Adding siblings when no parent is listed on the historical record

The FamilySearch Source Linker is a great way to connect a source to multiple people listed in the Family Tree. It can be awkward when the people listed in the historical record do not match the people listed in the Family Tree, This short video shows how to handle one of those situations.

To view it in a larger size, click here. (Sorry, but I have no control of what videos Youtube suggests after my video has finished playing.)

Follow-up on a recent class

 Brother P,

Please share this with the others who were in my class on Sunday.

1. Help Others feature - This lets you sign into someone else's account and help them while seeing everything that they can see. The process is to click Help Others (e.g. on a Person page), then sign in using their (a) Username and Helper Number or 

(b) First Name, Last Name, and Date of Birth and Helper Number
The Helper Number is usually the last 5 characters of the Church Membership Number (which the member can find in the Member Tools app or temple recommend.) The member can also find it when signed in FamilySearch by clicking their name (in the upper right corner of the screen) then clicking Settings and Permissions 

2. Free research account with Ancestry.com, etc. for Church members, go to 

https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/partneraccess/

If you later forget the username or password for one of these accounts, they usually allow you to click Forgot Password and input your email address to recover the password.
From the Person page of anyone in Family Tree, you can easily use Search Records to search for historical records of that person and their family. (We cannot guarantee that you will find what you are hoping for, but we have simplified the process of searching.) 

Always check the blue FamilySearch Source Hints, as these represent research done by indexers that appears to show evidence of this person in historical records 

3. Research Wiki - This will tell you what kinds of records exist for any particular country, and where to find these records. Sign in FamilySearch and click Search > Research Wiki

This can save you a lot of time and effort. The records that you expect may not exist for that country, but there may be other records that you would not expect.

4, Ordinances Ready - The Church has added this easy way for members to find family names to take to the temple. Sign in FamilySearch, click Temple > Ordinances Ready, and indicate what ordinances you would like to do. This will allow you to print a card for the person(s) you have chosen. Under normal circumstances, the card will remain valid for 90 days, but there is no time limit while the temples are closed for proxy ordinances.
These names come from (a) your own reserved ordinances list (if you have them), then (b) family members who have been reserved by other people and shared with the temple, and lastly, (c) unrelated people whose ordinances have been shared with the temple. But you can count on always finding someone to take to the temple.

5. Indexing -  If members find research too hard, they can be encouraged to do Indexing. Indexing makes historical records searchable by computer, Then FamilySearch uses this information to try to find the people who are referred to in the historical record. It then suggests this connection as a Source Hint.

We will be blessed as we serve our ancestors and their families.

Bill Buchanan
Assistant Temple and Family History Leader
Edmonton Alberta North Stake
blog: http://billsfamilyhistorycenter.blogspot.com 
site: http://billbuchanan.byethost17.com/

Source Linker: Attaching a marriage hint to the spouse and in-laws

Source Hints in FamilySearch are absolutely wonderful! The historical records can help you to prove the pedigree. We just need to make sure we are attaching it to the right people, by checking the names, relationships, times and places.

Marriage records often provide new information that you will want to add to the Family Tree. And what do you do when there seems to be no matching record on the Family Tree? Often the Change focus link on the historical record (left side) or the Change focus link in Family Tree (right side) provides an easy solution. This short video illustrates the process.

To watch the video in as larger forma on Youtube, you can click here.

Screen sharing in a Zoom meeting

Our stake Temple and Family History leaders have been using Zoom for our meetings with ward and branch leaders and consultants. Zoom has the advantage of working on multiple different platforms. When helping or training someone, it is almost essential to be able to view their screen in real-time. 

(I find that this is better than FamilySearch's Help Others feature, since there is no need to check whether you are on the same screen and to keep refreshing the screen to see the changes made by the person you are helping.)

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Using Windows

I normally host my Zoom meetings on my Windows desktop computer. There, the secret is to click the little arrow to the right of the green Share Screen button
1. click Advanced Sharing Options 
2. Who Can Share
3. All Participants.

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Using an iPad

0. tap your video image
1. tap More
2. tap Meeting Settings
3. tap Allow participants to share screen
4. tap On (this is an on/off slider)
5. tap Done

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Using Android

0. tap the video image or your name

1. tap the green Share button

2. tap Screen

3, tap Start Now (if prompted)

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Using MacOS

So far, Mac users seem to have had no issues with screen sharing. Since I do not have access to a Mac, I do not know the steps involved. If you know the steps, please let me know.

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Note that large differences in screen sizes between the host and the participant can cause extra challenges, If the participant is sharing the screen of a mobile app, the host should already be familiar with the mobile app. I prefer to host on a large-screen device, if screen sharing will be involved. 

Be aware that your free Zoom account gives you unlimited time with one other person, or 40 minutes with two or more people. If the time runs out, you can restart the same meeting immediately to get another 40 minutes.

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How can I see ordinances that involve a living person?

 In FamilySearch, ordinances for living people are hidden. This means that you cannot even see your own ordinances. In fact, sealing ordinances for deceased people are hidden if they involve a living person.

For example,
When Mary looks at her own record in Family Tree, her own ordinances are not shown. This protects her privacy, even from someone she has authorized as her FamilySearch helper.

Mary can see the ordinances for her deceased husband John, except for his SS, because the spouse (Mary) is still living. (If one of John's parents was still living, his SP would also be hidden, for the same reason.)

If Mary wants to see her own ordinances, she can request a print-out called an "Individual Ordinance Summary" from her bishop or ward clerk.

Empty Tree?

 When you are helping patrons research in the FamilySearch Family Tree, this is one of the first questions you will want to ask. The answer may determine what to do next. Another good question is, "Were your ancestors members of the Church?"

As a helper, take a quick look at their tree:

1. Empty Tree - The patron and possibly their parents are the only people shown.
If you are helping a public patron, or a convert or the child of convert: Since the next generation or two will be living people, protected by privacy laws, the best sources of information will usually be the patron's family. I would usually help them to fill in what information they can remember, as a start. I would probably give them a printed pedigree chart and a few family group records to use when gathering information from family members. 

If the patron's ancestors were members, the patron just needs to add any living ancestors to build a bridge to them. See FamilySearch: When Your Family Tree Is Empty!

2. Larger Tree - Start with the procedures used with an empty tree. Then do some research. By now, we should be looking for dead people, so any records for them should be public. 

As their Consultant, teach them to use the research tools listed in Search Records on the right side of the personal pages. The FamilySearch link will search through the billions of records in our Historical Records databases. 

If the patron is a member of the Church help them to sign-up for a free account with Ancestry, findmypast, and MyHeritage, by taking them to https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/partneraccess/ These large commercial companies have billions of additional records that you can search for free. (Ask your patron to write down their account information, so it does not get lost.)

Encourage cautious optimism. Names can be tricky. The same name does not mean the same person if the times, places, and relationships disagree. Different versions of the name do not prove they are different people, if the times, places, and relationships match. (This is especially true of immigrants. Johannes Mueller from Hanover and John Miller from Germany may be the same person.) 

Living People in the FamilySearch Family Tree

Living people are handled differently than deceased people in the FamilySearch Family Tree. FamilySearch needs to protect the privacy of living people, but the records of deceased people can be made public.

This is not obvious when you look at the Tree views, although the Person views have a yellow banner. 

Records of living people can only be seen in the FamilySearch account where those records were created, 

This means that if you forget your username and password and create a new account, all of the living people you added in the first account will be hidden from the second account. Instead, use the "Forgot username or password" function on the Sign-in screen, to access your existing account..

This also means that there is no point in creating more than a minimum number of living records.

I can create records of my children and grandchildren, for my own use, but they cannot see them. 

This means that each user will see a different record for any living person, This is easily verified by the fact that they will have different ID numbers. 

For example:

My wife and I are both living. I can see myself and my wife when I look at Family Tree. She can see me and herself in Family Tree. But the records we see are different records with different ID numbers. And when our children see us in Family Tree each of them sees a different record ID for each of us. Why are there all of these duplicates? FamilySearch doesn't want duplicate records of deceased people, so why is it creating all of these duplicate records of living people? Because it guarantees the privacy of the living,

Sometimes you will want to merge duplicate records, but you are prevented from doing do, because one record is marked as Deceased and the other is marked as Living. Obviously one or the other has to be wrong. Correct the status that is incorrect, and then merge the records.

What do I do if I cannot see my ancestors, (or my spouse and my in-laws) in the FamilySearch Family Tree? 

The solution is to create records for the living people to connect you to the deceased people. Once you connect to an existing record of a deceased person, all of their deceased ancestors will be shown as connected to you.

For example:

Mary and John have been married for over a year. Mary is troubled by the fact that John and his ancestors are not shown when she looks at the Family Tree. But when John looks at Family Tree on his computer, he sees many generations of his ancestors, as well as Mary and her ancestors. John vaguely remembers that Mary's sister Amy asked if she could sign into his account as a helper. He thinks that Amy added information to his account, but he has no idea how she did it. What can they do?

They could always get help from a Temple and Family History Consultant. That's Amy's calling, and they are sure she would be glad to help. But Amy just left on a 2-week cruise.

Instead, they call the free help line 1-866-406-1830. Mary is asked to sign in her FamilySearch account. She is asked to create a new record for John. Then she is asked whether John's parents are living, They are, so Mary is asked to create new records for both of them. Mary asks if she can just add them to her tree by pasting in the ID numbers shown in John's account. She is told that those records are hidden except in John's account, and that she will need to create new records for them. The same is true of John's grandparents, except that one grandfather is deceased. The deceased ancestors can be added by ID number or by Finding them. In 15 minutes, Mary can see John and his ancestors for many generations. It was time well spent. 

This process will connect you to ancestors who are already in the FamilySearch Family Tree. It will not find those who are not in the Family Tree. That becomes a research quest for another day.

I encourage you to watch this 3-minute video, which I just found. It illustrates the process beautifully. FamilySearch: When Your Family Tree Is Empty!

How do I use the Help Others link in Family Tree?

 

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can use the Help Others link to view another person's family history information in Family Tree. Please use this tool to help someone else experience more fully the blessings of temple and family history work. While you are signed in as a helper, all changes are attributed to the person you are helping.

Before you start, please ask the other person for permission. Please do not ask for his or her FamilySearch password. Instead, you will ask for the following information:

1. The person's helper number. This is available after sign in, on the Settings page, under Account.

2. The person's FamilySearch username. (In place of the person's FamilySearch username, you can also use the person's full name and date of birth.)

Steps (website)

1. While signed in to FamilySearch, click Help Others. (This link is located in the upper right corner of most FamilySearch pages, below your name.)

2. If you know the person's username, click Username. Otherwise click Full Name.

3. Enter the requested information, and click Sign In.

Note: Some members have a helper number with a letter at the end. You must capitalize it. 

4. When you finish helping, on the right of the top green banner, click Stop Helping Others and then Stop.

Steps (mobile app)

1. Open the app. Open the main menu.

Android: Tap the 3 lines—usually in the top left part of the screen.

Apple iOS: Tap More.

2. Tap Help.

3. Tap Help Someone.

4. If you know the person's username, tap Username. Otherwise tap Full Name.

5. Enter the requested information, and tap Start.

Note: Some members have a helper number with 4 numbers and a letter at the end. You must capitalize the letter at the end.

6. When you finish helping, on the right of the top pink banner, tap Stop and then Yes.

Note: You will be able to see changes being made by the person you are helping if he or she is also using the Family Tree app at the same time you are.  

All The Stories

I suggest that you check out the "All The Stories app", if you have not already done so. It is a FREE partner app that accesses the stories in the FamilySearch Family Tree. (I would love to see a similar app that would also access other formats of Memories.)

It will only find the Stories that are attached to the individual in question and their close ancestors, but it can be very handy when you are researching someone's life.

A Family History Moment

As we get older, we find that there are fewer and fewer people left with personal memories of our deceased family members. One way to preserve these memories is a life sketch or story in the FamilySearch Family Tree. An issue is that our family members may not see them there.

Lately I have been writing-up a one-page life sketch of certain key individuals, and sending it to may family as an email attachment. I hope that they will hare it with their family in Family Home Evening or maybe at the supper table. It also provides a simple way to share my testimony.

I have found a PDF file as an excellent format, since it can be created from any word processor, and can be read on any electronic device. Here is an example of a life sketch, using information provided by his niece, now deceased for nearly 20 years.

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A Family History Moment – John Walter “Watt” Simpson

After the death of our father, Arthur Teale, in World War I, we were the little orphans, but we were lucky. Uncle Watt was our father image. He was christened John Walter Tucker Simpson, familiarly called Watt, or J.W. by his friends and family. He had never married, and he stayed with his mother all her life. He was her constant standby and co-worker. He was a quiet, kindly man. He loved children, and they loved him. And we loved him. We would run to him when he came home, squealing with delight, and climb on his knee when he sat down. He would sing to us, the old Scottish songs he had learned from his father.. "In the Shadow of the Pines", "The Dark Eyed Sailor Boy" and "Pinks and Daisies". To my everlasting delight the last line always came unsung from his lips, in a rush of words, and we would giggle companionably together. The other children never seemed to share the fun of it. He did it just for me.

He taught us little games of rhymes and hands, "This little pig went to market,"... "This is the door and this is the steeple, open the door and see all the people" ... "ring the bell, knock at the door lift the latch, and walk in"... He would give us a scotch kiss, tweaking our noses out of the way none too gently while he kissed us, or he would give us a dry shave, rubbing his whiskery stubble of beard across our cheeks. He taught us tongue twisters like "Theantheus Theodore Themus, the famous thistle sifter while sifting his thistles of unsifted thistles thrust three thousand thistles in the thicker part of his thumb." and another one, "Three gray geese on a green grazing grey were the geese and green was the grazing." These are my happiest childhood memories.

Much later, Uncle Watt spent a winter in Saskatoon with the children and me. He went to church with us and he studied the gospel. He accepted it fully and easily. The time was set for his baptism three times when other churches promised we could use their font. Each time they heard anti-Mormon stories and each time they withdrew the offer. My Uncle was discouraged. He thought the Lord didn’t want him in his church. I knew that if he went back to the farm that time without baptism that he might never come again. I was worried. We only had a little branch and we met in the Odd Fellow's Hall. LeGrande Piepgrass was stationed in Saskatoon in the air force. He was our Branch President. He was inspired. He called the little Branch together, mostly soldier's wives and their children. He asked them to contribute what they could so he could hire a bus to take the little branch out to Beaver Creek to have my Uncle baptized. I'm sure he made up the difference from his own pocket. The creek was cold. My Uncle was 72. LeGrande baptized him and held his breath for fear the sudden chill could cause a heart attack, but my Uncle didn't even catch a cold.

He and Mother bought a small house in Raymond and about a year later he moved to Raymond and built himself a house. That was about 1946, after the war. He advanced quite rapidly in the priesthood and in ten years after his baptism he was a High Priest. We had five children here and some of them got the mumps. And Uncle Watt became very sick. As I sat by his bedside he said, "I don't want you to think I am being morbid, but I want you to promise me something. If I should happen to die on the farm, I want you to make sure that I am buried in my own church and in my temple clothes. We both knew that might be a hard promise to keep. His sister, my Aunt Jean, could be a problem there. She was not a Mormon and would not understand. I said, "You had better tell her then." I wondered if he could - and he didn't.

Of course he did die on the farm. When Aunt Jean phoned to tell us he had died suddenly of a heart attack, she had already arranged for his burial in Tisdale. I told her of Uncle Watt's wish and of my promise to him, but she was adamant. I pleaded desperately but she said it was all arranged. Just then a knock came at the door and mother answered it. It was Bishop Dahl, and hope surged through me. I said, "Just a minute. Bishop Dahl would like to talk to you." I knew she had a high opinion of our Bishop. I motioned to him and he took the phone, no questions asked. He told her that he had heard Brother Simpson say many times that he wanted to be buried in his own church and in his temple clothes -- and she gave in. She had his casket put on the train and she came with him.

After the service in Raymond Aunt Jean said he couldn't have had such a nice funeral in Tisdale. She felt the love of the ward members for him and she, too, was at peace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was fortunate in this case, that I had been given the information I needed, I just needed to edit it to fit the page. For other people, I had to compose the life sketch myself.

Removing a child from an incomplete duplicate parental relationship

 This is the situation where a child is listed twice (with the same ID):

The child is shown once with both parents and once with just one parent, as illustrated below. Note that Henry Crockford is listed twice with the same ID.

If the ID of the "single" parent or the child differs from the ID of the corresponding person in the couple relationship, merge the duplicates.

If the child is still shown additionally with a "single" parent, the easy solution is to click the edit icon to the right of the child shown with only one parent. Then remove the child from that relationship. And the box for the "single" parent should disappear when the screen is refreshed.

Sometimes you can solve the problem by adding the missing parent, but frequently it will bring up an error message saying that the relationship already exists. In my experience, removing the child from the incomplete relationship always works. 

As you help others with family history, you will often encounter this issue. And if you know the process, it can be solved in a couple of minutes.

Merging - Reason statements now provided

I love this recent change!

You can still create your own reason statement, but now, there are four pre-written that you can choose from. (Just click the ADD link on the one you wish to use.) They are well written, and show four different levels of confidence.

It speeds up and simplifies the merging process. This is especially welcome when there are many "possible duplicates" that need to be reviewed one-by-one.

Preserving your Memories

The Genealogical Society of Utah was organized by the Church in 1894, and it has been preserving genealogical records ever since then. Its newest version, FamilySearch, makes it easy to preserve genealogies, but also precious memories that go beyond dates, places and histories. I love this!

For decades I have been gathering old family photos and other things that add dimensions to the history. FamilySearch gives me an easy place to preserve these for future generations.

This applies to the Familysearch.org website and also the FamilySearch Family Tree and Memories mobile apps, available for free at your favorite mobile app store.

How do I upload photos or documents to Memories?
You can go to Familysearch.org and click Memories and select Gallery. You can upload photos or documents, either as a single item or as a group of multiple items. (In my experience, it works best if you keep each group size smaller than 40 items.)

Individual files must be smaller than 15MB, and each record in Family Tree can have 1000 "memory" files attached.

Photos supports .jpg, .png, .tif, and .bmp file formats.
Note: You can import photos from your accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Google Photos into FamilySearch memories. During the import process, you can import them all or choose specific photos.

Documents supports .pdf file and the accepted photo formats. (Other document formats such as .doc and .docx files will need to be converted to .pdf before they can be uploaded. To convert other file formats to .pdf, use the Print or Export function in appropriate software. For example, to create a .pdf copy in Windows open the file and  choose as the Destination printer "Microsoft print to PDF"). Documents created this way can be hundreds of pages in length, which is the ideal way to create multi-page documents. PDF supports fancy layouts, multiple-columns, embedded photos and charts, etc. It produces a faithful copy of the document that is "printed to PDF".

Stories is specifically a text-only format. NOTE: The data-entry form can "time-out", so composing a story in your word processor and pasting the text into the data-entry form works best. Photos can be attached to a text Story, but they cannot be embedded in the text (something that PDF does beautifully).

Audio can be done using your computer's microphone, but it is much, much simpler using the FamilySearch Memories app on your phone. 15MB gives you at least 5 minutes of recording time. So it works best for special occasions rather than lengthy interviews. (Using the free Audacity software on my computer I have recorded as much as 20 minutes of sound in 15MB, but it required a lot of extra effort.) Audio is great for recordings of people telling brief stories of special events in their lives. My Grandma passed way over 30 years ago but I can still hear her voice on FamilySearch. Note that audio supports the .mp3, .m4a and .wav file formats.


Tagging means attaching a memory file to someone's record in Family Tree. Without tagging, nothing is connected. Uploading without tagging accomplishes nothing.

Please exercise wisdom. The Memory items should be in good taste and must conform to the Submission Policy.
NOTE: Photos that include weapons, partial nudity or kissing on the mouth, may be rejected, as violating the cultural norms in some parts of the world. And the software that automatically screens the photos sometimes makes mistakes. If it happens to you, reply to the automatic email from FamilySearch and explain why you feel that the photo conforms to the policy. I have uploaded 2223 memory items so far and I occasionally experience this issue.

"A picture is worth a thousand words" is often an understatement!

If you need help using your camera, scanner, or printer, that Google cannot answer, I may be able to help. genealogistbuchanan@gmail.com

Additional instructions for uploading can be found here.

Bill

Easy Sourcing

In FamilySearch Family Tree, I think everyone likes official documents as sources, because they provide strong evidence. Occasionally someone gets careless and attaches a source to the wrong person, but it only requires a click to detach it. Saying "Sources prove the pedigree!" can be an overstatement, but sources really help!

Family Tree has its own built-in system of source citations, At its simplest, you click a blue source hint and then you click the people listed in the source to attach to the matching person in the Tree.

To find additional sources for a person, you can also click FamilySearch under Search Records. Any records you find can be easily attached to the person and members of their household, All of the rules for formatting sources are taken care of automatically.

What about official documents on other websites?

Yes, Family Tree allows you to create sources yourself, but it is a slow manual process. The good news is that there is a better way, A web search for recordseek.com will find a page with a green button that you can drag to the Bookmarks bar of your browser. (If the Bookmarks bar is hidden, press Shift+Ctlr+B) Now when you want to create a source from any website, copy the person's Family Tree ID to the clipboard, then highlight the text that you want included in your source. Next click the Recordseek bookmark, select FamilySearch, click Next, paste the ID in the (long) bottom box, click Next once or twice, and the source has been added to the individual and to the Source Box. With a little practice, you can probably create a source in less than a minute.

If you would like to see a live tutorial see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBQ7CqFh6A4

(Family Tree has changed slightly since the tutorial was made, and I do not bother to reformat the text, but it is an excellent tutorial.)

Copy and Paste
If you are using Windows 10 without using the Clipboard History tool, you might find this really helpful https://www.howtogeek.com/671222/how-to-enable-and-use-clipboard-history-on-windows-10/ It allows you to keep multiple items (instead of just one) on your Windows clipboard. Try Win+V


Indexing
Where do the FamilySearch source hints come from? They come from indexed records.
An interesting interview on Indexing can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdqvYCPP7ho

Printing charts without ordinances

There are at least two different ways to do this in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree.

Yesterday I needed to print a chart for a non-member genealogist, and I felt that the temple information would be a needless distraction. The quick and easy way was:
1. generate the chart showing the ordinances
2, edit the chart's url to change showOrdinances=true to showOrdinances=false
3. refresh the screen
4. print the chart without the ordinances

Of course, if you are going to print several charts without ordinances, or you are teaching non-members, you may want to automatically hide the temple information. Instructions for doing this can be found in the Help Center of FamilySearch.org To read the article, click here.

Journals and Personal Histories

Over the years I have kept journals from time to time. My current journal is from 2012 to the present, and honestly is largely repetitive, boring and 1400 pages long. But importantly, it is a constant reminder to try to do something worth recording each day.

What I have found easier and more interesting is writing a personal history by topics. I can write something on one topic one day and something on a different topic on another day. It does not need to be sequential. I can choose whatever topics I want to write about, and write as much or as little as I feel like at the time.

A Personal History by Topics
An article I read suggested "Instead of starting out chronologically stating your life events (year by year that is), try compiling stories by topic." It then goes on to make numerous suggestions of topics to write on. http://www.familyhistoryquickstart.com/writing-your-personal-history/ 

Suddenly a light went on! My attempts to keep a journal or personal history have always floundered. It tends to degenerate into a boring sameness. Much of my life is very routine and I am (by and large) very comfortable with that. People whose lives are full of danger and excitement tend to come to a short if dramatic end. Even at my age, I have things I still want to accomplish before departing this life. Incurring danger deliberately just so that I can tell everyone that I live dangerously seems rather pointless to me. I get more satisfaction from being in a situation where I can help people in various ways.

Reading a personal history by topics seems more interesting because after a page or two, the reader is introduced to a different aspect of life's experience. If one topic is uninteresting, they can skip ahead to the next one.

TOPICS

Places you’ve lived
Influential individuals from your childhood
Favorite vacations
Jobs you’ve had
Thoughts on politics
Political views
Religious views
Favorite movies
Civic and community service rendered
Things you like to collect
Write about your spouse
Children
Your hopes and dreams and how they have changed over the years
The automobiles you’ve had or transportation you’ve used.
Places that you’ve visited and when visited.
Your favorite hobbies
What do you like to shop for
Your impressions of the times, wars, developments, etc.
Collections of writings or poems that you’ve created
Listing of certificates and accomplishments
Favorite restaurants
Favorite music
Operations you’ve had (not the most fun, but interesting)
The top 3 most difficult things you’ve ever done or had to go through
Memberships in clubs or churches
Write about your siblings and other relatives, (their children may not be as lucky as yours. They may not have written memories of their parents’ youth)
Gardens you’ve grown
Favorite foods
Games you like to play and why they’re fun
Favorite recipes (some families like to hand down recipes). Wouldn’t it be fun if your descendants knew which ones were your favorite and you left the recipes for them?
Your favorite time of year
How Clothing Has Changed
Sports that you’ve played throughout your life
Pets you’ve had
Weather phenomena you’ve seen or experienced.
Technological advances you’ve seen in your day
Spiritual experiences you’ve had
Favorite toys you’ve had
Thoughts on raising children
Education achieved
Activities you’ve participated in
Favorite books
Etc.

I think that my posterity would learn a lot more about me from reading 100 pages of topical personal history than from 1000 pages of my journal.Your mileage may vary, of course.

You can upload the current version of your journal or your personal history to your record in FamilySearch Memories. And while you are alive, no one else will have access to it. (Just avoid adding titles or tags to deceased people that can be searched on.)

Bill Buchanan
blog: http://billbuchanan.blogspot.com
site: http://billbuchanan.byethost17.com/

Downloading Records from FamilySearch Family Tree

If you ask FamilySearch Support how to download a GEDCOM file from Family Tree, you may get the answer, "You can't". Technically this is correct, but if you use software that can synchronize its own computer database with Family Tree, there is a way that can be done. In other words, FamilySearch does not have a way to do it, but RootsMagic, Ancestral Quest, and Legacy Family Tree have ways of doing it.

If you have a paid version of one of these programs, find out from the program's support system how to do this.

In the past I have been able to do this using the free RootsMagic Essentials software,
http://rootsmagic.com/Products/
For instructions see the free videos at:
http://rootsmagic.com/familysearch/Videos/

Because of the fact that the FamilySearch Family Tree is designed as an open-edit site, your ancestral lines there can be changed by any other user, It can be very useful to have your own copy of your pedigree for many generations. That way if one of your ancestral lines disappears from Family Tree, you have an easy way to locate the change, and correct it if you feel it is an error. (Add a source where possible.)

Cleaning-up Living and Confidential Records

These are records that you have created that are hidden from everyone else.
In other words, you are the only person who can clean them up.
And this process only works in the Family Tree mobile app, at present.

In the app, tap the main menu, then tap My Contributions, then Private Persons. This will bring up a  list of "the top 200 results", I then tap a person's name if they were born over 100 years ago or if they have no birth date. I can then examine the information on them, their spouse and parents and determine whether to add information or mark the person as deceased. From their Person screen I can also search for historical records of the person in question.


MyContributions has lots of other information. If you are a long-time user of FamilySearch you may be surprised to see the statistics for your contributions!

Trying Indexing Again

Since my mission in FamilySearch Support has ended I have a lot more free time. Like everyone else, I am basically confined to home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So I have been looking for things to do that are helpful in family history.

With a little encouragement, I decided to try FamilySearch Indexing again. Indexing allows me to make scanned copies of microfilmed records computer-searchable. I download a "batch" of images from FamilySearch.org by signing in and clicking the Indexing link at the top of the screen, Then I click Web Indexing and choose a batch to try. I have not needed to call the free support number for help, but it was comforting to know that it is available if I need  it. 1-866-406-1830

This is a little different from the previous version of Indexing which required me to install indexing software, which I believe also required having Java installed.  I like the change. 😊

Being a Canadian, I chose batches from Nova Scotia, but I ran out of these after about 4 days, so I switched to the 1851 census of Ontario. These are much faster and easier to do. They are generally easy to read, and each batch has a page of 50 names and a page with no names ("No extractable data") On census records you get to use the "ditto" key combination (ctrl+d) a lot, as members of a family have the same surname, and are usually born in the same place. Some fields in the template are missing in the records, these too can be dittoed. So far in the past two weeks I have indexed nearly 1000 names. When these are verified, the data is added to a Historical Records collection in FamilySearch and becomes computer-searchable, They also become available as source hints for documenting family members in the FamilySearch Family Tree. We love sources!

The FamilySearch website is accessible \to everyone with a free account. If you have some extra time, I encourage you to try indexing, I believe we have two weeks to complete any batch and submit it, so we can do it at our own pace. Two of the batches that I did had been started by other indexers but not completed. Their efforts were not wasted. I was able to carry on from where they left off. It is a good system!


[Reposted from my general genealogy blog: https://billbuchanan.blogspot.com/2020/04/trying-indexing-again.html]

What happens to my ordinance reservation during the COVID-19 outbreak? (659307)

[This is an official knowledge article, which will remain in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic.]

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and temple closures, FamilySearch is temporarily suspending all temple ordinance expiration dates until the temples reopen.
       
Reservations for temple ordinances will not expire while temples are closed.
An expiration date less than 90 days in the future will be extended to 90 days. Once temples reopen, the person holding the reservation will have 90 days to complete the ordinance.
An expiration date that is scheduled more than 90 days in the future will be automatically rescheduled, day by day, until temples reopen. This means that if a particular reservation expires in 100 days, the 100-day period won’t begin until temples reopen.

End of free colorizing of black and white photos?

I have been enjoying colorizing old black and white photographs at https://www.myheritage.com/incolor/

But from their latest email, this feature will end next month.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hi William (Bill),

"Here at MyHeritage, we want to do our part to help the genealogy community keep busy and even have some fun during these challenging times. That’s why we’re giving all users free and unlimited access to MyHeritage In Color™, our new feature that automatically colorizes black and white photos, for an entire month. Ordinarily only 10 photos can be colorized by users who do not have a Complete plan, but now, you can colorize as many photos as you’d like for free.
Try it now

"Colorizing photos is the perfect activity for those of us isolated at home. It gives us an opportunity to look again at our old family photos, bring them back to life, and reminisce. The results can be shared online with the whole family, which will delight your relatives and evoke warm memories. We invite you to pull out your family photo albums today and join in the fun. 
,,,"

"Enjoy MyHeritage In Color™ for free until April 22, 2020."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a wonderful free service. I urge you to use it while it is available. Start with those photos that are most precious. My first choice is usually portraits. The results are sometimes stunning.

System is currently unavailable

Question:

"When looking at my family tree and expanding it for a few minutes I then get a "system is currently unavailable" sign and everything goes blank. This has happened many times in the last week. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or what?"

Answer:

A recurring error message may mean that it is time to clean the browser's hidden cache folder, ie, The underlying error may have been cleared up but the browser keeps bringing up an old error message.from its cache. See How do I delete all of the cookies and temporary files stored by my internet browser? (53752) 
If that does not resolve the issue, try using a different browser to see if the issue persists. Generally Chrome, Firefox and the totally new version of Edge should work best.
Another alternative is to use a non-caching browser session such as Chrome's Incognito mode. 

If none of those helped, you may have an issue with your internet connection. Maybe run a speed test or turn the power off and then on your modem or router to reset the connection. 
To test Internet connection speed, go to any of the following sites:
 http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
 http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1
 http://www.speedtest.net/
 https://fast.com    Powered by Netflix.

We hope this helped! We encourage you to continue your work in FamilySearch Family Tree and correct any errors that you can document. The Help Center in the Help menu, provides answers for many of the common questions. For less-common questions, we encourage you to use the Help center to contact us by telephone, chat or email.  If you are having trouble with a record in Family Tree, please provide the unique ID for the record to make it easy to find.

Note:

Following these steps allowed the patron to resolve the issue.

Pandemic and research

Recently I have done a lot of research for a distant cousin. Fortunately , his ancestors came from England, where I have researched my own family lines. I am comfortable using many of the research tools available. Recently I discovered a useful trick for systematically checking Ancestry's Suggested Records list on the right-side of the screen. The issue I was having was that each time I looked at one of the suggested records I lost track of which one it was in the long list. This led to viewing the same record multiple times and missing others. The solution was so simple that is should have been obvious right from the start. Start at the top of the list and open each one in a new tab, For example:

Suggested Records
Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1912
Alice Pullen
England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
Alice Pullen
England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
Alice Pullen
1891 England Census
Alice Pullin
Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1912
Alice Pullen
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
Alice Pullen

(etc)

Then check each tab for useful information. Easy peasy! No time is wasted and no Suggested Record gets missed. 

Pandemic

As we do family history research we come across a previous pandemic. The Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919 is said to have killed more people than World War I, which immediately preceded it..My great uncle and great aunt lost two adult children in the space of two days.

Elizabeth Jane Buchanan Livingstone, aged 25 died 10 Nov 1918 leaving a husband and an infant daughter.

John James Buchanan, her older brother died 11 Nov 1918, at age 34.leaving a wife and 3 children.

They shared a funeral service. 

Many families lost loved ones during that pandemic. The same is happening around the world during the current pandemic. So far, the effects have been minor in my corner of the world, but unfortunately that will change, Please help your loved ones to stay safe. May this be a chapter of your family history (and mine) that will have a happy ending.

Is there a way to correct or add information to this genealogy?

The patron's question was specifically about Family Tree, not the Genealogies area of FamilySearch.

Yes, Family Search Family Tree is open-edit. So you can easily add information and correct most of the errors that you find, These articles will help.
1. A person in Family Tree has the wrong spouse (53976)
2. How do I correct parent-child relationships in Family Tree? (53985)
3. How do I undo a merge in Family Tree? (72004)
4. Wrong name, date, or place: Click the error and then click Edit. (Do not use this feature to change a person into a different person, as this causes ordinance issues.)

During the current COVID-19 crisis, we hope that our patrons will stay safe, and that they will enjoy success in family history!

Viewing RootTech from Home

The world's largest family history conference takes place annually in Salt Lake City, sponsored by FamilySearch. Some of the sessions can be viewed from home.

RootsTech Live Streaming content this week: 
Go to rootstech.org
Click on Salt Lake City 2020 drop down arrow
Click on Conference Information
Click on Agenda drop down
Click on Free Live Stream
Click on the tabs for each day's content
This is the link: https://www.rootstech.org/salt-lake/live-stream-schedule

Some sessions will also be recorded and can be viewed later. 
It is a great opportunity to learn and enjoy!

Colorizing black and white photos
You now can use your MyHeritage.com subscription to create colorized copies of black and white photos.
https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/02/colorize-your-black-and-white-photos-automatically-with-myheritage-in-color/

For maybe 50 years, I have been an avid collector of old family photos.
Most of these are black and white, so the idea of converting them to color, seemed very interesting.
The process was very fast.

1. Upload a photo
2. Click colorize
3. Download the colorized version. 

Results varied, of course, Overexposed and underexposed photos did not do as well, but the results for properly-exposed photos were impressive. See the one below.

Admittedly the software does not really know the original colors, so a lot of guesswork is involved, but I find the results well worth the minimal effort required.

P.S.
The little girl Annie Bray, (shown front center)  grew up to become one of my family history mentors in the 1960s. She was born in 1889. Thank you for all your help Annie Bray! 


UPDATE: I seem to be able to upload a maximum of about 80 photos to colorize. I wish I had chosen them more carefully.

I cannot see my spouse and in-laws in Family Tree

This comment came up in a visit to a family this afternoon. Fortunately it is easy to fix. Create records for any living ancestors (typically the parents and grand parents to link your record of your spouse to their deceased ancestors. The first generation of deceased ancestors will automatically bring along all of their linked family members. Check your children's accounts, as they may need to add their living ancestors to connect to their deceased ancestors too. Once this is done for a family line, you will not need to do it again in that account.

What causes this issue? The Church needs to protect the privacy of living people. To do this, the records for living people are hidden from all accounts except the account where the record was created. Any record for a living person exists in a "private space", with a unique ID. If you see yourself in your spouse's account, your ID will be different than the one you see in your own account. This is why you cannot add living people by ID. Any particular living ID can only exist in one account.


I cannot see my spouse and in-laws in Family Tree (53513)

You may not be able to see your spouse's family and ancestors in Family Tree for several reasons.

Your spouse's parents are living.
If your spouse's parents are living, and if their records are already in Family Tree, the records are not visible to you because of privacy restrictions.

If you want to see them in your tree, add them to your tree. Their records will be in your private space and visible only to you there.

Your spouse's parents are deceased, but their records in Family Tree show as living.
If your spouse's parents are deceased, and if their records are already in Family Tree, you probably cannot see them because the records still show them as living.

If the records do not show, your spouse may need to go into Family Tree and mark his or her tree parents' records as deceased. If the records do not show up in your family tree, you can link them as existing people into your pedigree. All of the deceased ancestors connected to them should also appear.

It is also a good idea to see if Family Tree has duplicates of your spouse's parents. If you find any, merge them.

Your spouse's parents are not in Family Tree.
Family Tree may not have records for your spouse's parents. You can add them.


Related articles you can find in the Help Center
How do I add a family member to Family Tree? (56435)
What is a private space in Family Tree? (98224)
How do I add an ancestor who is already in Family Tree to my pedigree? (422315)

FamilySearch Statistics

Searchable Names in Historical Records 7.24 Billion
Digital images published in FamilySearch's Historic Collections online 1.4 Billion
Digital Images published only in the FamilySearch Catalog online 1.73 Billion
Indexed records published: 3 year rolling average 297.3 Million
Number of searchable historic record collections online 2,643 Collections
Number of searchable records 4.85 Billion
Number of digital books 453k
Number of family history centers 5,185
Number of digital cameras in operation 303

Visits per day 465.7k
Pages viewed per day 6.4 Million
Online indexing volunteers 1.3 Million
Registered FamilySearch users 13.9  Million

Family Tree contributors 5.17 Million
Photos 33.1 Million
Stories 2.4 Million
Family Documents 6.4 Million
Audio Files 226K
Sources in the Family Tree 1.4 Billion
People in the Family Tree 1.21 Billion

[NOTE: These statistics are as of November 2019] 

https://media.familysearch.org/company-facts

Some Basics

Some Research Basics

1. “Start with the end in mind.” President Russell M. Nelson (temple work to redeem the dead)

2. Start with what you know. Make sure it is in the FamilySearch Family Tree for temple work.
(Some researchers like to sort out the details on paper before adding it to Family Tree.)

3. Work backward in time, adding sources as you go, to document your family.

4. Remember that the same name will have different spellings, depending who wrote it. And names can change over time, Immigrant names are especially likely to change. And be aware of nicknames.

5. Often people born before 1850 could not read or write, even in industrialized countries.

6. The most important information after the name is usually the birth, as it follows a person throughout their life, While marriage and death information is important for those specific events, birth information may be used in all the records of that person.

7. You can estimate dates and places, if you are careful. Parents are typically 30 years older than their middle child. Look for records in places that they lived. Replace estimates with facts as they are found.

8. You can search the 7 billion FamilySearch historical records from any Person Details page. Also register for free accounts with Ancestry.com, findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com (available to Church members). https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/partneraccess/ Record your access codes.

9. The map is your friend. In rural areas of Europe, families often remained in place for multiple generations. A young man in a rural area usually found a wife within 7 miles of where he lived, if he had to travel by foot. If they lived by a county boundary, search on both sides of the boundary.

10. People were generally born at home. The “birthplace” may be listed as a nearby town or city.

11. Think of census records as a series of Family Group Records. Coordinate data across multiple censuses. (Remember that ages are usually approximate.) Often they help you find vital records.

12. The further back in time, the fewer records there are. Records of common people seldom exist before 1600 and almost never before 1500. Nobles owned all of the land, so they can be found further back in time through deeds and titles. Noble lines may connect to royalty.

You will occasionally make mistakes in your research, and some of those mistakes may not be corrected until the Millenium. Remember that proxy ordinances are opportunities that the deceased can accept or reject. If you make a mistake, you are not compelling someone to spend eternity with the wrong spouse or parents. As Sister Wendy Watson Nelson said at RootsTech, “I do my very best and then I move on.”

Some FamilySearch Basics

1. www.familysearch.org is part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was originally created as the Genealogical Society of Utah, organized by the Church in 1894 to help members with family history and temple work for the deceased, (Ordinances for the living go through your bishop,)

2. It is the only place to reserve temple ordinances for the deceased and to print cards for the temple. Your ancestors want to be there.

3. If the deceased person was born in the last 110 years, their ordinances can only be reserved by a member of their immediate family (spouse, parent, child, or sibling) or by someone who has permission from an immediate family member. If the deceased person was born more than 110 years ago this restriction does not apply.

4. The ability to add photos, stories, etc, is wonderful, but the focus should be the temple.

5. Family Tree is not your private family tree, it is a shared tree, so share nicely. It is not a competition.

6. Only you can see your living family members, Temple information is not visible to non-members.

Some DNA Basics

Nearly every cell of your body contains genetic coding in DNA, which you inherited from your parents and they inherited from their parents and so forth. The three common types of DNA tests are:

1. Y-DNA is passed from father to son. Y-DNA Tests are available to males only, looking for other males with matching Y-DNA, indicating a common male ancestor. (In our culture it usually corresponds to the surname line.) It is useful for distinguishing between unrelated families with the same surname, and finding matches with documentation that goes back further in time than yours.

2. MT-DNA or Mitrochondrial DNA is passed by a mother to her children. MT-DNA tests follow the direct maternal line, just as Y-DNA follows the direct paternal line. Because MT-DNA changes so slowly, it is seldom useful for genealogy. (Note that X-DNA research is different from MT-DNA.)

3. Autosomal DNA, sometimes called a “Family Finder” DNA Test. This is the cheapest and perhaps the most interesting. It tests all of your ancestral lines, not just one line as in the case of the two other tests. But it gets unreliable beyond the 4^th cousin level, because the amount of shared DNA decreases by half with each generation. It is especially popular with adoptees looking for biological family.

Which test is best depends on what you are trying to do. The slogan “The science does not lie.” ignores the fact that biological evidence is subject to interpretation. In particular, “ethnicity estimates” as given in Autosomal DNA tests depend on assumptions made by that testing service at that particular time. A DNA test might be a useful tool once you have gone as far as conventional research allows. FamilySearch makes no recommendation of any particular DNA test or testing service.
(The testing service FamilyTreeDNA,com has no connection to the FamilySearch Family Tree.)

Compiled by Bill Buchanan
Revised 3 January 2019

More information on Ordinances Ready

I found a page on the FamilySearch website that answers these questions about Ordinances Ready.

What is Ordinances Ready?
How can I help others use Ordinances Ready?
Can I use Ordinances Ready to reserve all the ordinances for a person?
Does Ordinances Ready check for duplicates?
Why did Ordinances Ready give me names of people I am not related to?
Can Ordinances Ready help me to know my ancestors better?
Why did Ordinances Ready give me names of people with no sources?
Can an estimated date be used when reserving temple ordinances?
Won’t estimating dates cause inaccuracies?
When is it appropriate to estimate a date?
How will estimating dates affect searching for duplicates?
Do all ordinances obtained through Ordinances Ready expire in 90 days?
How far in advance will I receive a message that an ordinance is expiring?
How do I renew an ordinance reservation that is about to expire?

For the answers click here. 

May you be blessed in your service throughout the new year.

- Bill Buchanan