Tips From my December 2022 Newsletter

As I was working on my stake's monthly Temple and Family History Newsletter for December, I decided that these points might be worth posting in this blog.

FamilySearch lists no Family History Centers in Edmonton, the large city closest to me. But is all lost? No. Multiple affiliate libraries are now listed, giving access to the same restricted-by-copyright records. What centers are available in your area? See https://www.familysearch.org/centers/locations/

Using the FamilySearch Helper Function - This allows you view your patron's part of the Family Tree to plan discovery experiences, etc. You will need their Username and their Helper Number, For members, this number is usually the last 5 characters of their membership number, which they can see in the Member Tools app or temple recommend. For members or nonmembers, they can find it in Settings > Preferences when they click their name in the upper right corner of the screen when signed in.

Ordinances Ready will now print temple cards for your deceased relatives of either sex, To print cards for someone else, sign in as their Helper by clicking the Help Others link (e.g at the top right of any Person page). Then use Ordinances Ready to print cards for them.  Ordinances Ready can also help you book a session at your temple.

RootsTech 2023 Registration Is Now Open 

Navigating the FamilySearch Tree Views - our latest video. Click a name to view the Person's page.

Some of my favorite free computer tools when doing research:
1. Right-click links to open them in a new tab, without losing your place on the current page. I find this especially helpful when checking a large number of possible matches on ancestry.com.
2. Clipboard expanders such as the ones in Windows (Win+V) or ClipX that remember the most recent 25 items copied to the clipboard for re-use, 
3, RecordSeek.com can quickly create FamilySearch sources from virtually any website. Copy the PIDs to the clipboard, highlight the text on the page, click the RecordSeek bookmark, and paste in the PIDS when requested. This works especially well with a clipboard expander to attach a source on some other website to multiple people in the Family Tree, I love the fact that I can automatically copy text into the source, so excerpts from subscription sites can be seen by other users who do not have a subscription to that particular site.

Essential Tools for the Hobbyist Genealogist – Olivia Jewell - BYU Family History Library (10 November 2022)  - I really enjoyed this, The fun side of family history.

Give an ancestor some joy this Christmas.

Bill