--Volunteer your time change the world--

Indexing is a great program and one I fully subscribe to. Indexing means to me that people like you and I look at digital images of records and type what we see. Our efforts and submissions are then searchable on whichever site we are indexing for. It's an awesome experience to do this.

Indexing programs:
BillionGraves.com (Online)
This program allows you to index online headstones with easy. Also the users are the ones providing the images - I find this an easy thing to do. If you have a smart phone you can download the app (IOS or Android). Then you just get snapping. It's really cool. It makes the images and searches free to do as well so that's a plus. One bad thing about it is that it accepts one indexers view and that's it with no opinions. They do allow for edit later but that's little consolation.

Family Search Indexing

This is a longstanding program which is easy to do and allows you to focus on whichever project you'd like if there are images available for it. I would highly recommend this program to everyone as their indexes are made public and free for all to search. Also if you are doing a batch and having trouble you can easily share the batch for anybody else to view and assist you. The group on Facebook that I have begun to affiliate with is - Share Batch Indexing, ETC.

One of the great things about Family Search Indexing is that they always have 2 indexers so those records are looked at by at least 2 to form opinions and then a 3rd person decides which is correct. How awesome is that!!!

Family Search Linking
Just learned about this "beta" testing going on. Basically this deals with projects that have already been indexed but have lost their association with the accompanying microfilm image. Syncing these up is quick and painless. Obviously just as valid as indexing (Note: because this is beta the link I have may not be good for long)

Finally Ancesry's version
They call it World Archives Project and it does the same thing as Familysearch in a slightly different way. For one and most important to me: the final result is searchable only to paying subscribers to ancestry. I'm all about things being free or near free... ancestry's subscription model just rubs me the wrong way. Sad but true. I would contribute to this project once I learned there is an ongoing project that I would be able to be benefited from.

As I described earlier you can receive all records on ancestry for free: 

"You can get access to ancestry.com's records for free by going to your nearest Family History Library find the closest one by clicking here " 

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Besides the above there are tons of online sites of indexed records and a few which allow you to input things you see. From my experience these are few and far between. Nevertheless these appear on google results and provide awesome information. Kudos to them! 

--Uploading Gedcom's to Family Tree --

Note: I recommend thoughtful and deep research to determine whether each "possible match" is truly a match before you add them together...

That's right it's possible! as seen through this Reference Guide (page 83 - or check table of contents for page) on Family Search there is now a method to upload Gedcom's on the new Family Tree. "Well won't it be making duplicates like we've all be trying to avoid"

Well no. See after you upload it Family Search runs comparison scripts and spits out back at you possible matches for you to review; people who are no different in your Gedcom than they are on family tree; and new people to add.

You'll review each person who has a possible match on Family Search by your "Gedcom Person" being on the left and "Family Search's Person" suggestion on the right then you can add information or mark it as "Not a Match" at your leisure.

What a beautiful thing huh?

The previous way of uploading had a cap of 2,000 persons in a Gedcom. I don't know if that stipulation holds true. An important note is that the larger the file the longer it will take to upload and compare. But, that should be fairly obvious.

Also -- what an amazing push for stories and photos recently huh? Cool stuff.

-- FamilySearch receives the facelift --

Saweet! Familysearch has been busy accomplishing things. For those who didn't hear 1 billion records are now indexed through through the indexing program - what a feat!

Also their website delivers exactly what it offered. I note that the homepage is an actual homepage now and not centered on search per se.

I understand this change as people coming to the site for the first time could be confused (am I supposed to search for myself? my father? what?) and maybe this is what familysearch saw. I could see them wanting to welcome people to the site.

They've also proven to be adaptable - I read several other blogs and their ensuing blog posts reviewing the site and thanking familysearch for changing things. I'm thinking of one in particular but that's simply great.

It's the same number of clicks to family tree and only one extra to search from the homepage. I've largely ignored the new features as I haven't ever seen fancharts as helpful. But I do like how people intreged with the prettiness of fancharts can click through and see the tree itself.

I think that once people get used to it's differences from the old familysearch I think they'll realize how few there are. Also there are many opportunities to be had.

Meanwhile I'm busy sourcing evidence for several new found siblings from one of my deadends. #Awesome

As a sign-off: Don't forget to source what you find so that your research doesn't have to be duplicated! Just Do It!

-- New Sign In --

Just noticed that a new signin page has been added. Looks nice no? 

 Anyway nothing else seems to be different as of yet!

 

FamilySearch to get a Facelift

Hey all I would suggest you subscribe to Ancestry Insider. It is an extremely up to date and helpful blog with insightful and interesting posts.

One such post was given just yesterday and centers around some "chroming" and "collating" FamilySearch features (http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/2013/03/familysearch-gives-rootstech-bloggers.html).

I say chrome because as you'll see from the images posted on Insider it looks rather "JQuery". Meaning it looks nice simple and accessible.

I say collating because the features on the site have headings labeled as follows: Fan Chart, Photos, Family Tree, Family Records, Indexing, Live Help. I thought I'd just go through each and talk about my impressions on what it seems to be "about".

Fan Chart - There is a site currently named createfan.org which does family tree making features. Createfan does not create interactive charts - simply a PDF version with many more generations listed than the ones shown in these teaser images. Nevertheless I can see some benefits of a built in function and with clickable sections (which might lead to their respective Family Tree entries?) it might actually be helpful in getting people excited about Family History. Aparently there will also be a decendancy view.

Photos - This is in beta now under familysearch.org/photos. Incidentally I saw hints of this whole idea on that beta page with their inline link to Family Tree

Family Tree - probably a link forward to the current Family Tree function

Family Records - probably a link forward to the search records of our current system

Indexing - This will actually be an interesting section to watch. I say this because an online indexing feature has long been whispered of. This would be much like billiongraves indexing of headstones -- they don't have you download a indexing program in order to do index their headstones - its all online. Such an online system could be helpful in this modern age of browser leveling which is going on (to most it doesn't matter if your on a mac or a PC because on both you spend your time on the browser). As it is I expect this to be a link forward to a page containing much of what is on there now -- An introduction to Indexing and an invitation to download the program (when it does go to an online mode I can see some people flocking to it which otherwise wouldn't - I tried to help a person index but he absolutely refused to download something because he was afraid of the small security concerns which pop up at every download)

Live Help - Huh! Well I guess some from of missionary will be on the other side of that chat or phone line waiting for people to contact them. I've been contacted a couple of days later after emails forward to familysearch both by phone and email.

Anyway that's my review and thoughts on this subjects. It was reported to the Insider that these changes will be implemented within a couple months.

Good Luck!

--Easy way to combine Duplicates--

If your tree is anything like mine you'll find the further you go back the more duplicates for the individuals are. This is because in the course of everyone uploading their GEDCOM's of their research many duplicates were inserted to this one universal Family Tree.

People wishing to get rid of this issue have combined these individuals on the previous iterations of Family Tree however there was a limit of how many you could combine. I would be surprised if the people in your family tree 7-8 generations back don't have hundreds or records "combined" into the individual you see there  and on top of that probably some clear duplicates which can't be combined because the threshold has been reached.

Fear not! This issue is being dealt with -- via this iteration of Family Tree. As I said at THIS point it is still being synced with the older iteration and ergo the threshold remains of how many you can combine. But one of the main tenets of what's to come is to scrap that idea and go to a one record per individual model. meaning what's combine will literally be made one individual. When that happens let me know because there are a couple of annoying duplicates which are in my tree. When two people can't be combined because of a record number issue it will pop up with this:

This annoying little message may be familiar to some of you. Again I'll be happy when this restriction is removed.

Now here's how you do it:

Under a standard merge screen you will see this exact URL

https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=merge&person=<Person1-ID>&otherPerson=<Person2-ID>

This means that Person 2 up there will be merged into Person 1 after your review.

Seems simple enough you just replace the red in the URL with your needed person ID's  (copy and paste in). You can find these ID's under the name of the individual in many places it would looks something like UI5IO-K5J5.

However, that still seemed a tad tedious to me when I'm looking at 8 mothers who are the exact same person. So here's what I discovered. The standard URL for details of an individual are as follows

https://familysearch.org/tree/?#view=ancestor&person=<Person1-ID>&spouse=<spouse of person>
or
https://familysearch.org/tree/?#view=ancestor&person=<Person1-ID>

So you can see the SAME identifiers in the URL and near the same structure. For our purposes delete the spousal information in the URL (ie "&spouse=<spouse of person>")

What remains is this (when looking at the details of the individual):
URL-A:
https://familysearch.org/tree/?#view=ancestor&person=<Person1-ID>

The below you'll recognize from the merging code with the "dummy" code put in there. You'll have to replace your code for the person you want.

URL-B:

https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=merge&person=UI5IO-K5J5&otherPerson=<Person2-ID>

So all you have to do is open up those 8 individuals in new tabs so each of their unique id's will show up then using the merging URL follow the pattern to quickly get them all loaded for merging (so there will be 8 URL-As)

Now generate your own URL-B then copy it up until that equal sign before Person2's code. 

Then on your 8 tabs one by one delete everything up until the Person code itself and paste in URL-A. Press Enter

If that doesn't make sense just try it out -- at the end of it you should

Good Luck!

--DNA Results and FamilySearch--

I thought I'd dedicate this post to explaining how I made the most of my DNA results from Ancestry.com's test. It is an Autosomal DNA test meaning it sequences a lot of your DNA and compares sections of it to many people. In this way it is different from both other major tests the Y DNA test looks at what your father gave you and the Mitochondrial DNA test looks at what your mother gave you. But the Autosomal DNA test's all the rest. This is both a blessing and a curse. It's great that it can look into more than you paternal line and your maternal line. However it makes it that much more difficult when looking at your DNA to determine exactly where you are related.

Of course they give you the general "where you are from" map. Naturally it can't break apart countries at the lines because our ancestors didn't act like that and so the DNA can't tell you "you're from Switzerland  because that in itself is a complicated mix. However Ancestry tries their best and claims to be the most specific of any DNA test out there. (I choose Ancestry because I felt their database would be the biggest). One common complaint against Ancestry's test in this case is that they give no specifics about which sections of your DNA match up with someone who is supposedly close to you... You can imagine how this would be helpful to the intense or casual researcher.

Comparing matches: There are many people who have already taken the test so that's great however not all have attached their results to a tree. I would highly suggest you do this and I'll explain how. This is beneficial because where Ancestry doesn't tell you where you match it does give you ancestral hints which compares your tree and lets you know that you have people who appear to be the same people in both your trees.

However it would take a long time to insert a Ancestry.com tree to match your FamilySearch Tree for most. I intend to show you it's not that difficult to insert your FamilySearch tree onto Ancestry. 

First download a program which can extract your tree I would suggest Ancestral Quest Basics because it worked for me. 

Second within Ancestral Quest -- Log into your FamilySearch account (FamilySearch --> Log in) and download at least 15 generations (do more if you want but it takes a lot of time) for BOTH lines. This will take SOME TIME seriously it took quite a while so go and make dinner and eat it while it's happening.

Third save this as a GEDCOM file (File --> Export --> Other I think or it doesn't matter) once it is exported open your account of Ancestry.com and under the trees there is a Upload GEDCOM option. If you do this it will upload your gedcom as a new Tree 

Fourth go to your DNA test results and attach yourself using the new tree. 

I guarantee you'll see some ancestral hints (it took a day to register for me). 

This is a very interesting section of Family History which I can't wait to see unfold. I also hope that Ancestry makes it possible to see the base information for my own DNA that would be interesting and also then where my DNA compares with someone else exactly where we compare. 

I also guarantee you'll find some sections of your tree have no hints with others. Barring the obvious "no one from that line took the test" or "they just haven't filled out their tree that far" It would then suggest that the physical DNA doesn't match up to your Record line. Ergo a child was adopted in there or the person listed isn't really the father. Again I haven't had success pinning anything NEW down with this test but I just find it interesting 

--More on FamilySearch Photos--

Hey there seems to be a couple updates to this section of FamilySearch I thought I'd inform you of:

Above you can see in the Familysearch Family Tree view that a photos section has been added. So the photos we tagged before are now appearing right next to the "details" section. You'll notice that the first image I tagged of James is now his profile picture rather than that stock blue or pink silhouette in the upper left section.

Also I noticed their "My Photos" section appears to have been changed to a more collage format. I was uploading 46 new photos and saw that it was "pushing" all the ones I had already completed to the bottom and one by one uploading and then marking them green with "completed" a refresh brought those images to view with a red exclamation mark informing me that no one in them had been tagged yet. 

FamilySearch Photos

I had heard this rumor from multiple sources and finally it appears to be active and available and not only that it is a functional process. When I began accessing this function a couple of days ago it lead me to an
"invite" link in a pretty straightforward way.

familysearch.org/photos

is what I'm talking about here and after signing in you can upload any photo you have on your computer if they are in JPG or PNG format. If they aren't in that format it's fairly easy to change them.

The first thing I did was upload a photo of me and my siblings and you can tag the photo very easily. It keeps track of everyone you have tagged and saves the photo there. However you can not attach the photo to the family tree side of things unless those in the photo are not living. I am excited to begin scanning and uploading significant photos from my family history. I suggest you all do the same that way your co-conspirators meaning your distant cousins or latter descendants can see these photos of these wonderful people.

Sadly I'll not get to the photos I want to right away but as soon as I can I'll do so

The above pictures show the beginning welcoming images inviting the users to
1. Upload your photos
2. Identify people in photos
3. Link people to Tree

Pretty to the point

I had a moment of confusion as to how to upload the photos. Here it is:
Click "All Photos"
Click the + sign
Click where that dotted circle is

The rest is pretty straight forward

Peace!

--Updates--

I was just thinking how important 2 things are:

1. Starting from the ground up 
2. Sourcing your found records to the people 

I cite both of these for the same reason: The information listed on already present trees (physical and online) should be considered NO BETTER THAN FAIRY TALES in displaying reality. Because who knows how already generated trees were put together - and who's to say they aren't totally wrong. 

When people log into Family Search or they connect to a larger tree and see they have some of their line filled out. They poke around their new line and see how far back it goes... In doing so they waste time by looking at something which may or may not be true and don't produce a thing in doing so. In order to actually connect to our heritage you have to see the sources which give evidence for the people listed. 

To the beginner with no information present it is the path they HAVE to tread in order to go back in the past at all. I don't think it wasted effort to find every record even mentioning a particular ancestor and attaching to that person in the ways described in previous posts.

UPDATES:

There are some updates: Family Search is encouraging more and more people to switch to Family Tree from new.familysearch. 

Observe the section in the upper right, and that button there. Clearly they are having the general user interact more with Family Tree. Also the invite link below is no longer required. Simply going to FamilySearch.org/Tree will take you to the Family Tree feature and apparently activate it for future use.

Also notice these new images on the left for the login page and the surrounding text. I especially like the emphasis on FREE Service. And how under records it mentions saving those records in the source box. Anyway just thought I'd point that out!

Family Tree Activation Link

CLICK HERE

That link takes you to the activation of family tree on Family Search 

-- Attaching a source --

Putting stuff in your own FamilySearch source box is good and all but until you have attached your sources to the people on Family Tree your work is not done. See like I explained these sources will work wonders to both make sure that two people aren't being assigned to the same source and that two conflicting records aren't applied to the same people (either would show that clearly those involved are talking about different people).

Anyway it's pretty easy I'll show you how to do it right now!

First you find the person you want to attach the source to using Family Tree. Click on the individuals name and then click "View Person".

Then it's a little further down on the individuals page but there is a section for the source box

If your source you want to attach is in the source box click "Source Box" or if you have a physical or online source to create you can do it from here also!

And here's the source box view so you just "Attach" any of the sources which apply to that person and then forever that source will be linked to that person. And the word attach will be replaced by a paper clip symbol - which is a device used to hold paper together. How fitting right?

For those of you who still haven't registered to try out this new feature of Family Tree Click Here and do so! This will be the feature through which Family Search will be moving too so you might as well (Note: For some areas/types of accounts I believe this feature is restricted while they work out the final kinks and bugs)

-- Source Box! --

This is one of the most important features to be introduced to Familysearch. The reason I site it's importance is for the clarity it will give once the Family Tree feature is released to the public. But ANYONE can begin now to start accumulating sources and proving their family history. All you have to do is set up an account.

One of the deepest ideas behind Family Tree is to create a place where everyone is working on the same family tree. Not a million different ones but the same big one - disconnected maybe but it is one. And then if we use it right in avoiding duplication we grab a hold of the purpose of the internet - to save us time and to share ideas and facts.

Disagreements about those facts concerning our ancestors was one of the most annoying things about the older tree feature provided by Familysearch. The Source Box and sources are the only answer to that problem. For this post I'll assume you have created an account already and that you are logged in.

Here is an example:

So you find the death record to one of your ancestors! Now you simply click "Add to My Source Box" and it has been saved in your account's source box. Like So:

Now the record above appears in the greater Source Box below. (You can access your source box from hovering over your name and clicking on Source Box). You have the ability to open and close them for more details and to see the record again. Notice on the left there is a file folder structure you can create. Each record can go in one folder so you can decide for yourself the best way to organize!

You do have the ability to create a source yourself! If you look and the item second from the bottom on my source box there's a world symbol. I made it because I found an online biography of one of my ancestors which I never wanted to have to look for again!

It's as easy as that. And as a user of Family Tree I can tell you linking your ancestor to the record is just as easy. Happy hunting!

-- The Past State of Things --

I just talked with a man who interned with family search and who described, in a way I could understand, what's going on with Familysearch behind the scenes. Right now it's a bit like a baby in the womb. So that's the analogy I'll use.

The baby being the new feature "Family Tree" and the mother being "New Familysearch". If that means nothing to you I understand, new.familysearch.org has been present only in the backend and has only been available to premier members (kindof in a prolonged beta -- thus the "new" at the beginning). Family Tree on the other hand is a feature which at this moment is active and running and will eventually be available to the public.

 (I think most would agree that new familysearch has kindof had a backend feel to it from the start)

Anyways! To push the analogy further these two features and sites are linked with syncing Java code. This means that at this moment if you change something in New - it will get changed in Tree and vice versa. The reasoning behind this is so that everyone can get a feel for how both work and make the transition seamlessly. But there will come a day when the umbilical cord will be cut and the code for Family Tree will have to stand on it's own. New Familysearch will become a thing of the past and this new feature will replace it. That is to come.

For the moment they are running synchronously. Tutorials on new.familysearch and Family Tree will be coming!

Check the post on Free Resources to find the links to get access to Family Tree. (or click here and follow the activation link for those with accounts)

-- Searching for female records --

Whether you are looking forward from a females birth or trying to go backward to find their maiden name you have to realize one vital thing.

At marriage many change their last name to the last name of the husband. Pretty straightforward right?

No!

I've found every variation on the theme with my own family. You may find in a census record that she wrote her maiden name only. Or on her death record that the record taker used her married name only. All I'm saying is that with females especially later in life you have to double check every variation if you're having trouble finding a record.

In order to find a mysterious maiden name I have only one thought. Attempt to trace the descendancy of the union. Because in the case of all her children their birth, marriage, AND death record have a chance at listing the maiden name of their mother. (the same applies for a mysterious place of birth)

Peace out!

-- Free resources --

Resources available to you: 

*Note: In finding out your background the end goal is usually trying to reach as far back as you can to connect with your heritage. But don't get so caught up that you jump to conclusions. Try and link at least 3 facts to make sure the individual/record is the correct one.

familysearch.org (100 %  free and many images are available. Searching for something specific like choosing a collection from this page usually is a good idea - many countries are available)

• For instance for United States searchers: 
• Try the Social Security Death Index for the years (1962 to 2011) 
• Or try the 1940 Census for anyone born before 1940 within reason

• I would suggest going here to set up an account with them because it will open up features to you not available otherwise. Such as:
• Seeing more pictures of documents than those without accounts
• The ability to save every record of importance you find to your accounts Source Box (which has features for you to organize them in folders, and create your own sources to help you sort through what is proven and what is not)
• The ability to index records as a volunteer (900 points indexing gives you a premier account with familysearch). FamilySearch Indexing is transcribing documents so they can be searched online.
• access to an upcoming public family pedigree online feature named Family Tree (already available to some presumably premier accounts try it out here note you must click the activation link). Notice that this is different from the already released new.familysearch.org tree feature.
• And all of these things 

ancestry.com

• By The Way! You can get access to ancestry.com's records for free by going to your nearest Family History Library find the closest one by clicking here (Note: If you live near a BYU campus their wireless acts like a family history library - so try it out)
• Ancestry really does have a ton of records and images to match so this is a useful site.

google.com 

• I can't stress this enough. There are many services out there trying to provide information to you. searching wisely with a search service like google can lead you to records or info you would not have found otherwise. (Here's a tutorial on how to use google to help with family history If you know basic google searching skip to the 2nd lesson)

Some kind of tutorial/video here are many free online

Some kind of DNA service (These are usually NOT free. A great idea especially if you have a close dead end within 5-10 generations. It is the best use of money for actual results which will yield for sure ONLY facts if you choose one with a built in family tree/family finder application so much the better)

If you are looking for software or a web service to help you keep track of your family tree Any of These should do nicely.

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-- Beginners Guide --

I consider myself an amateur genealogist and it is my hope that the information shared over these means can help you to be excited about your own Family History. Ancestry is something that is totally real to me - I really enjoy it and I feel like it's universally loved. 

Fill something like this out to begin your family history with you as No. 1

To help you do that I will refer you to another site: please check this tutorial to help you learn skills which will garner the greatest results for you

To begin from the ground up is a necessity. This is most easily done by talking to the living to pick up as many little details you can. Details such as where your ancestor was and when can be vital to tracking them down. 

To begin your genealogy I would suggest filling out a family tree (Again here it is! Be sure to save it to your computer). Also if you're already GOT a bunch of information try to prove that everything is absolutely correct yourself through records YOU find. If you think you know information about your parentage you should be able to prove it through documents or records. 

One other fact is that many new pieces of information can be found through descendancy, or picking an ancestor and figuring out what happened to each of their children.

Again my hope is that you will trace your lineage for your benefit and enrichment. Especially early on you can get a great sense of who your ancestors are. Even finding out their profession gives you an insight into who you are and where your origins lie. 

There is something to say about the emotional and even sometimes spiritual benefits of family history click here to see some stories from people about that. Or if you are wondering more about the doctrine behind why mormons do genealogy I recommend this link. baptism for the dead; LDS; Latter Day Saints; all this information can be found from that link
Be sure to follow my blog for future posts!

The next post details some Free resources I would suggest!