Billions of Thanks

Thanks A Billion!

Those of you who have been actively indexing this month have already seen the badge and message sent from FamilySearch announcing the three people who helped index the 1 billionth record. But I think a special thank-you should go out to all of the 689 indexers and arbitrators in the Oklahoma City Stake who have helped to make that possible. 

Thank you for indexing and as Sister Dalton, the Young Women general president, told the 2000 youth at the RootsTech Conference in March, "you are Saviors on Mount Zion" (see Obadiah 1:21 and D&C 103: 9-10). You are creating a way to make records available so that they can easily be found and  the temple work can be provided for those who have died without the opportunity to receive them. So a mere 'Thank-you" barely seems adequate to express the gratefulness that must be felt by  those who can now enjoy the blessings of eternal life.

Let's keep up the good work and do our part in helping to index the next billionth record.

Indexing and Arbitration Alert

This week I received a message from FamilySearch stating that they were doing an Arbitration Audit and that all arbitrators need to be indexing too. The ratio is 1 batch indexed to 10 batches arbitrated. This helps you to make less mistakes with arbitration.

Also in checking our Stake Statistics today I saw that we are having an unusually high number of re-do batches. 

The following Wards seem to be having the most problems: 

• Edmond First
• Edmond Second
• Okc First
• Quail Creek
• Village

Please check the tab "My Arbitration" to see if your records are being sent back to be redone. If you have any that were returned, please contact your Ward Group Administrator for help, or call me or contact the Help at FamilySearch @ 1-866-406-1830. I can't stress enough that it also helps to read all of the project instructions and field helps . 
Group Administrators please check the Statistics to see who may need your help and ask them to share a batch with you.

Changes in FamilySearch

In case you haven't been on the FamilySearch Tree lately, there have been some major changes and upgrades to the site. The look on the home page has changed but the same wonderful features are still there.You can now add photos and stories. You can scan in documents and attach them to an individual for source documentation. These records will be preserved forever by the Church, no need to worry about saving all those paper files. Go to this link to see for yourself'

https://familysearch.org

If you need help the Family History Consultants at the Stake Family Search Center would love for you to stop by to learn how easy it is to use these new features in Family Search  for generating your own family tree and obtaining names for temple work. They are eagerly waiting for members to come and visit the Center. Did you know that about 75% of those who use our Center are non-members. Some shifts in the Center have no patrons!  How sad is that?


My Tree

gnarled with deep roots

MOTIVATION

What keeps you motivated to work on your family tree? For me it is a sense of urgency that the records will not be preserved and alll of my research will be lost. Also something that Dennis Brimhall, President and CEO of FamilySearch said at the RootsTech Conference. He said we needed to move the vision of Family History to 20 or 30 years from now.  He asked us to think about our answer to this question: "What will your great-grandchildren wish you had done?"

Did you know these facts as stated by Dennis Brimhall:

• 50% of the people in the US Can't name all four of their grandparents
• Many of the youth can not read cursive hand writing.
• We are running out of people to read the old records
• The days of being the only researcher are over
• Collaboration is the key to success in genealogy today
• "It's" about stories not collecting names

Start writing your stories today.

Youth Activity update

Spring in on the way.

Youth Rock Climbers Meet

The top six youth indexers during the March Madness Challenge, Courtney Wilkinson, Cameron Wilkinson, Megan Milligan, Rylan Pierson, Jalen Pierson, and Gretchen Christensen all met with President Baclawski last Sunday to decided where they will all go to do some rock climbing. After thoughtful consideration they decided to go to the DEVON BOATHOUSE  down on Lincoln Blvd, along the Oklahoma River. They will be going on Friday, May 30th. This will be after school is out and before girls camp and all the fun summer activities begin. Each youth was told to invite one person to go with them, preferably a friend outside of the Church.

The reason they chose the Devon Boathouse is because of the many different fun activities they could do there such as: Wall climbing, Rowing, Kayaking,  Zip Lining, and the SandRidge Sky Trail which is an 80 foot high adventure course with six levels of challenges. It sounds like a fun day. President Baclawski wanted to know if I would like to go along and give the zip line a try?  I would have done that 10 years ago, but not now thank you.

~KSBI TV Interview~

For those of you who  missed the broadcast of the interview on "Oklahoma Live" on Tuesday April 9th  you can either Google KSBI and review their postings for that day, or you can go to this link:  http://www.ksbitv.com/story/April-9-2013-20130412   

The "Oklahoma Live" show is an one hour show, you will need to go to the 48 minute mark to see Kirk Kuykendall and me.

Pathway to Family Research Conference Review

The Friday night fireside with Brother Abram, our Area Family History Advisor from Bentonville, Arkansas, and his wife was wonderful. If you missed it you really lost out on a great evening . I saw one High Priest Group Leader and his wife there. This was for all members of our Stake to attend, approximately only 40 were able to make it.

Saturday's  classes were just fantastic. The consultants and others from the community who taught them did a great job. It was estimated that about 138 people attended, 75% of which were people from the community. Next year we hope to double our attendance of Church members and fun. If you have suggestions for classes you would like to participate in next year please leave a comment on this blog and I will forward it. IT IS A FREE ACTIVITY.

Indexing Tip

If you are indexing the US Immigration records for New York view the "Recent Updates" or read your messages from FamilySearch that are visible when you log in to index.

You do not need to index the signatures that appear on many of the forms. This has changed from their original instructions to index every name.

March Madness Report

Salt Lake City Temple taken March 2013 by Lois Gilbert

March Madness Challenge

The results have been added up and while we did not

make our challenge of 500,000 names

I am still pleased with what we accomplished

from February 24 - April 6, 2013

118,010

total names indexed and arbitrated

Thank you all for indexing and doing the Lord's work!

March Indexing totals by Ward

• Clinton                    2775
• Edmond 1st              7886
• Edmond 2nd             6453
• no location                 209
• Okc Fifth                   5706
• Okc First                 13009
• Okc Third                  7907
• Quail Creek              18171
• Village                      8422
• Woodward               12204

Youth Indexers

• Primary Okc 1st               205
• Primary Quail Creek       200
• Primary Village                 289

Youth Edmond 1st                  1907

Youth Edmond 2nd                 429

Youth Okc Fifth                       1598

Youth Okc First                          505

Youth Okc Fourth Branch           75

Youth Okc Third                        358

Youth Quail Creek                    2853

Youth Village                              3486

                          Good JOB!!

        

One of my great grand daughters

Pathway to Family Research CONFERENCE

April 12th and 13th

FREE TO ALL _ Preregistration forms in Family Search Center or just come_Open to the public.

Friday night there will be a Fireside at 7 PM and the conference on Saturday starts at 8:30 am with classes till 5:00 PM. If you want to learn about family history and research methods come to these classes and have fun.

Six Youth Going Rock Climbing

In response to President Baclawski's challenge to the youth to index 1500 names during the March Madness Challenge the following youth have made that goal!  Great work and thank you for indexing. May your interest in family history work continue on.

Courtney Wilkinson

Cameron Wilkinson

Megan Milligan

Rylan Pierson

Jalen Pierson

Gretchen Christensen