Are You A AAA Genealogist? You Can Be

Thanks to all the wonderful work of others, thanks to our amazing technology, becoming a AAA Genealogist is within the grasp of almost all of us.

Introducing the concept of How to be an AAA Genealogist. (I expect to refine this post from time to time.) 

I refer to the AAA genealogist as a level most can accomplish. In baseball the AAA level is not the major leagues. To be a successful genealogy/family history participant you need not be a PRO at a major league level. 

The Concept:

1-      Have basic typing and computer skills. The links to websites that helps develop or improve those skills can be found in the upper right hand part of my blog. The typing link is one of the most used links found on this site.

2-      Learn to use family tree. The training site is http://familysearchtraining.com/ The Church has a large staff of missionaries to answer problems and questions: Click live help on http://familysearch.org/

3-      Learn to use these websites to do your research: http://familysearch.org, http://ancestry.com, http://findagrave.com/, and Google. Ancestry.com is a pay site that is accessed for free at Family History Centers.

4-      Be willing to ask for help. There is a lot of help out there.

5-      Set aside a scheduled time to work on family history. As an example several years ago I decided that doing family history was a great way to spend Sunday time. Some Sundays I either missed or spent an hour at work but the consistent schedule has been the reason I have been able to do so much   

6-      Sharpen The Saw. To me, this is a real fun part. The opportunity to learn is immense. There are webinars, conferences, classes, books, websites, and other ways to expand your knowledge base. FamilySearch.org is a gold mine for learning. There is a learning center with focused videos, a wiki, and numerous resources.

Things Are Continually Being Upgraded In Family Search and FamilyTree

Get used to it, it's a continual work in process. I went on vacation for a couple of weeks and when I got back I find lots of changes. Take this photo for example, it's from Family Search. Most of this entire image is new to me.

The share link lets you send out the page by email or social media.

The collections options are handy, especially being able to quickly go out and in the search the collection this document is in.

Mentioning the printing features, I really like the pedigree and family group sheet print capacity. We were in dire need of that. You can't please everyone, Kathleen wants it to print photos in the pedigree chart. To do that we sacrifice showing as much data information. 

WARNING: THESE TWO SITES STILL DO NOT BEHAVE WELL IN EXPLORER. GO TO FIREFOX OR PREFERABLY CHROME TO USE FAMILY SEARCH AND FAMILY TREE.

It is really kind of neat that this is all at no cost to everyone. I was giving some genealogy, family history, and FamilySearch help to a friend of our daughters in Iowa last week. She was really full of praise and thanks for this being available to her. 

I might plug that as family tree is growing in number of users, especially novice users, the need for support is growing. If you have time and are willing to share your expertise, or be trained to This site has more information about how to volunteer. https://familysearch.org/volunteer 

The First Four

To the beginner. Your job is a Treasure Hunt. You are out to build your family tree. With FamilySearch Family Tree you get help. Many of your long lost cousins are likely to join in the hunt for your family and connect them to the tree.

When you connect in to  FamilySearch Family Tree there may be some errors. That is why you have the features of editing, discussions, and sources: so you can work together to get it right.

You are likely to be like me, finding it to be exciting and fun.

The first thing to do is get a Family Search account. Then login and start building you tree with those who are alive. Only you see live people you put in your tree for privacy reasons.

Keep building your pedigree until you connect to ancestors that are deceased. The deceased are visible to all. As thousands are already using FamilySearch Family Tree your deceased ancestors are possible already in there and you will see your pedigree chart populate. Don't be alarmed if there are  errors. Fixing them, proving what is correct, and attaching the source to the tree as proof is the fun part.

We suggest you make public at least your email, so your common relatives can contact you to work with you in getting them all and getting it right.

The second part of the hunt, is the hunt. There are hundreds, even thousands, of websites to help in the hunt because there are so many involved in this fascinating work.

However I want to refer you to the Fantastic Four: http://familysearch.org/ http://ancestry.com/ http://Google.com/ (using the work genealogy in your search) and http://findagrave.com/ These four sites will help you get the cream of the crop, the records most easily found.

By the way, Ancestry.com is free at a local FamilySearch Family History Center. The others are always free.

This will get you a huge start. Start with those families closest to you. Then work  out. Find the correct records and attach them to the tree.

To learn family tree and each of it's components you can go to the website http://familysearchtraining.com/ It is really intuitive and easy to learn. The training site videos should be all you need, but there are practice exercises there for additional help.

Enjoy, or should I say, catch the spirit. Larry

By the way - Family Search has a Wiki and a Training Center. I will post about those next. Much is already here as I have been writing for over a year on this subject, I vainly suggest you study this site. :)

Yes Dear, The Sources Are Moving From New Family Search To Family Tree

One of the most common support questions I had while in Family Tree support was will my sources in New Family Search move over to Family Tree. The fear that they might not caused some to be less than Christ like in their attitudes. Can you say instantly angry?

Well, they are starting to move them to the Tree. If you have a FamilySearch account you should have received this email:  Dear users of new.familysearch.org,

FamilySearch is preparing to move some of the sources from new.familysearch.org to Family Tree. If you created sources in new.familysearch.org and do not want to have them transferred to Family Tree, please let us know by clicking on the link below and entering the information requested.

Thanks,
FamilySearch

Family Tree, to me, is so awesome that I have a hard time being patient with the impatient. There is much to do, but so much is up and usable. Photos, stories, sources, discussions, fixing the errors in the tree, proving who is in my family and who needs to be documented still are all a wonderful journey. The fact there are errors bugs many, but they excite me as they are evidence that my research is important. I hope you get deeply involved soon if you aren't already. Larry

You can now print in Family Tree

The long awaited and often asked for features of being able to print in family tree are live.

Pedigree charts and family group sheets.  Printing them makes for making notes and noting family information as you move around in Family Tree.'

Printing fan charts from Family Tree is not functioning yet, but it will. In the meantime you can go to Tree Seek and print fan Charts. You can also use Tree seek to see how two ancestors are related.

Here is the link to Tree Seek: http://www.treeseek.com/

Is THIS what keeps younger folks away from genealogy?

Let this post forward you to the full article on Dear Myrtle

DearREADERS,
Prompted by a post in the UK's Guardian "The cost of historical research: why archives need to move with the times" I posed a question on Facebook about Nell Darby's comments "The variable fees charged to access original documents risk putting archival research out of general reach."  click here for the full article