The Family History Guide Part 2

The following blog post was submitted to Family Search but the CEO, Bob Taylor,  of this new website, www.thefhguide.com.  It was published on familysearch.org on 11 August, 2015

It was shaping up to be a very interesting week. The Family History Guide website had just been officially released on Monday, July 27, and it debuted on the FamilySearch App Gallery the same day. Wednesday of that week would be an opportunity to see it “in the wild” at a booth at the BYU Family History Conference. (OK, BYU is not really that wild.) How would genealogists, from raw beginners to experts, react to this new family history venture? As the architect of The Family History Guide, I was curious, and I was about to find out in person …

Let’s go back a few weeks in time to the Conference, and I’ll do my best to remember two of the many conversations we had there (names are changed for privacy).

Conversation 1, with David, a family history beginner:

David: “So what is this Family History Guide thing – what are you selling?”

Bob (that’s me): “It’s actually free – it’s an online learning and resource center for family history.”

David: “Does it help beginners?”

(And here I’ll interject that you can click any of the links or icons in this blog to try the actual website features we’re talking about.)

Bob: “Yes. For example, the Get Started section has links to articles and videos that introduce you to family history concepts and terms, as well as computer basics if you need them.

And when you’re ready, you click Projects. Each of the 7 Projects has Goals, Choices, and Instructions you can work on at your own pace. Click a Goal to open them up.”

David: “Seems pretty simple – I click to open or close a Goal I’m working on. Now these blue icons – what do they do?”

Bob: “They’re links to articles or videos that help you with the learning concept you’re working on. This one explains the new FamilySearch Family Tree Landscape view.”

David: “Nice that I can watch the video when I need it, instead of hunting for it online.”

Bob: “There are over 1,000 links to articles, videos, and websites in The Family History Guide, all integrated into a smooth and friendly learning system.”

David (looking at his watch): “I’ve got to run to my next class – where can I find The Family History Guide online? I want to start using it and share it with my brother in New York.”

Bob: “It’s at www.thefhguide.com – and remember, it’s free.”

Conversation 2, with Rachel, the Director of a large Family History Center in California. She had been standing behind us as I gave the online tour to David, so she saw the brief tour.

Rachel: “What else can you show me about The Family History Guide?”

Bob: “Let’s take a look at the QuikLinks feature in Project 4: Discover the United States. In the left side of the screen you see a list of the 50 U.S. States – these are QuikLinks to Search screens for FamilySearch records for each State.

To the right of each state name you see ‘A’ for Ancestry, ‘P’ for Findmypast, and ‘H’ for MyHeritage. So if you want to quickly see the Ancestry records available for Louisiana, for example, you just click the ‘A’ to pull up the results, instead of navigating through several Ancestry screens to find the Louisiana search page. Same idea for Findmypast and MyHeritage. And there are QuikLinks available for most of the 35 country pages in The Family History Guide.”

Rachel: “Those QuikLinks are amazing – so much faster! Now I’m wondering – is there any way to keep track of what I’ve been working on in The Family History Guide?”

Bob: “Yes – click the Project Tracker link in the left side of any Project page. This downloads a word processing file you can use to track your status on each of the Choices for each Goal in the Project.”

 Rachel: “Great – sounds very useful. Now I’m really interested to see if we can use The Family History Guide to train Family History Consultants and help patrons at our Center.”

Bob: “We will soon be completing a training program on the Family History Guide at the Sandy Granite Family History Center. Over 50 Family History Consultants will be trained so they will be ready to help patrons use it. Imagine a scenario like this: a Family History Consultant is helping a patron, when a second patron asks a family history question. The Consultant quickly refers the second patron to a pertinent section of The Family History Guide, and when the Consultant returns to help the second patron, the reply may very well be, “Thanks – I’ve got it now.”

I’ve done a lot of the talking in this blog, but I’ll let James Tanner, noted genealogist and family history blogger, provide the conclusion. Read his recent blog entry on The Genealogy Star to see what he thinks about The Family History Guide and what he plans to do with it.

Thanks for listening – together we can reach that 90 percent of us who have yet to experience the joys of family history work.

This article was written and submitted by Bob Taylor, CEO – The Family History Guide, LLC.

The Way Of The Future-The Discovery Center

 Google Images

At Rootstech 2015 a new concept in FamilySearch Libraries was introduced in Salt Lake City, Utah in February.  This is called a FamilySearch Discovery Center.  These will be Discovery Centers for the entire family to enjoy and goes beyond the scope of a traditional Research Library.  You can read about it here.  Ground was just broken yesterday for the new FamilySearch Discovery Center in St. George, Utah.  Here is news clip about it.  Dennis Brimhall, outgoing CEO of FamilySearch, likes to refer to these centers as "The Museum of Me".  A place where people can go and learn more about who they are and about their ancestors using current technologies to enhance their experiences.

Groundbreaking for new St. George FamilySearch Center from KCSG.com 

Exciting News About FS Enhancements

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/252272016604225680/

Just launched this week the new Direct Messaging for those who did not want their contact information shared publicly. Now we can do collaboration with others via Family Search. There is no guarantee they will respond but at least they will receive your message.  It is similar to the Ancestry messages.  If the User is marked as Unknown or has a long number that is clearly not a phone number there is no way to reach the party anymore.  The direct message link is on the home page right next to the Volunteer and Get Help Links at the upper right.

Also Live Chat is up and running in the Help Center.  I have used it and it is awesome.  Check out this new feature.  It is faster than calling.

Also in September they are rolling out the new the Ordinance Release After Two Years Rule if no activity has been initiated.  If you have some you really want to do yourself that are falling into that category you can release them and then re-reserve them.  Then the two years starts over.

The Family History Guide* It's New!

Photo from the Website created by Bob Taylor and Bob Ives

My trip to the BYU Family History and Genealogy Conference was really informative and I am so glad I went this year.  The thing about any conference is there is always something to learn.  It also gives you a perfect opportunity to recognize what you don't know. 

This concept has some merit when you think about helping people get started.  To them there is just an endless sea of new things to learn but they don't have a perspective yet because they don't know what they don't know.  It is like running in the fog...you can't see your target, you don't know where it is or what it is because you can't see it.  

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we like to refer to learning "line upon line." That is another way of saying we learn sequentially.  We add upon what we already know. It works best if that is done purposefully as opposed to just randomly.  Sequenced or structured learning has been around forever.  Isn't it how we learn just about everything when you think about it?    See: Wikipedia  Sequence Learning

The Family History Guide is just that! 

A way to learn and do the work with 

a vision of where you are going.

One of the highlights for me at the conference was to meet the developers of the new FS App The Family History Guide found at www.thefhguide.com.  Bob Taylor and Bob Ives have commenced in a great work and it's impressive.  It is a game changer for teachers and trainers and people eager to progress in their understanding of genealogy and family history.  Think of it almost as a work book. The key word there is work.  You will get out of this website exactly what you put into it.

This Guide is absolutely amazing for anyone who does Family History and tries to share it with others.  I plan to use it with all the Family History consultants I teach, as well as the youth, and patrons at the Library.

I really like the way that it is set up to help someone progress in their learning incrementally and in an organized manner via Projects, Goals with the Capability To Track Progress. 

Last week we talked about using the Source Box in Family Search to create links to help others while teaching them.  I still plan to use that tool for someone who needs a very specific link for something they are trying to do.   However I will also give them the link to The Family History Guide...every time I work with a patron or student from now on.

After I learned of it I really took the opportunity to look over the website.  It draws information from many sources and uses multi-media applications to teach the lessons.  You have access to training and tips from FamilySearch, Ancestry, Find My Past and My Heritage, and more.  They use over 1000 videos links, white paper lessons links and lots of other very helpful links as well.  This site is not static.  It will continue to evolve and be updated all the time.

I urge you to check it out.  Spend some time there. Set some goals for yourself and help others do the same.  This site is completely accessible on your mobile devices without even requiring a mobile app.  This site is also free.  

The lesson link below is very helpful.  Linda has done a great job.  Please use it to get familiar with this wonderful Family History Guide.  Please give us feedback on what you think of it and how you plan to use it.  Thanks! B

https://www.dropbox.com/s/snfwrqb38rjojix/45%20-%20Using%20TheFamilyHistoryGuidecom.pdf?dl=0