Here Is An Important Family Tree Clue Regarding Uploading Documents We Have

I have been anxiously waiting to publish documents to my ancestors in Family Tree. It's one of the important missing components of Family Tree.

When I was in support we had cases every day wanting to know when the could upload their documents and should they just put them in the photos section. We gave the answer to wait. That is the wrong answer now.

Ron Tanner just posted some hot news to the request: Incorporate the capability of using digital copies (pdf, jpeg) to family tree.

His hot off the wire response: It isn't ready yet. I would go ahead and upload into photos (600 dpi minimum). The feature will allow you to upload a photo or take an existing photo and make a source out of it."

I am sure this will bring a wave of uploads to photos. Just remember what you posted there as  it appears you will need to go back and link the items to sources.

I have much to do right now, I think I will likely wait to see the component in finished form. Sure I will. Yeah. Right. OK, maybe I will wait.

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So Long Farewell

It's official. Our mission has ended. What a great group to serve with. This is our zone missionary photo, taken last month. We serve patron questions that come in by phone, instant message, and email. Hundreds of support questions come in each day. Next week 7 new missionaries start in the zone (1 of 21 in our mission) and 7 of us are being released.

Serving here is a wonderful experience. We had an exit interview with Mission President and Sister Wayne Peterson. He asked me what were the positive things that were meaningful to me about our mission. My answer was that there were two that stood out. 1- The tremendous opportunity to learn about family history and genealogy. So many resources are here if we take advantage of them. 2- The spirit here. It is like we are bathed in the spirit continually. The spirit our fellow missionaries exude, so many devotionals to set the spirit, the entire campus that we serve in whether we are in one of the libraries, in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, walking around the Temple Square Campus, or in the Church Office Building. It has been truly important to me.

I have both grown and shrunk here: grown spiritually and gotten control over my weight.

You might notice the young elders, missionaries in the photo. I call them the heart and soul of the mission. There are currently 70 that can serve here. They and their families must go through an interview with the mission couple that oversees them. If they want us and we want them they get in line to be called here. There are now 58 on the waiting list. The employees are figuring out how sharp some of them are and are asking the Church to send more here, thus the number 70 is going to 76. Bringing them in is a matter of where they will serve and housing. We have limited mission housing, even for the senior couples. If you bring your own furniture as we did, you cannot use mission housing.

The missionaries are divided into two Branches for Church meeting and functions. Our branch has the Young Elders. When you are on your way in or out there is a special Branch Hail and Farewell dinner. Here are the words to the Farewell song, sung to the tune of So Long Farewell:

So long, thank you,
for service kindly given.
We'll see you again,
though it may be in heaven.

So long, farewell....
We hate to see you go....
But were so glad it's you
we go to know..

We know you simply
cannot always stay....
May life be good to you
and yours, we pray.

So long, farwell,
auf Wiedershen, adieu.
We say good bye
to you and you and you.....

Good bye....

Goodbye....  

good bye...

We have been blessed by serving here. This summer it's going to be a great summer of visiting family and maybe for the first time in our lives feeling like we had retired. We went right from working our careers to this mission. I am guessing this fall we will be thinking of what is next. Who knows, we might become like many we served with, serving multiple missions. 

A Fun Song - Appreciated By Senior Citizens/

Remember, Friday Is For Fun- And to keep a research log.

A Message To The Critics. BE

All of those at FamilySearch and Family Tree who answer your email, chat, and phone calls are here supporting your questions as volunteers, either full time, part time, or missionaries serving from home. There are about 500 of us. It is a rewarding service we give.

It would be better if many of the patrons were nicer. A missionary recently commented that when she arrived and started handling cases she thought she would hate it here. Grumble, mumble, and complain. Gripe right. And then she helped someone who was more than grateful. That made her decide it was a good thing, being here.

A lot of the complaining is merely because something on the website was moved and is different. Wow, did that bring on an onslaught of complaining last week. Personally, I skipped by the gripers, I decided I was in a mood I might not be the responder I should be.

It was not all bad, a lot of people just emailed to thank us for our work, and for how awesome Family Tree is. Thanks to you.

I'm done serving tomorrow. I will miss it. Not so much the gripers and naughty ones.

By the way, personally, when it comes to Family Tree - I LOVE IT!

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!

Which Is Her Daddy?

One of the not so obvious tasks in Family Tree (I hear it will be made easier) is selecting the father or mother you want to show up in the Family Tree.

In my case, do I want Edward The Rogue South

who fathered my mother in the tree. Even more curious will my sisters, my cousins, or other relatives select him? I guess that's a matter of collaborating to decide.

However, when we want to change who is selected, the process is not so simple to figure out in Family Tree.

The developers call this "Preferred Parents And Spouses"


In my case if I want to set Thomas Salinas, who my mother knew as Daddy, who grandmother Nancy was married to in the Logan Temple as the person in the tree you can currently do it in new.familysearch





or you can pick Thomas as an example: by going to the child node, which when you click it brings up the parent link you want to be in the tree. This choice will remain if you do it that way.

I Stand All Amazed, The Majesty Of it All.

And some say, there is no God. Really?

Genea-Musings, A Blog To Follow

Randy Seaver Says about himself, "I am a native San Diegan, a graduate of San Diego State University, a retired aerospace engineer, a genealogist and a family guy."

His blog posts are worth following. Randy recently questioned the layout of the new FamilySearch.org website and immediately had the attention of the techies at FamilySearch. Thanks to his questions some changes immediately took place. 

The blog has been up since 2006 and is loaded with content. Randy must love it as he posts often.

Make Randy's website a regular stop.

Click here.

3 Cheers For FamilySearch - The Upgrade Is Going Live This Morning Check it out now

What a team those developers are. They were up through the early hours with the big question, is it a go or a no  go?  For weeks the target was today and today it is.

I am writing as we go into a support group webinar. You are getting the latest info.

It looks like Family Tree is live and FamilySearch is not yet.

I will be updating this throughout the day as I see more changes.

1- Everyone will have access to publish photos and stories. At first they will add 200 per day to test out the band width impact.

2- There is a new design. I like it.

3- Anyone can easily get live help via chat, phone, or email. This includes research help.

4- It will be easy to find a local LDS Family History Centers. (There are 4,000 English Speaking)

5-  The new fan chart is cool.

 

 

 

 

If you have a problem use anything but Internet Explorer 9 as your browser.

 

They didn't make it with the printing functions. Dang.

 

 

Tomorrow It Is A Go Or No Go

Several upgrades are targeted to go live tomorrow. Will it be a go or no go? We are all excited for it to be a go. I can hardly wait to see what makes it. Will it be the printing functions? It should include moving access to photos and stories directly to the tree. Click the photo link in the upper bar and you would be in. I think it will include adding 50 from the general public each day, having authority to upload photo's. That is how they handled member access.

I would expect the cool version of a fan chart to be live.

I know that one thing that was holding up the process last week was the support system. Currently we receive about 500 email, phone call, and chat request for help each day. This is expected to rise.

I would suggest those of you who have been wanting access to photos start looking at Family Tree (via FamilySearch.org) late this evening.

If tomorrow, great. If not tomorrow I sense it will be soon.