Ron Tanner Invites Us All To FamilySearch Family Tree

 It's the first video in this playlist.

I've Been Transferred

It looks like I will spend the rest of our mission in World Wide Support. I'll be taking phone calls, answering email, and texts regarding questions on Family Tree and new.familysearch.org. It should be a great learning process as I can see some of the questions coming in are rare and interesting.

Rules to Follow In Family Tree

Remember these two principles for Family Tree:

1- A purpose is to document all you put on or change on the Tree. The phrase "Genealogy without documentation is mythology" is more than just a fun statement. It is a fact. Folklore may be true, but does it override documentable sources? Probably not.It is time for us to stop being slapstick amateurs and just put up what we think is right, or even what our family stories are. Take your time when adding, deleting, or changing what is on the Tree. You don't have to fix things that are wrong overnight. Be methodical. Be serious. Be a pro.

2- Another purpose is to collaborate with other ancestors. I have to laugh, I received a brisk email from an unknown cousin challenging what I had put on the Tree regarding HIS Great Great Grandfather. Humm, his? No, ours. The Point - Let us collaborate!

I have discovered there is a lot of family stories that just might be folklore. Good stories, but true? Perhaps. So lets collaborate with each other in the section called discussions. Decide together the best facts.

Don't change add or delete things without documentation. If unsure, start a conversation. It's easy, it's fun, and it's important.

PS: Don't get testy.

10 Differences Between Family Search FamilyTree and Others

One might ask, what will be the difference between the Family Search FamilyTree and other Trees.

Here are 10, and they are important: There are more.

   1- FamilyTree will be free. Understand that the church partners with many businesses. They encourage any and all to join in and grow in this massive and important work. Some businesses that we partner with compete in the same type of delivered products, such as FamilyTree. The Church recognizes that much of the great innovation wouldn't have come about without the entrepreneurs out there. That will be the same in the future. However, the commitment and resources we have, make the church a valuable partner to them. The 1940 census is a good example. Together, with partners, over 7 million 1940 census names were index in just one day last week. That is a staggering record.

   FamilyTree needs to be - because it is free. There are many who won't participate if they have to pay. Some can't, some won't. Thus an important role for FamilyTree.

   2-  FamilyTree will be one giant family tree, not many. We are all one human family and this will bring that into focus. So together we will be building a giant pedigree chart. The Church is preparing for two million new users over the first two years. There will be none like it. Since it is one FamilyTree, if I make a change on my tree, it changes it for everyone. That is different, and don't panic over this.

   3- The tree will not be private. How frustrating it is to know that someone has a document or knowledge about a common ancestor and their tree is not public, and they won't answer an email. That ends with Family tree. We will be sharing, and therefore collaborating.

   4- Documentation is public. Yesterday I uploaded and linked several documents, photos, FindaGrave memorials, and life history stories on our Bingham ancestors into FamilyTree. These were mostly collections of our mother, and were in a box, not very visible, right? They are now visible to those who are in FamilyTree. I cannot tell you the excitement I felt. It kept me motivated and working late into the night. I kept thinking, Lorenzo Freeman Bingham (for example) has many many ancestors, I wonder if they have this story. The key, I am by my contributions yesterday giving other researchers and family the ability to have, even check the correctness of the details of these peoples lives. They will not have to duplicate the work my mother has documented. They will possible know something about their ancestor they never knew. What I post is not secret, it is shared. Isn't that the proper spirit for the Church to be fostering? By the way, each document I posted required me to give detail on where it is, why I used it, and other relevant information. Also note, once that document is posted, others can use it for another ancestor. It's our ancestors document and can be connected where ever by whomever. Perhaps the document is a census with information about a child who is your ancestor. It's there for you to connect to your ancestors part of the tree.

   5-  FamilyTree has tools to organize and communicate. The everything is public about this is what is different. Your email is only provided voluntarily, so some won't input their email. However, you can start a topic in your ancestors section. This will be visible to all. Like a forum there can be an ongoing discussion. It might be best to discuss a change  you want to make before you make it. You can also select to receive an email when any change is made or data entered on any ancestor.

   6- Through a tool owned by a partner (A very inexpensive tool) you can broadcast email anyone who has contributed data to your ancestors. You can pick and choose which are to receive the email. I used it recently and loved the feedback from those that responded. From some I received thanks for my efforts (warm fuzzies are always nice) and others reached back to connect with me in my research.

   7-  FamilyTree will be supported and monitored by staff and missionaries to assure a positive experience. Already hundreds of missionaries are being trained to support the questions that will be coming in by chat, phone calls, or email. We will have a process to lock out abusers. The online training will be sufficient for most, but questions will be welcomed and answered.

   8- For those that have experienced the hassle in New Family Search that incorrect entries have caused, don't worry, be happy, you can fix it yourself. If an entry shows your great grandad married to his daughter, just remove it. You removed it for you and you removed it for everyone. How cool is that? You just must explain why you did it. That removal is put aside in a changes made file. The reason for that, if you were wrong, it can easily be returned to your ancestors tree.

   9- Anyone can join. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or not, you are all going to be welcomed in. There will probably be an organized manner in rolling it out, but everyone is going to be able to join in.

  10- FamilyTree will be loaded with millions of records from day one. All of the new family search records are now being loaded into FamilyTree. Mind you, some are disputed, but remember, you can easily fix them. The majority of the data is correct. For years the Church has had hundreds of staff and missionaries fielding cases and fixing them.
   You might be amazed at what is already linked regarding your ancestors.  However, they are probably not documented. So it will now be your opportunity to follow the road map laid out by others to verify what is there. That you will discover is the fun part. You will also discover the importance of collaboration.
   There you go, that's 10 difference between FamilySearch FamilyTree and others, there are more. Be excited. And as that catchy song says, "Don't Worry Be Happy".

By the way, the head of this project, Ron Tanner tells us to tell others, the best thing you can do to get ready is to start scanning your documentation. That advice gets you going without having to wait for the launch. Maybe I'll write a song, "Don't Worry Start Scanning".

Why Email An Old Picture,When You Can Post And Email A Link?

From Nancy Day Flickr Account

If you haven't discovered Flickr, you probably haven't discovered chocolate. Flickr is actually better than chocolate. Below is a part of an article found on http://famillysearch.org/ about the benefits of photo sharing  from places such as Flickr. You might notice in the collage above, my Sister Nancy even posts documents in her account. This will be ideal in linking them to FamilyTree. In fact, I think I should get started doing just that. Oh, boy - the fun never ends.

Photosharing: Why email an old picture, when you can post and email a link?

From an article in Family Search.org  on June 8, 2012 By Claire Brisson-Banks

One of the many prized possessions for genealogists, in addition to record sources, is to find photographs of their ancestors. To add a face, features, clothing and time period to their knowledge of that ancestor brings them so much closer. This author had this personal experience over and over again as her my mother was the last of nine children and she never knew her mother’s mother, additionally, on her father’s side she never knew his parents and so their pictures have helped her to bridge that major gap in her life.

..............

While emails are a great resource, placing them online is a much better way to circulate them for one never knows when a relation is looking for just that one photograph. Also by placing them online, this author has discovered that younger generations often locate them and ask about their ancestors. This opens the door to creating an interest in another generation and provides an opportunity to build another relationship with a new cousin; both are a great value return for simply posting ancestral pictures online in one of the many programs available online to do so.

Click here for the full article:

Yeeeeeeek, This Is Frustrating - New Family Search

New Family Search is the LDS church family tree software. Frankly, it's great on one hand, and a mess on another. The messes keep happening. Above are examples of how people, perhaps carelessly create the messes.

In red you see a Kent Smith, not my grandfather now married to Blanche Rebbecca Bingham. Grandma Blanche and my Kent Smith had no children. I know the lady who did this, as she left a note that Kent Smith is still living. That should have been a clue to her, as live people don't show up in new family search. She showed the wrong Kent Smith married to my grandmother and then said in a comment that Kent Smith is still living. I have loaded our Kent Smiths Birth Certificate, Funeral Program, and a photo of him in FamilyTree to make it easier for her to use documentation when she makes entries.

What an improvement this will be to those who care about accuracy. We should only enter data we can document. We will be able to make the documents public to others.

PS: To add insult to injury she connected my grandmother to the wrong parents. I have the option of submitting it to the church support team to fix, or just wait for FamilyTree and do it myself. I think it will be more fun to wait and do it myself. So there.

Family Search Family Tree For Members Now

You can now access Family Tree if you are a church member with your passwords. Those not members will start soon we hope. This is still in Beta mode, but enough is done that there is a trail for LDS members to sign up. Note the Users guide is in the right sidebar. It's a big file and takes some time to load up. Just click the picture in the sidebar.

Today I fixed a problem that was bugging me, of my dads mother having two sets of parents in the new.familysearch.com site. I undid the wrong relationship and documented my work. It was cool.

Here is the path to get access: go to https://new.familysearch.org/ and login.
Next: Go to the "help center:

Next: Scroll down to the bottom to the Family Tree section and follow instructions when you click "Gaining Access to the FamilySearch Family Tree.

And don't forget: don't make any changes without documentation and explanations. That's the point of this.


I might add, the linking process will become simpler I am sure. The goal is to link documents to the ancestors. Right now I am doing that by linking to a unique URL from Flickr.com or an article I post on a blog. I have seen a mock up of a future website that leads me to believe it will be a simple upload to familysearch.org that will provide you the ability to link the document, story, etc to your ancestors.



By the way, I have seen a version of the updated website and can tell you that it will be great. Easy to use, with features you will love. These people are serious.

I encourage you to make sure you have read the article "Family Tree Will Change Genealogy Research Forever". It is in the sidebar as one of the sites most read most popular articles or you can click here.

FamilyTree Update

Recently new logins for FamilyTree were halted. The development is about two weeks behind in delivering the ability to delete or add relationships. It appears that as soon as that part is completed an agressive initiative to sign up new users will begin. It's getting close. 

What Happens When You Focus on "MY" in Family?

A Family Tree?

What Happens When You Focus on "MY" in Family?

This was shared with me in a discussion about the upcoming FamilyTree. There will be a paradym shift for many, maybe even most.

The shift? It will go from everyone having their own tree to being a part of one family tree. That is a most significant evolution from New Family Search.

In other words, if I change data to my ancestor it changes my tree and your tree - our tree.

I know this will make some uncomfortable. I have experienced people's ire when I do something with one of their ancestors in new family search.

FamilyTree will have important features that will enable us to work together, actually force might be the word. 

So now about the tricky part of this post.

So, we do spell family: F A M I L Y  |  If we focus on "M Y" rather than the entire family it ends up like this: strike the M and the Y from  F A M I L Y  and you get F A I L.

Cute but right. I guess that is applicable in any family dynamic. My needs versus Family needs.

The Next Genealogy Milestone

If you want to know where the next Genealogy Milestone will be, watch this video.

I have seen this live and it's exciting.

If you want to watch one of the most exciting presentations regarding the future of Genealogy watch this video.

Many have asked when stand-up comedian Ron Tanner’s 2012 RootsTech lecture “Future of FamilySearch Family Tree” will be available online.

It is now up!

You can watch his entire recorded lecture for free online. Here is the link: http://rootstech.org/videos#video-player.

Scroll down and find Tanner’s lecture in the Saturday, 11:00 am slot.

So come let Mr. Tanner’s lecture make you feel good about FamilySearch Family Tree.

Thanks to his cousin James Tanner’s Genealogy’s Star blog for this update.

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
 

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.

What about Evidence In Genealogy Research?

One of the most significant new genealogy offerings of 2012 will be FamilyTree by Family Search.

Family Tree will be free and will be open to everyone. To members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints it will replace New Family Search.

The data in New Family Search will be the data in FamilyTree. New Family Search has been a great tool for members with one big problem, much of the data is wrong.
For more detail, a previous article on how FamilyTree will change and improve things, click here.

My topic for today is about evidence. This is critical in serious genealogy research. FamilyTree is serious. But for all applications evidence is critical. In FamilyTree there is only one tree. In other words, all my cousins have the same grandfather and we all tie into the same part of the tree. So if I input a fact, it shows up on all my cousins trees too.

Therefore - we not only need to collaborate we all need to provide evidence and documentation. So here are some principles regarding proper evidence:

Evidence has many facets. Its purpose is to furnish proof. It sometimes contradicts what we have believed to be factual. Yesterday, here in world wide support, we had a lady extremely irate when we changed a files information based on proof another ancestor provided. First point, irate isn't a good place to be. I can tell you that I know it will be a paradigm shift for many to have to have other relatives having a say in what is on the FamilyTree. I can also attest this is so exciting and it will be a huge blessing to us all.

Consider the benefit of uniting generations. Everyone is stuck on certain ancestors. Me for example on Patrick Cragun. If we provide all of our ancestors facts and evidence on all between Patrick and us we can focus on him. Our cousins and our children won't have to waste time repeating our efforts.

As there are many different ways to prove something. Sometimes we will have to analyze, discuss, correlate, carefully evaluate, even make a reasoned judgement as we decide. So the better the evidence the better it is for all of us.

As you look at evidence be asking yourself what does it say to you. How relevant is it to your research? Does it provide direct answers to the questions you are researching? Does it provide indirect answers, it helps but cannot stand alone. Does it provide a negative conclusion or no answer at all? Does it provide new insights, a different conclusion, the same answer, or new clues? You do like being a detective don't you?

All genealogy isn't online now. Sites such as Family Search are adding millions of records of data each month and is become a great place way to search, but let's face the fact that it is only a small percentage of what is. The good news; many of the best types of records for your beginning efforts are on line. In the future I will write about advanced ways of searching on Google - an amazing discovery I have learned. Oh, and all data you find on line is not necessarily correct.

What is ideal is what is called Primary Evidence. That is simply original information by someone having first hand knowledge of the information.  It can be written in a document, or recorded by an impartial individual as a deposition, or recorded somewhere else as a fact. Not all genealogical conclusions are arrived at by using primary evidence because in many cases primary evidence was never recorded or it was lost. For example, not every birth was recorded with a birth certificate, a hospital affidavit, or a Bible entry.

If no vital record can be found, circumstantial evidence can be used. Circumstantial evidence implies the existence of a fact as that fact is also supported by other sources. Evidence has further facets. Direct
evidence, for example, is information that relates directly to a precise issue and therefore tends to show the existence of a fact, such as the previously mentioned birth certificate.

Collateral evidence, on the other hand, is an integral part of the source record, but has nothing to do with the reason that the record exists. One example is the death date of a land owner included on a land transfer from the land owner’s heirs to someone else. The purpose of the record was to prove transfer of the land, but it also provided collateral evidence of a man’s death.

Two types of evidence are suspect and therefore not as dependable at those stated previously. Secondary
evidence covers a broad spectrum from the very trustworthy to the highly questionable. It comes from
transcribed or copied materials and most often refers to the document itself. Hearsay evidence, however, refers to the provider of the information. Was the evidence outside the personal knowledge of the source that reports it—written or spoken?

The two facets of evidence that refer to comparative statements are: conflicting evidence or information
on a particular genealogical issue that doesn’t agree with information from another source; and clear and
convincing evidence which is information that fits perfectly with other evidence enough to consider it to be valid.

While the Internet can provide some primary, direct, and indirect sources, it has an equally great value in
providing the historical background to an ancestor that will help you find places to look for the primary,
secondary, or circumstantial evidence. Unfortunately it contains a huge amount of hearsay and secondary
evidence. It can lead you to individuals who have part of the information you seek, or lead you completely off track.

In short, do the best you can, get the best you can, acknowledge you may have a ways to go and get sold on the wonderful opportunity coming to collaborate with your relatives via FamilyTree in the initiative of documenting mankind.

And prepare to be nice, who knows, I may be your cousin, and I like nice.

PS: Leave me a comment or email at larry@cragun.net if you would like to be notified when you can sign up for FamilyTree.

Be Nice - She's A Relative, Even Though.....

I look like a nice guy don't I? I better be, or better learn to be.

Be Nice - She's A Relative, Even Though the impulse is, " She's messing with my grandfathers file"

The trouble with my possessive instincts is that my grandfather has lots of relatives besides me. Others have the same emotion as I do.  Not only that, when he was married to my grandmother, yes he had a wife that died, they have their history with him, even may know different facts about him differently than we do.

So here comes FamilyTree. When a cousin changes their tree, like a name spelling, she changes mine. What? Yes! Trust me, its going to be fabulous. We have to work together now, and documentation will be the key. The best documentation should be used.

Anyway, I experienced the emotion described today. I quickly let the the kinder me take over. I think it was quickly.

Here is a letter I wrote to my relative: It explains a lot, including the nicer me. I hope the nicer her writes back, as we are meeting here by email for the first time;

My email to her:

Hi Judy,

I am guessing we are cousins as I see you have been working on my grandfather Simeon Cragun's new family search file. It would be nice to know our relationship and connect.

I am wondering if you are in as a beta user in family tree yet? I am on a family history mission at church headquarters. Family Tree as you may or may not know is going to replace new family search as a totally different approach. There will be one tree and a change I make affects your tree. That means we are working together in documenting our common ancestors.

For example: We have Simeon spelled the way I have used it, versus the Simion as you selected on the 5th. So the tools in family tree are that we can provide links to documents. There is also a forum where we can discuss what we believe is accurate and why. The forum is sometimes being worked on, but often works. (beta issues) So, I will go into the forum and make statements all family members can see. We can decide together through the forum and through documentation what is the correct spelling.

How is that for bringing families together?

I could change the name back, but am going to just put up documentation I have. As it is a link, (we don't upload the document), I am using my blog as a place to put the document as an article. I could have made it a photo and placed it somewhere like Flickr.

I hope this isn't grueling to follow. I will start the process, if you want more let me know. If you don't have access and want access to FamilyTree, I can get you into it.

Sincerely,

Larry Cragun

Save Your Documents - Your Grandchildren Might Cherish Them

Our grandfather Thomas Salinas, like our grandmother Nancy Athena Porter, seemed to leave little in the way of history for us to digest. What I know about my grandmother I am about to publish in a book. Like many who have been caught up in family history of recent I wish there were more. I want to know them. I need to know them. (Thomas is we the Cragun grandchildren's step grandfather). In the Church we are sealed to our families in the Temple in the hope and belief that we will be united together as families). In essence Thomas is the grandfather my grandmother, my mother, and myself would be sealed to. 

So, I am going through old files and along comes a document that provides some new information, with interesting insights, and even more interesting questions. That document (below) was among things I received from my fathers death. Thank you to whomever saw that this document was passed down.

I point out some of the interesting Mormon parts of the document:
  1- This is a certification of Thomas being ordained a Seventy. It is an office in the Priesthood of the church. He was probably made a Seventy to do missionary work. It might confirm the fact that we are told that Thomas and Nancy went on a genealogy mission to Mexico 
  2-  Thomas was ordained by an Apostle and the certificate was signed by one of the most famous general authorities of the church B H Roberts. B H Roberts is a colorful figure in church history and was the Church Historian. Thomas was a member of the church about 1 3/4 years when he was ordained a Seventy. Was that assignment usually bestowed so soon? It's hard to say. You might read the New Testament how Jesus sent the Seventies on assignment. It's neat. But now I wonder about Melvin J Ballard ordaining him. Was that common in 1929, or was it a favor to Nancy, even a way to support her enduring through her trials and setbacks. In my book I will share that Nancy went so to speak from being a Princess of Porterville to being harshly treated by her Uncle, Bishop Arthur C Rich. Did these leaders have a personal  friendship with our Grandma?

Here is the certificate:

Thomas Salinas Ordination Certificate

I assume my mother saved this because it was important to her. It was probably a cherished document passed on to her by her grandmother. Her grandmother raised her and her sister Gloria until my mother married and her grandmother died.

Can you see the value of one simple certificate to a grandchild? Can you see even more how much a life's story would go in this process of the hearts of the Children turning to their fathers?

PS: The beauty of posting items like this on a blog, is that it gives us all access to it. I can even link to it in FamilyTree which will be open to all within the year. All means all, not just members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.