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!

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.

     

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.

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.

March Madness Challenge

March Madness Challenge

Begins Today Feb 24, 2013 !!

President Baclawski at Awards Social Feb 23rd.

The March Madness Stake Indexing Challenge was announced by President Baclawski at the Indexing Awards Social Saturday night. The Challenge for the Stake is to index 500,000 names from Feb 24th ending on April 6th, General Conference week-end. That gives us 10 extra days to make our goal. Each Ward/Branch will have a goal of 45,455 names. With 11 units participating, in the Stake we should be able to to that.

In addition to that announcement President Baclawski also added a new challenge for all of the youth.

Rock Climbing at OKC Rock Center

For each youth who can index 1,500 names in the same time frame as the Stake Challenge, Feb 24th - April 6th, he will take them to do some indoor Rock climbing in Oklahoma City.

Looking for a new project to work on that isn't too difficult? Try the U S Resisters of Enlistment in the US Army 1798 - 1913.

The hand writing is easy to read, their are usually 40 names in a batch and not many data items to enter. 

Here is an example of where you will find the data fields on the image,circled in blue.

• You may have to add some lines, but do not delete the original 40 lines. If the image does not have 40 records then mark the remaining lines as blank. All blank lines go at the end of the batch.  
• You can find the full names of enlistment places in the Project Information - click on Summary Updates. spell out all abbreviations. Try googling them to see how they are spelled.

Here are a few enlistment abbreviations that I saw:

Pres SF, Cal  = Presidio San Francisco, California

Ft Slocum, NY - Fort Slocum, New York

Ft Assinnboine, MT = Fort Assinboine, Montana

R I Ars, Ill = Rock Island Arsenal , Illinois

Col Brcks, OH = Columbus Barracks, Ohio

Jeff Bkcs, MO = Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
I.T. on these kinds of records means Indian Territory. 

If you get a list of Indian Scouts and you can't tell if they listed a Surname or a Given name. Put the name in the Given name field and mark the Surname as blank. 

Call your Ward Group Administrator, or the Stake Director 405-367-7159, or Salt Lake City 1-866-406-1830 for help.

Youth Indexing Project

Eagle Scout Indexing Project

 Thomas Taylor of Edmond 2nd Ward will be holding a special indexing  day as his Eagle Scout Project in the Family Search Center at the Oklahoma City Stake Center, for all the Stake youth and anyone else who would like to come. Time and date will be announced later.

 The goal for that day will be to index 5,000+ names.  Thomas hopes that all the Youth will come, even those who have never indexed. There will be a need for adult indexers and arbitrators to come to help the youth learn how to index. Eagle Scouts are asked to step up and help Thomas with this event. You can call Thomas @ 405-341-3000 to let him know you can help.

Please encourage all youth to attend, and all Oklahoma City Stake Indexers to attend. Let's help make Thomas' Eagle Project a success.

        The March Madness  Stake Challenge is coming!!

image from Microsoft 

Learn more about it at the Stake Indexing Awards Social on Feb. 23rd.

More will be posted on this blog about the specifics following the announcement by the Stake Presidency

Pathway to Family Research Conference

A Fireside with our Area Family History Advisors
 Gerald and Mary Abram will be held

at the Stake Center for ALL members

April 12th, 2013 @ 7:00 pm,Friday night

Conference starts at 9:00 am , Saturday April 13th.

See your Family History Consultant for a pre-registration form and to learn what FREE Classes will be provided. If you want to learn how to use Family Tree this is the place to be!

OKC Stake Indexing Updates Jan 2013

photo from photokonok

WELCOME TO A NEW YEAR OF INDEXING 2013

MAY YOUR YEAR BE FULL OF SWEET EXPERIENCES AND SHARED JOYS!

JANUARY 2013 INDEXING RESULTS

STAKE TOTAL  66,551 NAMES

Our Stake goal of 2 million names for 2013 will mean that each of the 11 units in the Stake would have to index and arbitrate 15,152 names a month, for a Stake total each month of 166,672 names a month.

We did not make it this month, but what the heck is happening in WOODWARD?   That is the only Unit in the Stake who made their goal with 29,769, names. Great work for the Branch with only 5  indexers working in January!! The Spirit of Elijah is strong and I think the members have caught the vision. Thanks for setting the example for the rest of the Stake to follow.

January Results by Ward

• Clinton                                 1475   
• Edmond 1st                          7230
• Edmond 2nd                         1632
• Okc 5th                                 1649
• Okc 1st                                  7059
• Okc 3rd                                  4153
• University                                141
• Quail Creek                            6282
• Village                                    4705
• Woodward                            29769          

Youth Indexers Results by Ward

• Edmond 1st                                             379 
• Okc 1st                                                  1010
• Village                                                     118    

Stake Seminary Challenge 

The Stake Presidents Challenge to the youth in Seminary is to index 25,000 names as a seminary class. President B will then come and fix you breakfast. Need help? call your Ward Group Administrator, or stop by the FHC on a Wednesday night and the consultants will be happy to help you or answer your questions. Or you can call Lois Gilbert @ 367-7159 for help.

We are going to have a Party

Stake Indexing Awards Social

February 23rd @ 7:00 PM

Stake Center in Oklahoma City

Cultural Hall.

Invitations will be mailed out this week to the Top 5 Indexers and the Top 5 Arbitrators and the Top 5 Youth Indexers. The top 5 youth are encouraged to bring their family with them. All High Priest Group Leaders and their wives, and the Indexing Group Administrators and a guest are invited to attend. President Graves will be handing out Awards to each of those honored above and refreshments will be served. Last year was the first year and everyone enjoyed the evening. It is just the Stakes way of saying thank you for helping to serve the Lord with this invaluable and eternal work.

Arbitrator and Group Administrator Training

The week-end of February 16th Is our Semi-Annual Stake Conference. On Saturday the 16th there are always training sessions for the Brethren . So I thought, what a good time to plan a special Training session for Arbitrators and Group Administrators in the Family History Center from 2:30 - 4:00 PM.

Please plan to attend this very important meeting as there will be handouts, pass-along cards, and time for questions and answers. Anyone who wants to learn more about Indexing and maybe becoming an  arbitrator is welcome to attend. We need more arbitrators.

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