"Watching" on Family Tree

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Since the beginning of our use with Family Tree I have recommended that you "watch" all your people.  This seems like a bit of a hassle but when you remember that this is a wiki-based program and anyone can edit what you have entered. It may be worthwhile for you.  

FS/FT is different than any other online tree.  What you have added is not static.  It can change with every new person that shares an ancestor with you.  If you have gone in and cleaned up your person's page and someone else does the same with different info...you need to be aware of that.  Not just that they are messing up "your stuff" but they may actually have new information for you.  That is the whole idea of a collaborative tree.  Trying to get it right.  Documenting, etc.  By clicking on the little star on the Person Details Page you will be generating a list of people you want to keep an eye on.  Once a week FS will send you an email with the current changes for "your" people.  This is not nearly as bothersome as going in to print a pedigree chart for your ancestors and seeing you have been disconnected from some of them by a well meaning FT user.

Sometimes if you have a lot of people it can be hundreds of changes in a week.  Skim through.  Did you know there are some popular people in the tree and a lot of people what a piece of them?  It is pretty annoying to sees hundred of changes on Mayflower ancestors as an example.  My suggestion.  Write down what you have in a safe place and WAIT until FS has completed the transfer of everything from NewDotFamilySearch.  These IOUS accounts are impossible until then.  They say it will be this year.  Fingers crossed.

Linda has prepared a great lesson below for us on watching with some added tips for using this feature.

The Watch List is found on the drop down menu called Lists on the Family Tree toolbar.  Click Lists.  The list that comes up is your Watch list.  You will see People I'm Watching and ways to filter your list to see various categories in the list like Surnames, ID numbers, Gender, Birth Year, Death Year.

You can go to the drop down menu by your sign in on the home page and select Notifications and select weekly update.  I personally like to save mine.

Tips:

1.  Type the word DELETED in the box to see who has been deleted and by whom.
2.  To link to the person from The Change List left click on the name then right click to open their    
     summary card in a new tab.
3.  The Watch List has a 3,000 name capacity.  You can unwatch at any time from the List Page on          the right hand side by each person on on the Person Page. 

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/c538hmsnwjnyqu4/Watch.pdf?dl=0

I love adding the content from the blog from Steve Anderson.  His writing is concise and easy to understand.  he really has a handle on all that is coming and I appreciate him putting it all together for us to help us get the big picture for the future.  Carol mentioned some of the things in the newlsetter this week.  James Tanner also blogged about it.

12 Things You Will See from FamilySearch in 2016

January 12, 2016 By Steve Anderson

FamilySearch is headed towards another innovative year as it streamlines online accessibility and provides increased family discovery experiences. New developments in 2016 will focus on 5 areas.

1. Family Tree
2. Memories
3. Discovery
4. Records
5. Help

Here are 12 new FamilySearch.org changes and additions patrons can expect in 2016:

1. The free Family Tree, used for building and collaborating on your family history, will be more robust and dramatically faster. Patrons will receive quick record hints from FamilySearch’s billions of online records when records containing an ancestor are added or modified. Hints will also begin to originate from more online collections and additional record types. In addition, increased collaboration options with improved views will be available.
2. Improved guidance will help users achieve family history goals or provide direction when and where they need it.
3. A new relationship feature will enable you to easily identify how you are related to people in the Family Tree.
4. More user-friendly search capabilities will provide less duplication, better search results, and more insight at a glance across the many record sources on FamilySearch.org.
5. The process of adding family photos, stories, documents, and audio files will be easier.
6. A dynamic, personalized home page will help you find more family information. The offering of simple tasks while using the site will help you discover more ancestors and improve the quality of your personal family history and information in the FamilySearch Family Tree.
7. Partners will be offering more exciting third-party products and apps integrated into the content of FamilySearch that will offer fun and enriched experiences.
8. More digital camera teams will be added to preserve historic records and make them accessible online. There are 319 digital camera teams producing 125 million images per year currently. Additional cameras in 2016 will focus on more international records.
9. More mobile apps on IOS and Android platforms will become available through FamilySearch.
10. A new, web-based tool will allow more volunteers to help index more historic records online from any web-enabled tablet or computer. This will also help engage more foreign language volunteers needed to index a growing tide of new international historic records.
11. RootsTech, a global event hosted by FamlySearch, will expand its streaming audience and provide recorded, useable content to reach more people worldwide.
12. New developments will encourage younger patrons to participate in family history. Building from the base created by family historians and older patrons, there will be an added emphasis on attracting youth.

Steve Rockwood, president and CEO of FamilySearch International, said, “We want to give youth a much earlier and much more relevant experience than ever before. We have a real specific desire to give youth a connection to their family, to provide spiritual and emotional help to them that strengthens their relationships with their parents and grandparents to give them identity. For example, we have seen tremendous growth in youth when they discover the stories of their ancestors.”

Rockwood feels FamilySearch has only just reached the tip of the iceberg with its successes. “We hope to shine a light on the life-changing nature of family history so our patrons personally experience the emotion, understanding, and joy that comes from discovering family, both past and present. Our areas of focus in 2016 will encourage families to work together more to make connections that touch our hearts and fill our lives with a sense of heritage and purpose.”

Rockwood believes RootsTech, with its streamed and recorded content in multiple languages, and the growing number of local family discovery day events, is one way FamilySearch can, as a nonprofit organization, meet the needs of more individuals in local areas throughout the world.

“We love RootsTech because it is a gathering place that brings our customers and partners together. It helps inspire us collectively to see how we can work together to grow the market space worldwide and really improve the discovery experiences of patrons on a local level. That’s a huge, huge global challenge we’re excited to tackle,” Rockwood concluded.

Family Search Statitics for 2015

This is pretty amazing the Work is rolling forth!

Keeping Up With Family Search/Family Tree

As i was reviewing the three posts I added yesterday I ran across this previous post that I felt is good to review for the overwhelm we often feel in January as we try to reorder our world, work smarter and progress in our learning and its application.

We all know that keeping up with family history and genealogy is no easy task.  We have talked many times before about some of the best ways to accomplish this.  The answer truthfully is that there are many good ways.  No one better than the other.  It depends upon your learning style, what motivates you and how much time you are able to put into the learning process.

Learning genealogy is a bit like physical exercise.  A little bit of something each day works best.  If you always do the exact same thing, in the exact same way it can get monotonous.  I like to change it up.  I do radio shows, podcasts, videos, I read various things, blog posts, etc.  I love training videos as well on all the sites. I especially like them for learning about Ancestry.  Crista Cowan is their guru and has many youtube videos that are very informative.  Now we have all the partner sites as well.    There is just a lot to learn.  There is no chance for boredom.

I like to learn from others because they are great at aggregating information.  Our newsletter written by Carol is a perfect example.  She scours the various sources to find gems for us each week that she thinks will help us the most.  That is no easy task and a lot of thought and planning goes into her choices.  It can be a thankless job but she is very diligent as you know.  I hope we are sustaining her efforts in her calling by reading and learning what she is imparting to us.

As we help our patrons it is so important that we have resources for them.  To me one of the most important things is telling a new patron about the Family Search home page where they can get to any information they will need to help them with FS/FT.  That way they can go home and continue working.  It is very frustrating when you try to remember what you learned and forget one step... you're done.  Showing them how and where to go to get help is essential to their success. Be aware that each of the major sites has their best and unique features.  We will need to become aware of how each site works and the differences between them.  All of them have a get help section that is very valuable.

***Something that has made a big impact since I wrote this last April is the launching of The Family History Guide!  This is the best way to learn and train people to do their genealogy and family history out there.  Does it take effort to learn the basics and apply them?  Absolutely!  Is the effort worth it as we serve in the FS Library?  Yes!

This lesson below tells you where to look to find the current updates on FS/FT and even how to receive notifications when changes are made.

This is very helpful for all of us in learning FT and keeping current.  And you can always google and follow James Tanner, who in the opinion of many, is the best at aggregating all the info on the major sites in a very timely manner.  How about we all give this a try and report back at our next staff training?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ww5xf2bqqkpu50p/Keeping%20Current.pdf?dl=0

YouTube Video Channel For BYU Family History Library

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/252272016605081957/

I try to add a tree photo to most of my posts.  It is just a little brand I have adopted for this blog to remind us how each family tree is beautiful and different from all the others.  I really like this photo.  It reminds me of how some family trees are harder than others to see and appreciate because they are obscured by the fog around them.  We can bring our own tree out of this obscurity by learning a little more each day.  The more we add to our cadre of knowledge, the more the color and beauty of our tree emerges as we draw closer to it.  Not only is the visibility sharper, but its nearness to our hearts is more pronounced.  

YouTube is one of the best sources of information out there and it is so readily available on any topic you choose.  Did you know that you can subscribe to various channels on YouTube?  The BYU Family History Library has a channel!  James Tanner has added over 100 videos on a myriad of topics in the year he has been working at the Library in Provo on the BYU campus.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7hqNOQt-2AfeVEpDuc7sCA

I thought from time to time I will post some of the links to some videos that I have reviewed and thought were good.  The one I am including here is on The New Ancestry.  How do you like it? Have you even seen it yet?  What do you think?  Here's what James has to say about it.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vv_NiOUgYI

Happy New Year! 2016...Bring It On!

I hope your holiday season was wonderful.  No matter what you celebrated we hope it was the best. For us Christmas was wonderful this year. Low key, relaxing and lots of fun made it great.  I stayed home a lot and just enjoyed the Christmas trees and  the festive red that seems to brighten up the whole house is this season of short and sometime dreary, winter days.  I watched a lot of Christmas movies.  That was so cool and I listened to the Christmas music and read Christmas stories. It felt very festive because of all the heartwarming things I enjoyed.  Simple things but I don't ever remember a year when I had that much time to do it.  Simplifying made it so much nicer.  I'm sold on it.

I didn't do a lot of genealogy or studying but I truly needed that break. Now I'm back on  the horse again and ready to be productive.  I think it was the first time I have felt truly rested and grounded since all of our travels this year.  Jim of course did a lot of work. That is what he likes best.  Everyone next to him looks lazy...I stopped trying to keep up long ago.

So I hope you are back too.  Ready and eager to learn more and master the things that will help us assist others in their quest to find family members from the past.  The more we know about the past the better we can face the future, equipped from the lessons our legacy will teach us.

One of the things I love about family history is learning so much about world history as I go along. The time and place that each ancestor lived is so important to who they became.  And for that matter in turn, whom we have become because of their decisions.  There are some fun apps out there now that put your ancestors right into the historical events in their location and time frame.  I really like the FS partner app. called History Lines for that.  It is fairly new and has some things to add yet but I really have enjoyed it.  Check it out in the App ssection of the home page on famikysearch.org. Happy New Year!

James Tanner Discusses Our Changing World of Technology

Technology has brought the whole world within our reach!

As I have searched through the blogs and updates of the past few days I have found some great articles that have gotten me all excited about this diving in and returning to work.  In  this post James discusses all the various ways in which these technological advances have impacted us all.

I found it interesting that he is debunking the common idea that young people are more accomplished at computer technology than old people.  We all can learn and adapt to the keyboarding etc. unless we have clinical dementia.  This is good news!

Here is a preview of his work. 
 I hope it will influence you to read further by clicking on the link!

"I remember going to the movies to watch the Wizard of Oz when I was a child and being so afraid that I ended up underneath my seat. The things I am afraid of today are a little more complicated than wicked witches and flying monkeys, but using technology is not one of my fears. There is a tendency today to keep referring to the "younger generation" as being computer savvy and the us older folks as being sort out to lunch on the subject. The truth is, I was using computers long before any of the current "younger generation" were even born.

Whether you are old or consider yourself to be young, modern electronic technology is advancing so rapidly that you may be missing most of what is going on. This is true for genealogy as well as any other pursuit that involves electronic devices.

The fundamental issue is keyboarding (typing). If you learned to type in school or otherwise, you feel comfortable with data entry. If you struggle with typing skills, you have a more limited computer and online experience. The second great issue is the hand/eye coordination needed for the use of tracking devices. Some people can use a mouse or trackpad instinctively. I happen to be one of those people. I did not have a learning curve to learn how to use a mouse. The first time I touched one, I knew exactly how to use it. I have long since abandoned mice for trackpads. I can still use a mouse if I have to, but I can now use a trackpad without thinking about the actions needed."  Continue reading here:

http://tinyurl.com/jn8palr

Using Instagram for your Family History

Once again I again I am  using one of the blog posts from Family Search bloggers for training purpsoes.  Thank you Tyler Stahle for this contribution.

3 Ways to Use Instagram for Family History

December 23, 2015 By Tyler S. Stahle

It’s no secret that technology has changed the family history industry for the better over the past several decades. Finding, preserving, and sharing your family’s history is now easier than ever thanks to online databases and dozens of social media sites. If you’re interested in telling your family story online, consider starting with Instagram.

Instagram, a social networking app that allows you to share pictures and short videos, has quickly gained popularity in recent years. In fact, according to a study from Digital Marketing Ramblings (DMR), more than 75 million people use Instagram daily. Many family historians enjoy this platform because of its simple-to-use interface, intimate feel, and social-sharing possibilities.

While there are many ways to use Instagram to do family history work, here are three tips to get you started:

1. Utilize the power of the hashtag.

To the social media beginner, hashtags—words or phrases preceded by the pound sign (#)—probably seem sloppy and unnecessary. However, hashtags have become an integral part of the way people communicate online, and learning how to properly use them will enhance your social media experience. On Instagram and Twitter, a hashtag turns a word or phrase into a searchable link. When clicked, these links allow you to follow a discussion and see what is being said about a certain topic. For example, if you attend the RootsTech family history conference in February and want to tweet your thoughts or family history findings, you could include #RootsTech in your posts to join the digital conversation.

At the 2015 RootsTech conference, Rachel LaCour Niesen, cofounder of Save Family Photos, explained how posting family photos to Instagram with certain hashtags can inspire others to also share their family stories.

“When I post a photo of my grandmother or great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother that I found on Ancestry orFamilySearch, or just in an old shoe box, I’m going to hashtag it,” she explained. “Suddenly, all these other people comment and say, ‘My family also has stories like that; I’m going to share one of mine.’”

Pretty soon, you’ll see multiple posts and comments from others who are also sharing their family photos and stories, says Niesen.

“To me, that’s the best advantage of using social media for family history,” she said. “Seeing people comment and say, ‘Hey, family history is something I never really thought about getting involved in, but through these old photos, I’m going to dig through mine and share my stories.’”

What family stories or photos would you share on social media? Tell us using #RootsTech in your posts!

2. Connect with other genealogists.

You probably hadn’t thought of Instagram as the best place to converse with other genealogists, but according to D. Joshua Taylor, a nationally recognized genealogical author and lecturer, Instagram is the perfect platform to connect with other family history enthusiasts. Taylor says that when he tags his Instagram photos by the area in which he’s researching, other genealogists researching in the same area can quickly collaborate.

“I love that Instagram allows you to actually tag the images,” he said at the 2015 RootsTech conference. “This way I can connect with people who are researching in the same county in Ohio that I have family from, as well as those that are researching the Shoup family. So opening up these connections allows me the potential to connect with far more genealogists and other potential cousins than I might be able to do just on my own.”

To tag your Instagram photo with a location, simply upload your photo, write your caption, and then tap the Add Locationicon. Type the location before publishing your post. After your post has been published, it will be added to a stream of other posts also tagged with the same location.

3. Tell a compelling family story. Instagram is effective because it’s a visually powerful platform. Interesting photos and eye-popping images have the ability to capture a viewer’s attention and tell a story. With this in mind, make an effort to share more than old family photos to your account. Instead, mix it up by sharing an image of a favorite family pastime, or a photo of your great-grandfather’s favorite chocolate cake. Sharing a mix of content builds your brand and keeps your audience coming back.

“Try sharing family recipes, family traditions and even photos of your ancestral homeland if you decide to take a family history trip,” writes Natalie Lynn for Crestleaf.com. “Not only will this fill in gaps of your family story on Instagram, but it will also keep your audience interested in your family’s history and questioning, ‘What will they share next?’”

We want to hear how you use Instagram for family history. Tweet us at @RootsTechConf.

This is the second article in a four-part series exploring how to build a genealogical toolbox.