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.