Saving Memories on Family Search

Ross W. Colberg & Josephine Roberta Reese

28 September 1941 St. Paul, Minnesota

Are you using and teaching about the Memories Section of Family Search? Today I am sharing my parents' wedding photo from my family history. If my father, Ross W. Colberg, was alive today he would be 100 years old.

A few weeks ago my siblings and cousins came to our home and we celebrated Dad's birthday with a mini reunion and even a birthday cake. It felt like such a fitting tribute to him and brought all the living closer as we shared stories and memories of him.

Remembering our ancestors' contributions to our lives is such an important part of what we do. It is often the gateway for members of the Church to get involved in Family History. And The Family History Guide shows us exactly how to preserve stories and photos and stories for all people to enjoy for generations to come.

It is fun and easy to learn. Go to The Family History Guide home page and Choose Memories. Goal #4: Browse FS Memories To See Photos And Documents Of Your ancestors. Choice A: Step:2 FS Quick Start For Memories is great. A very comprehensive document containing all you need to know to start saving these memories now.

This a wonderful way to honor our ancestor and please our descendants.  Click here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reZ5nNhztYI

Here is a link to the Quick Start For Memories:

http://tinyurl.com/lwdv2pu

Using Genealogies on Family Search

Under the Search tab on Family Search we can find in the dropdown menu a link called Genealogies. The Genealogies contain all the individual family trees submitted over the years via Ancestral File or the Pedigree Resource File or the IGI.  I submitted a four generation compilation of the things I knew back in the early 80s about our family.  Some of it is not correct but it is a virgin copy of what I once knew.  It is not editable but it is useful should my original submission be needed for any reason.  One of them might be that someone goes into my FS/FamilyTree and really messes things up. What I can do now is make sure all of my four generations are correct and upload a new corrected database via GEDCOM the the Pedigree Resource File. It will not contain notes or sources or images but the basic pedigree is now completely correct and not editable by anyone, including me.
This can be repeated as necessary.

This information can be very helpful to people that are afraid of changes that occur in the public wiki based Family Tree.  

I researched this a little bit this week and made a call to the FS Help Center at 866-406-1830 regarding this process.  here is the letter I received back from them with helpful information.

Dear Bonnie Mattson,

Thank you for contacting the FamilySearch support team regarding uploading a GEDCOM file to Pedigree Resource File without adding to Family Tree.
It was a pleasure speaking with you.

The following is a link to a Help Article describing the process:
https://familysearch.org/ask/productSupport#/Uploading-GEDCOM-Files-and-Copying-the-Information-to-Family-Tree

When you add records from a GEDCOM file to FamilySearch.org, the system does NOT automatically add the names to Family Tree or link people in the GEDCOM file to your record in Family Tree or automatically create a new family tree for you from your uploaded GEDCOM file.  You would have to continue with the Compare process after uploading to do  any of that.

Your support case file has been updated.

If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact us directly by phone or chat. Click on <https://familysearch.org/ask/help> for details.

Regards,

FamilySearch

What Every Family Tree User Should Know About Name Finding Apps

Pinterest

There has been a lot of buzz lately about Name Finding Apps. We have several that have been certified by Family Search. Take A Name is one, another is Hope Chest. These apps have been prepared to assist people in preparing names for temple ordinances. Several people are concerned about them for the simple reason that people will just go through their ancestors descendants and "mine" the green temple icons for the name submissions.  You may ask, well why exactly is that a problem?  There is much to be done and this looks like an approved way of submitting your family names.  If they are certified by Family Search doesn't that mean they are correct?  In a word, no!

The reason this is not good is that people are not always taking the time to make sure the information is correct, or that the sources are attached to verify what is on the person page of the Family Tree. They are not checking for duplicates, and in general, not researching their submissions.

Kathryn Grant has done a marvelous YouTube video at the BYU family History Library site that is a must see.  Please watch it here: https://youtu.be/1P1qTBvxauU. 

We need to be very aware that the internet makes our record finding and sourcing and collaborating and many other things easier but the basics steps and practices of a good genealogist have not changed a bit.  There is no free lunch in this department if you want to do it right.

I ran across an interesting experience while doing my family history yesterday.  I have a great aunt that had four husbands.  It took a long time and a great deal of effort to unravel all the things about this lady, her husbands and her five boys.  I finally finished it all up yesterday and was ready to reserve the sealings for the various segments of the family. Two of the four husbands had been reserved by a man and sent to the temple system to be completed. It takes about three years to get a person's work done when it goes through the Temple Submission System.

I called FS and inquired about whether there was a way to unreserve those so that I could do all the husband sealing and finally be done with this family's paper work.  They said yes, as long as the cards have not been printed yet.  Luckily they had not been printed so I contacted the man and he was happy to unreserve them for me after we talked.  

The man was a good man, very kind and wanting to do his part in getting this temple work completed.  I inquired if he was related to them and in what way.  He checked his data base and told me to add in a particular ID number of a woman from the 1600's and then he stated that he was descended from her and so was my great aunt. 

 He was happy to relinquish the work when he realized that I had been working on this aunt for a long time and had added many sources and that he did not really have a knowledge of her, etc.  I was grateful and happy that he had not only put in his email address in his setting preferences but has also added his phone number and address.  So I quickly got this taken care of and that was great.

In the course of the conversation I asked him how long he had been doing family history.  He said just about two years. Red Flag for me.  He really loves the work and works diligently at it like a full time job. He said he has more names than just about anyone he knows.  Double Big Red Flag. 

I had to ask, "Mike, how do you do it?  How many names do you have?"  He said, "Over 100,000 names, it's easy with the App "Hope Chest!"  I fell silent for what seems like a very long time.  100,000 times 5 ordinances equals a half a million ordinances that haven't been thoroughly reviewed and have been sent to the temple system for completion.  And this is just one guy!

Yikes, be aware of the trappings of finding the easy way because there isn't one.  This man, with all due respect, was simply misinformed.  Educating ourselves is a must and we have to know these things if we are to teach others.  Please watch this video by Kathryn Grant sometime this week.

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.

James Tanner's Five Tips on FS/Family Tree

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/252272016606615630/

James Tanner has taken some statements in the Family Search Help Section and elaborated

upon them.  These are things that every Family Tree user should be aware of to better assist our patrons in getting the overall picture of the aim and purpose of FS/FT.

"Tip No. 1

There is no guarantee that the information in Family Tree is accurate. Data comes from many sources, and anyone can edit the information in Family Tree. It is your responsibility to verify names, dates, places, and family relationships, and to provide sources when available.

This is a very frank admission of the status of the content of FamilySearch.org's Family Tree. In fact, it applies to any user submitted family tree on any online program. The key here is the last comment, "provide sources when available." Despite a huge influx of the source citations to Family Tree entries
over the past, almost three years, there are still many entries with no supporting sources. But what is
more serious, is that users of the Family Tree make changes to existing records without sources and
even more seriously, without consulting the sources that have already been supplied. 

There is an even more serious question, can we add names to the program without providing sources? The recent addition of source hints to Family Tree illustrates that the times when sources are not
available are really quite limited. In almost all cases, going back about 200 years, there are many more sources than are usually assumed. For example, adding an entire family to the Family Tree and citing
a marriage record is not adding a source when available. The marriage record is not a source for the
births of the children. 

This Tip should also be kept firmly in mind when people go fishing for names to take to the Temples.
There is no guarantee that a name without a source in Family Tree is not a duplicate and further that
the name is actually an ancestor of the user. 

Tip No. 2

To find an individual in Family Tree, click Find in the top menu. To find a Historical Record, click Search in the top menu or click Search Records on an individual’s person page.

This Tip is really about using the program as it was designed to be used. In other words, part of the function of working with Family Tree is to use the Find menu option to determine if there are multiple copies of an individual in the Family Tree. It is not enough to rely on Find Duplicates function alone to determine if duplicates exist. Likewise, the links to Historical Records are also there for a purpose; to 

be used. It is time to get away from mining the Family Tree for names to take to the Temple and begin adding names from verified historical records.

Tip No. 3  view it here:"  http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-top-five-tips-for-familysearch.html

I encourage you to read this from James' blog!  Enjoy!

James enjoys giving tips.  This first one is more for basic use of Family Search.  This next one is 
really essential to understanding the basic premise of Family Tree and explaining it to others.  This one I have saved in my Source Box for future reference while helping patrons.

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

Digital Images Of Microfilm On FamilySearch.org

This is a screenshot of the images for the Argentina, Córdoba, Protocolos notariales Film #7397619 Índice de protocolos notariales, Registro 1 - Tomo 01 - Letras A-B, 1775-1925. This filmstrip viewer is extremely useful for researchers because navigating through the roll of microfilm is facilitated. You may or may not have found one of these types of images on the FamilySearch.org website, depending on whether you use the Catalog or not.

If you search in the FamilySearch.org Catalog for records, you will find three general categories: books and other printed material, microfilm and microfiche. The microfilm records are starting to be displayed in a variety of ways with the above filmstrip view one of the very most useful for researchers. Microfilm records fall into two general categories: those records that are indexed and those that are not.

The above view, is marked on the Catalog entry for the film and related films. Here is a screenshot of the Catalog entry for the above film from Argentina:

The little camera icon in the Film Notes indicates that the microfilm roll is available in this format as a filmstrip. The main group of records also has a red letter notation about the digitized records as shown by this screenshot:

I am sure there is some system as to which films appear in this format, but to the user finding films that are available in this format seems to be random.

The red link shown in the last screenshot goes to this page.

You can continue reading this post here: Part 1

http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/08/viewing-digital-record-images-on.html

It turns out that there are now a number of ways to view the digital records on the FamilySearch.orgwebsite. This is just my (James Tanner) first installment. I also think this will end up being a webinar in the future. So if you are reading this sometime after the publication date, you might want to check the BYU Family History Library YouTube Channel to see if I have done a webinar on this subject."

 There are three posts in this series.

Part 2    http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/08/viewing-digital-record-images-on_5.html

Part 3    http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/08/viewing-digital-record-images-on_7.html

Major Transition for Family Search Platform!*

Magnolia Tree

Pinterest 

FamilySearch has been wildly successful in the past few years.  It has grown by leaps and bounds like no one could have imagined. In order to avoid a successful tragedy they knew long ago that they would have to expand the platform to allow for this growth.  This move to a platform called Cassandra that is bigger and more powerful has been in the works for some time.   After beta testing the move 9 times, they were ready.  

I can bet there were some very sleepless nights for a lot of the developers and engineers as well as users. Probably more than a few.  Yesterday morning at around 12:30 am they made the move.  It was announced that there would be a shut down for possibly 24 hours.  

The main purpose of the update was to expand FS capabilities to handle the deluge of users and records added to the site, in unprecedented numbers, in just a couple of years.

There were also other purposes one of which was to disconnect new.familysearch.org the previous iteration of FS before FS/FT. There is now freedom to merge many people that were not mergeable in the past.  However this does not apply to all. There are some that are still too large.

Think Mayflower.  If there are over 80 sources attached to an individual they may not be merged at this time.  But the majority of the ones causing problems in the past have been rectified and we are given freedom at last to proceed and to clean up the records.
We will eventually see far less duplicates than we now see.

They have put some numeric limits of various aspects of what we can add.  This includes how many sources can be added but also pertains to some other things.  More info on that will come out in the coming days from FS.  Most of us do not add more than 80 sources.  Right? And most of the other limits are equally as high so not too much to worry about for most people.  

I learned that some insiders like the big bloggers, including James Tanner had the inside track info that FS was planning to have it done by 5:00 am Mountain Time.  James sat at his computer yesterday giving the blow by blow of what he was thinking and what was happening.  It was fun.  He said, "Most people do not read blogs for breaking news".  I said,  "They do if they know which blog to read!"  

If you want the insider's view go to these blog posts he has written in the past 24+hours.

This event was a bit reminiscent of the Y2K scare with much of the same results.  It reminds me of that plaque you sometimes see that says, "On this spot (insert a specific date) absolutely nothing (insert bad) happened."  

The links 

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-new-beginning-familysearch-family.html

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-new-beginning-familysearch-family_27.html

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-new-beginning-familysearch-family_51.html

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-new-beginning-familysearch-family_12.html

Way To Go FamilySearch~Congratulations!

Ron Tanner.....Take a Break!

Obituaries on Family Search

Did you know that you can find some obituaries on Family Search that can be very helpful to your researching.  John Jex shared  this today and I wanted to give you the links so you can check it out.

familysearch.org/campaign/myancestorsobituaries

 familysearch.org/joseph-smith-papers#1 

I had a few minutes to search these and found this one.  Then I used the irfanview to copy it and save it on the desktop.  Went to the relative's details page and clicked on Memories.  Then just drag it into the green box and it will download.

 

 

Family Search YouTube Channel

To use YouTube go to YouTube in your url bar.  it will bring up YouTube.   Then you go to the place on the homepage where you can search.  Enter Family Search.  A page will come up, select a video to watch.  Some are lengthy.  Many are under 4:00 Minutes.  The length of the video will be visible on the place where you select it.They are just little snippets of information that often comes in very handy.

This is one way I try to learn little nuggets to fill in the holes in my Swiss Cheese Genealogy/Family History brain.

Here are three random ones I selected to give you an idea of how these work.  All are very short.  You can subscribe to this channel and any other on YouTube.  YouTube is one of the biggest and best search engines on the internet.  If you want to know how to do anything...check with YouTube.

https://youtu.be/-9vA8juUpYs

https://youtu.be/n7wVn4oFjH0

https://youtu.be/QdQkN7DB7uo

Family Search Updates For March 2016

Here's the March update from Jesse Hyde.

March 29, 2016 By Jesse Hyde

"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

Search: Oral Genealogies

A new collection of unique and high-quality data is being added to the Genealogies search. Oral genealogies consist of large lineage-linked trees constructed from the memories of tribal, clan, or family leaders in Africa, Tonga, and other locations. Most trees come with attached audio, PDF, and image artifacts documenting the interviewee and the recorded family history from which the tree was generated. These represent the only family history that will likely be obtained from these locations and are believed to be highly accurate.

To search for an ancestor in the oral genealogies, at the top of the screen, hover your cursor over Search. In the drop-down list, click Genealogies.

The Search Genealogies screen appears.

Search: Updated Person Card

The person card displayed on the search pages has been updated. It now matches the person cards that you see in Family Tree. The new card includes the Watch or UnWatch control and the number of Sources, Discussions, and Memories.

FamilySearch Research Wiki: Updated

The FamilySearch Research Wiki (https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Main_Page) has been updated. We have moved to the most current, stable version of WikiMedia. This has made some changes to where you access options on the pages, but we can now correct problems we couldn’t fix in the earlier research wiki platform.

How is it different?

New URL. The wiki now has a new URL (https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Main_Page)

Navigation on the left. The update moves the navigation to the left side, making it consistent with other wikis using the MediaWiki software.

Personal Tools. In the earlier wiki, the Personal Tools option was on the right side. Those options are still available, but now when you sign in, they appear after your name in the top right portion of the screen.

Same articles. All the articles that were in the previous wiki are in the update.

Bookmarks still work. If you’ve bookmarked articles, when you click the bookmark, the system will redirect you to the new page.

New editing tool. When you add information to the wiki, you’ll now be using VisualEditor to format the information when you click the Edit tab. Clicking on the Edit Source tab will still allow you to edit in wikitext.  

All browsers. You can now contribute to the wiki using any popular browser. (Chrome users rejoice!)

New look for the state and country pages. We are in the process of giving a new look to the state and country pages.

FamilySearch Research Wiki: Easy Access to Online Genealogy Records

Did you know the research wiki has a page with links to online genealogy records? The page is easy to get to and easy to use. The links include collections that are not available on FamilySearch.org.

1. On any research wiki page, look at the navigation on the left.
2. Click Online Genealogy Records. A page appears with the list of links.



3. Click the country, province, state, or county records you are interested in. The system displays a page with links to the online records for that place. There may be a brief description of contents. If there is a cost to use the records, you will see ($) after the collection name.



4. To go to the records, click the link to the specific record collection.

Coming Soon:

When You Change Information, How Many Users Will Be Notified?

Soon, when you edit a person’s information in Family Tree, like birth or occupation, the system will display the number of users who are watching that person. Watching means that users have asked the system to let them know when any changes or additions are made to the person’s information in Family Tree. So when you change the information, that’s how many people will be notified by the system.

Filed Under: What's New at FamilySearch?, What's New on Family Tree? 9 Comments Tagged With: FamilySearch Wiki, oral genealogies,Search Features