James Tanner on Famous Last Words

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This post by James Tanner is one of my all time favorites.  I hope you enjoy it and can relate.  Find him here: http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com  It was published on July 14, 2017.

 "Famous Last Words:  I Plan On Doing My Family History When I Retire."

"In the United States and I am guessing elsewhere in the world, we have a culture of "retirement." The idea seems to be that after spending a lifetime of work, we are somehow entitled to some rest and relaxation in our old age. In Phoenix, Arizona, where I spent most of my life, retirement is a big business and the entire city is surrounded by "retirement communities." The idea is to play golf, shuffleboard or pickle ball and while away their time until they die in "luxury." Although, I do have a difficult time adjusting my concept of "luxury" to the extensive mobile home parks where most of the retirees are living. But no matter how you look at it, retirement is a big business in the United States. 

One interesting part of the retirement concept did include the fact that a rather small number of these retirees were actively engaged in genealogical research and as a result, over the years, I managed to make friends with a few of the "Winter Visitors" that came to Mesa every year. 

If you have been around me at all, you can probably guess that I am entirely and completely opposed to the idea of "retirement." As President Gordon B. Hickley is quoted as saying about President Ezra Taft Benson, "He came to know...that without hard work, nothing grows but weeds." Here is the entire quote.

That family life is but an extension of the family life into which Ezra Taft Benson was born and in which he was nurtured and grew. As has been noted, he was a farm boy, literally and truly, an overall-clad, sunburned boy who at a very early age came to know the law of the harvest: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). He came to know in those lean days that without hard work, nothing grows but weeds. There must be labor, incessant and constant, if there is to be a harvest. And so there was plowing in the fall and plowing in the spring—the sweaty work of walking in a furrow all day long behind a team of strong horses. In those days a hand plow was used, and it was necessary to hold constantly the handles that twisted and shook as the sharp plow point cut the earth and neatly rolled it over. After a day of that, a boy was exhausted and slept well. But morning came very soon.

As genealogists and family historians, we are living the law of the harvest. I agree with President Hinkley, that "there must be labor, incessant and constant if there is to be a harvest.

There are three very common excuses for failing to become involved in family history work as follows:

• I don't have time right now and I will spend more time doing my family history when I retire.
• All my family history has been done and I don't have anything to do.
• I am simply not interested in doing my family history right now. 

It is my observation that retirement does not produce an interest in family history. Yes, a few of us do view retirement from our occupation or work as an opportunity to spend more time researching our family history, but most (nearly all) find out that family history has a lower priority than many (most) other activities. The reality is that unless you have an active interest and involvement in reading, research, computers, and history, you will probably not be spending much of your "retirement" time doing genealogical research. Doing genealogical research is too much like "work" for most people and they have the idea that they have done their "work" and now they are "retired."

In a sense by trying to get people who are retired to be involved in a highly intensive intellectual challenge such as genealogy is like swimming upstream against a river of cultural promptings that are telling people to slow down and enjoy life in their "golden years." One of the realities of those "retirement" years for most of those around me is that they are old and the pain and difficulty of simply living every day is a major disincentive to activity at the level required to do family history research. What I see when I go to the family history centers and libraries is a bunch of old people who, despite physical infirmities, are driven by the Spirit to do the incessant and constant labor of finding their families.

Maybe we need to find out who is actually doing family history and why they do it before we try to sell family history as a general or popular pursuit."

***********************************

I have found this post to be so poignant, relevant and ironically humorous!

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

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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

My Heritage-Training Video

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My Heritage is an amazing website.  More than 83 million people are registered throughout the world.  They are now in every single country in the world.  They have 2.6 Billion people on their trees. 6.8 Billion documents supporting the entries.  They have over 200 million photos and 42 languages available.  These stats alone merit our consideration.  They are adding roughly 100,000 users per month.  Their numbers are staggering for a company that has only been around for a little over a decade.  They partnered with Family Search in 2013.  The growth has been phenomenal.

https://youtu.be/0v0fbjil9W8

The Webinar is 1 hour in length.  It is a small price to pay for what could save you countless hours of searching in the future.  Knowledge is power.  The more we learn the more we realize how much more there is to learn.

Making the Most of Find My Past~Video

Making the Most of MyHeritage com by James Tanner.  James has done one of these videos on the big four,  FS, Ancestry and My Heritage as well.. BYU YouTube page.  Subscribe.

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!

We're Watching You!

Finally on Family Search /Family Tree we have another very effective deterrent to irrational changes without sources.   Now there is a box that pops up telling you how many other people are watching the person you plan to edit.  This is brilliant.

From James Tanner post on this new feature see it here.

Since the creation and launch of Family Tree three years ago, we have talked about monitoring your people by Clicking on the Star on the Person Details Page in Family Tree.

This monitoring allows you to be notified by email once a week when someone has made a change on one of your ancestors.  Some people do not play by the rules and make changes based on wishes instead of SOURCED facts.  Some people put in things that are completely irrational without carefully checking the feasibility of such entries.  You know the ones, children born after the mother's death, children born before the father, etc.   Some people have deleted relationships and ordinances and even people for reasons unknown because they do not even fill in why they are making the changes.   Most of the time they are made without sources being added.  This has understandably led to some people losing faith in this process.

This new feature will refocus someone in the moment they are about to make a change.  They will no doubt recheck their entry before completing the edit.  Thank you Family Tree developers.

Some are new at family history, some are young, some are very old.  Some people make honest mistakes, others are just careless.  Most are well-intended.  This new feature will help a lot.

Most want Family Tree perfect right now.  They do not understand that FS/FT is a process towards perfection.  This is a process that will take time and it's unrealistic to think it will be instantaneous when we are trying to clean up 150 years of records.  We have made great advances in three years but the work is not done.

By creating one world wide tree as we work together it will become better and better.  The synergy of working together on a common goal of a perfected tree is better than each one of us doing our own thing.  This is not a great idea since we share so many common ancestors with others.  Collaboration will move us all forward.  Some people do not want to participate at all thinking why should I? I did all this hard work, why should I share it? Why not share it?  Think about that.  Another thing is why should I share it ...I have no descendants.  Do your siblings or your cousins or other people who share these same ancestors seek after this information you are holding so close?  Probably.  Whatever happened to random acts of kindness and unselfishness or contributing to the common good of all? Just sayin'...

Some people  resist clicking on that star to Watch their people.  I am not sure why. If you value your time and effort getting things into the tree with good sources, wouldn't you want to see the changes made by others?  On a wiki-based database, it is a little nuts not to do this.  Beside you might get some new information yourself.  We cannot just assume that because we added something it is perfectly correct.  We do not hold all the documents or information on our ancestors.  Others have their share as well.

To get the perspective of responding appropriately to others and their changes please read James Tanner's blog post about it here:  It is very insightful.

http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/2016/04/responding-appropriately-to-changes-in.html

BYU Family History Library Visit

One day while we were in Utah the kids were all busy and Jim was working on the shed.  I thought maybe I should take a couple of hours and go to the BYU library.  I kept thinking maybe I won't, maybe I will.  It was supposed to snow.  Finally I just made a decision.  I'm going. 

When I got there I thought I'd see if James Tanner was in the library.  I figured my chances were good since he is there most of the week teaching classes, etc.  As I approached the desk to get a new password for using their computers, an Elder approached me asking if he could help.  I asked him if James Tanner was there.  He replied, "Well he is in today but at lunch.  At 1:00 he will be teaching."  I inquired about that and asked if anyone could come and he said yes!  It was 20 minutes away.  He showed me the door where the class would be held and the door was closed.  He said, "The door will open when the prayer meeting is over."   When  I got my password I went to a computer and started to do a few things.  I was approached by this really weird guy who had a lot of really weird questions for me so was glad I had an appointment with JT at 1:00. 

Here's a picture of The Family History Library at BYU. It is a beautiful facility and right in the middle of the campus. Did you know this is the second largest library for Family History in the world?  It is!

At 1:00 o'clock absolutely nothing happened!  The mystery door was still closed,  I sat at a library table facing the door for a few minutes just waiting.  The next thing I knew JT walked up beside me and said hello.  He doesn't know me but I have talked with him on enough occasions that I looked familiar to him.  We chatted and then seriously talked about his blogs, I confessed to being a fan. He seemed quite surprised by  that.  Funny!  I then confessed to staff training and mentioning him most weeks.  He was flabbergasted! 

Finally the door opened and he and I went in.  I was expecting a classroom.  Instead it was a small conference room with big overstuffed leather chairs, a round table, etc.  I snapped a couple of photos discreetly but I think he caught me on the one below.  Whoops.  But he did crack a big smile after that and didn't ask for my camera or anything.  Thank goodness.  He knew I was taking it for all of you!  After his presentation he thanks me for coming.

There were just a few people in the room, five I think, that are on staff and then James and me.  He proceeded to teach a class about the partners that he said would never be published or declared publicly. He stated his opinions on what is happening and what will likely happen in the future.

 He also spoke about some new Green Arrows appearing out of the blue on Family Tree for children under the age of accountability that had already been sealed but are resurfacing as though they had not.  There are thousands of them that have appeared because some of the sealings from a certain period of time had been completed but not recorded properly.  He had some advice on those which was just redo them if you have previously done them or go though the channels to get FS to fix them if you are not sure.

He had another section of his presentation that was to be done online.  Sadly the entire University lost the Internet during that remainder of the time.  So he just talked and answered a few questions.

It was such a privilege to talk with him and hear him teach the staff. I love it when Life happens like that.  As luck would have it, this week he is out of the library on vacation so I went at the right time. Family History is often a serendipity experience.

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