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