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Monday, October 30, 2017

Follow The Family History Blog...Don't Miss Anything!



Happy Monday Everyone!
This past weekend I was doing some work on a blog that I write for the people I work with in the Oakland Family Search Library that don't use social media but want to know what The Family History Guide has to offer.
That led me to think about the new Family History Guide Blog found at http://www.thefhguide.com/blog.
Did you know that you can subscribe to the blog right from the sidebar of the blog? By subscribing you will receive and email every Monday morning with the current posts. There you will hear from Bob Taylor, Angelle Anderson and me on various aspects of The Family History Guide. Instead of listing them here, follow link above so you can go right to the blog.
Are there things you are looking for in The Family History Guide but don't know how to find them? Bob Taylor has written a wonderfully helpful post that gives you three great tips on how it is done.
We'd love to have you stop in and see what is there. We'd love your comments and feedback or to have you just simply say "Hi".
If you like what you see, subscribe so you won't miss anything.

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U.S. County Research Using The Family History Guide


The Family History Guide
The Family History Guide Blog


From Bob Taylor:

When you’re looking for information on your ancestors in the United States, remember to take advantage of resources at the county level. These may include vital records, directories, census records, military records, newspapers, and more.
The Family History Guide can be a great asset for your research. Here are four items to explore when you are looking into doing county research. Each item has a corresponding link in The Family History Guide for reference.
Seeing a historic map or county borders that match the time your ancestor may have lived in that location can be very helpful in your research.
  1. Go to Choice B: Use Maps Effectively.
  2. In step 8, there is a link to a collection of historic maps for most states on the Genealogy Hound site.
  3. In step 9, you can see how county borders changed over time, using the Newberry or Randy Majors websites. There is a lot to explore here!
Directories  (United States, Goal A2)
Directories commonly provide street addresses, church and cemetery information, etc., which can help you pin down the location of that elusive ancestor.
  1. Go to Choice D: Use City, Town, and County Directories.
  2. Watch the videos and read the articles in the Choice to learn more about directories and how to use them.
  3. In particular, read the article in step 3 to learn about county directories.
Histories and Timelines  (United States, Goal A2)
These resources help you capture historical information that can provide clues in your research.
  1. Go to Choice E: Use Histories and Timelines Effectively.
  2. In step 2, watch the video on using county histories in your research.
  3. Read the articles in step 3 to learn more about using timelines.
QUIKLinks to County Records  (United States, California Counties)
Note: This example uses California counties, but there are also QUIKLinks to counties in all 50 U.S. states in The Family History Guide.
  1. Go to the U.S. state page of interest (California in this example). You can find the states listed under the large picture in the United States page.
  2. Click “CA Counties” in the QUIKLinks section under the picture.
  3. In the Counties section (bottom of the page), you’ll see a map of current counties as well as links to county resources.
  4. Click the county name to access FamilySearch county resources; or the “A” for Ancestry resources; or the “L” for Linkpendium resources. (If you haven’t tried Linkpendium, you are in for a treat!)
In the Vault 
Here are a few resources for county research from our Vault page that you may also find helpful:
Happy county researching with The Family History Guide!
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Three Tips For Finding What You Need In The Family History Guide



The Family History Guide Blog



If you are new to The Family History Guide, you may have wondered how to find a bit of information you are looking for. Let’s say you need to learn about adoption records, or you would like to do some research in Tennessee. How can you find what you’re after, quickly and easily?
This blog post offers three handy tips for finding information in The Family History Guide:
  • Topics page
  • Site map
  • Search bar
Topics Page

You can find the link for the Topics page near the bottom of the Intro menu. This page is an alphabetical list of topics and features in The Family History Guide, with links for each one. Need to learn about adoption records? The link is right there in the A section. Also note the new entries in the header area for FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast. These links take you to sections of the Topics page that deal specifically with Partner topics.
Site Map

The Site Map link is located at the bottom of the Intro menu. The Site Map is a handy page for seeing all the menu items laid out at once, including the countries and U.S. states. So if you can’t remember where a particular country is listed in the Countries page, you can find it alphabetically in the Site map.
Search Bar

The Search bar is located under the main picture on most pages in The Family History Guide. Type in a term you’re looking for on our site, and Google returns a list of popular items to match your search terms.
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Sunday, October 29, 2017

Thinking About Learning How To Use My Heritage?


The Family History Guide
The Family History Guide Blog

Hi Everyone!
Have you been wondering about My Heritage and thinking about starting an account with them and creating a tree? It is a great idea as they have lot and lots of historical records and have users from every country in the world.  Perhaps if you add a few generations in a tree there, you will find some very useful record matches and move forward more quickly in your research. You may even find a second or third cousin in one of your countries like I did in Sweden.  It doesn't hurt that he speaks Swedish and English either! 

The Family History Guide makes setting up the account very easy. Start here:



With Family History Guide setting up all the Family Search partner sites very easy. Customize your account here:

Edit your homepage here:

Manage Your My Heritage Inbox here:
http://thefhguide.com/project-1-welcome-mh.html#goal-4


Using Family Tree Builder (optional) here:

My Heritage is a great resource for all of us! This site has a basic and premium version. It is free, at any Family Search Library through the portal.

Tip: Open The Family History Guide or this Facebook post
The Family History Guide on one side of your screen and do a side by side view with My Heritage on your monitor <http://myhertiage.com> and it will be very simple to set up your account.


Note : MyHeritage attempts to find people who may be your ancestors. If it finds potential matches, it displays them in a two-person match screen. If no match screen appears, you can proceed to Goal 2 below.
THEFHGUIDE.COM
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The Vault Has Been Revised And Updated!


The Family History Guide
The Family History Guide Blog


Have you ever checked out The Vault in The Family History Guide?  To keep the learning portion of the Family History Guide Projects streamlined, the Projects are designed in a way that uses the concept of (Just in Time Learning).  Each goal is very carefully selected to be exactly what you need when you need it.  The Project Goals are purposely limited to five of six choices in many cases.  That way you do not get bogged down with a lot of extra details in that phase of your learning process.  

 The Vault is the place where secondary and very helpful resources are stored in case you want to further pursue a certain subject you've been learning about in a Project. I highly recommend looking in the Vault now so you get an idea of what is there.  The following (in Black) is an adaptation of Bob Taylor' Blog piece on the Vault.  Because it contains graphics that I could not just copy and paste over, you can click on the blue link to view it.  

 When you view it in the Family History Guide's Official Blog, if you scroll down on the sidebar on the right, you can subscribe to the official TFHG Blog.  This blog to date has three contributors, Bob Taylor, CEO, Angelle Anderson, Manager of The Activities portion of The Family History Guide, and me, Bonnie Mattson, the Social Media Coordinator for The Family History Guide.

 Bob Taylor wrote...Do you have a utility room, a food storage room, or a garage with all sorts of great stuff inside but a fair amount of clutter as well? Every so often you just need to roll up your sleeves and tidy up the space. And that’s what we have done with our favorite storage room in The Family History Guide – the Vault.



Let’s step inside and see what’s new. (Nothing scary here, even though Halloween is a coming soon!)
Navigation Links in the Header
We have replaced the vertical Index with a series of links in the header area of the page. To show them, click the Topics link near the top of the page. The links help you get to Vault topics quickly and easily. The links remain visible until you click Topics again. 
New Table Format for Vault Entries
Instead of using long, scrolling lists we now use tables to show the Vault entries. This saves space and cuts down on scrolling.  (This is really a great improvement...Bonnie)
Video links are marked with “V” and are the first entries in tables, followed by the article links (“A”).
No More “Top” Links
The old Vault page had “Top” links every so often to take you back to the top of the page. These have been removed, as it’s easier to navigate now with the header links.
***
We hope you enjoy the new Vault format. Step inside and see what treasures you might find!
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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

James Tanner Spoke About The Family History Guide in Springville, Utah! October 24, 2017

My Photo in Utah



Being in Utah is really nice. There are so many opportunities here to learn genealogy and family history. There is a very large number of people that are actively involved in family history and there are many people eager to learn. There are also very many experts willing to share what they know.
One of those people whom I respect very much is James Tanner. I have followed his blogs for a long time and have seen him speak at many conferences. 

When I learned that he would be speaking about the Family History Guide  in Springville at the Springville Family History Fair, I thought this would be a great time to come for a visit. The fair was put together by the Springville Family History Center and it was very well done. Everything was so well-organized and the speakers were top notch. The conference was free, including a very lovely luncheon. Who could ask for anything more?

James did not speak about the Family History Guide until after lunch but I saw he and Ann at the beginning of the day and during lunch. They are so valuable to The Family History Guide and the genealogy community. That was really wonderful seeing them and I love that he's The Chairman of the Board for The Family History Guide. Ann Tanner is also a Board member and is so knowledgable as well.

The first two classes I attended were taught by Robert Kehrer, Senior Product Manager for Family Search. He did an excellent job of explaining everything there is to know about FS Record Hints. The Record Hints are taken directly from the Family Tree records already attached by other users. Because of this there is a 98% accuracy rate, with hints suggested for your person on their Person Details Page. In the next hour Robert spoke about elusive records and how to search them like a pro. He had some great tips for digging deeper into the browsable collections.

James' class on The Family History Guide really wowed the crowd. Not too many had known of it until that day. Many left with great enthusiasm and a desire to get started with it. People were just amazed by it.

There were many other speakers at the Conference. The class handouts are available on the Springville Family History Center website.http://springvillefamilyhistorycenter.org

This conference really got me excited all over again about Rootstech and one more conference I am attending in Salt Lake at the end of this week. If you haven't ever attended a conference for family history and genealogy, you should! They are so enlightening and it is a joy to spend the day with like-minded, good people.  It reminded me of the quote.

"Surround yourself with good and inspiring people. 
Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious."



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An Invitation From Bob Taylor to You! Becoming a Content Specialist!


The Family History Guide Blog




 An Invitation From Bob Taylor, CEO of The Family History Guide!

The Family History Guide is a game-changer in how family history and learning are done worldwide. As it continues to grow and improve, The Family History Guide Association is announcing several openings for volunteer Content Specialists. As a Content Specialist for The Family History Guide website, you will:

Find family history online resources that would make good additions to the content in The Family History Guide and communicate them to the staff.
Review existing content in The Family History Guide, including currently used web resources, to recommend updates or improvements in content.
Here are the requirements:

Basic familiarity with the content in The Family History Guide
Solid Internet and written/verbal communication skills
Commitment to two or more hours per week in assigned content work on The Family History Guide
If this opportunity resonates with you, we would love to hear from you! Please send a brief bio outlining your experience in family history and Internet / computer skills to info@thefhguide.com. We look forward to working with you in accomplishing our mission: to spread the joys of family history involvement worldwide.

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Family History Activities And How They Strengthen Individuals and Families




The Family History Guide Blog

Yesterday I was able to see the BYU Family History Library Webinar that Bob Taylor gave last week while we were traveling. If you haven't seen it, please do.

It was a really wonderful look into what is possible in the way of family history activities for families, singles, youth and children. This area of the Family History Guide is found under the Misc. Link, in the dropdown menu on the Homepage of The Family History Guide. 
This section of the Family History Guide has recently been masterfully updated by Angelle Anderson on the staff of The Family History Guide in collaboration with Bob Taylor.

Family history activities are a wonderful way to introduce people of all ages to something we already know deep inside ourselves. Knowing and caring about our ancestors strengthens us as individuals and families in so many ways. We take what we learn from their life experiences and it can change the way we go forward in our own lives.
Sometimes the stories of our ancestors can really turn the hearts of young kids toward their ancestors in a very poignant way. While traveling in England a few year ago with our son's family, he asked me to share a family history story with their family one evening. A very sad story that I learned of from the 1800s came immediately to mind.

One of my father's great aunts had three older children in their teens when she was expecting another child. They lived on the prairie in North Dakota and their father was a farmer and away one day when the mother went into early labor. The children had no idea what to do or how to help their mother. Unbeknownst to any of them she was trying to give birth to triplets. As things started to go very badly the oldest boy, who was 15, ran to the fields to find their father. He did not succeed.
One tiny girl had been born first after much laboring. During the next hours all but that little girl died. Both the little boys and their mom perished that day. 

I asked our same age grandchildren to imagine what it must have been like for those bigger kids as they stood by helplessly not knowing what to do. I asked then to consider how much they love their own mom and each other.  

 When the father returned he found a very disturbing scene. His wife had died and two babies, his 12 year-old daughter was sobbing and trying to comfort her weak, tiny newborn sister, and there were two inconsolable sons to greet him. I asked our grandchildren to also consider how the father felt coming home after what he thought was just another work day in the fields.  Within two weeks the first baby also died. In researching their lives I discovered that they had lost twins also five years earlier.

This story had a huge impact on our oldest grandson with us on this trip. Since that day two years ago, Connor has thought of those ancestors a lot. It changed him and he is now very interested in our ancestors and their stories. He has learned to appreciate our family so much more because of them. When he faces adversity, he thinks of them and is grateful for their examples of courage and strength and he presses forward. Knowing about our ancestors is a good thing for all of us. Do you have a story to share with us?
Their Family Now

The Family History Guide
Family Activities: 1. Anytime Activities and Games 2. Plan-Ahead Activities 3. Making Family History 4. Documenting the Past 5. Social Media Activities 6. Service Activities 7. Activities for Research 8. LDS Activities Resources.
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Family History Guide Achieves Public Charity Status 501 (C) (3)

Pinterest


It’s a day that has been a long time coming, from a dream to reality. We knew that we needed to take the next step and become a nonprofit organization, so we formed The Family History Guide Association about 6 months ago. As of last week, the final piece has come into place: the Association is now recognized by the IRS as an official public charity with 501(c)(3) status, which means that donors can receive tax credits for their donations. Because our income depends on donations, this has huge significance for us. We owe a huge thanks to the efforts of Bob Ives in bringing our 501(c)(3) status to completion. By Bob Taylor, CEO





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Family History in Real Time




Hi Everyone!  I have some serious catching up to do.  The week before last we were caring for our family members that were evacuated due to the Northern California fires.  They live in Napa and through something very miraculous they still have their home and beautiful neighborhood intact.  It was a very busy week of watching and keeping track of what was happening minute by minute.  It was family history in real time...for us and many others.  

We are touched and changed by the tumultuous times and good news for our loved ones, but feel so badly about all the people that were affected in a less fortunate way.  It makes one take a step back and remember what is truly most important. 

We are taking stock of all we need to do to be better prepared for these types of natural disasters in advance.  One of those many things includes how we will preserve our family history and heritage in a better, more mindful and consistent way.  Scan, scan, scan and store online in more than one place for starters!

I'll try to go back and transfer all of the posts that were done during that time and also last week while we were in Utah on The Family History Guide business and family times, which consisted of spending time with our son and daughter and their families that live there.  

That was a wonderful week and so profoundly different then just the week before.  When things like these two contrasting weeks occur, it reminds me of how resilient the human soul is.  We all have no choice but to take life, one day at a time, as it comes.  This reminds me that it is so important to leave a legacy of some things that have happened and how we perceived them and deal with this crazy life sometime.  And what we learn in the process.  Writing it down helps us and others.  Journal...as best you can about who you are, what you have experienced and what you have gained through your joys and adversities in your life.   These are point to ponder for all of us.

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Saturday, October 7, 2017

What's New -Update 93 At the Family History Guide



Tip of the Day: When using the Family History Guide along with the Blog or your family tree, view them side by side on your monitor for a great interface between the two.
Throughout the month Bob Taylor, our CEO is continuously  making updates to The Family History Guide.  To see what is new so far in October you can check here.  This is under the More section on the Homepage of the Family History Guide.  This is a wonderful way to see if what you are searching for might have just been updated.

The following is the What's New-Update 93 that he posted on Facebook this week.

"What's New at The Family History Guide - Update #93
* Added the Twitter logo and link to the bottom of each page on the site.
* Added links to over 40 new FamilySearch videos, for Scotland, Finland, Ireland, Vault, England, Wales, Poland, U.S., Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

* Added links to the Archives Portal Europe for 28 country pages.
* Added CensusLinks.com links for all Canadian provinces.
* Made additional updates to FamilySearch Projects 1 and 2 to adapt to the changes made recently by FamilySearch."

On Facebook I noticed one time that someone asked, "What are your hours of operation?"  Bob's response was truer that you know.  He replied, "Always Open!"  I really had to laugh as I am pretty sure the sun never sets on Bob Taylor's house!


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Friday, October 6, 2017

Start Your Research With What You Already Know




Most of us want know about our immigrant ancestor, the one who came across a border or crossed an ocean to come to America.  Unless you are a first generation immigrant, you have to work with United States records first. It is surprising how many people seek help in looking for an 8th- great-grandparent. They have not prepared yet by starting with themselves, then their parents, grandparents and so forth. We build our pedigree one generation at a time, sourcing our information with record citations to verify our conclusions as we go back in time. It is the only way to get accurate results.

The Family History Guide provides excellent directions for us in understanding what kinds of records are available, what they contain, and how to analyze them and much more. See Discover in the dropdown menu under FS as an example.
The Family History Guide has four dropdown menus for each of the Partner Pages on the Homepage. There is one for Family Search (FS), Ancestry (AN), My Heritage (MH), and Findmypast (FMP). They each share a dropdown selection called Countries.  This is one of my favorite sections on the website. Here you will find wonderful information on all the states in the Untied States and many countries in the world. Let’s select Countries, and let’s take a look at a state by choosing Missouri
Tip:  You might want to set your monitor to a side-by-side view as you do this, so you can see this page and open The Family History Guide in the other screen.

 Now let’s take a look at Missouri.  At the top of the page if you look at Missouri Goals, you can learn about Research and Records, Archives and Libraries, Vital and Census Records, Church and Cemetery Records, Emigration and Immigration, Military Records, Probate, Land and Court Records, Maps and Gazetteers, Newspapers, Websites, Searching Records and Getting Help.  Each U.S. state has Goals, Choices and Steps to help you learn sequentially. The page includes Resources like articles and videos. You can even click on the banner of each page to go directly to Wikipedia for more general information about each place.

 Look At the QUIKlinks at the top of the Missouri page. The first four are to record collections the rest are to websites. Click on the Family Search QUIKlinks. Up comes a search bar where you enter your ancestor’s information. Only about 1/3 of the records in the Family Search Record Collections are indexed and searchable by the ancestor’s name. Don’t forget to scroll down farther to where the Browseable Records Collections are. These are extremely valuable as well.

 The remarkable thing about this is ALL the states and most of the countries have the exact type of page. Try checking a favorite country also!

 Tip:  To help anyone else get started, go here to these State or Country pages to find their states or countries, or if they have Ethnic Research to do in  African American Records, Asian, Native American, etc. You’ll find everything you need right at your fingertips. 

 What a remarkable tool The Family History Guide is, as it continues to add new content all the time to make our lives easier, more efficient and much more enjoyable!






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