A Million Dollar Promise

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Dear Readers,

I am sorry I have been slacking on posting on this blog.  Sometimes blogging is like throwing things into the wind.  Without comments you just never know when anyone is reading, finding it worthwhile and helpful, or if it just goes into the great Internet abyss in the sky, never to be thought of again. If you read it and have questions or comments please take a minute and include them.  That way I'll know I am not talking to myself.  Thanks!

Yesterday I was asked to teach a 90 minute class for new and returning student of genealogy.  This class is a PowerPoint presentation I created several months ago to help people get an overview of what is happening in genealogy and family history these days.  I have been  given the opportunity to repeat this class several times for various groups and I have enjoyed doing it very much.

Yesterday they were expecting a certain number and almost twice as many came.  I was sad there was standing room only for some but it made me to happy to think that people are actually learning from my own struggles. When I first went to work in the  family history library I had to start from scratch. I had done quite a bit of family history years ago but of course so much had changed.  With all the digitized records, websites, technology and new ways of doing things it was so overwhelming. With that memory fresh in my mind I started this blog at the beginning of my journey.

This blog has been a sort of chronicle of the thoughts I had, some victories and some major challenges.  It also includes some technical things and some helps for doing various things.  You can read the posts by going to the side bar and looking at the first blog post in the last section of the archives for 2011.  {On blogs the most current post is on the home page so to read chronologically you have to read from oldest to newest.}

Yesterday as I stood teaching I had a bit of an out of body experience.  I realized if this old gal can learn this...we all can!  But what it takes is desire, diligence, tenacity and learning new skills.  I was so appreciative of all those who gave me positive feedback and encouragement in this endeavor to learn and share it.  That encouragement meant the world to me and motivates me to keep going and learning and teaching others in this wonderful work.

So with all that in mind I am going to give you the Million Dollar Promise.  If you are confused about family history and genealogy and want to learn more here is what you do.  I'll warn you up front it will cost you a few hours of studying.  Commit to working for an understanding and then...
 (drum roll......) 

Go to http://familysearch.org

If this is your first visit you will need to register. Just follow the prompts. This site is free they just like to keep track of who is visiting. If you are a church member you will need to have your membership # available.  You can get it from your temple recommend or from the ward clerk.

Then spend a minimum of one hour looking at the site.  Do not put any names in the search engine no matter how tempted you may be.  Instead explore the site and learn what is there and some tips on searching for your ancestors.  Go to the learn tab at the top of the home page and look around in there.

Click on everything you see and familiarize yourself with it.  Take a course or two from the second half of the page under the Getting Started section.  All you have to do is look in there to find something of interest. Next click on the help button at the upper right hand corner of every page you have a question about that you view on the site.  To return to the home page simply click on the tree icon in the upper left hand portion of the page you are on.  Magically you will go home. No big test or anything.

The promise is...you will learn everything you need to know and more from this one site about beginning your family history and genealogy.  The site is amazing.  One Stop Shopping~Big Box Store.  Of course all you need to know will not be yours in an hour.  But one visit will be enough to let you see what a miracle has occurred in family history in the past 14 years since the site launched in 1999. 

Of course there is much more out there in cyber space.  But for now...one thing at a time.  Baby Steps.  Family Search is The Place.  Do me a favor and let me know if you got your money's worth.  

Here is a big hint. 

"You have to touch it for it to touch you." Bonnie Mattson

 If you just think about it and don't physically do something you will never learn to do family history  Doing = Achieving.  Put your hands on it.

Incidentally one sweet student had come to my class before and returned for the second time.  She came up to tell me how much this blog has taught her and that alone has inspired me to keep going with it.  Thank you, Kay Bohne!  And then one of my favorite people and family history gurus, Marge Bell, asked me for the link tonight.  You both made my day.  I'm on it ladies! (And Gentlemen, of course!)  Next up...Family Search Wiki!

Happy Hunting,  Bonnie 

Halloween Memories Preserved

As some of you know I have "a few" blogs.  This morning I did this blog post about some Halloween Memories of mine and also a few from my Dad.  There is nothing earth-shattering about it but thought it might be fun for our posterity some day.  It didn't take long and was fun for me to do it.

 I think this is the secret to keeping little memories from your childhood.  When something triggers a memory like a holiday, take a minute or two and jot it down.  Writing about your life in little Kodak moments is so easy and over time can create a nice treasury of glimpses into your past.

  Imagine if you had some stories like this one for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren to enjoy one day.  I try to imagine what I would love to have from my parents and leave that for our kids.  The fun is in the everyday details.  I wish I knew more about my ancestors than their vital statistics.  How fabulous to have something that I didn't have to analyze or wonder about...that they just left me as a gift.  Journaling is a great way to spend some leisure time~try it, you'll like it.

Happy Halloween, 2012!

Vintage sepia photo where someone added
 black glitter to the hats
and put it in a black frame.
One of my favorite Halloween Decorations
Especially for my Genealogy Friends!

In the olden days Halloween was different than it is today. Although I am not a big fan of the scary parts of Halloween, both the imagined and the real, there are things I do like about it. For one, it seems that most kids are pretty crazy about the costumes and the trick or treating. Because kids love it, they tend to remember it when they grow up. I think that any holiday that book marks childhood memories can be a good thing.

When I think back to my growing up years a lot of it is just a fog. The repetition of daily life seems to all blend into a happy feeling inside of me but not a lot of real specific things are there unless I search the archives of my memory with real intent. Things like Halloween seem to stand out pretty well.

It seems that the costumes were mostly homemade and I can remember a lot of ghosts and hobos. There were also a lot of gypsies and little girls in lots of mom's make-up and fancy fake jewelry and boys with blackened faces (to look like dirt) done by lighting a match to a cork and then rubbing it on your face. Lots of kids just wore their own clothes and a mask of some kind. I don't remember adults in costumes unless they were going to a grown-up party or wanted to really scare kids at their doors.

The tricks that I remember were soaping windows. It was something the bigger kids did that really made people mad as it was hard to get off the cars and houses. And if you really wanted to be devious, raw eggs were tossed.  Heaven knows we never did it, Mom and Dad would never allow anything like that thankfully. In my Dad's day it was turning over outhouses and he was known to have participated in a few of those events! One time he and a bunch of kids put a guy's buckboard up on his barn roof out in the farmlands of North Dakota. They got in some major trouble from their parents for that. We on the other hand, were perfect little angels. Sure we were!

We had some fun school activities with costumes and bobbing for apples and old-fashioned things like that. I remember "going fishing" for prizes, eating popcorn balls and frosted cookies. These events were the precursor to the school carnivals of today I think.

Halloween was always a bench mark for the beginning of the darker, colder and rainier weather and staying warm outside under your costume was essential. It seems that it would be dark so early and was usually the first week of daylight savings time. And no one was interested in eating dinner, that's for sure! We just wanted to go, go go! The thing about candy in those days was it was a rare treat which made the pay dirt all the sweeter. (Is there a lesson for another day here?)

Jen's pumpkin art
Our Daughter is so artistic!

We would always pray for no rain in Sacramento where I grew up. Rain always put such a damper on the blocks and blocks of door to door trick or treating. We lived in a housing tract and going out was so much fun.

You didn't have to be afraid of weirdos that liked to poison kids and things like that. Kids were out in mass and parents just didn't have to worry about the safety of their kids like we did in our kids' day and especially now that we have grandkids. Fortunately, most people now just take their kids to homes of people they know and still every year you read of unfortunate events involving little kids. Not so in our care free days of growing up.

We all used large paper bags to collect our loot. One of our parents would always go with us until we were about 10. Then we could go alone if we took our little brother with us. One time I remember that I was 10, Steve was 8 and our baby brother, Gary, was 5. Out we went with Gary in tow and we hit every house for about five blocks. We had a ton of candy and were pretty excited. The few rich people even gave out 5 cent candy bars!! When we arrived home exhausted and happy we ran to our rooms to empty our bags on to the floor and count and sort the loot. Steve and I ran into the bedroom and then we heard our little brother crying in the kitchen.

 I took the still life photos last night

 at the Oakland Family Search Library. 

 One of our staff members, John Jex, 

does these lovely arrangements for the Library.
He has an amazing eye for design. 
This was really a treat to enjoy.

The next thing I knew my Dad was standing over Steve and me saying that we needed to share our candy with Gary! " What? Are you kidding us?" I guess we weren't doing the best job of watching him as he ran to keep up with us that night. It seems little Gar, was not quite tall enough and he was dragging his paper bag in the wet grass. He arrived home with nothing but a big bag with a big hole in the bottom. Poor little guy! He was heart broken and we begrudgingly shared our candy (honestly how could we be so selfish and bratty?)  To this day I call him and remind him not to drag his bag in the wet grass every Halloween!  Love my brothers and those fond memories.  Maybe just reading this has given you some memories you can capture and save for the future.

Have a safe and fun evening tonight if you are Going Out.  We would sure like to do that with our grandies.  Too bad they are so far away.

 

Faux Calories! 

Sources and Citations

The way that we learn about our family history is by researching.  We record our own experiences and life.  We locate documents like vital records, census records and other documents, look at family trees, we interview people, read family histories and the like.  We take that information and using certain methodologies we analyze our findings to connect generations of our family together.

We want to keep a record of the information we have found and where we found it step by step.  We do this to eliminate the need to duplicate the same steps again by ourselves or others.  We do it to provide evidence for the conclusions we draw from the data we find and analyze.  This process can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it.  The point is you should make it simple and not overlook this step.  

There are many articles available on sources and citations.  You can Google your head off on this.  One of the problems is semantics when trying to sort out what they all mean.  Often words like records, information, documentation and sources, citation, and sourcing are used interchangeably. The following is a video created by familysearch.org that talks a little about sources and citations.
For reasons I do not understand they refer to sources as records and citations as sourcing.  It only adds to the confusion for budding genealogists.  Just watch the video for general content.

 The word "Record" is used for source which is defined in another document by family search as: " an item such as an historical record, picture, journal, Bible, or other object that contains evidence that records an event of interest.  A source can be published or unpublished."  "Sourcing" is the word they use in the video which is actually citating.  Citation is defined by Family Search as the reference to a source."  My source citation for this quote is found @ familysearch.org, Sources in Family Tree, A Family Search White Paper written 29 June 2012.  Find it here.  https://familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/sources-in-family-tree-a-family-search-whitepaper-pdf/618

This is the video 5 Minute Genealogy #24.

http://tinyurl.com/99jvkzr

The video above and the PDF handout for the class are from familysearch.org.  I split the handout in half to include it here.  It is not meant to show the research log in detail but only to show you that you need a way to record your research as you go.

A lot of people enter their sources right into their family history software package when they update their individual entries, family tree and/or family group sheets in their personal files.   This is of course an excellent idea.  However, where do you record that information when you are actually researching?  There are many ways to do this.  If you are at the library copying documents you can write the information about where it can be located right on the copy as suggested in the video. I prefer evernote.com.  But you can search for a way that is perfect for you.  The important things is to do it.

It took me a long time to refine this part of my researching and to realize that my research notes included my sources and citations but are not limited to them.  This is why I prefer Evernote.com for my research notes.  I can include all the metadata (data about my data or sources and citations) and also have the flexibility to do a narrative about my findings in one accessible place.  I don't find research logs adequate for that much information but they may be perfect for you.  Again, you have to find what works for you.  Just make sure you do something!

The fact is, a lot of "genealogists" don't do source citations.  The reasons are varied and sound something like this..."I don't plan to publish my work," or ,"It is too hard and takes too long," or "It seems unnecessary."  The more casual the interest the more likely you will hear these reasons.  Quoting staff at ancestry.com on this..."Sourcing is ultimately what ties the entire genealogy community together.  We all rely on each other's work to some degree, whether it is a pedigree sent by our cousin or a family history written two centuries ago.  Sourcing your work ensures that anyone who picks up where you left off doesn't have to duplicate your efforts and can have confidence that your facts come from reliable sources."  You can read more of this article at http://www.genealogy.com/94-sourcing/

See John Wylie's article here  http://www.genealogy.com/19_wylie.html if you want to get into the technical aspects of sourcing and citations for publication or just because you want to do that kind of detail correctly.  Remember it can be as simple or as complicated as you wish.  As for me, I want to keep it fairly simple.  I want to be thorough but I do not want to get so caught up in the minutia of  information about information to the point that it forestalls my researching time.  There are only so many waking hours in the day after all.  Right?

I think the things outlined by familysearch.org in the green box above are good to begin.  Just remember it is like a recipe or road map.  Just help someone else or yourself to get to that source again in the easiest possible way for verification, authenticity and accuracy.  Test your citation on someone else.  If it works you are good to go.  Why go to all the work of researching if you don't do this important part of the whole process?  It just doesn't make any sense unless you are just collecting names as a hobby.  As you do it more and more your methods will evolve and you'll learn more.  For now just keep it simple.

And now from Pinterest...(drumroll....) a beautiful picture for the other side of our brains because there is way too much black and white on this page.

The Salt Lake Temple and the Reflecting Pond.

Funny And Oh So True!

My favorite...Endless Searches stem,

 Good Night Moon, Good Morning Sun.

I know I am not alone here.

While the world sleeps, genealogy gets done.

When it wakes you up you know you have been bitten.

Comparing Ancestry and Family Search

One of the things I did at the conference was to use my iPhone for snapping PowerPoint slides.  This saved me so much time and allowed me to give my full attention to the presenter without frantic note taking.  I am including the slides to show you how although the pictures are far from perfect they did capture what I needed.  This first one is on Primary Purposes of the 2 websites.

Primary Purposes

 Ancestry

 Share Data

Research Support

Preserve Data
Collaborate

Family Search FamilyTrees

Do Temple Work

  Avoid Duplications 

The Universal Tree

Collaborate

Research

Ancestry

Encourages research through hints

Direct link to Ancestry Documents

Stories and other items included

Large non-LDS participation

Sources not mandated

FSFT

No research emphasis beyond sources

Direct links to Family Search documents

No stories but possible through URLs

Primarily LDS participation

Display Functionality:

Ancestry

Compact Data Display

Easier to go deep in a couple of clicks

Source and photo attachment can be complicated

FSFT

Lots of white space

Several Clicks to go deeper

Source attachment is simple

Compatibility With Other Programs:

Ancestry

GEDCOM compatible but no ability to 

add a GEDCOM file to an existing tree.

No LDS Temple work capacity

Family /tree Maker 2012 for Tree Sync

FSFT

GEDCOM compatible

No ability to add a GEDCOM file to an existing tree (?)

Full LDS Temple Work Capacity coming soon!

Integrated with affiliate programs

Sharing:

Ancestry

 Able to share or not (Public or Private Options)

Makes available photos and documents 

System set up to contact all submitters

(although not all people answer)

FSFT 

Shared and edited by everyone

No images

Contacts on FT but email not mandated 

There is no contact information on AF (Ancestral File)

or the PRF (Pedigree Resource File) 
Found under Trees on the home page not family trees

 

Sourcing:

Ancestry

Source Citations

URL links

Direct link to Ancestry Records

Document and photo upload

FSFT

Source Citations

URL links

Direct link to Family Search records

Document and photo upload

Which Program Should You Use?
Both!

This presentation was given at the Genealogy
 and Family History Conference

by Br. George Ryskamp on August 3, 2012

I thought it was very helpful in recognizing that the two programs have different mission statements and purposes.   Each has decided advantages and disadvantages.  Both are still being developed on a regular on-going basis.  As we use them together we will minimize the disadvantages and advantages of both.

Conference Junky~Evernote

This summer has been a wild and crazy time.  We have been gone more than we have been home.  But now things are settling in a little and I have to tell you I am beginning to love conferences.   The summer held two excellent ones for me.  I attended the 4 day Family History and Genealogy Conference at Brigham Young University in Utah and The Evernote Trunk Conference in San Francisco which was just one very full day.  

There are several things I'd love to share from the 4 day conference at BYU but the syllabus is several hundred pages and waiting patiently on my desk for me to get to it.  So let me just tell you a little about Evernote today.

Evernote has been around and being developed since 2007-08.  It is a life management system.  It is yet another way to organize and store information.  As we are continually barraged with more and more vital information via the Internet and other places, these types of programs are emerging to help us cope with it and organize it.  Organizing on a new level just makes sense so we can be more productive and efficient. Remember the days when a big calendar would pretty much cover life events for us?  Those days seems to be gone forever.  Remember the Old Franklin Day Planners we lugged around?

 Well Evernote is the new and improved, electronic version and so superior to the old methods, and obsolete ways of keeping on top of our lives.  With the advent of the computer age we soon had the world at our finger tips and the largest library in the world on each and every desktop.  Now we not only have all of that but with Evernote  we can pick and choose to store and massage anything on the Web and everywhere else via scanning.  We can organize them in our own private storage notes and notebooks and they are completely searchable by keywords and tags.

You see an article you want to read later or save?  Evernote.  You can delete anything once you no longer need it.  You want to save photos and videos or music...Evernote.  You want to keep your own notes from a conference or meeting or your study notes for any facet of your life...Evernote.  You want to write or save blog posts, emails or documents...Evernote. You want to plan and organize events, projects, etc...Evernote.  This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Evernote can do for you.  Do you hate sorting and organizing receipts and expenses for business deductions or your personal income taxes?    I  do.  Scan all receipts and categorize them and you have everything you need long before you visit your accountant. The possibilities are endless for how Evernote can help you manage your life.

I personally think it is the best system out there for staying on top of your "beautiful" life.  (Evernote's phase!)  Evernote is for individuals not for big corporations.  It can easily make small business ventures much more efficient with 500 or less employees and they are working on going bigger.  Their goal is 10,000 employees right now.  It has a 100 year business plan.  They plan to be around a long time  and I think they will be.

They call Evernote your external brain!  So there is a tremendous business application to using Evernote but their customers are you and me; just ordinary people that want to be on top of their lives. I think it is great when we just want to de-stress and not have to remember so many things day and night.  I have been using it for a few months and already I feel more relaxed because I can get to what I need in just a few seconds anywhere I am.  Now that I know so much more about it I am really ready to use it more.

For me the practical application for it with genealogy is keeping searchable research notes that don't have to be keyboarded or scanned in from my hand-written notes and they are searchable.  Oh and did I mention you can also share with others and collaborate with them on various things should you wish? That has great family history application.

You can read about Evernote and sign up for free as long as you are inputting less that 60 megabytes or less per month.  If you go over you will want their premiere subscription which is unlimited and has many more features for $5.00 per month.

The program is cloud based like Dropbox or Google Cloud but it has one feature that makes it better.  It is not just a place to store things in a cloud but you can actually create notes for yourself by writing right on the site.  It is compatible with all operating systems which is a big advantage to everyone who uses mobile devices or stationary devices that start with an i.  iPhone, iPod, iMac, MacBook Pro and iPads.  It is compatible with all windows bases computers and all mobile (non-apple) devices as well.  It also is in beta testing for feature phone users which is about 3/4 of the entire world's cell phone users.  (Feature phones are the old Nokias, etc. we use to have or in some cases, still do.)

The other outstanding feature of Evernote to me is you can write your notes on the computer or any of your mobile devices and then they become available to you anywhere when they automatically sync on all your devices.

 So no more notes scribbled in a notebook and never found again without inputting as a document and filing electronically or printing it out and paper filing.  Yay!  I am in love.  This is a solution that I have struggled with from day one in genealogy.  I never could fit my narratives into those tiny little boxes on research logs.  So I used spiral notebooks.  Don't do it for genealogy.  Use Evernote so you can actually find your notes!  Imagine that!  And just in case you have some hand-written notes you want to keep you can just snap a photo with your digital camera or smart phone and save it on Evernote with the Evernote App!  They have even partnered with Moleskine Notebooks and you can draw or write notes or whatever you like, add an identifying sticker that comes with the notebook and Evernote will file it for you!  I am really excited about their product and their company.  The employees just exude happiness, one that cannot be feigned. 

In my opinion, the best way to get started is to do the tutorials on the website @ http://evernote.com or YouTube.  Love to watch someone demo it...I never could follow the geek manuals.  Too dry and confusing and now too heavy!

Well, I hope I have gotten you excited about just thinking about looking at it to see if you could benefit from Evernote.  I know there are lots of places for storing info these days and it can be overkill.  And some of you are just totally fine with your own systems.

What I love about Evernote is it is easy, and effective.  And there is room for all of my interests and activities and goals and the like.  I can see that it is aptly called "an external brain" and I know I need this as my internal brain is pretty much fried these days, just trying to become better at genealogy.  I need all the help I can get!

Won't you just go to evernote.com and see for yourself?  And let me know what you decide!

Thanks!
Bonnie

IGI~Family Search Update~Aug 14, 2012

Birth place of Joseph Smith, Sharon Vermont

Below see another path towards

 building your family tree.

If you have been keeping up with Family Search at familysearch.org you are aware that the site is changing and merging with new.familysearch.  The developers are just on fire with new innovations and things to make our experience in Family History and Genealogy that much easier, enjoyable and time-efficient.  I recommend that you tune in to the Blog there on familysearch.org about once a week to see what is new.  It boggles the mind.  Another favorite place to look is Tech Tips.  If someone had told me ten years ago that my interest and fascination with technology would skyrocket to its present place in my life I would have found it laughable.  The things the Lord has blessed us with are positively amazing.  The flood gates are open and we are the pioneers of the digital age.  I love that.

On this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNwB6FAwmP4&feature=em-uploademail you will find the latest YouTubeVideo on how to access the old IGI** for historical records that will be immensely valuable in your research.  Around 20% of the records the church has come from that one record collection.

**  The IGI is The International Genealogical Index and was kept on Microfiche for decades.  It is now digitized.  The fiche contained temple ordinance records from all over the world now available for research on familysearch.org.  Just sign in and get access for your research.   You can also access it by clicking on TREES not Family Trees on the home page of FS.  This is The Place to find out what is happening and what you need to do.  Check it out.