Megan Milligan         - 2110 names  Edmond First Ward
  5. Gretchen Christensen -1633 names Oklahoma City Fifth 
Good Work !  and more about these great achievements later. We are grateful to all of you are trying to make this goal and for your interest in family history work. The future is yours, we want you to grow to love family history work and going to the Temple with family names. By indexing you are making it possible for other people to find their family names and do their work at the Temple.

RootsTech Report

Elizabeth and Lois at the Conference March 21-23rd in Salt Lake City

My daughter and I  had a great time at the RootsTech Conference this past week. I have lots of things to share with the Stake about new software programs and guidelines from Family Search for History Consultants.

What do you think RootsTech and HOG (Harley Owners Group) and Tattoo Convention have in common?
They were all having a convention at the Salt Palace at the same time!!!  I asked Don if he would be too shocked if I came home with a tattoo?  He nearly exploded, but I was only teasing him, and we both laughed at that one.  Then there was the NCAA Basketball Tournment last week-end in Salt Lake City too! That caused a lot of slow and intermittent internet connections at RootsTech. 

The theme of RootsTech conference was "FIND, ORGANIZE, PRESERVE and SHARE ( FOPS).
Dennis Brimhall gave the first keynote address and he said "we need to get a lot ,more people engaged in Family History work."  It is all about their stories, not Pedigree Charts and Family Group Sheets. There is plenty of new technology out there to support the work. Can't wait to tell you more about it!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

March Madness Indexing Update

Sunrise in Florida 

Family Research Conference April 12 & 13th

Please see your Ward Family History Consultants or go to the Family Search Center at the Stake Center to pick up your registration form for this wonderful FREE Family History Conference. The day is Saturday 13th from 8:30 - 5:00. While the cost is free, there is a charge for a lunch and a copy of the syllabus of all the classes. Friday night, April 12th there will also be a free Fireside for all who have an interest in family history.



March Madness Report for Sunday 17th.

Stake Total from Feb 24th - March 17th.
62,762

WARD                                                    TOTAL NAMES TO MARCH 17TH

Clinton                                                                      1750
Edmond First                                                          6502
Edmond Second                                                       4517
Okc Fifth                                                                   3135  
Okc First                                                                10,846
Okc Third                                                                  4132
Quail Creek                                                            12,097
Village                                                                        6356
Woodward                                                                 8223

YOUTH 
Edmond First                                                             747
Edmond Second                                                         426
Okc Fifth                                                                     304
Okc First                                                                     366
Okc Fourth Branch                                                       11
Okc Third                                                                    157
Quail Creek                                                               2614
Village                                                                        2329

Eagle Scout Indexing Project 
Thomas Taylor gave a wonderful presentation on Indexing prior to each of the three 2 hour sessions last Saturday. Not only did he have to learn how to index, but he also had to teach others to do it. 

There were approximately 50 people who attended the Indexing sessions and 6 new indexers where signed up. While the total number of names indexed during the project has not been reported to me, I can say that the whole stake indexed 3182 names from 11:15 am  to 9 pm on Saturday. Brother Taylor will give a full report to the his Scouting Leaders and is grateful to all of the Members who took time to come and help him with the patrons. 

Thomas had a busy week, he told us he turned in his Mission Papers on Saturday, and on April 1st  he will be celebrating his 18th birthday.

RootsTech Conference

The Rootstech Conference will be held from March 21 - 23rd in the Salt Palace, in Salt Lake City. As of Last Friday 5,000 people have signed up to attend. There will be  4 different tracks: Genealogy Classes, Technology Programs and classes, Storytelling Series of lectures and classes, and FamilySearch training for Family history consultants, Family History Directors, and Stake Index Directors. This year there will also be family history classes for the Youth, including a 2  hour Genealogy Merit Badge Class.



     


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

March Madness Indexing Update

Welcome Welcome Sabbath Morning, taken by Bishop Wooley in PA
Sunday, March 10th on his way to Church.


Second Youth to meet Challenge of 1500 Names
and to go  Indoor Rock Climbing !!

RYLAN PIERSON
Quail Creek Ward
Great Work !!  Come on Youth 
There are only 27 days left in this challenge.



Update 
Stake March Madness Indexing Challenge
500,000 names - 45,455 names per unit by
April 6th.

Stake Total = 42,644 on March 10th, 27 days to go

Ward                                           Total       as of March 10th
Clinton                                             1066
Edmond 1st                                     4912
Edmond 2nd                                  2869
Okc 5th                                             1819
Okc 1st                                             6650
Okc 3rd                                            1519
Quail Creek                                     8277
Village                                              3749
Woodward                                       5647     

Youth by Ward                        Total        as of March 10th 
Edmond 1st                                   727                             
Okc 5th                                           123
Okc 1st                                             114
Okc 4th Branch                                11
Quail Creek                                  2001
Village                                           3052


Indexing and Arbitration Tips
If you are indexing or arbitrating the US Community project - New York Passenger List 1942-1957 please read the project instructions about indexing ALL names.
Common mistakes I see when arbitrating these records include the following:
  • Not adding the names of people who signed the document, found near the bottom. There may be two or three other names of the captain, master,  or immigration inspector, etc. 
  • Do not expand abbreviations of nationality or birth place names. Such as: Amer. just enter Amer or if it says U.S.A.  enter USA ; don't forget we do not enter punctuation unless there is a hyphen between surnames. If an address is given do not assume it is a place of birth or nationally, unless it is under the heading "birth" or "nationally".

These are fun records to do because most are typed, if your batch isn't typed, you can return it for someone else to do.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

February 2013 Indexing Reports

Sketch of New Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple - under construction 2013

Psychologists measuring children's resilience found that the kids who "knew the most about their family history" were best able to handle stress.
The more children know about their family's history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives and the higher their self-esteem. The reason: These children have a strong sense of "Intergenerational self" - they understand that they belong to something bigger than themselves, and that families naturally experience both highs and lows.
(taken from a magazine on family life and submitted by Jared Smith, High Councilman in charge of Family History in our Stake)

A big welcome to our new Okc Third Ward Group Administrator: Shirley Corrigan. I know Shirley will do a wonderful job as she has been an indexer and arbitrator for a long time. Let's get the Youth in Third Ward going on Indexing!!


March Madness Stake Youth Indexing Challenge
Indoor Rock Climbing
We already have our first Youth to complete the requirements to go Rock Climbing!  Courtney Wilkinson from the Village Ward Indexed  1584 names from Feb 24th - Feb 27th. Fantastic !  Great Work!! Courtney has also been given rights to be an arbitrator and is doing a fantastic job.  Indexing creates a love of family history.
Other youth can also become arbitrators, ask me how.

March Madness Stake Indexing Challenge
has begun.
Each unit in the Stake will have to index and/or arbitrate 45,455 names to reach our Stake goal of 500,000 names by April 6th. The count down began on Feb 24th and ends on April 6th. We had 41 days to accomplish this goal, time is ticking down. If you have dropped off the face of the indexing world, please come back and  help by indexing this month. Watch your Ward bulletin for  announcements and Ward incentives.

Stake Indexing Report for February

Stake Total =  58,169
Ward/Branch                           total names Indexed & Arbitrated                                            
Clinton                                       1222
Edmond First                             7654
Edmond Second                         2871
Okc Fifth                                    3012
Okc First                                    5746
Okc Third                                   3497
Quail Creek                                7871
Village                                        3467
Woodward                                18513

Youth By Ward                       total names Indexed & Arbitrated  

Edmond First                             550
Edmond Second                          35
Okc Fifth                                     63
Okc First                                    114
Quail Creek                                387
Village                                      3107  

Great work to the Woodward Branch Indexers and Arbitrators, and to the Village Ward Youth. Thanks for leading the way in indexing for the rest of the Stake.