A Training Session for a Ward in Our Stake

On Sunday, my fellow Stake Consultant and I had a training session with the new Ward TFH Leader and the Consultants of one of the wards in our stake.

He gave training on recovering a forgotten FamilySearch user name or password. This is important because starting a new community-member  account would result in the loss of access to records of living people and to temple reservations entered in the previous account.  He recommended using the Church Membership Record Number to recover the username and reset the password, since it gives immediate results. And unlike a phone number or email address, it doesn't change over time. The CMRN is accessible from a temple recommend, Member Tools App, or from your Ward Clerk,

He also gave training on signing into FamilySearch as someone's Helper. This uses the Helper Number, which is usually the last 5 characters of the CMRN. I find this especially handy for checking the tree in advance when I plan to help someone.

I chose to focus on the monthly Family History Activity Report, accessible to certain leaders at the Ward, Stake and General levels, which focuses on a few simple things. 

1.. Number of members logging into FamilySearch.org during the year

2. Percentage of members connected to 4 generations of ancestors in FamilySearch Family Tree

3. Number of members printing an ordinance card to take to the temple. (compare 2020 and 2021)

4. Number of members:

a. Adding a name to Family Tree

b. Adding a memory to Family Tree

c. Number of members Indexing

1. You can usually sign in FamilySearch.org using the same USERNAME and PASSWORD that you use for ChurchOfJesusChrist.org and your Church apps. Those present in the training meeting had already accomplished this.

2. Approximately 30% of our stake are not connected to their deceased ancestors. Each person only needs to do this once. For members raised in the Church, this usually takes about 10 minutes, since FamilySearch already has records for their ancestors. I showed a 3 minute video of the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDTXfIXvxtM

3. The easy way to print an ordinance card for a deceased relative is to click the Temple menu on FamilySearch and click Ordinances Ready. Then choose what ordinance you wish, to print the cards. At the end of the 2-minute demo, the question was asked. "What if I want to print a card for all of the ordinances for an individual?" This can be done from your Temple Reservation List or from the Ordinances Tab on the Person Details page. But since temple cards are no longer returned, in most situations, Ordinances Ready is probably the better option.

4. a. Adding a name is usually done from a family tree View or the Person Details page of a parent, spouse or child. The blue Record Hint icons sometimes represent records that list additional family members. This is usually the easiest way to add names to Family Tree. 

4. b. A Memory can be added from the Memories tab of a Person Details page or from the main menu by clicking Memories, then Gallery. The FamilySearch Memories mobile app on your phone also works well and is especially handy for recording 5-minute audio clips. (I love the ability to create FamilySearch audio clips using my phone.)

4. c. Indexing is a key to making FamilySearch work. Indexing provides the blue icons that allow FamilySearch to do most of the research for you. FamilySearch recently finished digitizing all the microfilms in the Granite Mountain vault. Now these need to be indexed, to make them searchable by name. If you are interested in doing a little indexing each week, we can help you.

The Ward TFH Leader has already scheduled the next training meeting with us.