What's New At Family Search?

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Blog Post August Updates


What's New at FamilySearch

Find out about all of the new improvements, additions, or other changes that are being made on FamilySearch.org to make it a more valuable resource for your family history needs.

RootsTech London 2019 Conference Announced

August 28, 2018 By FamilySearch

RootsTech has announced that the highly popular family history conference is expanding its international borders, beginning with the United Kingdom in 2019. RootsTech will host RootsTech London 2019 from 24–26 October, 2019 at the ExCeL London Convention Centre. For more info go to RootsTech.org/london. Full Story

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Complete Archive of Ellis Island Records—Now Online for Free

August 13, 2018 By FamilySearch

Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are famous landmarks in U.S. history. The Statue of Liberty, located on Liberty Island, is a symbol of freedom. Ellis Island opened the gates to millions as the home of the Ellis Island Immigration Station—and millions of passenger arrival records for U.S. immigrants came with it. Now, a complete collection of Ellis Island passenger lists is available online and searchable for free at FamilySearch. Full Story

Filed Under: Records and Research, What's New at FamilySearch12 Comments

Add Multiple Pictures in FamilySearch Memories—Share Your Family Stories!

August 9, 2018 By Leslie Albrecht Huber

Memories is a tool in FamilySearch that allows you to preserve and share your family’s most important moments by adding family photos, documents, audio clips and stories. You can then organize and tag them, attaching them to individuals on your family tree. This turns these treasured moments into heirlooms that can be passed down in your family and easily accessed by even distant family members. Full Story

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Family Search Solutions Gallery

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"If you’ve been around FamilySearch for a while, you’ll remember the FamilySearch App Gallery, a collection of mostly handy but occasionally outdated apps and tools for family history. Now FamilySearch has replaced the App Gallery with the powerful new Solutions Gallery, with helpful categories and of some the latest technology for family historian. You can find the main link to the Solutions Gallery at the bottom of the FamilySearch home page.

As expected, The Family History Guide has a prominent place in the new Solutions Gallery. In fact, our website shows up in six different categories:

• Family Tree Management
• Specialty
• Photos and Stories
• Games
• LDS Access
• Research Assistance

Here’s a look at part of the page for The Family History Guide in the new Solutions Gallery:

Notice that the page mentions The Family History Guide is available in family history centers. You can find it in the Portal page at each of the nearly 5,000 family history centers worldwide.

There is also a link at the bottom of our Solutions Gallery page for Ratings and Reviews. If you haven’t done so, why not take a few moments and post a review on the site? We are grateful our terrific user community, and we are dedicated to helping each one in his or her personal family history journey."  By Bob Taylor creator of The Family History Guide!

Content Review And YOU!

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The Family History Guide

The Family History Guide Blog

Did you know that The Family History Guide offers each of us the opportunity to make helpful suggestions regarding the content in The Family History Guide? In the section under the Misc. link on the Homepage  you will see Content Review in the dropdown menu.

"Content Review is the feature you can use to submit a review of website content for The Family History Guide. It is not a rating system but is intended to provide detailed feedback on the Projects, Goals, and Choices in The Family History Guide. Here are the basic steps.

Complete the Content Review Form:

Work through each Choice and each step in the Goal, recording your suggestions and feedback as you go.

Send your feedback to The Family History Guide.
Your feedback will be analyzed and may be included in updates to The Family History Guide."

This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard. Bob does an excellent job of keeping everything fresh, pertinent, and updated. But remember there are thousands of links to various topics in The Family History Guide, so please consider sharing when you find something that has a broken link or needs updating or something you might like to see added at some point. One person can do so much and you never know, that one person just might be YOU!

Redesigns, Additions, Improvements and Updates for October!

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The Family History Guide Blog



Twenty-two improvements in October!  The Family History Guide is dynamic, always striving to be better!

2017—October

• Redesigned the Vault: it now uses a table format to save space and has links in the header area, among other enhancements. For details, see this blog post.

• In FS Project 2, added information on importing photos to Memories via Facebook, Instagram, and Google accounts.

• Added links to a number of our blogs from the Activities pages.

• Added navigation links in the header area of the following pages: Topics, Introduction, Begin, Media, and Countries.
• Filled in Goal 4 in Project 6 for Ancestry (Using Ancestry Technology).

• Added a section at the bottom of the Home page with links to the Activities pages.

• Added a new webinar on the Media page (Intro menu) for Activities.

• In the Activities pages, added ID #'s for activities and added links to reference areas in The Family History Guide.

• Updated Word Tracker sheets for the Partner pages.

• Added a Canadian province page for Newfoundland.

• Updated the Course Catalog in the Training section to add new courses and mini-classes for the Partner pages, as well as enhancing the catalog. See this post post on our blog site for more details: http://www.thefhguide.com/blog/the-updated-course-catalog/.

• Added links to over 20 new articles from Thoughtco.com on a variety of genealogy topics.

• Made enhancements and corrections to over 30 of the Country pages.

• Added Goals in the Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast Partner pages for preparing document and photo uploads.

• 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.

• Updated FamilySearch Projects 1 and 2 to include numerous changes made recently by FamilySearch.

• Added links for finding marriage records in the U.S.

• Did misc. cleanup and improvements in Projects 3-7 for FamilySearch.

• Made some enhancements and corrections to the U.S. country page.

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

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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!

What's New in the Family History Guide-August 24, 2017

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Hi Everyone! Things have been getting more and more exciting in the Family History Guide. As Bob Taylor pushes forward rapidly adding new content to the new Partner pages and other place throughout the Family History Guide things are heating up! Access the Partner pages from the home page of <thefhguide.com> Check inside. This is fabulous news for new and frequent users of these websites. It is going to keep getting better and better as new content is added.

Did you know you can see the latest news in The Family History Guide for each month from the Home page under More. The drop-down menu features What's New as the first option. This is organized by month and is really great to keep up with the changes. Home page: More: What's New.

For up to the minute additions this month see Bob's post from yesterday about all the YouTube additions on various subjects and partner page updates.

I like to watch videos for learning. I can multitask while doing that and it is a big time saver. Filling those mindless moments ( i.e., while folding laundry) with learning something new is great. Time well spent is like money in the bank. Carving out some plans on how to do this is essential. Everything you add to your tool box of knowledge is moving forward and helping others and yourself.

How are you using The Family History Guide to move forward in your own work? Please share any ideas for moving this great program out to the rest of the world. I like the quote that says, One person can only do so much, with the only crossed out. One person can do so much! You can, I can, we all can! Let's do it! Invite people you know to like the Family History Guide Pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

 · Commented on by Bonnie Colberg Mattson · August 24 at 1:19pm

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Cousin Contacts Can Bring Astonishing Results- August 22, 2017

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Hi Everyone! I am still thinking about Memories today. Family Search has an excellent Memories section which is all explained nicely in The FamilyHistory Guide. www.thefhguide.com. 

Memories; Project 2 (Found on the Home page). 

It is so worth going through ALL the Goals and Choices and Steps in Project 2 to learn how to preserve your family stories and photos on Family Search to share with the world. They are so much safer there than in a box in the attic or garage.

I was thinking about how important cousins are as we try to reach back in time and gather photos and stories. In the past 7 years I have found three third cousins, who are grandchildren of my grandmother's siblings. They have been invaluable in helping me get stories and photos I have needed.

I have found one first cousin who was unknown to all of our family until 3 years ago. All of them have become close friends as well. One cousin, that I had known as a child, discovered from another cousin I was doing our Family History. Once she knew, she was willing to send me a bunch of items she was going to throw away when downsizing.

The most important items were the photo below and the obituary of my maternal great grandfather, Thomas Rees. They have been so very important to my being able to find many generations of ancestors in Wales and Cornwall, England.

The obituary is written in Welsh. It took us about a week to translate it. A big challenge that was worth every minute.  Here it is:

 REES.--In September in New Cambria, Mo., at age 45, the humble Christian Thomas Rees, farmer, leaving a widow and five children as mourners after him. Although he was relatively young he experienced long and protracted afflictions, from shortness of breath -- one of the worst afflictions to prevent man from being useful to society family, religion, and generally; but he did his part in the one as in the other notwithstanding his frailty. He was a member of the Calvinist Methodist church there, and was a faithful member throughout his life. He had the ability to socialize, and therefore his presence always truly acceptable. He was born in a small farmhouse called Crin-cae, near Rhandirmwyn, Wales. His parents were David and Betsi Rees, who were loyal to him and his brothers, rearing them with religious education as members of Salem Calvinist Methodist Church, where they were catechized and counseled in detail by the Elders of the pulpit and of the deacons' pew. Two of his brothers rose to be preachers, Isaac Rees, priest at Penygraig, Rhondda Valley, and Rees Rees, with [the Calvinistic Methodists], in the Island, Ystradgynlais, Wales. He also has two brothers in this country, James D. Rees, Wilkes-Barre, and Dan Rees, Plymouth, Pa. He had been in the area of Wilkes-Barre for ten years before moving to New Cambria; to a multitude of friends he was a morning friend there. We wish his widow and orphans every success necessary to be comfortable in temporal and spiritual things while on earth. - Yes! Morning Friend. (Which we have since learned means very good friend.)

You can see how much new information we got.  Location, parents, siblings, etc.

Because of it we were able to go to Wales, find their little hamlet, see the Rees home still standing, find additional siblings and deceased relatives, find the cemeteries, meet a current resident of Rhandirmwyn, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Alun Jones is an historian and has written a book all about the area. We also got to walk where the Rees family walked and lived and went to school and church and that was the best part of it all.

I was invited to do some writing for their quarterly magazine about the descendants of Thomas Rees here in America. It never occurred to me that people in small places want to know what happened to their residents once they left their homeland.

Consequently we have been invited back for a tour of the entire area with our mentor as our guide. All of that because a cousin told a cousin we were doing our family history. I am a big fan of cousins. We need them to move forward all the time.

Have your cousins helped you move forward with your family history? Have they increased your love of your living and deceased family members in the process?

Keeping a Good Current Family History? Living Is Our History!-August 21, 2017

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Happy Monday Everyone! I don't know about you but I am having a hard time thinking and focusing on the past today. We are witnessing history in the making as our country will experience "totality" across certain places of the country with the solar eclipse throughout the day.

Not only that but I just read our daughter's Facebook post. Her four daughters will be in 4 different schools this year. One in elementary, one in junior high, one in high school and one in college in another state. All ten of our grandchildren are experiencing big changes this school year.

My point is that sometimes we forget that we are living our family history each day. Are you keeping a good family history and are you recording stories of your own? If you are will you share how you do this? I love to write so I do stories on my blogs all the time. Our family is spread out and it is my way of trying to keep us connected.

The Family History Guide has an entire section on Memories in Project 2. However, there are more things of interest regarding memories in the Vault of The Family History Guide <www.thefhguide.com>.

The Vault is found under Misc on the Home page. The Vault is a place where secondary content is entered to supplement the Goals and Choices and Steps in the Projects. This morning I was watching a video about Family Stories by Ancestry's Crista Cowan. The principles she discusses about stories of our ancestors also apply to those of us still living.

Home page: Misc.: Vault: Stories: Choice 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URPFm8sIe-4

Stories connect us to our families in a real way. The records are the vehicle for the deceased as they create stories when analyzed. By keeping the stories of our own lives and our living family we can truly bless our posterity and keep our families connected.

While you are in the Vault look at the array of content in there. You'll like it.

P.S. The solar eclipse is just happening here in Northern CA. We have a 75% eclipse. Kind of underwhelming actually. Lots of cloud cover so think...dreary winter morning. Should have driven to Rigby, Idaho, I guess! Happy gazing wherever you are.

Bob Taylor's Open Letter On The New Partner Pages-August 15, 2017

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Bob Taylor
August 15, 2017

The Family History Guide Association is pleased to announce a new series of Partner pages, in Beta stage, focusing on Projects, Goals, and Choices for Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast.

These new Learning Paths will complement the existing Project pages for FamilySearch, which have helped many people around the world accelerate their family history learning.

With the addition of the new Partner pages, The Family 
History Guide takes a huge step forward in providing top-quality, free training for some of the world's foremost genealogy platforms. You can find initial Project pages here:

* Ancestry - http://www.thefhguide.com/project-1-welcome-an.html
* MyHeritage - http://www.thefhguide.com/project-1-welcome-mh.html
* Findmypast - http://www.thefhguide.com/project-1-welcome-fmp.html
The Beta period for the Partner pages started on August 11 and will continue through Nov. 15. Feedback is welcome as we continue to enhance the content.

Sincerely,

Bob Taylor
CEO, The Family History Guide Association