At RootsTech in February, Nicole and I had the opportunity to participate in an interview with the executive director of the family history department for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elder Kevin S. Hamilton. Among the topics he discussed was a new FamilySearch feature called Learn About Your Family. It's built right into the FamilySearch home page. You will see it prior to login. This tool is available on the desktop version as well as in the Family Tree app. Just remember you have to be logged out to access it. How to use Learn About Your Family...
The Research Like a Pro process created by Diana and Nicole is a brilliant method that has helped me break down some brick walls in my research. I have become a much better researcher by participating in their study group. The skills I have learned have helped me understand how to really analyze my existing research and then dig in and find elusive records that I had previously been unaware of in my attempts at pushing beyond dead ends in my family tree. However, not all family history research involves breaking down brick walls. In many cases, records are readily...
In the Fall of 2018 FamilySearch introduced a feature for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints called Ordinances Ready. Ordinances Ready is designed to help church members complete temple work that has already been shared with the temple system by other members around the world. Ordinances Ready works by searching up your tree for 15 generations, then searching back down the tree. Simply stated, Ordinances Ready performs automated descendancy research, finding ordinances in need of completion for people who are related to you. It is an amazing program that facilitates extended family members helping one another...
Have you been wanting to learn how to use the FamilySearch Catalog to make new discoveries about your family? I taught this class twice at RootsTech and both classes were full, so you're not alone. I use the catalog every day in my client research and I was excited to teach over 2,000 people how to become better researchers. Today I'm sharing an overview of my presentation and including the slides and syllabus at the end so you can learn as well. Why Use the FamilySearch Catalog? I started with several reasons why you'd want to learn to use the...
I'm excited to introduce our new guest blogger, Alice Childs. Alice is a temple and family history consultant for her stake in Highland, Utah. Her passion for helping consultants succeed led to the creation of her blog, Souls to Bless, where she regularly posts ideas and inspiration for Temple and Family History Consultants from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. - Nicole A few years ago, my daughter was assigned to complete the Meyers-Briggs personality test for a high school psychology class. After the students had completed the test, the teacher grouped the students according to personality types...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to use the FamilySearch Catalog to find record sets in your locality, search for genealogies that include your surnames, and filter records that are available online. We'll discuss all our favorite tips for using this incredible repository. Links The FamilySearch Catalog: A Researcher’s Best Friend Research Like a Pro eCourse Study Group - more information and email list Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide by Diana Elder with Nicole Dyer on Amazon.com Thank you Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and...
Joseph P. Price, a professor of economics at BYU, presented at Education Week about his innovative Record Linking Lab. Summarizing from their website, the purpose of the Record Linking Lab is to improve the quality and coverage of the FamilySearch Family Tree by developing tools that link families and individuals across records. Those assisting in this effort include BYU students and academic researchers; yet the Record Linking Lab also works with FamilySearch.org. Their big ideas include automated indexing, extraction of genealogy data from digitized books, and linking people with "sparse data," like those in yearbooks or books listing those who died...
FamilySearch has made a wonderful pioneer discovery experience available for the public just in time for Utah's Pioneer Day. According to the press release, about 1.5 million descendants of pioneers have been identified through millions of worldwide contributions to the FamilySearch Family Tree. Read more at the FamilySearch Newsroom, here: FamilySearch Pioneer Discovery Experience Online. I was impressed to see that twenty of my relatives were listed in my discovery experience. To see yours, go to FamilySearch.org/Pioneer. My 3rd great grandmother, Sarah Jane Miller, pictured above, came to Utah from Swineshead, Lincolnshire, England. She was 15 years old when she left...
Looking for a fun activity for children that helps them learn how to use FamilySearch.org? When children look at an online family tree for the first time, it is helpful for them to learn how to navigate around and see what information they can find out about their ancestors. This scavenger hunt does just that! With little clues like, "find a relative with an unusual name" or "find a woman who had more than ten children," the scavenger hunt will pique their curiosity and help them get used to using FamilySearch. This scavenger hunt can be used with children ages...
Have you thought about doing the "thirty day challenge?" For thirty days straight work for thirty minutes a day on family history? It sounds interesting, but can you really accomplish much in just thirty minutes a day? Blog reader and my personal friend, Nancy Brown, decided to take the challenge. Her experience surprised her. Read on to see just how Nancy prepared, what she discovered, and what she's going to do next. My Thirty Day Challenge by Nancy Brown I had been intrigued by the “Thirty Day Challenge” ever since reading about it on the Family Locket blog. I’d added...
