FamilySearch/FamilyTree-July Updates

I know I say this every month but I truly appreciate Steve Anderson over at Family Search for gathering all the updates for the month into one place.  He does such a great job and if you have ever done blogging you appreciate him even more.  One of the things that I think makes genealogists so special is that they are willing to work so hard to learn and then share with others.  It is a gift we rarely think about because the entire community is this way.  I  think it is rare, don't you?

https://familysearch.org/blog/en/whats-familysearchjuly-2015/

Freedmen's Bureau Records

https://www.dropbox.com/home/Staff%20Training?preview=Lesson+44+-+Freedmen%27s+Bureau+Records.pdf

Using American Ancestors Dot Org

American Ancestors is the website for the highly regarded New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS).  It was established in 1845 in Boston and is one of the oldest and largest genealogical societies.

This website (http://americanancestors.org) is a comprehensive resource for Family History research.  It contains over 400 million records and should be a definite Go-To for England, New England, Pennsylvania,  New York and Virginia research.

As a member of the church you can access this affiliate Family search site.  Go to this link:

https://familysearch.org/partneraccess   

Follow instructions.  
Write down your username and password.

The level we have access to is most similar the level of Research on the paid site.  There are some areas of the website that are restricted and the lesson below outlines that for you.  All patrons on the computers in the OFSC can access American Ancestor in the library.

The lesson can be downloaded at this link:

http://tinyurl.com/nukxlwx  There are some things to practice on the lesson link.

Thanks to Linda for pointing out the value of this newly acquired partnership for Family Search.  Yet another great way to help our patrons in their quest to find their family.

Occupations of Old

Yesterday we attended the annual Staff Appreciation Dinner at the Library.  It was very nicely done as usual and most appreciated by our staff.  it seems high time we did something special for Carol Holladay and Debbie Smith to show our appreciation for their appreciation.  Those ladies work tirelessly on our behalf.  Thank you Carol and Debbie!

After the dinner we played a little game to see who knows what some of the occupations from the past were called.  Most of us failed the test miserably.  So I thought it might be fun to list them here for the rest of you and for us as a reminder.

Collier.....................................Coalminer/Quarry Worker

Accoucheuse...........................Midwife

Cooper...................................  Barrel or Cask Maker

Cordwainer or Cordiner..........Shoemaker

Currier.....................................Hide Curer

Alewife....................................Tavern Keep or Barmaid

Farrier/Ferrier..........................Metal Worker/Blacksmith

Besomer...................................Broom Maker

Goaler......................................Jailer

Chataugua...............................Travel Camp Orator

Joiner or Wright.....................Woodworker

Necessary Woman.................Chamberpot Tender 

Margrave................................German Nobleman

Huckster................................. Door to Door Salesman

Husbandman...........................Farmer

Pugger.....................................Clay Maker or Treader

Sawyer....................................Logger or Timberman

Tucker.....................................Lace Seamstress

Surety......................................Bondsman

Yeomanette.............................Navel Reservist

Selectman................................Alderman

Tanner.....................................Hide Processor

Suttler......................................Peddler Selling to the Military

Executrix.................................Female Estate Administrator

Yeoman...................................Cultivator of a small piece of land

Corsair.....................................Pirate

How did you do?  You never know when these things will come in handy in your research.  

Tree Connect Update

While we have been in the UK I have been reading about problems with Tree Connect from several of the blogs.  I have been a proponent of Tree Connect from its initial launch because it is a great way to add sources from various websites into your Person Details Page in Family Search /Family Tree.

While checking it all out this morning I found this message from the creator of Tree connect.  It is going to be even better but right now it does not appear to be ready.  See The creator's explanation here. http://dovy.io/recordseek/recordseek-redesigned-from-the-ground-up/

So if you have never used Tree Connect to enhance your sources on your ancestors give it a try when it is done with the facelift.  I'll be watching it and will give you an update when the API is re-certified with Family Search.  API=Application Programming Interface.  It is a a set of routine applications and tools for building software applications.  It allows two programs to combine data without messing up or changing either database.  Examples are Tree Connect, Relative finder, Puzilla, etc.  Many of the certified partners are APIs.

In the meantime while they are revamping Tree Connect, you can simply copy and paste a URL of a record you need from a different site and add it into your notes on the person details page of Family Tree.  I did it this morning on a Swedish record I found on My Heritage and it worked just fine. I like trying to find new ways to overcome the obstacles of ever changing technology and software.

Family Tree~June 2015 Updates ~ Steve Anderson

June 1, 2015 By Steve Anderson

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.

Use Mobile Apps to Reserve Ordinances for the Temple

You can now use the mobile app to reserve ancestors’ ordinances for the temple. For anything you do with ordinances (such as reserve or share), you will need a live connection to the Internet. This ensures the integrity of the data and verifies that the temple ordinances are still available.

The recent enhancements to the mobile apps should greatly increase your ability to find ancestors and reserve the temple ordinances for them.

New Memories Feature
When you add photos from a person’s Memories page, Family Tree automatically adds a tag to the photo. You usually have to adjust the position and size of the tag, and you may want to add a description or add tags to other people in the photo. That’s easy if you add one photo at a time.

Many users prefer to upload several photos for a person and then adjust or add the tags. You had to go to the person’s Memories page, open one photo, adjust or add the tags, and then return to the person’s Memories page to open the next photo. You had to go to the person’s Memories page between every photo. Users have asked if we could simplify the process. So we did.

Arrows have been added to the page where you tag the photo. Open one photo, adjust or add the tags, and then click anarrow to go to the next or previous photo. You no longer have to go to the Memories page between each photo.

 New Partners

FamilySearch works with a variety of partners to provide you with as many ways as possible to find, add, and share information about your ancestors. If a product or feature is listed as “FamilySearch Certified,” it means the product is compatible with FamilySearch.org and has features that conform to our strict standards of quality.

To see new and existing partners and certified products, see www.FamilySearch.org/apps. New partners are added as their products are certified.

New Icon Colors

For consistency, the color of available ordinances have changed from light blue to light green . This makes the temple icon, the ordinance status icon, and the ordinance fly-out the same color. The color of an ordinance that is In Progress and is printed is now dark green.

Here is the legend for the current colors:

Coming Soon

Unreserving Ordinance Reservations after Two Years

In the next few months, FamilySearch will begin unreserving temple ordinances if no ordinances have been done for the person in the last two years. This applies only to members living in the US and Canada. If you have reservations that you haven’t been able to complete, now is a good time to share them with family members through email or to share them with the temple.

Please keep the following in mind:

• If you share the reservations with the temple, the ordinances will not be unreserved. The temples will ensure that the ordinances are completed.
• Reservations for a deceased person will only be unreserved if the most recent ordinance was completed more than two years ago. (So the name will be unreserved if it has been more than 2 years since an ordinance was done for the person.)
• Unreserving inactive temple reservations has become a priority due to the large number of ordinances that have been reserved for more than two years, and also to comply with instructions from the First Presidency to ensure that temple work for ancestors is completed in a timely manner. This will also allow more members to participate in the temple work for their own ancestors.

There are nearly 12 million ordinance reservations held by FamilySearch patrons in Family Tree. Amazingly, about 5% of FamilySearch patrons hold 60% of those reservations. Users with large reservation lists will be alerted to this upcoming change through email and postal mail where possible.

What You Can Do

If you have a large reserved list, there are things you can do to help ensure that the work for these ancestors is completed in a timely manner. Here are some ideas to help you get started.

• Review Your Temple Reservation List - To see your temple reservation list, sign in to FamilySearch.org, and click theTemple tab at the top of the screen. To sort the names by the date you reserved them, click Date Reserved. The system rearranges the names and puts the ones that have been reserved the longest at the top. Decide which ordinances you will be able to do yourself and which ones you could share.

• Share Ordinances with Family Members by Email -You can use email to share temple ordinances with family members and friends. This is a convenient, “cardless” way to share the blessings of doing temple ordinances.

1. On the reservation list, click the box next to the ancestors you would like to share with a family member or friend. (The system puts a check mark in the box.)Tip: To remove the check mark, click the box again.
2. Click Share, and in the drop down list, click Share with Family or Friends.

 3. Enter the name and email address of the family or friend you are sending the ordinances to, add a short message if you want, and click Send.

On your temple reservation list, the names you have shared will be marked with an envelope icon. The names remain on your reservation list until they are accepted by your family or friend. When the names are accepted, the names disappear from your reservation list and appear on the temple reservation list of the person you shared them with.

If the names are not accepted in 2 weeks, the share envelope icons are removed, and you can print the family ordinance request, share the ordinances again, or unreserve the names.

Share with the Temple

If you don’t have family members or friends who are able to perform the temple ordinances, you could share the ordinances with the temple. This is a great way to ensure that the ordinances are done in a timely manner. Members all over the world who attend the temple can help complete the ordinances.

Unreserve the Ordinances, and Reserve Them Again

In a few cases, an ordinance may have been on your list for two years, and, for special reasons, you need to continue to reserve the ordinance on your list. (For example, some families hold the ordinances for a deceased father until a son is old enough to do his father’s ordinances.) You can unreserve the ordinance and then reserve the ordinance again to keep it on your list for another 2 years. This should only happen in rare instances because holding names leaves the ancestors waiting for the temple ordinances and keeps others from participating in providing the ordinances.

Do Nothing

A final option is to just do nothing. The uncompleted ordinances that qualify will be automatically unreserved, and other family members will be able to reserve and do the ordinances.

If you don’t have names on your temple reservation list that will be unreserved, you can still benefit from this feature. Watch for ancestors who might be coming off one of your relatives’ lists. You can reserve the ordinances and help complete the temple work. Don’t reserve more names than you can reasonably do in the near future. If you can’t get them done soon, please allow others to reserve and do the temple work.

We’re excited about this new development and know that it will lead to many more of Heavenly Father’s children receiving the saving temple ordinances.

More Color and Icon Changes

We will be making more changes to the colors and icons in the next month.

• For temple ordinances, “Needs More Information” will go from orange to purple.
• “Record Hints” will be changed to a bright orange with an image that looks like a record.
• “Research Suggestions” will change to an image that looks like a sign post.

Here’s an example of the new icons and colors on a Descendancy view.

Again thank you Steve Anderson! 

Family Search Blog-Coming Soon

I've been off climbing our family tree in Wales with Jim for the past month.  In the meantime some things were posted as "Coming Soon" in Family Tree. I love Steve Anderson's posts.  They are so concise and so helpful to me and I hope to you.  I love how it consolidates all the pertinent information in one place.  I literally have not even looked for these changes yet myself but love to keep these on the blog for finding quickly for all of us to check out as we can.

May 13, 2015 By Steve Anderson

In order to make your searching experience as easy and as fruitful as possible, FamilySearch continues to refine our existing tools. We are also on the lookout for new features that will help you find that elusive and hard to find ancestor who is hiding in the billions of records that make up FamilySearch’s online databases. Below are just a few of the features that we are working on. You may see these features become a regular part of the FamilySearch online research experience.

SourceLinker: Attach and Detach Any Person Anytime

When you attach a record through SourceLinker, you no longer have to attach the person you were searching for before you can attach or detach other family members. All Attach and Detach links will function as soon as the information is loaded on the screen.

We have made this change because, on rare occasions, having to first add the person you were searching for caused problems. We also found that the order in which people were attached or detached did not affect the accuracy of the linking.

SourceLinker: Marking Not a Match from Search

When you get to SourceLinker from a search, you will be able to mark a person in a record as Not a Match. Currently, you can only mark the person Not a Match if you got to SourceLinker by clicking a record hint.

Occasionally a user plans to attach a record to Family Tree, but after evaluating the entire family, the user decides that the people in the record are NOT the same as those in Family Tree. This feature will allow you to add that conclusion so others can see it and evaluate it.

Online My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together: Existing Stories and 21 More Languages

1. Use Existing Stories from Others

Currently you can add your own story about an ancestor. But you may not have stories for some of the ancestors in your booklet. This feature allows you to select an existing story that was submitted by another user and display it in your booklet.

2. 21 More Languages

We are making the online capture tool available in 21 more languages: Albanian, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Haitian Creole, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, and Slovenian. This will bring the total languages of the booklet tool to 42 and matches all the languages of the printed booklet.

Improved FamilySearch Chat

Chat will be upgraded to a new system. Chat will be more integrated with FamilySearch.org, providing a better experience for users and missionaries.

Chat will be available only if a missionary is available to chat. You will no longer be asked a series of questions before chat can begin. Chat will create cases that can be managed better by missionaries. Chat transcriptions will be included in the cases and can be reviewed by you in My Cases.

Historical Records Page: Message for Removed Records

It is unfortunate and rare when a previously hosted record must be removed from FamilySearch.org. This sometimes happens because of changing legal requirements with our record licensing. We will continue to show the information about the source to help those who linked to the source and used it to justify conclusions in Family Tree.

If a record that you linked to is no longer hosted on FamilySearch.org, you will see a prominent message indicating the unavailability of the record. You will also see the original information about the record to help you know where the original record can be found.

Search Results: Sign-in Banner for Unauthenticated Users

A large portion of our search users are not signing in. Some features on FamilySearch.org can be used even if you do not sign in (like searching historical records). But there are some great benefits to signing in. For one, you can use Family Tree and all the features it provides. Not signing in limits our ability to engage those users in other areas of the site, and it limits our ability to understand their needs.

When users search historical records without signing in, they will see an invitation to sign in with an explanation of one of the benefits of signing in. They will also see a button that will let them create a free account. The message will appear in the fourth row of the search results.

The updates can be found for the Family Tree anytime on the Blog link found at the bottom of the homepage in very tiny letters!  Click there and it will take you to some current blog posts by the various contributors for Family Search  On the right hand side of the page you will find links to topics of interest.  The very last one is What's New in Family Tree.  There will be a list for each month. A big Thank You to FS staff (Especially today for Steve Anderson) that keep us informed.  Thank you for helping us help others!