Not sure what to do with the Family Search Partners that now appear on the Person page of Family Search? Have you clicked on one of them for fun and been completely overwhelmed with the amount of information you see? Or were you underwhelmed with the lack of relevant information returned? Because of FamilySearch’s partnership with Ancestry, Find My past, and MyHeritage, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have access to free LDS...
Do you know of a diary or journal of a pioneer ancestor that used to be in the family and no one knows what happened to it? Would you like to hold the original and see your ancestor’s actual handwriting? If you suspect you might have an ancestor who left a diary or journal you can follow the same steps I did to locate, view, and share it. My ancestor, William Henry Kelsey, joined the Church...
Our ward family history committee, consisting of youth and adult consultants, planned this ward activity for all ages. Held on a Thursday evening it took the place of the combined activity for the young men and young women that week. Each organization had an assignment and each youth group ran one of the activities. One of our consultants did a fabulous job transforming the cultural hall into an old time country fair. Using the color...
Have you created your whole family tree in Ancestry.com or another system and now you want to try using FamilySearch.org? How do you move your tree over to FamilySearch.org? There are two ways – one without a GEDCOM file and one with. First, you should know that FamilySearch Family Tree is a collaborative tree. We all share ancestors, so when you add an ancestor, chances are that someone else has already added that person. That’s why...
One of the best features on Family Tree is the capability to create a source for your ancestor. Although FamilySearch has billions of records in their database, you are still going to find records on other websites, in books, and in your paper files that you will want to add to the record of your ancestor. How do you create a source for the death certificate you just received in the mail? What about the...
Picture Pedigree At our family reunion this summer, we had a “family tree gathering” on Monday night. Each family selected a story about one of our ancestors and created a skit about it. We all wore costumes, brought props, and performed the skits. In between each skit, I pointed out on the picture pedigree who the story was about. It was a memorable night! My picture pedigree chart made using PowerPoint This picture pedigree was inspired by the...
This is my new goal: Make a family mission statement, then attach several anecdotes from our family’s past that exemplify the values and principles outlined in our mission (honesty, hard work, etc). This is a work in progress but I will update the blog as we go along. Why do I want to do this? Well, I learned a couple years ago that sharing family stories with our children can be more than just an interesting pastime,...
Place names change over time as the boundaries and jurisdictions are modified. Genealogists should use the place name as it existed at the time of the event. For example, the location of a family living in the same house in Preston for 40 years could be recorded at different times as: Preston, Oneida, Idaho Territory, United States (1880) Preston, Oneida, Idaho, United States (1900) Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States (1920) Idaho county map, 1900 ...
