An Adult Grandson Is Interested In Genealogy - Now What?

Well, not here is a postscript just minutes after this article. My daughter called and her husband wants in on this too. How fun. Let's go get them Jeff!

For years I have thought I am truly my mothers son. I mean this in a surprising way. My mother was hooked on genealogy. She had four children. She was certain all of her work; her stories, her photos, and her research was written for posterity that could care less. None of us seemed the least bit interested. Now two of us are actually quite the genealogists and with the modern day tools have far surpassed mothers scope.

Now I thought I was truly my mothers son for the same reason; thinking who cares. My youngest daughter says she feels the spirit but her three active children have so much spirit she can barely keep up with them. My son, he's so busy with his business, where is the time to have the faintest interest. You know the drill. I count on it being like mothers children, some day, and the work done will be valuable to them.

And now comes along Damian with an interest.

I shouldn't be shocked should I? No the younger generation is well equipped. They are smart, fast on the computer, and are inclined to on line gaming. This far surpasses that sport.

So how do I help without overwhelming such a new interest? It has been a week since Damian suggested he would be interested in some ideas from me. So where would you begin?

Here are a few ideas that seem to make sense to me.
1- Go into family tree and connect all living parents or grandparents (I might want to help so it doesn't seem tedious) to those that are deceased.
2- Then print out a fan chart.
3- Pick out an ancestor that lived way back - go to puzilla.org and print that ancestors descendant chart.
4- Go back to family tree and select that ancestors descendancy view. I recently did this for the first time, following all of Elisha Warner Bingham and his descendants. This is actually quite a valuable and interesting format. In other words it's really cool. Immediately I could see a photo of his son's cabin, Erastus, who was my 3rd great grandfather. I clicked on his name and I see that there are 30 sources, 34 memories, and 8 discussions.

This type of result is what I hope we all find. A chance to benefit by the research of others to dig in and connect with our ancestors. I think it's time I end this article - I have a whole bunch of memories, sources, and discussions to study an a great great great grandfather and his family..

Oh, and then I would make sure he was aware of these search tools and sites.
1-The "Search Records" feature in Family Tree. I would explain how the family search database is.
2- FindaGrave.com
3- Ancestry.com
4- MyHertiage.com
5- FindmyPast.com
6- And the value of using Google.

I would also encourage him to explore the articles on this blog, even subscribe to other blogs I have listed.

Oh dear, have I overwhelmed him?

Grove Creek - Timpanogos Stakes Family History Fair Saturday March 22nd

ADDRESS CORRECTION: 1176N 730E Pleasant Grove

I  love learning more about genealogy and family history fairs, seminars, and conferences are my favorite way to learn. RootsTech and the Riverton 3rd Saturday Seminar are regular events for me.

This coming Saturday is a two Stake fair in Pleasant Grove.

I have been asked to give a presentation titled, "blogging is genealogy". I am on at 2PM. You might want to come to the rest of the fair. -:)

Saturday, the doors open at 8:15am for registration, and the fair starts with the keynote at 9:00.
The way the schedule runs, there will be a ten-minute break between classes.. The final presentations in each room goes from (3:00 – 4:00) 

Sometimes People Need To Communicate Better

One day I realized that several of the cases we were receiving were really wild and funny. 

People were emailing the darndest things.

Here are a few: See if you can figure out how to help them.

1- I want to find my sister. Please help.

2- I want to report a problem. When I go to FamilySearch to search for an ancestor, I can't find them.

3- FamilySearch chose the birth place of Patrick Anderson, Why?

4- I cannot locate the following people in my tree: Mr. Bateman and Mrs. Bateman. I would like to find them. 

5- I am searching for my grandmother. Can you help please?

6- I have 30,000 names. Maybe I broke it!! 

7-  Why is my husband birthday incorrect?

And these were all in one day. Fun!

Beginning Genealogy Courses on FamilySearch

Beginning Genealogy Courses

On FamilySearch.org you can choose from a series of online genealogy training videos designed to help you quickly discover your family history. Click the link.

• Getting Started with Family History Step 1: Finding Easy Information
  15 minutes
• Getting Started with Family History Step 4: Using FamilySearch.org
  3 minutes

There Is A Lot To Know About Elisha Cragun And Much Is Found Now In Family Tree

This article is more than about Elisha Cragun, this is for all of you.

FamilySearch Family Tree is not fully functional yet, but it is in a great mode. A few of Elisha's ancestors have been researching him. Much of that research is now attached to Family Tree. That means no one has to duplicate that research. A recent addition by Gaylynn Heiner Hone provided about 100 pages of research I was about to undertake. Thank you again Gaylynn.

A most important reference was to an online book by a dcragun. Thank you dcragun. This was an awesome addition to the Elisha's Tree, for all of us and our posterity.

Here is a copy and summary of the 14 sources attached to Elisha Cragun. You are invited to go to http://familysearch.org/ and sign in for an account. Once you have done that, family tree is an option in the menu bar on top.

HIstory Of The Elisha Cragun Family Researched by Gaylynn Heiner Hone

Elisha Cragun Land Records Researched by Gaylynn Heiner Hone

Elisha Cragun's Patriarchal Blessing Clarifies Where He Was Born

Story Of Nathan Porter Baptizing Elisha Cragun, And How Henry Mowers Daughter met Simeon Cragun

Copy of Find A Grave of Hiram Cragun, son, stating Family move to Boone Cty

Portion of Osborne Family story regarding Elisha and Mary - Joining Mormon Church and their deaths

Possible Elisha Cragun Mary Osborn Marriage Date

Elisha Cragun in household of Elisha Cragun, "United States Census, 1820"

Elisha Cragun Story

E Cragun in household of E Cragun, "United States Census, 1840"

Elisha Cragan in household of Elisha Cragan, "United States Census, 1830"

Find A Grave Memorial Elisha Cragun

Elisha Cragun birth info

Book: Early Osbornes and Alleys with notes on allied families

Not Everyone Is Hip

Some People Rock

One thing that I have learned by being in the training zone is that not everyone interested in family history/Genealogy are computer literate and endowed with good typing skills.

So what about them?

My first answer is if they want to learn there are some very simple steps to becoming pretty good. They (or you) can learn the basic computer and typing skills. There are links to two sites in the upper right corner of this blog. The better you are at these skills the better researcher you will be.

Second: Learn to search on FamilySearch, https://familysearch.org/ - this site is a gold mine of records relating to your genealogy research: birth info, censuses, and many other resources.

Third: Sign up for and learn how to use FamilySearch Family Tree. If you study this blog you will find all kinds of information on Family Tree.

Keeping it simple for the beginner boils down to these few steps.

So what if you are unwilling or unable to master this much? What role can you play? I would then move to start gathering histories: of yourself, your family, or others you can relate to. This is an important part of family history. After people spend time researching they start to yearn to know more about these people. "I want to know these people, know about them, when I meet them on the other side" was a quote recently shared with me by a new found relative who is passionate about her genealogy career.

The most important thing my mother did was gather stories. Anyone can do that.

So I encourage you, family history is an endeavor that catches hold of you. Give it a go, OK?

If  you feel  you can't do all of the 10 day plan, just do what you can and record it for or share it with others.

Find A Grave.com More Powerful Than Most Know

A lot of folks search on http://findagrave.com/ without using it's full power. It's amazing  just how many headstones, photos, obituaries, and memorials are found on findagrave. It's great when they link to memorials of other relatives, parents, siblings, or children.

This article illustrates what some miss.

The website home page is quite cluttered. The red arrow shows how to search.

In this example I searched for a pioneer grandfather: Sanford Porter.

He is in an old Porterville, Utah Cemetary. The information is great, but: The section in the red box below is what is often overlooked.

 

 

By searching for all Porters in the Porteville Cemetary I found many more Porters, many are directly related to me.

 

The list is extensive. Many times this search has delivered new wonderful results. Gotta Love it!

Solve Those Brick Walls With The Youth

Four of our Young Missionaries At Church Headquarters

Monday Kathleen and I joined about a dozen older missionaries to help the young missionaries do their family history research. It was a holiday and the places they usually serve were closed. This gave them as full time missionaries a time to do their own research. We were there to assist them, teach them.

Help them on their research, what a joke statement. These guys are awesome. Now I know that everyone can learn more, there is no end to learning or brick walls in genealogy, always a new task to conquer no matter who we are or what age we are.

I did in fact get to teach one of them how to function in FamilySearch Family Tree, but he learned in 20 minutes what it took me 4 hours to teach a missionary my age.

These guys learn fast, these guys remember everything. The young set remember remember remember. They remember websites, they remember process, they remember everything we old folks struggle to remember.

When someone tells you these 70 young men serving here are the heart and soul of our mission you need to know that that is a fact. They come to serve and they are important.

Now to the title of this article and how I see it. I know the youth are into games. This is for we parents and grandparents to ponder. If we wanted the spirit of family history and genealogy to roll forth we need to get the kids going. I sensed when I watched these men zipping from website to website from screen to screen that they saw this as a game and more. It had the same action as a game. Some of them had 20 screens open at one time. I've never seen that done by an older person. You could see all 20 at once and they would fly between them in speed so fast I was spinning. Genealogy for old folks, not here I say.

One of them asked if I wanted to see something cool? Sure I said. He logged me into a website to show me 16 pages of famous people I was related too. He was wowed, look at those people he said. Now that's another article if I can read my notes on how to do that.

Look at those people was an important statement. They were dead. But to him, they were alive. Genealogy is action. Let's get our children and grandchildren going. They won't need much help, just a start.

I think I know a good suggestion on how to start them. I'll give you two ideas. 1- If you can come to Salt Lake City, go to the main Family History Library and ask to play the genealogy games, have your kids do that. Sixteen of these young missionaries created a bunch of games that are so popular entire youth groups have heard about them and are making appointments to experience them.
2- Get them the experience of searching for an ancestor on FamilySearch. You will be likely to find that ancestor on a census or find a death certificate. Then have them read what you find. Their relatives will come alive to them. Then paint them the picture of the purposes Family Tree. If you don't have that vision, read the article found in the sidebar, "Family Tree Will Change Genealogy Research Forever." They will grasp the concept. Then place that document in their Source Box. Go connect the ancestor to his or her document and things will never be the same for them. It might not be the same for you and genealogy either. These steps are simple. The instructions for you or them are on this blog.

I really see the vision of how all kinds of brick walls can be broken with the youth spending game time doing genealogy.

Billions of Family History Records Stored in A Granite Mountain Vault - Cool Videos

I previously posted that their is a vault zone in our mission. There are actually 20 zones in Family and Church History Headquarters Mission.

The mission name identifies the three branches: Family History, Church History, and Church Headquarters.

Kathleen serves in World Wide Support, training and supporting family history centers. I serve in the Training Zone, training new missionaries for the first two weeks they arrive here.

The magnitude of what is accomplished here is stunning. Missionaries serve to support the full time staff. Some do special projects, some come with particular skills that are needed: Security, Real Estate, Accounting, or technology for example.

The videos below are an insight to the work in the Vault Zone. We had a young missionary, who came to our zone and loved the vault work so much he asked to be sent back there. It turns out that after his mission is over he will return to the vault as an employee.

Understand the technologies and processes used to "unlock" the collections of genealogy records preserved in the Granite Mountain Records Vault.

This video explains how records stored in microfilm and other formats are digitized, indexed, and published online in a searchable format, where they can be accessed by researchers around the world at http://www.familysearch.org.

Genealogy - Getting Started Part 1

click here to go to the lesson, found on Family Search .org

1 Million New Entries This Month On Billion Graves

It looks like Billion Graves is rolling and thats a good thing. In a previous article: Click Here, I wrote why I like the website, it's unique features, and more.

One of my favorite likes about Billion graves is that it uses smart phones, which many of your children have. You can take the family to the cemetary and make genealogy a high tech family affair.

From the company:

Dear BillionGravers,

Wow! We’ve had record uploads every day so far in May! Keep up the good work! We’ll still need thousands more images, so let’s make the weekends our highest uploading days. Keep watching that Leaderboard to see how you’re doing—if you are among the top 25 transcribers OR picture takers on May 31, you get your choice of a free BillionGraves t-shirt or one free year of our great BillionGraves Plus Account.....

Training The Rookie Genealogist Wrap Up

It has been an exhausting two weeks for our rookie. I am proud of all she was able to inhale. She finished with a burst of speed.

She has a great assignment. She is going to serve at the Family History Library in the new Hosting Zone. She will be in the heart of where people come from miles around for their research and part of the support team. The week we arrived here on our  mission a large group from Japan were here for their annual genealogy research. The Salt Lake City Family History Library has no equals anyhere. I encourage you to plan a visit some day.
Our new missionary isn't an expert now. Two weeks can give a good foundation but there is always a new challenge in genealogy. However, our rookie has a lot of new tools. She did go four generations further on one line that was a dead end.

Just so you know where she was when we started: she had ranked herself as a 0 to 1 level on a scale of 0 to 5 on almost every category including computer savvy. Her daughter had loaded her entire 5 generations plus more on PAF. PAF is a free family tree type program. We teach that program in our training. She and her daughter had visited areas and cemeteries of her ancestors. She came with a spirit of excitement about family history.

Here are the highlights of what I plan on repeating next month with another trainee missionary:

1.  As I mention above, use a Family Tree software. If you are a beginner start with PAF, it's free.
2.  Don't do any research without a research log at your side, taking notes on everything you do.
3.  Get organized now: Use the system I published here: click Some may resist as I did, but oh what a difference it makes. Oh how much time I wasted duplicating research before doing this and using research logs.
4.  Make a personal commitment to attend a minimum of 1 genealogy conference or workshop a year. We go to everyone we can. In the six months we have been on our mission we have attend 8. Each has been invaluable.
5.  Start your research on every person with these 3 sites: Family Search Ancestry.com & FindaGrave.com Ancestry is not cheap, but it is my favorite site.
6.  Become a regular at a local LDS family history center. Paid sites licenses such as Ancestry.com are usable under the church licenses.
7.  Start connecting with others with same research interests. Ancestry.com is a great place for that. FamilyTree and the add on software SharingTime (Currently $15.00 per year) are even better. Some can access new.family.search now and use SharingTime. New.familysearch will become FamilyTree.
8.  Download Jing at http://jingproject.com Jing is free and is perfect for making a photo out of anything you see on your screen. Photo's are an important part of family history.
9. Block out a regular time to do online research. Several years ago for me this was Sunday. I would usually spend about 4 hours doing genealogy.
10. Visit this site, study it, click its links for other sites. Aside from publishing occasionally articles about my ancestors and a few examples of my sick humor I post important articles and links for those who are interested in good genealogy research ideas.
11. Get on or get ready for FamilyTree. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members can get on it now. By the end of the year anyone can. I'll announce that when it happens. FamilyTree is written about several times here and I encourage you to read these articles. 
12. Use Webinars as a learning tool. You can pick your topic and times. Genea Webinars is currently the best site I have found that aggregates and announces Webinars. Its link is in the right sidebar of this blog.

These are a summary. More detail is given to this topic in these links about training the rookie.
 Training The Rookie in Genealogy
 Training The Rookie in Genealogy - Day 2
 Training The Rookie Genealogist - Day 3
 Training The Rookie - Day 4
 Training The Rookie Genealogist - Days 5 & 6
 Training The Rookie Genealogist - Wrap up
 

Patrick Cragun - He's Your Grandpa? - Here's The Questions

The stories that are published about Patrick Cragun are stories told by our ancestors. Two sources lead to all of the stories I can find.

I am trying to take research to another level. I want to have more facts as I prepare something our Cragun children can enjoy and be proud of. It seems our Patrick was the brave sort. Here is a link to the story as we have it so far - just click:

Do you know? Did Patrick really run away from being an indentured servant and catch a ship like the one I post here?  Was Patrick Cragun really in the Boston Tea Party? Do you know if he was really born in Dublin, Ireland? Who were his grandparents? What was his mothers name? And are we sure about his wifes name, Rose Hannah Alley? What about her family, are there details you might have? Do you know more about his life in America? Do you live near Boone County, Indiana where we he died? Let's collaberate.

PS: This is my 100th article since starting this blog on February 8th. It's been fun. Google searches are finding me. I encourage you to do this too. Let me know if you do so I can link to your blog. As we find each other on line, as we build a network of similar interests or relationships, we provide efficiency in finding new facts as we provide time for others to join us in our family history research.

Training The Rookie In Genealogy

The mission has changed my assignment. I am supposedly a rent a trainer, loaned to the training zone for two weeks.

LDS Conference Center

When a person enters our mission they go through two straight weeks of training. The training is to provide the missionary the basics on genealogy research. Many are assigned to zones that do not involve research. For example, there are missionaries that serve in the language translation zone. Every General Conference and many events at the Conference Center are translated into dozens of languages. The implementation of that is complex and takes many professionals and missionaries. Those assigned here will be doing their learning in these two weeks and outside their assignment.

Members are often called to this mission with minimal computer and genealogy skills. Such is the lady I am assigned to teach. It is my commitment to take her through our 1 on 1 training and prepare her to make her mission here a joyful experience in learning how to do her own research.

Of course each missionary comes to this mission with various levels of experience. Prior to arriving we fill out various forms, one of them being a personal assessment of our skill level, including skill levels in using a computer.

My trainee, rated herself either 0 or 1 on a scale of 0 to 5 in all categories. So I truly have a Rookie in Genealogy to train. What is exciting to me, on each category she added, "I am anxious to learn."

We met for a few hours Friday, and truly she shows enthusiasm and an excitement to learn.

What is your level of experience? Are you also a Rookie in Genealogy? If so, join with me for the next two weeks as I share with you what I share with my trainee.

I have already posted a few articles about getting started, but I now realize that they might not be what the rookie in genealogy needs to start with.

So here we go: Join in.

Take note, you cannot get fully trained in two weeks. I do believe, however, that I can provide the basics and that the curriculum that has been developed by our training zone will take you or anyone anxious to learn to a place they are launched successfully into many exciting experiences with their ancestors.

1- You must have basic computer skills. The web is a most powerful source of information. It has changed research immensely. You must know how to turn on a computer and use it beyond email. Monday, I will post the basic skills you will need. If you don't have them, persuade your nearest connection to a 10 year old and have them teach these to you.

2- Don't go buying a fancy software that does all sorts of cool things. Wait for that.

3- Download free software called PAF. Understand, you friend or relative that is into genealogy is going to argue with me on this point. I am your teacher. Do as I say. Get PAF, its simpler. Click here to go and download PAF:

Here is a video that gives you an overview of PAF.


4- Find out what conferences are within your access. Here in Salt Lake the biggy is RootsTech. The next one is in March 2013. RootsTech offers classes for all levels of interest and experience. If you can go - do so. If you cannot, find a local one. There is at least one a month somewhere. In my home area, there is an annual conference that moves back and forth between Bellevue and Redmond. You go to conferences because they are awesome. The handouts alone are often worth going.

Click Here for the Rootstech Site.

You can already tell I am offering things that are outside of a two week one on one training. That's what it takes, baby! The good news, it's a blast. More good news, you will learn a lot, very fast.

5- If you haven't figured it out yet, you must return to this blog periodically. Even after the two weeks of training there will be lots of tips and sites I will expose you to. Of course I mix in some stories of ancestors.

6- Our next assignment will be to organize the names of 5 generations of ancestors. This is Sunday. You have all day to do that and part of tomorrow. Go get em. Don't worry about names you can't find, do what you can. Gather with the names, birth dates, death dates, and marriage dates. That's a good start. Make sure you download PAF.

If you want, see if you can input some of the information you gather into PAF.

The pressure is on - the fun begins.

Helpful Hints For Searching - Getting Started - Family History Part 5

This is the 5th in a series of getting started on family history.

 Click here for part 1 - Build on What  You Know
 Click here for part 2 - One Thing Leads To Another
 Click here for part 3 - Use a fact/date to estimate another




Click here for part 4 -  Historically, circumstances create patterns

Taken from Diana Toland class at Riverton, Utah Family History Center
 

• Notice the neighbors - they be future in-laws
• If a child died young, the name may be given to a future sibling
• Remember names were popular and cousins may have identical names
• People may have use their first name, middle, or nickname on censuses
• Use the least common given name in the family when searching
• Registration/Christening dates may occur years after the event
• Transcripts have inaccuracies - always look at the original image
• If you can't locate a place - check the date the County was formed, or Google the place name
• When entering search information begin with the basics and add the details to narrow the results
• When a search returns "No Results" it may be to sie difficulties, try a 2nd time.

Family History Is A Journey Of Discovery

When you get involved in your family history you may discover that things are different than you thought. That is one thing that makes it fun.

Take this photo for example.

As you look at it, do you think it would work well in your office?

Some have reacted with yes, it would be just fine.

In researching my grandmother, my mothers mother I have discovered many important things about her life that were different than I believed. It truly has been a journey of discovery about her, a good one.

Now look closer at this photo. It wouldn't work well in your office. At least it would only be a nice decoration. Note the size of the computer keyboard next to it, and the monitor behind it. Its smaller than you might think at first.

My sister gave made it for me and my wife stole it from me. :) An interesing discovery and a great gift.

There Are Some Valuable Webinars Coming Up

A Great Way To Learn

and

Some Interesting Topics




http://GeneaWebinars.com/ assembles and publishes a very complete directory of upcoming genealogy webinars. Here are those on the calendar for the rest of March.

 Intro to Indexing - FamilySearch.org

Tuesday, March 20

8:00pm

 Intro to Indexing - FamilySearch.org

Wednesday, March 21

2:00pm

 DNA Research for Genealogists: Beyond the Basics by Ugo Perego

9:00pm

 Top 20 Lessons Genealogists Need to Know with Barry J. Ewell Sponsored by Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree Extension Series

Tuesday, March 27

8:00pm

 Intro to Indexing - FamilySearch.org

8:30pm

 Juggling Complex Projects While Staying on Track by J. Mark Lowe, CG - APG (free)

Getting Started - Family History Strategies - Part 2

Part 1 of this series is found by clicking here

I suggest you keep a log of the research you do. I have a separate section of a journal for each ancestor.

Below is what makes family history research a lot like detective work. There is excitement in this, just no danger. I suppose if you want danger you could take your laptop on a bungee jump or to the edge of a cliff.

However you do it, just go go go.


From a class taught at the Riverton Family History Center by: Diana Toland

One Thing (detail) Leads to Another (records).

Note occupations. Often found on the records, such as a census. They may be linked to a location or county records and perhaps in historical society news.

Military Records: draft cards are filled out by the individual in person, pension files require proof.

Immigration - generated passenger lists, border crossing cards often contain information about the relative.

Land and Probate. Probate records often have information such as family members and location.

Religious Records.  birth, marriage, cemetery, immigration, and histories are sometimes found this way.

Census: approximate ages confirmed, years married, parent information including locations of birth, and information on living children.

Obituaries: besides personal and family detail you sometime find out hobbies, successes, civic roles,and important information about relatives.

Family History - Getting Started Strategies

Get Ready

Get Set

GO GO GO

The Riverton Family History Center in the Salt Lake City area is a shining example of what the LDS Family History Centers are to become: not only a place of research & support but a place of learning. 

This photo depicts what it was like Saturday at the monthly training.
There was an hour long keynote speaker and then 2 hours of classes, several to choose from.

The Riverton Family History Center is larger than your local center, but the concept will be the same. At this time you can find help, a computer to use, and individual attention at a local Family History Center.















The class I attended was on research strategies by Diana Toland: and it was excellent. I will share with you in a series of articles that are strategies I gleaned from Diana.

Build on what you already know: Review all of your notes, files, documents, letters, clippings, or informaiton about your ancestors.  Look for clues from these records.

My sister  is an excellent genealogist. Besides realizing she is doing something of great value to a great cause she loves being a detective looking for clues and facts. That is what you will be doing.

a. Review all the notes, files, documetns letters, clippings, or information about your ancestors. 

b. Call of visit any living relatives that might have any information, memories, or keepsakes about your family.

If you watch the national TV show "Who Do You Think You Are" or the BYU TV show Generations Project you will see that in action.

c. Should anuy relative pass away, IMMEDIATELY contact the executor of the estate. Check on dispostion of the "Family Records" and vital documents.

Getting copies of all vital records is a valuable exercise.  I phoned my mothers sister for inromation on my grandmother. Her immediate response was I was only 4 when my mother died, I have nothing to help you with about her. We went and visited her anyway. Guess what, she did find a file with a few things of importance. Oh, how important they were. She also remembered a few things she was told. What a productive visit it was.

d. Check to see who else is working on your family online. That can be done by joining New Family Search, soon to become Family Tree, Ancestry.com, Roots Web Worldwide, and by doing Google searches just as an example.

I'd be glad to give you feedack on this topic if you have questions.

I plan on making this series at least 7 articles. I hope it helps.

Family Tree Is Going To Change Genealogy Research Forever

Family Tree is in Beta Test now with some of the features I describe below functioning. The goal is fully functioning and open to all by the end of this year. It is currently available for anyone to join, not just members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Decision:


It's not your tree - or my tree - but our tree.

There are some who will be driven crazy by this decision. People like my mother who wouldn't let me mess with her Book of Remembrance and got me one of my own. Or like the nice lady in the email I received demanding I tell her how I was related to her great great grandfather. (I had edited some info in New Family Search about one of OUR ancestors.)

Yes cousin, it was decided that if we were going to document the genealogy of mankind. We had to figure out.............


How to work together.

We have got to stop research duplication.
We have got to recognize it's our genealogy not mine.
We have got to preserve our research for the generations to come.

There is no reason for our kids to have to redo what we have done!

There is too much research to be done, for you or I do to it by ourselves.

Therefore, the ONLY solution and the decision is OPEN EDIT!

With open edit you can fix it. But you are noted as the source.

All can look at what you did - AND THEY MIGHT SAY:
               "This guy is an idiot" - they can get an email (Notifications) of what you did - and they can change it back.(Restoreable)

OR THEY MIGHT SAY - "This guy is amazing!


The entire history of changes is easily viewed in the change log. You can move the changes back a step or more to fix it if a recent change was wrong. It's called restoreable.

So the key to success has been conceived - by the unique concept of  "Working Together".

Family Tree will not only have email notifications (eventually immediate notifications) and it will have "discussions". One might be wise to comment their conclusions in the forum for feedback, lest they consider you to be that noted idiot, rather than the amazing one.

Documentation is what this evolution to Family Tree is all about.  You will be able to upload a document or add a link to a source. You will weigh each others findings and select the best documentation. Yes, cool!

GET EXCITED PEOPLE: This is a Family Tree,  not a Tug Of War!

It is about sources, evidence and proof. The world is going to respect this a ton.

It will benefit as we work carefully and NICELY with each other.



Other Perks:

The system will remember for you the last 10 ancestors you looked at.

• There will be no more combining and uncombining.
• There will be no more New Family Search
• When you add a document it is saved with other documents you have uploaded and that document is easily attached to other ancestors. No duplicate entereing needed.

So what can you do while the development is being wrapped up? Start scanning your sources. See if you can get access now to the beta version. Leave me a way to contact you in comments on this post or email me at larry@cragun.net

This is a sequel to an article I wrote on February 9th: Click Here
And to this article about sharing or not sharing: Click Here