Friday, July 6, 2012

Have You Considered Blogging For Genealogy Purposes?

Riverton Family History Library
There are many benefits to blogging for genealogy purposes. Kathleen and I will be sharing many of them September 15, 2012 at the monthly Saturday Family History Seminar.

Our presentation will discuss reasons to blog, how easy it is, and the various objectives you might have. We share our successes in meeting some of our goals. We will have a hand out that covers our discussion which we hope will be extremely valuable. We discuss the 5 reasons, really 6, not to blog and the 10 reasons to blog.

Our class will explain how Google and other search engines treat our blogs, and how to be found on page one of Google, a big asset in bringing people to your site with common research of family interests.

We presented this a couple of months ago at the Salt Lake City Family History Library and received great feedback.

The seminar will begin at 9Am with a keynote speaker (always good) and then two one hour break out classes. There are usually 4 different classes per hour to select from. Ours will be one of those.

We invite you all to attend these monthly sessions, and would love to see you in our class.

One class cannot teach all that one needs to know. We understand this and expect to provide the attendees handouts and other resources we will provide possibly every thing they need to execute a blogging plan that works for them.

And..... for those of you back home in the Pacific Northwest - come on down!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Genealogy And Family History Conferences

I am convinced conferences are great for both motivation and education. Usually the prepared hand-outs are as valuable as the sessions. Family Search Wiki has just posted these upcoming events.

International Assoc. Of Jewish Gen Soc  http://www.iajgs.org/
Place: Paris, France
Date: 15- 18 Jul

Midwestern Roots Conference  http://www.indianahisstory.org/
Place: Indianapolis, IN
Date: 20-21 Jul
BYU Family History Conference  www.ce.byu.edu/cw/cwgeneral
Place: Provo, Utah
Date: 31 Jul – 3 Aug
BYU Education Week  www.byu.edu/edweek/
Place: Provo, Utah
Date: 25-26 Aug
Swedish Genealogical Conference
http://www.familysearchmontern.se/gavle
http://www.familysearchmontern.se/gavle/en
Place: Sweden
Date: 25-26 Aug
FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies)  http://www.fgs.org/
Place: Birmingham, Alabama
Date: 29 Aug-1 Sept
FH Expo- Midwest  http://www.fhexpo.com/
Place: Kearny, Nebraska
Date: 7-8 Sep
Sandstone Conference 
Place: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: Sep
AAHGS  http://www.aahgs.org/
Place: Greensboro, North Carolina
Date: 4-7 Oct
FH Expo- Sacramento http://www.fhexpo.com/
Place: Sacramento, California
Date: 19-20 Oct
International Black Genealogy Summit  http://www.blackgenealogysummit.com/
Place: SLC, UT (Radisson hotel)
Date:  18-20 Oct

FH Expo-Atlanta  http://www.fhexpo.com/
Place: Atlanta, Georgia
Date:  9-10 Nov

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Our Great Grandfather Simeon Cragun Sr Was The First To Settle In Pleasant View


Add caption
From the Website of Pleasant View, Utah Click Here:

The below story is interesting, however it gives a reason Pleasant View received it's name which is probably not accurate. The Cragun family before joining the Mormon Church and immigrating to Utah lived in Pleasant View, Indiana. It would seem more logical that is how the Craguns came up with this name, Pleasant View.


Peter Skeen Ogden, a fur trapper and trader, and explorer of the early west, spent time in the area of what is now Pleasant View.  John C. Fremont, an early explorer, was at the Utah Hot Springs, northwest of the City, on September 5, 1843 and passed through Pleasant View on his way to the Weber River.  He returned through Harrisville, North Ogden and Pleasant View on September 12, 1843.
From all available written accounts, it appears that the Simeon Cragun family was the first to settle in Pleasant View.   Among the early settlers were Daniel Campbell, John Mower, James Maycock, Dr. Ezra G. Williams, Charles H. Rhees, Samuel Ferrin, John Johns, and Edward Davis Wade.   Their first homes were built of logs.  A splendid patch of trees, tall and straight, suitable for building purposes, stood at the foot of Mount Ben Lomond on the upper edge of Pleasant View town site.  The pioneers called that spot "Pole Patch.  Later, some of the settlers built their houses of adobe, and still later, William Godfrey erected the first brick house in Pleasant View.
Pleasant View was one of the first rural communities in the state to have a local railroad or streetcar service.
Indian trails crossed Pleasant View from the Willard area and for 50 years after the first settlers arrived, the Indians continued to make a north to southeast trek through town at least yearly.  Indian inhabitants settled along the small creeks in this area.  Food for their ponies was plentiful and hunting in the Pole Patch area and nearby hills was alluring.  Indians pitched their tents and found food in Pleasant View long before the first trappers, explorers, and pioneers arrived.  Many relics found indicate some may have lived here for extended periods of time.  The Utah Hot Springs attracted Indians for medicinal purposes.  The most frequent tribe that visited the area was the Ute tribe, led by Tobe, their chieftain.  While camped here, they visited every house in the community and begged for food.  Then they moved up North Ogden Canyon for the summer to fish and hunt.  In the fall, they again returned to the Pleasant View area, camping for a while to dry fruit and meat.  They commonly camped in the fields belonging to the Humphreys and Rhees'.  The area was dotted with their wigwams.  Sometimes they traded ponies with the area residents.
The first settlers were not concerned with community boundaries.  Being on the west of North Ogden, they were identified as the West End, the West District, Stringtown and finally became known as Pleasant View.  The town was named by Wilford Cragun, the first white child born in the settlement.  It is said that Wilford looked over the community and remarked that it had a "pleasant view'. 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Google Search Tips

There are many tricks to improving your Google Search results. Here are a few using Genealogy as the desired search:

Using the symbol ~ in front, such as ~genealogy searches for synonyms of the term.

Surround the word with quotes "genealogy" brings up only an exact match.

quotes around words such as "the" or "&" delivers a match on words that are normally ignored.

adding a - to a second term such as{ cragun -larry }eliminates search results that inlcude the second word.

Putting a .. between two dates deliver matches within the given range. { Patrick Cragun 1745..1765 }

Inserting all caps OR matches either of the terms separated by the OR { Nancy Salinas OR Porter } searches both variations.

If you want to search only on a particular website do this as an example: Porter  site:someurl

To find similar pages: related:someurl

These are just a few tips. I have already found them helpful. I hope you do also.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday VIdeo Hymn - Lamb of God

These depict some of the sufferings Christ endured for us. Makes me grateful and desirous to be worthy to be the recipient of all the gifts offered by his atonement.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

OK Facebook Fans, Genealogy Is Live And Well On Facebook.

Do you need or want help on a specific research question? The answer just might be on Facebook. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has recently moved their Facebook initiative out of beta and into full access mode. Currently there are 104 Facebook pages or groups focused on a specific area or topic. Each page has one or more administrators. The success in receiving questions and getting them answered by an administrator or follower is already very high. Below is a photo showing some of the pages or groups. This is hot getting hotter each day.






https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Pages_and_Groups_on_Facebook

Friday, June 29, 2012

Proof: Obama Overdoes Big Win

Learning Genealogy Is Getting Easier Each Day

One of the reasons genealogy research is getting easier to do is that so many are focused on it. All over the world individuals, governments, societies, businesses, and churches are catching the spirit in a passionate way.

The LDS church has a leading website: http://familysearch.org/. All information on this site is free to the public. Family search is able to partner with a lot of businesses and organizations in adding data to its database. Some data that would cost to obtain comes free to family search through trading or sharing resources. An example is that the UK 1911 census is the exclusive domain of FindMyPast.com. Through it's partnering relationship, Family Search.org has that census.

Family Search not only has billions of records of data, it is one of the best learning centers for the beginner or intermediate genealogist. If that might interest you click on learn as you reach http://familysearch.org/ It will take you to a page like the one below:



There is the Wiki with expertise help on thousands of specific topics, showing you how to research that topic.  There are training videos that are excellent. There are forums to post you questions.

Catch the spirit, dive in. It's fun.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Can The Church Move From 2.5% to 10% Using New Family Search?

Mormon Temple
San Diego Mormon Temple
The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are taught that it is their responsibility to do family history work. Currently only about 2.5% of the members use new family search in it's full capacity.

Our software developers have been given the mission to make FamilyTree more user friendly, knowing that some people find new.familysearch.org too difficult.

I personally find the features of FamilyTree extremely motivating and am anxious to see it move from it's current beta mode to full live.

So besides the software being a positive, what else can get people inspired to take a part of their life for genealogy research?

One area is with our kids. The Salt Lake Family History Library had a recent cool story this last week. They have come up with some genealogy computer games for kids. One lady recently came to do research and had 3 of her children with her. The hosts asked if they could put her children on the computer with the games. She of course agreed. To eveyones delight, one of those children found a missing ancestor she had been researching for years.

In the 1940 census project, some of the biggest producers, and most accurate are teen agers.

I really believe genealogy research is much more interesting for kids, if they knew it, than a game. It is in this spirit that I created the Family Crossword Puzzle I posted a couple of days ago. Let's hope my children and grandchildren like it. It will help them learn about our name and ancestors.

I think many don't think they have the time. My personal experience is that I went from believing I was too busy to discovering it was a matter of priority and desire. Once I got going I scheduled part of every Sunday to do genealogy. I had the time, I always had the time.

Once you get going, you get into genealogy it becomes a labor of love.

I know just not knowing where to start holds some back. The church website http://familysearch.org/ is a fabulous place to start. Tremendous resources have been developed to help the beginner. Follow the learn tabs.

Our Church Priesthood leaders could help. I know a Bishop I put family history on the back burner. We did do some good things here, thanks to my having a committee on the topic that were pro-active and pushing me to be supportive. But the bottom line, I could have done so much more. It would have been a blessing to our Ward for me to have seen it in a more important light. I am certain today, there are many Priesthood Leaders that could have a big influence on the work of family history.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

1940 Census Update

There are 140,000 volunteers helping index the 1940 census. Pretty awesome, people from all religions and all types of communities are performing this mighty work. Thanks to you all.

The indexing part looks like it will be done in 3 to 4 weeks. The arbitration on this should be done by the end of July and the completion date appears to be around November 1, 2012.

Pretty amazing and good work. For more inforation on the 1940 Census click here