Training The Rookie In Genealogy - Day 2

The rookie came prepared today. Our goal was to have her enter 5 generations of her ancestors in  PAF, the free software. I was excited to see she brought her thumb drive fully loaded with all 5 generations all done.

Now we have a rookie here, right! So how did she come so prepared? Answer, her daughter is active n genealogy and had loaded it and PAF on her laptop. The future is in collaboration and this is a fine example. Why should my trainee have to start over when it is already available. She shouldn't have to is the answer.

Where my rookie had rated her skill level as 0 or 1 on a 1 to 5 scale, she had under rated herself. I think that's a common problem. Folks, this genealogy game is not hard. The computer skills needed are basic. PAF is easy to learn. There are challenges, but they are the detective type challenges.

We had the assignment to print her 5 generation chart from PAF. It's done: Reports - select the type of chart - print. Done. The chart will be posted on the wall with our mission presidencies charts. I looked at the wall today only to notice not all of the presidency are able to go out 5 generations. They have work to do. They may have walls difficult to find.

Our next task was to start documenting what is in her PAF, verifying and proving what her daughter had provided her. Today we got part way through her fathers line.

The first site I took my trainee was to http://familysearch.org/ That should be your first place to search. Billions of names and files are on this site. Millions are being added each month. It's a serious initiative by the church and it's free. Here we found every person we worked on today in a census. She found some facts she was unaware of such as birth states of parents of those we were researching.

I took her through a tour of FamilyTree. She won't have access yet but the reason I did this was to have her decide how she will document her ancestors. When FamilyTree goes live it will be all about documenting mankind. You will hear that often I am sure. As a result of today my trainee will collaborate with her daughter on what documents they have, and how they will link them to FamilyTree. Eventually I expect the church will allow us to upload our documents, but it appears we will open being able to place a link. In my case I am posting documents on this blog. We could use Flickr as does my sister. In both cases there is a unique Internet address for the document which can link to FamilyTree.

I want to interject here my trainee is excited to learn. She is absorbing because of this. You too can go from Rookie to success with an attitude like this. Do it!

I introduced her to SharingTime. The reasons are on this blog in another article. You only use it in New Family Search or will in FamilyTree. If you aren't in these yet, take a note, you will want to have it in FamilyTree. The search bar will pull the article up if you want to find the old article.

We spent some time in Ancestry.com. I think you will want to either pay the price for it, 25.00 per month and more or go to a library or LDS Family History Library to use their licensed copies. The two main reasons I like Ancestry is to see other subscribers trees and what they have on our lines and to get to some census's Family Search doesn't have on line yet. There are other good features.

Tomorrow is day 3, I;ll be back.

SharingTime - For New Family Search Users - Awesome

A Porterville headstone, some Carters crossed the plains with the Porters

SharingTime makes family history research simpler. It is an add on product to New Family Search and will still be valuable when that site becomes FamilyTree.





If you don't have access to new family search, just be patient, FamilyTree is about to come forth.

There is a $15.00 per year cost to join SharingTime.

Here are a few reasons SharingTime is as I say, Awesome:

Find Sources: SharingTime easily and visibly allows you to click on a list of releveant websites to quickly search for that ancestor without leaving new family search. (or FamilyTree)

Contributor Circle: This lists members that have contributed to the selected ancestors immediate family and have placed their email address on file. You can check the boxes next to the members you would like to emai. You can send an email and their responses come to your email posted in new family search.

Ancestor Index Manager: SharingTime works by remembering your tree and  giving yoou rsults based on what it knows about your ancestor. You can control how broad a tree SharingTime remembers for you. This coordinates with their cool navigation bar in making your searching more effective.

Temple Ordinance Tools: Has a ready and almost ready feature. I love this, almost ready just needs one more item to be ready. What a great list.

Ancestor Split:  Allows you to split up incorrectly combined people.

Place Investigator:  Organize your research by place. Type a place name in the search bar to see which of  your ancestors lived in that location. How is that for awesome. This ties to a future emphasis I will be making about searching and learning about areas as an important way to research effectively.

Family Tree Dead Ends: This shows all the dead ends in your family tree so that you can quickly identify areas for new research.

Once again, FamilyTree will be open to membes or non members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Lattter Day Saints. The church is preparing servers farms to host about 2 million new users in the first two years it goes live. Just leave me a comment if you want to be notified when it is available. I am a beta tester and I cannot tell you accurately just  how excited I am about it. Every Mormon Congregation has someone that can connect with you to teach you this ever growing in popularity hobby. Actually not a hobby, a process of connecting with your ancestors.

Click here to go to the SharingTime website:

If you are interested in understanding more about FamilyTree just use the search bar on this site to find articles I have written giving details of what is is like.