Basic Family History Training

 

Basic Family History Training (Edmonton Alberta North Stake. revised for 2025)

1. Why is it important? Family history and temple work can strengthen the family relationships and testimonies of the living, And it can help the dead to be redeemed through their faith in Jesus Christ. The basic doctrine is as taught by the ancient apostles, Peter and Paul in the New Testament: Christ preached the gospel to the spirits in prison so that they could accept Christ as their Savior and progress along the same path as the living. 1 Peter 4:6
They need earthly ordinances that we can provide. (1 Cor 15:29) This is also plainly taught in D&C 138.
President Russell M Nelson has urged us to gather Israel on both sides of the veil.

2. Ordinances Ready in the Temple menu of the website or app allows you to reserve temple ordinances and print temple cards in about 10 minutes. Where does it find related people needing ordinances? Firstly, in your list of reserved ordinances, then those shared with the temple by other patrons, then related people whose ordinances have not yet been reserved, and lastly unrelated people.
For it to find related people, you need to be connected to your deceased generations in Family Tree.
Note that these cards are intended to be used within 120 days, or others can do these ordinances.

3. To book a session at the Temple: Click the Temple menu at www.familysearch.org
Click Schedule Temple Appointment > Schedule Appointment > Sign-in > Select this temple > Select the ordinance > Indicate if your spouse is also attending > Click the calendar to select a date and time.

4. FamilySearch.org is the only website where you can reserve temple ordinances and print temple cards for your ancestors and their descendants. This can be be done in a web browser or our Family Tree mobile app.

5. Research expectations: How far back can you trace your ancestry in historical records? It varies.
In some places few records exist But in Europe, records of common people occasionally go back to the 1500's, Records of hereditary titles of nobility and royalty may go back much, much further.
The FamilySearch Research Wiki can tell you what records are available for the country you are interested in.
It also makes us aware of useful unfamiliar record types, and to avoid looking for records that don't exist. (Familysearch.org > Search > Research Wiki)

6. Family Tree now uses Indexing data to automatically find records of your ancestors and their families.
An estimated 70%-80% of all Indexed records will be suggested as Record Hints (blue icons) in Family Tree.
These Hints sometimes list additional family members, that need ordinances.
So in many cases the records now come looking for you, instead of you looking for them.
Free accounts from some large commercial sites: https://www.familysearch.org/access/member-subscriptions

7. FamilySearch.org Memories, and our Memories mobile app are excellent places for preserving photos, documents, stories, and even short audio recordings. These can help your family members to connect to their ancestors on a more personal level.

8. Preparing names for the temple:
In order to do ordinances for someone. they need a record in Family Tree with a minimum of this information:
their name, sex, approximate year and place of a major life event (birth, christening, marriage, death, or burial). The person must have been dead at least 30 days, so they have had time to accept the gospel beyond the veil.
If they were born in the last 110 years you need to be an immediate family member or have permission of an immediate family member (parent, child, sibling or un-divorced spouse).
Note that the date and place of birth can often be estimated from marriage or births of children, This can help familysearch.org to automatically find historic records for the individual.

If the necessary information is not available now, it will be, in the Millenium. For now, we do what we can.
FamilySearch's toll-free Help number is 1-866-406-1830  
by Bill Buchanan, Stake Consultant 

A personal perspective on helping in family history:

There is a common misconception that Consultants need to be experts at all things concerning family history. But that is the role of FamilySearch Support. Consultants should be actively helping with routine things such referring members to the bishop if they need to get a temple recommend, using Ordinances Ready, booking into a temple session, adding names and corrections to Family Tree, reserving ordinances and printing temple cards. 

Any additional skills are a bonus. Much is learned through personal experience. 

To reach free FamilySearch Support in North America, call 1-866-406-1830
(8 am to 8 pm Mon-Sat or 1 pm to 8 pm Sun) 

or email North America Support at nasupport@familysearch.org

- Bill Buchanan

Researching on other websites ("The world is your oyster!")

Using RecordSeek to create sources in FamilySearch

From Research Helps on the Person page you can search other websites, and of course you can search other websites from any other tab in your browser. But when you find good information out there, how do you add it to a source in Family Tree?

The easiest way I know is to use the free RecordSeek bookmark in my browser.
To add the RecordSeek bookmark, I need to go to recordseek.com and drag the bookmark button to my browser's Bookmark toolbar. (If the Bookmark toolbar is hidden, press Shift+Ctrl+B)

To use this tool:
1. Click the Family Tree ID of the person, to copy it to your computer's clipboard.

2. Highlight the information you found on the other website,

3. Click the RecordSeek bookmark,

4. Select FamilySearch in the popup,

5. Click Next, and when asked "Search by Person ID Number" paste it in.

6. Click Next and click Create & Attach, then close the popup.

A source has been created in that person's Family Tree record, quoting the highlighted information.
(This is especially handy when quoting sources that may otherwise be inaccessible on subscription sites.)
Then I like to go to the person's Sources list in Family Tree and add the year, so that the new source appears in the correct chronological order.

 The first time you do this it may take 10 minutes or more. The 30th time it may take 30 seconds or less.
(I find that occasionally I need to launch RecordSeek twice to get it to work, but it is still a real time saver.)

Easily uploading multipage documents

You may have seen attempts to upload multipage documents as a series of individual files.

This can be done but the results are seldom satisfactory to you as the reader. You read a page and then you need to find a file containing the next page and then find the next page, etc. This is very awkward.

The idea is excellent, but the method is flawed, Ideally you will convert the multipage document to PDF format so that the whole book is a single file. PDF also has the advantage of being able to use a variety of different fonts and layouts including images. Images take up a lot of storage apace, but 2000 pages of text can easily fit within the 15 GB size limit allowed by FamilySearch. 

If you have written a book. create a PDF copy from your word processor by using File > Save As or File > Export, or File > Print > Print to PDF. Then upload the PDF file to FamilySearch memories.

For example, see "Ancestors of Ernest (Robert) Kinney"
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/L492-3Z6
(This is a short book, generated by genealogy software and enhanced in a word processor.)  

If you want to create a PDF from a series of separate page images (eg. JPEGs), the process is more complicated, If your scanner has the option, load the pages into the document feeder and choose Scan to PDF. Then run the resulting file through Optical Character Recognition to convert the images of text to actual text, greatly reducing the file size.

Alternately, you can import the page images into the word processor and export the file as PDF, The page images take up a lot of storage apace, creating a huge file, but OCR may reduce it to a usable size.

If OCR software did not come with your scanner, there are sites online that do OCR conversions,

What re the responsibilities of Consultants?

Consultants are our "front line" workers. They are listed online as the people to go to for help.

What are the specific responsibilities of our callings in Temple and Family History?
These can be found in the General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
For example:

25.2.4 Ward (or Branch) Temple and Family History Consultants
Ward temple and family history consultants serve under the direction of the ward temple and family history leader. The bishopric calls these members to serve. Adults and youth may be called. The elders quorum, Relief Society, and Young Women presidents may suggest who could serve.

Consultants teach others in simple ways how to participate in temple and family history work. They have the following responsibilities:

Help members prepare to receive temple ordinances and make temple covenants.

Help members experience the blessings of discovering their ancestors and performing temple ordinances on their behalf. These experiences are especially important for those learning the gospel, new and returning members, and those preparing to receive a recommend for proxy baptisms and confirmations.

Participate in temple and family history coordination meetings (see 25.2.7).

Serve in a local FamilySearch center when assigned (see 25.3.6). [If you had this assignment you would know.]

A personal perspective on helping in family history (Bill Buchanan):
There is a common misconception that Consultants need to be experts at all things concerning family history. But that is the role of FamilySearch Support. Consultants should be able to help with routine things such referring members to the bishop if they need to get a temple recommend, using Ordinances Ready, booking into a temple session, adding people to Family Tree, reserving ordinances and printing temple cards. Any additional skills are a bonus. Much is learned through personal experience. 

To reach free FamilySearch Support, call 1-866-406-1830 (8 am to 8 pm Mon-Sat or 1 pm to 8 pm Sun)  or email North America Support at nasupport@familysearch.org

FamilySearch Stats as of August 2024

FROM: https://www.familysearch.org/en/newsroom/company-facts

Searchable Names in Historical Records 13.16 Billion

Digital Images Published 5.19 Billion

Digital Books Online 618,688

Number of FamilySearch Centers 6,466

Monthly Visits 21.78  Million

Sources in the Family Tree 3.35 Billion

People in the Family Tree 1.64 Billion

What is "family history"? / Why can't I see my own ordinances?

What is "family history"? 

When I served in Family History Centres, I learned that this term means different things to different people. Instead of assuming I knew what patrons were looking for, I learned to start by asking "How can I help you?" As a consultant today, I find that this is a good starting point. Then I can focus my efforts on addressing their concerns, whether is finding an ancestor, reserving ordinances, printing temple cards, adding some photos to Memories, or finding sources to document someone's life. When I have helped members to accomplish their own goals, they are usually more open to our ward and stake goals. 

"Why can't I see my own ordinances in FamilySearch?"

When I served in FamilySearch Support, the answer included "This protects the ordinance data of living people." "You can get a list of your own ordinances from your ward or branch clerk at any time. It is called an Individual Ordinances Summary." 

But today, look in the Member Tools app. You can see confidential data including ordinances, Church Membership Record Numbers, etc. but only for your own household. (This is a smaller, more secure database.)

The faces of my family

I love old family photos. Each time I visit a relative that I have not visited before, one of my first questions is "Do you have any old family photos I can scan?" If so, I bring out my laptop and scanner. While I am at it, I will also scan old documents that are of interest, These days a smart phone may make acceptable copies, I feel closer to my deceased relatives when I can see their faces, and I can feel Heavenly Father's love for them.

Five years ago I was given a large box of old photos by a relative who had no place to store them.

Two years ago I received a message on Ancestry messaging from a total stranger in Scotland that basically said, "I see that you have an Ancestry tree that includes Wilfred Anderson and Jessie Evans. After Jessie's death, Wilfred married my widowed mother. I have now inherited Mom's photo collection and I was surprised that it includes a large number of Jessie's old family photos, Would you like them?" "Yes, please, they are part of my family" Sarah mailed the photos to me and sent me scans of them as well, all at her own expense, despite my desire to pay. Bless her.

I love FamilySearch Memories, it is a safe place for my old photos and for yours as well.

Some day in eternity I will meet these relatives face to face and I may recognize them from their photos.

Miscellaneous items from our stake Temple and Family History Newsletter

As a stake consultant, I help to author a monthly newsletter for the Edmonton Alberta North Stake. 

Why does FamilySearch.org exist? 
One of the reasons stated by President Gordon B Hinckley, was to reduce the duplication of time and expense of family history research. In other words, to keep us from re-doing the same research over and over again. 
Or to use a metaphor, to help us move forward instead of just spinning our wheels.  
(Until then, each person did their own research and kept it in a Book of Remembrance. A record of completed temple work was available at Family History Centers but might be several years old, leading to duplication of temple work. See Hinckley October 2005) 

The Help Center: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/landing
Find help by topic:
Family Tree Memories Searching Records Your Account Get Involved
Third Party Products 
DNA Temple FamilySearch Centers Mobile Apps
Temple & Family History Consultant

Getting "FamilySearch Center" access on your own laptop in a chapel.
Login-in the Liahona network and use this extension in your browser The browser extensions tool is on the far right of the address bar. The extension you want is 
FamilySearch Center Premium Content

Attaching Record Hints on FamilySearch (This can also be done from the Tree View.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw88XB5Zw7Y

Looking for short training to include in a coordinating session, ward council, or presidency meeting?
FamilySearch Family Tree (2 min. video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8zDSNfZdlU
Connecting yourself to your deceased ancestors (3 min. video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDTXfIXvxtM
How to Use Ordinances Ready (2 min. video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvpBaRzgY0I
Note: The last two show older versions of the menus but are otherwise excellent. The first uses British English.

RootsTech recordings are available throughout the year at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/

Maybe consider buying a package of these and sharing them with your ward.
Family History: Get Started Now
"This trifold leaflet is printed on heavy card stock. It has space for a four-generation family tree and a few photos and stories. It also tells how to build a family tree at familysearch.org. It does not contain information about temple ordinances. 100 per package."
About $20 CAD including GST and shipping https://store.churchofjesuschrist.org/

Clarification: "Unique submitter" means someone who has (a) printed a temple ordinance card or (b) reserved an ordinance and shared it with the temple system, during the current calendar year. So, 0 on each Jan 1st.

Training for Your Calling in Temple and Family History
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/handbooks-and-callings/ward-or-branch-callings/temple-and-family-history?lang=eng

Easy sourcing from other websites is back. https://recordseek.com/

Free "partner subscriptions" to commercial sites https://www.familysearch.org/access/member-subscriptions
Lets use them while they are available for free.

The toll-free FamilySearch Support phone number for USA and Canada is
1-866-406-1830.
You can call for help: Mon - Sat 8am to 8pm      Sunday 1pm to 8pm
 (Maybe try your ward consultants first.)

I hope you find this useful.

A great miracle I had almost forgotten

 On Sunday we were discussing positive and negative effects of social media on the Church.

One brother said, "I joined the Church because I investigated things said in anti-Mormon material."

This reminded me of a missionary "fireside" meeting we attended at the home of our friends Allan and Carolyn Woodruff, near Duffield, Alberta. Carolyn's parents were reporting their missionary experiences in the early 1980s. They said that God had performed a great miracle. 

In the 1960s-and 1970s, the Church had no missionaries in many parts of the world including West Africa. But anti-Mormon meetings in places like Nigeria had made people curious about the Church, and non-members started organizing their own version of the Church, using some Church-published materials including the Book of Mormon. 

When official missionaries were sent there in November 1978, they were told to seek out these non-member congregations, interview the pastor and baptize him if he was ready, ordain him to the priesthood, and help him to baptize his congregation. Instantly we had new branches and districts formed of disciples who were already tried and true in the faith. It was miraculous. 

West Africa continues to be an area of rapid growth of the Church. 

(A more detailed account can be found in the history of the Church in Nigeria in Deseret News 1999-2000 Church Almanac, pages 364-365.)

This happened during my adult life, I was greatly impressed at the time, but it had almost faded from my memory, It makes me wonder what other miracles I have forgotten. It is important to keep a record of them, This is one of the first lessons taught in the Book of Mormon.