The Family History Guide And James Tanner

The Family History Guide aka, Bob Taylor and Bob Ives have invited James Tanner and his wife Ann to serve on the board for their website.  They have agreed, and as far as I am concerned, this is a marriage made in heaven.  The best website for learning how to do family history and one of the best teachers around combining forces can only mean things just got better.  Check out James Tanner's blog at http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com

Get Help Revised!

pinterest

You may recall that the Get Help button on the home page of FamilySearch.org was recently changed.  It caused a small uproar and now has been upgraded to something much better.  Take some time and just go and browse through it.

They do listen to feedback and I am so happy they did on this one!  The Homepage is the best place to go and look as well when you are just trying to catch up yourself as well as for helping our patrons.  Change on FS is like death and taxes~ a sure thing.  Also like interest on your loans...it never sleeps!

RootsTech 2017

February 8-11 2017

https://www.rootstech.org/rootstech-2017?cid=hp-rt-5464

Some of the sessions will be streamed live and most will be archived for you to watch at your leisure after the conference.

The latest and greatest information will be available.  It is always fun to see what FS announces each year and the Buzz is amazing.  It is fun to see how many other enthusiasts there are for this incredible, worthy way to spend one's discretionary time.

Jumping Back In The Saddle

How do you find the passion in your family history? Sometimes life gets in the way and we are distracted, tired and unmotivated.  I love this little red tree above.  It is in our neighbor's vineyard and we can see it anytime we back down our driveway.  I wrote Kent a little not yesterday and told him how much I enjoy this tree.  Every year I take a photo of it and it is growing but the progress is S.L.O.W. 

I told him that we too are trying to grow a maple tree.  I sent him the photo below. 

Kent wrote back and said, "I too struggled with my tree.  But I was persistent in caring for it.  I nurtured it with food and water and made sure the soil was good.  Now finally it is really taking off.  Don't give up...it will happen."

This is a bit analogous to how I am feeling now as I try to get back into my grove with this work that I love. Through October and November I had urgent things that were persistent in taking me away from our genealogy.  All of it was family history, but it was very different than the rigor I am used to in learning and teaching. 

Sometimes when you stop something, regaining that momentum is often harsh.  But like my neighbor, I have learned that jumping back in, is the answer.  I have to nurture my family tree, care of it, help it to grow and flourish.  I want it to be red (with passion), vibrant and colorful.  That is going to require some gardening efforts.  So here goes......Thank you for your patience with this big gap in blog posts.

Creating a Memory Book

Pinterest

What do you do when life takes you on a side trip from your normal routines with your family history?  I think if we give that a good deal of pondering we know that our first responsibility is to our living family.   As family historians we have to find a balance.  Finding balance automatically reduces our stress.  We simply cannot do it all.  Choices are always a part of the equation.  

Mother and Son

Today is Jim's mom's 90th birthday.  She is the first person in our family to reach that age.  It is a monumental thing to be her age and still be vibrant, active, healthy and service-oriented. Wouldn't we all like to be a contributing member of society at 90?  So many people at her party said she is their role model for longevity.

We wanted to honor her and pay tribute to her life and her accomplishments.  This is something we often do after a person dies, but it was our decision to really celebrate this occasion with her to the best of our abilities.   

We thought a memory book was one of things we would do.  We also had a big party for her with about 85 guests this past weekend.  It was so great to watch her find joy in all of this. Creating Family History in real times is something we really enjoy.

I learned so many things during this process that I wanted to share with you today.  One is that we should not be afraid to tackle something we have never done before.  When we do we need to expect a struggle.  It is a big part of the learning curve while accomplishing anything we set out to master.  Creating a memory book for someone who has lived 90 years was probably an unrealistic goal with only a month to accomplish it.  

But I decided to try it.  Elder Wiemer encouraged me to try his favorite site and I did.  It is called picaboo.com.  If you decide to try making one, take note of the spelling of picaboo.  I didn't do that and I spent a frustrating weekend trying to find the website after he told me about it.  

Recognition of the fact that there is a learning curve to every website is important.  Try not to do your first book with a deadline for an event.   I would also suggest that you not try to cover 90 years in your first book because you will definitely run into photo problems regarding size, resolution, photos needing extensive editing and the like.  For a first book try capturing an event like a trip or an holiday celebration or a family reunion.   To make it really easy you can use a website's themed templates and just drop in your photos from your desktop.  But a custom photo book with narrative where you are designing each page on your own is a different animal (in fact it's a beast) when you are rushing.

Technically I think I finally mastered the techniques needed to make a book. But I cannot tell you how long to took from beginning to end.  Finding the photos and stories and organizing and editing them was arduous.  Then getting them on to each page, to the point of finally opening the published hard cover book,  took literally hundreds of hours.  I write this not to discourage you but to enlighten you about what is involved in a big project like this.  So again, start with a smaller project first to learn the tricks then you can make a book in a much shorter time and you will truly enjoy the fruits of your labor. 

Gloria and Fred's family

Don't they look like the Cleaver Family from

Leave it to Beaver?  

Grandma with her 11 great grandchildren!

Reading her life story in her memory book!

One of the greatest rewards of doing this project for me was to see her in a wonderful new light.  It is story about a real life.  It's not about a famous person who did something huge and noteworthy according to society's standards. Instead it is about a woman who lifts where she stands and brings a lot of joy to those around her. I have been a witness to her success at that for over 50 years. This has been not only in our family but also with her friends and in the community where she serves in various organizations to this day.  I am glad her successes have been remembered in this book for the generations to come.  She will inspire her posterity and not be forgotten.

Try a memory book.  If you have any questions or need some help let me know.

What’s New on FamilySearch—October 2016

October 27, 2016 By FamilySearch

Each month, FamilySearch publishes a list of new changes and updates to the FamilySearch.org website. This list includes changes to Family Tree as well as other parts of FamilySearch.org. In some cases, these changes will also be published as individual articles where the need to do so exists.

Recently Released

---

Help Center

The FamilySearch Help Center has been improved to help you in your family history efforts:

• The Get Help menu contains fewer options.
• You can now search for help content directly from the Get Help menu.
• Searches now include the Learning Center, research wiki, and knowledge articles. You previously had to search each resource separately.
• Within the Learning Center (which contains video, presentations, and other training-type content), you can now see related courses organized into a series.

Simplified Get Help Menu

The new Get Help menu contains 6 options instead of 14:

Search All Help Resources at Once

To make finding help content even easier, a search field appears at the top of the Get Help menu. Simply enter your search terms, and click the magnifying glass icon. You can also click the Help Center option, and perform a search from there.

Previously you had to search each help and learning resource separately. Now with one search you can find several types of helpful content:

• Articles from our Help Center that explain how to use FamilySearch.org, how to index, and other system-related content.
• Video, presentations, and other lessons from our Learning Center.
• Family history research help from the research wiki.

The list of search results is divided into sections, starting with knowledge-base articles, followed by lessons, and finally research wiki articles.

To see only the results for a specific type of help, simply click the Articles, Lessons, or Wiki links, which are located beneath the search field.

Better Navigation in the Learning Center through Related Lessons, Series, and Keyword Tags

In the Learning Center, it is now easier to find other lessons and materials that are related or are about similar topics:

• Other Lessons in the Series. If a lesson is part of a series, a panel along the left side of the screen shows other lessons in the series. Click a lesson title to view it.
• Related Content. A list of related lessons appears beneath the keyword tags. Click a lesson title to view it.
• Keyword Tags. Keyword tags appear beneath the description of the current lesson. Click a tag to see lessons that have the same tag.

Family Tree

More Record Hints

To help you learn more about your ancestors, Family Tree now contains approximately 141 million new record hints. These new hints come from 86 indexed collections.

For more information, see the article 141 Million New Ancestor Hints Added to FamilySearch Family Tree on our blog.

Mobile Updates

Several improvements have been made to the Family Tree mobile apps:

iOS and Android Updates

• You can now send a message to another FamilySearch user by tapping on an event’s modified or contributor name.
• You can now view Messages in the app drawer.
  
• You can now open a map on the places of a person’s events. 
  

Memories

View Contributors in Your Albums and Favorites Lists

In FamilySearch Memories, name of the contributor appears beneath the image’s thumbnail and title when you are viewing the contents of an album or your favorites list:

If you click on the contributor’s name, you will see the contributor card, from which you can send the contributor a message through the FamilySearch messaging feature.

New Upload and Select from Gallery Functions on Story Page

Two updates have been made to help you better view and navigate your Memories section. Now you have the ability to add an image to a story directly.

The photo selection dialog now displays larger thumbnails and lets you navigate your entire gallery, including albums. 

Historical Records

U.S. GenealogyBank Obituaries

New functionality makes records from the U.S. Genealogy Obituaries collection even more valuable.

View the Transcription or Image of the Obituary

When a text transcript is available, FamilySearch now displays it along with the indexed data:

If a full transcript is not available, then you can still see the full text be viewing the image, which will either be on FamilySearch or viewable by going to the GenealogyBank site.

Extended Family Displayed with Indexed Data

If the index contains the names of extended family who attended the funeral, those family members are now shown with the rest of the indexed data:

Submit Requests to Correct Computer-Indexed Obituaries

In this collection, 23 million of the 31 million obituaries were indexed by a computer. When you view the indexed data, you will now see a message telling you that it was indexed by a computer.

If the computer indexing process introduced an error, you can request a correction by clicking Errors, which is located at the bottom left corner of the screen. A specialized team of missionaries will review the change request and make any needed corrections.

This corrections feature is available for the U.S. GenealogyBank collection only. It is not available for censuses or any other indexed collections on FamilySearch.org.

What Religious Freedom Means

"The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights." Wikipedia

James Tanner has written some very interesting posts on this subject.  He talks about how it intersects with genealogy in his life as a Latter-day Saint.


http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/09/religious-freedom-and-genealogy.html

http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/09/what-is-religious-freedom-in-united.html

http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/10/what-is-religious-freedom-in-united.html

ROOTSTECH 2017

Rootstech 2017 is almost here.  

Time to register if you plan to go!

http://www.rootstech.org/rootstech-2017

My Heritage Mapping App

A few weeks ago My Heritage launched an app that allows you to take your people on the tree and it places geographic locations on a world map.  Go to myheritage.com and then the the Apps on the tool bar near the top of the home page.  Click on the App and you will see it in the dropdown menu.  It is called the Pedigree Map.

It is quite cool and it let me see which of my deceased relatives from other countries actually came to America where they died.  Check it out.  Also remember that searching on My Heritage is free and you can capture any documents you find via Tree Connect to Family Search.

Like everything else, My Heritage is a great tool and as you learn more about it you will begin to want to use it more.

Taking Stock of How We Research

Pinterest

For those of us that do a lot of Genealogy and Family History work it is importnat to have a plan.  All too often we just start looking for a person without a real direction in mind.  There is not one plan that fits all of us but think about how you research.  

1.  What I like to do is start with the information I have in Family Search on Family Tree and check out what's there.  Is it correct, is it sound and does it make sense?  By checking the record hints on the Person Details Page if there are problems with something you will see a red Exclamation Point alerting you to maybe this isn't right or doesn't make much sense. Correcting that is important.  So figure it out and make the needed correction.  

2.  Then I look for records on Family Search.  Although Family Search defaults to the Records page which often gives you lots of random possibilities I find that the Collections tab right next to the Records Tab can be more helpful.

3.  Then I proceed through the other three partners to see what they have on my person.  Anything that pertains and is not a duplicate record I attach to my person with the FS/RT source linker right in the program.

4.  The next step is analyze the records you have found.  (This seems intuitive but it is not always what people do.  They attach the source and go on to something else.)

5.  Once you have analyzed the records and compiled your information you are ready for the next step.  Ask yourself a few questions?  What am I looking for?  What do I still need?  Be specific.  What kind of record might give me that information?  

6.  If I cannot find that type of record online...then what next?  Go to the FS Research Wiki put in the locality and find out what records are available for that locality and where you will find them.  As an example, if you are searching for a divorce record in CA you will learn that you will not find it online from the Wiki.  You may have to go to Sacramento for the State Archives or contact the County to help you locate the record for a fee.   The importance of the Research Wiki, as well as, reading the description of any record collection before you start ploughing through it will save a lot of time searching in the wrong places.  One thing I am learning is never discount the value of Historical Societies. I called Macon County Missouri HS and got a whole lot more than I dreamed possible just last week.

7.  I like to double check everything once I am done inputing the information into The Tree.  I know this is a good idea for me after all the transposed numbers and typos I can find.

These are just some of the things wanted to share after reading Amy Johnson Crow's blog post about researching for a specific answer.  You can find her here.

http://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/2016/09/23/31-days-better-genealogy-version-2-0/

Amy is running a 31 days of email ideas for letter genealogy right now that is simple and informative.

Remember to Ask yourself a QUESTION to get to the heart of what you need.

Ten Things That We All Need to Know About Family Search/Family Tree

Pinterest

Knowing the things that make Family Search/Family Tree unique as Family Trees go is extremely important to know and share with patrons that do not have a tree on the FS website.  There are major advantages to suggesting that people start using the Worldwide Family Tree.  One of the main ones is that it is very likely they will find some family members on it within the first few generations.  They may not want to sign up because they have heard about some of the issues they do not understand about this Wiki based way of recording and working with others to create the best tree.  James Tanner has written this article that I think everyone should know about from the onset of jumping onto the FS/FT.

Although James Tanner's observations are surely subjective, they are well grounded in facts and his vast experiences with many many newcomers to FS/FT.  Coupling that with his extensive experience and knowledge about genealogy this article is a keeper.  I have added it to my Source Box links for ready reference.

This past Thursday I had an experience that fortified this for me.  A patron asked me why he should considered moving his genealogy to FS/FT.  He presented a very good reason for why he  thought he should but had some misgivings about it.  This article will be the basis of what I am formulating to send him this week after I complete my research for him regarding moving images between various websites.

I am adding this entire post here giving full attribution to James Tanner for it.  He writes:

" Beyond basic computer skills and some knowledge about how to enter and update entries, there are many important things that you need to know and understand about the FamilySearch.org Family Tree program. In this post, I have selected ten things that I think everyone should know. Here they are:

Number One: 
The FamilySearch Family Tree is a Wiki

I have written about this point several times in the past, but it is really the key to understanding how and why the Family Tree works. It is also the reason why many people are initially frustrated with the supposed "changes" to the data in the Family Tree that seems to be going on all the time. A "wiki" is defined as a website that allows collaborative editing of its contents and structure by its users. See Wikipedia: Wiki. Since every registered user of the program has access to all of the entries in the Family Tree, except for those references to living people, all of these users can add, delete, change, modify, edit and merge all of the entries in the program. Change is the result of using a wiki format to store data.

Genealogists are not used to the idea of sharing and collaborating their data. There is a pervasive attitude among researchers that what they find and enter into family records is "their" genealogy. This attitude has been engendered by the fact that historically, genealogists worked alone and were not forced to share their data with anyone else unless they consciously chose to do so. So working with a wiki like the Family Tree is not just a new experience, it is completely new experience.

The Family Tree is not a completely accessible wiki program. The administrators of the Family Tree (FamilySearch employees and indirectly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) have control over what is and what is not ultimately added as content. But the administrators are not concerned with either the accuracy of the entries or their consistency. If I enter a date incorrectly, there are automatic functions of the program that will assess that date's reasonableness in certain ways, but beyond those quasi-editorial notices, such as the warning icons, there is no one except other users, interested in your particular entries.

You do not own the information you add to the Family Tree. When you enter any information into the Family Tree, that information immediately becomes the common property of all of the users of the program. No one has to ask permission to make any changes etc. to the data in the Family Tree. They might want to ask questions, but the format of the program does not require you or anyone else to do so.

Number Two:
Because the FamilySearch Family Tree is a wiki, you are responsible to maintain the integrity of your own data.

Despite user impressions to the contrary, the information added to the Family Tree is not usually arbitrary or capricious. The concept that "wrong" information is being added to the Family Tree is based on the user's impression as to the "correctness" of the entries. If I think my ancestor was born on a certain day, then anyone changing that entry entry is automatically characterized as wrong.

So what happens if you see such a change? You and the other person entering information are both responsible to see that the information added is correct. You do this by substantiating any changes made with reference to an historical source where the data is found.

Number Three:
There are a number of simple practices that help maintain the integrity of the Family Tree.

The first and most important practice to maintain the integrity of the Family Tree is to "watch" all of those individuals that are of concern to you. The link to watch each individual is found on the individual detail pages for each individual and on the information cards that come up anytime you click on an individual. If you watch someone in the FamilyTree, FamilySearch will send you a list of any changes made to your watched individuals each week. You can review the list and take action to verify any changes.

Your perception that the entries are always changing is not accurate. Overall, there are usually very few changes made to older entries. The key here is adding in sources and making any proper corrections quickly. If you tend to look at the Family Tree every month or so, the number of changes will seem larger than they really are. If you watch your entries and review the weekly list and immediately make any needed corrections, then the cumulative effect of this action will be to decrease the number of changes assuming your own changes and additions are substantially supported by credible sources.

Number Four:
All entries in the Family Tree are tentative.

It is the nature of historical research that all conclusions made are subject to the discovery of more definite and reliable information. In the course of working with the Family Tree, many people report substantial revisions to their traditional perception of their family history. This is caused by finding out that they were adopted, that their parents never married, that some female ancestors had children out of wedlock and so forth. Newly discovered information may revise any of the entries.

Number Five:
The original data that went into the Family Tree was not reliable.

The Family Tree consists of user contributed information gathered by FamilySearch and its predecessor organizations over more than 100 years. The Family Tree is the first time all of this information could be integrated and edited. No one was previously responsible for the accuracy of all of the data. No one at Family Search or before has checked any of the information in the Family Tree for accuracy. You are now responsible for that portion of the data in the Family Tree about you and your family.

Number Six:
Anyone can see any data entered about dead people in the Family Tree

There nothing private or proprietary about the Family Tree except for living people (see below). All entries concerning dead people are visible and entirely accessible to all registered users. If I wanted to, I could start editing entries in "your" portion of the Family Tree. But there is a practical limit on these entries. Why would I want to spend my time on a portion of the Family Tree with people I am not related to? The one exception is famous people who attract attention from those who are unrelated or only wish they were. In some cases the Family Tree is now rendered "Read Only" for some of these individuals.

Number Seven:
All data about living people is in a "Private Space" that cannot be seen by others.

Because data about living people is only viewable by the person entering such data there are some interesting consequences. FamilySearch creates a unique entry for each "living" person and that includes people who are actually dead but have no death information, i.e. are marked living. If that person was or is a member of the Church, likely the information is already in the Family Tree. So if you add in members of your immediate family, i.e. children, parents, siblings etc. who are alive, the entries are almost certain to be duplicates of their own personal entries. See the FamilySearch.org Help Center article entitled, "Understanding Private Spaces."

Number Eight:
The Family Tree is always and will always be a work in progress.

Computers and programs change with the changes in technology. The technology that enables us to have a program such as the Family Tree will continue to evolve in the future and so change is inevitable. There are still a huge number of "enhancements" that could be added to the Family Tree and some of those will undoubtedly surface as time passes.

Number Nine:
The Family Tree is the solution not the problem.

Nearly all the major issues with the operation of the Family Tree were resolved with the upgrade on June 27th, 2016 which should be known as Family Tree Independence Day. The major issues and residual complaints about the program are now entirely focused on the users and the residual uncorrected data. It is time to get busy and clean up your section of the Family Tree and add in every possible source you have or can find.

Number Ten:
The work on the Family Tree will likely never be finished in your lifetime.

There may actually be a relationship between the Family Tree and the end of the world and I do not say this lightly. We are involved in creating a unified, family tree of the entire human race and that work will take a while to complete. I suggest you get busy on your part of the Family Tree and don't expect that your portion of the work will be done by someone else in the Millennium. 

You might think of some more important things and so might I."

Beyond basic computer skills and some knowledge about how to enter and update entries, there are many important things that you need to know and understand about the FamilySearch.org Family Tree program. In this post, I have selected ten things that I think everyone should know. Here they are:

Number One: 
The FamilySearch Family Tree is a Wiki

I have written about this point several times in the past, but it is really the key to understanding how and why the Family Tree works. It is also the reason why many people are initially frustrated with the supposed "changes" to the data in the Family Tree that seems to be going on all the time. A "wiki" is defined as a website that allows collaborative editing of its contents and structure by its users. See Wikipedia: Wiki. Since every registered user of the program has access to all of the entries in the Family Tree, except for those references to living people, all of these users can add, delete, change, modify, edit and merge all of the entries in the program. Change is the result of using a wiki format to store data.

Genealogists are not used to the idea of sharing and collaborating their data. There is a pervasive attitude among researchers that what they find and enter into family records is "their" genealogy. This attitude has been engendered by the fact that historically, genealogists worked alone and were not forced to share their data with anyone else unless they consciously chose to do so. So working with a wiki like the Family Tree is not just a new experience, it is completely new experience.

The Family Tree is not a completely accessible wiki program. The administrators of the Family Tree (FamilySearch employees and indirectly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) have control over what is and what is not ultimately added as content. But the administrators are not concerned with either the accuracy of the entries or their consistency. If I enter a date incorrectly, there are automatic functions of the program that will assess that date's reasonableness in certain ways, but beyond those quasi-editorial notices, such as the warning icons, there is no one except other users, interested in your particular entries.

You do not own the information you add to the Family Tree. When you enter any information into the Family Tree, that information immediately becomes the common property of all of the users of the program. No one has to ask permission to make any changes etc. to the data in the Family Tree. They might want to ask questions, but the format of the program does not require you or anyone else to do so.

Number Two:
Because the FamilySearch Family Tree is a wiki, you are responsible to maintain the integrity of your own data.

Despite user impressions to the contrary, the information added to the Family Tree is not usually arbitrary or capricious. The concept that "wrong" information is being added to the Family Tree is based on the user's impression as to the "correctness" of the entries. If I think my ancestor was born on a certain day, then anyone changing that entry entry is automatically characterized as wrong.

So what happens if you see such a change? You and the other person entering information are both responsible to see that the information added is correct. You do this by substantiating any changes made with reference to an historical source where the data is found.

Number Three:
There are a number of simple practices that help maintain the integrity of the Family Tree.

The first and most important practice to maintain the integrity of the Family Tree is to "watch" all of those individuals that are of concern to you. The link to watch each individual is found on the individual detail pages for each individual and on the information cards that come up anytime you click on an individual. If you watch someone in the FamilyTree, FamilySearch will send you a list of any changes made to your watched individuals each week. You can review the list and take action to verify any changes.

Your perception that the entries are always changing is not accurate. Overall, there are usually very few changes made to older entries. The key here is adding in sources and making any proper corrections quickly. If you tend to look at the Family Tree every month or so, the number of changes will seem larger than they really are. If you watch your entries and review the weekly list and immediately make any needed corrections, then the cumulative effect of this action will be to decrease the number of changes assuming your own changes and additions are substantially supported by credible sources.

Number Four:
All entries in the Family Tree are tentative.

It is the nature of historical research that all conclusions made are subject to the discovery of more definite and reliable information. In the course of working with the Family Tree, many people report substantial revisions to their traditional perception of their family history. This is caused by finding out that they were adopted, that their parents never married, that some female ancestors had children out of wedlock and so forth. Newly discovered information may revise any of the entries.

Number Five:
The original data that went into the Family Tree was not reliable.

The Family Tree consists of user contributed information gathered by FamilySearch and its predecessor organizations over more than 100 years. The Family Tree is the first time all of this information could be integrated and edited. No one was previously responsible for the accuracy of all of the data. No one at Family Search or before has checked any of the information in the Family Tree for accuracy. You are now responsible for that portion of the data in the Family Tree about you and your family.

Number Six:
Anyone can see any data entered about dead people in the Family Tree

There nothing private or proprietary about the Family Tree except for living people (see below). All entries concerning dead people are visible and entirely accessible to all registered users. If I wanted to, I could start editing entries in "your" portion of the Family Tree. But there is a practical limit on these entries. Why would I want to spend my time on a portion of the Family Tree with people I am not related to? The one exception is famous people who attract attention from those who are unrelated or only wish they were. In some cases the Family Tree is now rendered "Read Only" for some of these individuals.

Number Seven:
All data about living people is in a "Private Space" that cannot be seen by others.

Because data about living people is only viewable by the person entering such data there are some interesting consequences. FamilySearch creates a unique entry for each "living" person and that includes people who are actually dead but have no death information, i.e. are marked living. If that person was or is a member of the Church, likely the information is already in the Family Tree. So if you add in members of your immediate family, i.e. children, parents, siblings etc. who are alive, the entries are almost certain to be duplicates of their own personal entries. See the FamilySearch.org Help Center article entitled, "Understanding Private Spaces."

Number Eight:
The Family Tree is always and will always be a work in progress.

Computers and programs change with the changes in technology. The technology that enables us to have a program such as the Family Tree will continue to evolve in the future and so change is inevitable. There are still a huge number of "enhancements" that could be added to the Family Tree and some of those will undoubtedly surface as time passes.

Number Nine:
The Family Tree is the solution not the problem.

Nearly all the major issues with the operation of the Family Tree were resolved with the upgrade on June 27th, 2016 which should be known as Family Tree Independence Day. The major issues and residual complaints about the program are now entirely focused on the users and the residual uncorrected data. It is time to get busy and clean up your section of the Family Tree and add in every possible source you have or can find.

Number Ten:
The work on the Family Tree will likely never be finished in your lifetime.

There may actually be a relationship between the Family Tree and the end of the world and I do not say this lightly. We are involved in creating a unified, family tree of the entire human race and that work will take a while to complete. I suggest you get busy on your part of the Family Tree and don't expect that your portion of the work will be done by someone else in the Millennium. 

You might think of some more important things and so might I.

http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/09/10-important-things-to-know-about.html

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this man for his constant contributions to help us understand and find our way in our endeavors to assist others while continually learning ourselves.

FamilySearch Apps Gallery

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32954711@N02/8188497274/

Along the stony path to finding our family there are some very lovely things along the way. One of those things is the Apps Gallery on FS.  Last week we were all enlightened by Linda's lesson on the Apps gallery and the fact that there are so many Apps very innovative software engineers who have given us some fun ways to enhance our family history experiences.  Some are so much fun they are almost like grown-up video games.

We learned about three of the more than 130 Apps that are compatible with our Family Tree on FamilySearch.

There is All the Stories where the App will find any story that has been submitted on one of your deceased relatives.  For some people this is an amazing treasure trove of information they have never seen before.  For others the excitement may be short-lived when they realize that the only stories it finds are the ones you have entered.  In my case the latter was true when I investigated this app.  The one redeeming thing about seeing my stories was that there were far fewer than there could be and so I am motivated to get going on adding more and more stories.  My goal is to write something about each person in my family that is now deceased that I actually knew in morality.  That will leave quite a few stores for others in the future generations.  They will not all be long stories but they will be informative stories.

The Mobile Apps:  I have used The FS Family Tree App and the FS Memories App from the beginning and like them a lot.  It is amazing how you can pass the time waiting various places if you have these apps downloaded to your mobile devices.  I have only one difficulty with them.  Sometimes it is OK to just rest and relax and wait someplace.  We do not have to be working and productive every minute of our lives, contrary to our society's conviction that we should be.  But when we choose to do so, these Apps are great and they are free as well.  

Find A Record:  This App is amazing and should maybe be called Find a Record and Find Your Errors!  It helps you find records and clean up your database at the same time.  If you've made a mistake in your dates or anything else it will glare at you from this App and it offers a quick and efficient view so you can correct it.  

One app that I use all the time and really like is History Lines.  This App gives you a time line for the historical events that happened through out your ancestor's life and  affected them. Once it has put in the brief information from the person's page, ie., name, date of birth, place of birth, etc., it places all of that in the historical context of the time and place.   If you have an immigrant ancestors you enter in the date and place they emigrated from their homeland and the program instantly switches over to the new locality in the immigrants new country.  

The best part is you can then add in customized things about them and your own photos. Then you can copy and paste their story right into the Stories in the Memories Gallery on FamilySearch.

If you are not into narrative story writing this App is for you.  It is a fee based App, so not free, but.... priceless.

Live Big...enjoy these Apps and put them to work for you.