Mark Your Calendars - UVPAFUG Meeting!

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 9 Feb 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Gordon J. Clarke on FAMILYSEARCH WEB SERVICES AND
THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS.

This will be a discussion of how FamilySearch has made it possible for many existing and new software products to work in conjunction with New FamilySearch through the development of Web Services. Web services is the way that web and desktop applications can communicate with an online service such as new FamilySearch. Desktop applications can work online or offline and synchronize, as desired. Learn what type of products and tools are becoming available. Discover when and why to use various compatible web or desktop products according to individual needs, purposes, and abilities.

Gordon Clarke joined the Family and Church History Member Needs team over 2 years ago. He is coordinating Developer Services and Affiliate Marketing in addition to his product management responsibility for the FamilySearch Web Services. Previously Gordon was the founder and president of ici MEDIA. Over the last 25 years Gordon has organized and lead numerous companies and projects, creating and delivering Internet, desktop computer, audio/video, and enterprise solutions for many different industries.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following:

1. Using All the Features of PAF Insight, by Duane Dudley
2. Administering a PHPGedView Website (Part 2 of 3), by John Finlay
3. What Can I Do with SMGF DNA Test Data?, by Gerhard Ruf
4. Keeping Your PC Healthy, by Jerry Castillo
5. Q&A: New FamilySearch and 3rd Party Programs, by Gordon Clarke
6. Video of last month's main presentation: Digital Photography for Genealogists, by Barry J. Ewell
7. Individual Mentoring (British Research mini-class), by Vivien Brown and Val Buxton
8. Legacy, by Dean Bennett.
   
9. There will be no classes for RootsMagic or Ancestral Quest this time.
   

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Eileen Phelps, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past
presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org . For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Funeral Services for President Hinckley Announced

There has been some confusion over the location of President Hinckley's viewing. The venue was originally announced to be held in the tabernacle, then it was set for the Church Administration Building. It sounds like it has finally been determined to be in the Conference Center. Personally I am glad it's the Conference Center - at least I can be warm while I wait in line.

Below are two Press Releases from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding the funeral. Below that you will find information on BYU Broadcasting's Special Broadcast and a Special Cane Wave Tribute to President Hinckley planned.

Did You Know?
Venue Change for President Gordon B. Hinckley’s Viewing

The venue for President Gordon B. Hinckley’s viewing on Thursday and Friday has been changed to the Conference Center, 60 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City. Conference Center doors will open at 9:00 a.m. for the viewing and will close at 7:00 p.m. both days

SALT LAKE CITY 28 January 2008 Funeral services for President Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who died Sunday evening, will be held this Saturday, February 2, in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.

The proceedings will be broadcast via satellite in 69 languages to over 6,000 Church buildings globally. Brigham Young University’s BYU Television will also broadcast the funeral internationally.

Those who attend the funeral services at the Conference Center will need to be in their seats no later than 10:30 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. start. Seating will be restricted to the 21,000 capacity of the Conference Center. Overflow seating with large screen viewing of proceedings will be offered in the adjacent Tabernacle, Assembly Hall and Conference Center Theater.

Between the funeral and graveside services, a program profiling the life and ministry of President Hinckley titled In His Own Words will also be televised.

President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since March 12 1995.

There will be a public viewing Thursday and Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Center, 60 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City.

President Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, died at the age of 97.

The Church president passed away at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside.

Expressions of sympathy can be emailed to condolences@ldschurch.org or mailed to Church headquarters at 47 East South Temple St., Salt Lake City, UT 84150.

President Hinckley’s family members have suggested that in lieu of flowers those who wish to send a memorial gift could donate to the Church’s Perpetual Education, Humanitarian or Missionary funds, or the Gordon B. Hinckley Chair of British Studies at the University of Utah.

BYUBroadcasting Special Broadcast

Funeral services for President Gordon B. Hinckley 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be held in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, UT on

Saturday, 2 February 2007, at 11:00am (mountain time).

The funeral services will be broadcast live on BYU Television, BYU Television International, KBYU-TV, Classical 89, and BYU Radio.

Some of President Hinckley's memorable devotionals, firesides and more will be featured throughout the month on BYU Broadcasting stations, please check out www.byub.org/preshinckley/ for the latest updates.

Cane Wave Tribute to President Hinckley

In honor of President Gordon B. Hinckley, a unique tribute to this beloved prophet is being organized for his funeral. All who loved President Hinckley and who will be in Salt Lake City on Saturday, February 2, are invited to participate.

Most of us have had the pleasure of seeing President Hinckley greet the masses with a wave of his cane. It became his signature over the past few years, and we all got a good laugh when he used his cane to wave to the masses instead of using it to help him walk.

To honor the man, and his great sense of humor, a group known only as “Cane Wave Tribute” is proposing that Church members line the streets between the Conference Center and cemetery, hopefully with thousands of admirers, waving canes as the cortège passes. This website has been set up to disseminate information about the tribute as it becomes available.

Cane Wave Tribute asks that you send a copy of this article to as many people as you can, and ask them in your message to do the same. This way we can reach as many people as possible, and give this great man a fitting tribute.

Get your walking canes right away. Make this a family event, and share the joy of a final celebration tribute to President Hinckley. School classes, wards, and seminaries are invited to participate together. Join thousands of other Latter-day Saints for an event that will live forever in your minds and hearts.

For information, visit the blog site or call Kristen Call Smith at 801-743-4604.

Renee's Note: It would be a nice touch to donate your waved cane to the LDS Church Humanitarian Aid afterwards. Humanitarian Aid donations can be made at any Deseret Industries - just mark it as such.

FHL Classes with NFS Bonus

Since I am a registered Family History Consultant I received the following email from FamilySearch Support.

FamilySearch Support is pleased to announce that they will be offering more training classes, at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, to all registered Family History Consultants and Priesthood Leaders. This is an opportunity to obtain training and a new FamilySearch account early. To take advantage of this opportunity and register for any of the available classes please go to: http://familysearch.eventbrite.com

If you are a Family History Consultant or Priesthood Leader, but not yet registered, you can go to http://consultant.familysearch.org and sign up so you are eligible to attend classes.

The classes are offered on Tues, Thurs, and Sat starting Feb 7th to March 27th. Right now the Feb 7th and Feb 12th classes are full. The hours and length of time of the classes vary. You will see that some classes are 1 hour long and others are 6 1/2 hours long. The actually class "How Consultant's Support the new FamilySearch" - that is important to me - so I can get live access to NFS is really just an hour long.

Here is some information you might want to know:

Benefits

• Understand the family history consultant’s role in broadening member participation in family history and temple work.
• Gain the knowledge needed to help members readily identify and submit ancestors for temple ordinances.
• Learn how to use the new FamilySearch before it is released to your temple district.
• Discover what assistance is available through FamilySearch Worldwide Support and the Family History Library.
  

Class Topics

Please be aware that classes are being held in three locations: Family History Library, the Museum of Church History and Art and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building - FamilySearch Center. Not every class is offered every time. You are not required to take the classes in order.

• FHL Consultant Training Part 1 - Helping Family History Happen (Understanding your calling and role as a Family History Consultant, and how you help fulfill the 3 fold Mission of the Church.)
• FHL Consultant Training Part 2 - Helping Members (Determining members needs and how you can assist them.)
• FHL Consultant Training Part 3 - Internet Help Resources Introduction to resources available through the LDS Church, BYU, Local Resources and the Internet.
• How Consultant's Support the new FamilySearch (This lesson will discuss the resources available to help you effectively support the new FamilySearch. After attending this class you may obtain a new FamilySearch account. This is the only class that offers this benefit and requires that you be a registered consultant or priesthood leader. )
  

Registration

To register for this event, it requires your membership number. You may obtain this information from your ward clerk.

Consultant Training Parking and Dining

Parking options might cost from $3.00 to $5.00 for the day. There also is a TRAX station right next to the Family History Library.

Dining options nearby include the ZCMI Mall Food Court, the Nauvoo Café or The Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, or The Lion House Pantry Restaurant (10% discount coupons for these restaurants are available in the Family History Library lobby or FamilySearch Center on request). Passes will also be available upon request for the Church Cafeteria in the Church Office Building on weekdays. There is also a lunch room with food vending machines on the Main floor of the Family History Library and basement of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

REMEMBER to bring your email confirmation of class registration from EventBrite with you in order to gain access to the class.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 27

After reading and listening to so many stories of President Hinckley's life, I determined the best way to honor him was to "Carry On". I did do my FamilySearch Indexing while listening to the local radio station about news of his death.

I was so upset I didn't do a very good job at it. It also saddened me to find out there were no more New York 1850 U.S. Federal Censuses to index. I guess I could be happy that it might be finished but I wanted to work on it. So instead I did two batches of the New Jersey 1850 U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule, making my grand total to-date 2,682 individuals indexed. I just kept messing up and re-doing I really hope I finally got it right. I did learn that some projects do not work well when you are upset or under stress. Now that it is 24 hours later I can actually write about my experience.

On the FamilySearch Indexing site there was the following message for us:

From: Headquarters
Subject: Classes for Indexers at Family History Library
Date: 25 Jan 2008

We cannot take you all enough for the amazing work you are doing. You are truly outstanding!

As a resource to provide further training to indexers and to establish another venue for indexers to ask questions, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City hosts FamilySearch indexing training classes. If you live in the Salt Lake City area or plan to visit sometime, you may want to attend one of these classes.

To view the class schedule, follow these steps:

1. Go to www.familysearch.org
2. Click on the Library tab.
3. Click on the Education link near the top of the page.
4. Click on Family History Library Monthly Class Schedules
5. Look for "FamilySearch Indexing Series: How To Do Indexing" or "Extraction with FamilySearch Indexing".
   

You can also come to open labs just to practice indexing. There are no lessons taught during this time, but you may ask whatever indexing questions you like. These open labs are listed on the same class schedule as mentioned above. Look for "FamilySearch Indexing Series: Practice time".

For those of you interested I did find some lovely photos online of President Hinckley. I am comforted now knowing he is with his dear wife Marjorie. Yes, I plan to "Carry On".

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 26

After reading and listening to so many stories of President Hinckley's life, I determined the best way to honor him was to "Carry On". I did do my FamilySearch Indexing while listening to the local radio station about news of his death.

I was so upset I didn't do a very good job at it. It also saddened me to find out there were no more New York 1850 U.S. Federal Censuses to index. I guess I could be happy that it might be finished but I wanted to work on it. So instead I did two batches of the New Jersey 1850 U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule, making my grand total to-date 2,682 individuals indexed. I just kept messing up and re-doing I really hope I finally got it right. I did learn that some projects do not work well when you are upset or under stress. Now that it is 24 hours later I can actually write about my experience.

On the FamilySearch Indexing site there was the following message for us:

From: Headquarters
Subject: Classes for Indexers at Family History Library
Date: 25 Jan 2008

We cannot take you all enough for the amazing work you are doing. You are truly outstanding!

As a resource to provide further training to indexers and to establish another venue for indexers to ask questions, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City hosts FamilySearch indexing training classes. If you live in the Salt Lake City area or plan to visit sometime, you may want to attend one of these classes.

To view the class schedule, follow these steps:

1. Go to www.familysearch.org
2. Click on the Library tab.
3. Click on the Education link near the top of the page.
4. Click on Family History Library Monthly Class Schedules
5. Look for "FamilySearch Indexing Series: How To Do Indexing" or "Extraction with FamilySearch Indexing".
   

You can also come to open labs just to practice indexing. There are no lessons taught during this time, but you may ask whatever indexing questions you like. These open labs are listed on the same class schedule as mentioned above. Look for "FamilySearch Indexing Series: Practice time".

For those of you interested I did find some lovely photos online of President Hinckley. I am comforted now knowing he is with his dear wife Marjorie. Yes, I plan to "Carry On".

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

President Hinckley Passes Away at 97

I was just getting ready to do my FamilySearch Indexing and received the sad news that President Gordan B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day, just passed away. I am in shock. I know he was 97 years old but it still is so unexpected. I am listening to KSL 1160 AM to hear more details. I don't even know how he died - was he ill? I don't even have the words to express my feelings right now. I will go do my FamilySearch Indexing while I listen to the news but this week I will forgo my usual post on my "Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing".

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

NFS Reaches Europe

The roll-out of new FamilySearch is going strong. Word came this week that NFS will start rolling out to a couple of European Temple districts. The first announcement came to the Copenhagen, Denmark area. The time frame given is to go live within four months. The second announcement comes to the Madrid, Spain temple district. This temple district encompasses Spain, Portugal, Italy and France. They were given the same time frame to go live - within four months. These temples will be a giant leap into the use of NFS with multiple foreign languages.

I am so excited for my European friends.

To see a list of temple district statuses visit: "New FamilySearch Roll-out"

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

SMGF Website Update

I received the following email:

Dear Friends of SMGF,

The SMGF website has been updated once again with the addition of new haplotypes and genealogical records to the Sorenson mtDNA and Y-chromosome Databases. We invite you to search these updated databases to find new family connections at www.smgf.org.

Along with the website update, SMGF is excited to announce the Educator's Program. The Educator's Program features tools to help teachers instruct students on the power of their own DNA and the field of molecular genealogy. Teachers who are interested in using these unique tools can find out more by visiting www.smgf.org/education.

We at SMGF would also like to pay special tribute to our organization's founder, James LeVoy Sorenson, who passed away on January 20, 2008. He was a friend and inspiration to us all. We are grateful for his legacy of promoting peace, compassion, and brotherhood among humankind through molecular genealogy. To read more go to www.smgf.org/sorenson.

As always, please contact us at info@smgf.org with your comments and suggestions.

Sincerely,
The SMGF Team

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 26

It's week 26th and I am totally into the habit of doing FamilySearch Indexing. It's been a quiet day and it was peaceful to work on the New York 1850 U.S. Federal Census. I found awaiting me when I signed on a nice "Thank You" from Headquarters.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Thank You!
Date: 15 Jan 2008

You are amazing!

Using FamilySearch Indexing in 2007, you indexed seven times the amount of records indexed in 2006. Each one of you contributed to this amazing growth.

Currently, we have over 115,000 indexers. Today alone, you have already indexed over 168,000 names (as of 1:00PM MST).

We want to express our heartfelt thanks to each of you for all you have done, and are currently doing, to move this exciting work of indexing along so smoothly. Keep up the great work!

Isn't it fantastic that we have so many people indexing and the work is speeding along. I know the longer I do indexing the faster I get at it. It took me hardly anytime at all tonight to index 3 batches. I now have a grand total of 2,626 individuals indexed. Won't it be exciting to see how much we index this year!

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Pace for NFS Roll-out to Quicken

If my calculations are correct we now have nearly one-third of the LDS Temple Districts live or going live with new FamilySearch. So far 11 temples are live and 31 have been announced. Within the past week I have confirmation of the Newport Beach, California; Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Toronto, Ontario temples being announced for roll-out with NFS.

The buzz is that we should have the roll-out announcements all made by July of this year. That makes two-thirds of the temple districts still to receive word. Word is that the roll-outs are going on schedule, even a little ahead of schedule. That is fantastic news for everyone. The only hiccup I heard about was on the temple end of things, it put a stop to some roll-outs while they waited for some modifications to be made. All is well and under way for the pace of the NFS roll-out to quicken.

Click here for my New FamilySearch Roll-out List. If you have any announcements to add please email me at: zamora05@hotmail.com

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Mark Your Calendars! - UGA

The January meeting of the Utah Valley chapter of the Utah Genealogical Association will be on Friday, January 18th, 2008 (that is this coming Friday) at 7:00 p.m.

The location is 85 North 600 East, Provo, Utah (the location of the Utah South Area Family History Training Center).

Merlin Kitchen will be showing and teaching about the "New FamilySearch".

Part of the meeting will be the election of chapter officers. If you are willing to volunteer to help with chapter meetings or for additional information contact: becky.roberts@comcast.net

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 25

I wasn't feeling to great today so I wasn't even sure if I would ever get out of bed and do some FamilySearch Indexing. Thank goodness for laptops and wireless connections. There were two messages from Headquarters waiting for me when I logged into the program.

The first message:

From Headquarters
Subject: 1871 Canadian Census & Mecklenburg projects
Date 11 Jan 2008

As you may have noticed, batches for the 1871 Canadian Census projects and the Mecklenburg projects are no longer available on the Download From... menu. These projects have been removed for additional review.

For the Canadian Census, we may be able to secure better quality images. For Mecklenburg, we hope to have it restored with better training aids to assist in reading that particular version of German script.

We appreciate all of your work on these projects and the data you submitted will be used. We hope to have new Canadian and German projects available very soon.

Thank you for your understanding.

This second message is very important, especially if you want to index tomorrow morning.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Notification of System Downtime
Date: 11 Jan 2008

PLEASE NOTE:

The FamilySearch indexing server will be down for some scheduled maintenance at 10:00AM on Monday, January 14. We anticipate the system being down for approximately two hours. Please do not try to download or submit batches during this time.

If you plan to index during this time, you can download up to five batches before 10:00AM, work on them offline, and submit them when the system is back online.

Thank you for your patience. We greatly appreciate all you do.

I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the projects available to index. My New York 1850 Federal Censuses were available. YIPEE!!! I Love New York! That made it all worth the effort of doing indexing when you don't feel to well. I actually indexed 5 batches for a total of 210 individuals. That made my grand total to date of 2,500 individuals indexed. That was fitting since it's my 25th week and I average about 100 names indexed a week. So much for feeling sick and not wanting to do anything. I guess I should feel sick more often.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

BYU Uses ebrary Technology to Further Improve the Family Research Process

The following announcement was written by ebrary:

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Families and individuals throughout the world will soon have greater online access to information about their ancestors and family histories.

ebrary®, a leading provider of e-content services and technology, today announced that Brigham Young University (BYU) has licensed its technology to locally host portions of the university library's digital collections including genealogical records and art materials. BYU is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources, with approximately 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. BYU's Harold B. Lee Library is a member of the Association of Research Libraries.

"By licensing the ebrary platform, we will be able to enhance university library patron access and use of the library's digital resources, and for individuals doing genealogical work, the intent is to further improve the family research process," said Robert Murdoch, Assistant University Librarian for Collection Development and Technical Services for Brigham Young University. "ebrary's technology will make it easy for us to submit a variety of documents and objects and instantly turn them into a database that is searchable and integrates with multiple online resources. ebrary's platform also features many research-oriented capabilities such as bookshelves, highlighting and annotating, automatic citations, and InfoTools which enables contextual online searching across multiple sources."

"ebrary is pleased to extend our relationship with Brigham Young University, and we are very honored to work with them on such a fulfilling and important project," said Christopher Warnock, CEO of ebrary. "It is very rewarding to know that our electronic publishing software, the system that we have developed over the last nine years, will be used to help disseminate the historic documents that BYU has collected and digitized. This will help families all over the world better connect with and learn more about their ancestry."

Under terms of the agreement, BYU will be among the first customers for ebrary's standalone licensed product - code named ISIS - that is hosted on the customers' servers, behind their firewalls. ISIS is currently under its last phase of development and is slated to ship in 2008. In addition to providing customers with complete control over their own digitized collections, ISIS will offer the same rich functionality as ebrary's current hosted solution, as follows:

• Full text searching and indexing
• Easy PDF submission
• ebrary InfoToolsT provide contextual linking across multiple online resources
• The ebrary ReaderT streams pages online, eliminating cumbersome document downloads
• Personal bookshelves
• Highlighting and annotating
• Multiple search options
• Copying and printing with an automatic citation and URL hyperlink back to the source
• Reporting tools and usage statistics
  

Additional ebrary Platform Announcements

In separate press releases issued today, ebrary announced that the University of Toronto and Informa Healthcare have also licensed its platform to distribute their own digitized materials online. The press releases are available at http://www.ebrary.com/corp/newsReleases.jsp.

About BYU

Brigham Young University seeks to develop students of faith, intellect and character who have the skills and the desire to continue learning and to serve others throughout their lives. Established in 1875, the university provides an outstanding education in an atmosphere consistent with the ideals and principles of its sponsor, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

BYU offers courses in 11 colleges, in Continuing Education and Graduate Studies and in three general undergraduate areas of study. Many academic and professional programs are augmented by internships and career-related summer jobs. For fall semester 2006, bachelor's degrees were offered in 188 academic programs, master's degrees in 66, doctorates in 25 and juris doctorates in one. In the 2005-2006 academic school year, BYU awarded 8,261 undergraduate and graduate degrees.

The Harold B. Lee Library provides services, collections, and computers for more than 15,000 BYU students every day. The library contains over 8 million items including 3.3 million books, 27,000 journal titles, 250,000 maps, 3 million microfilms, and more than 1 million photographs and prints. An extensive selection of manuscripts, diaries, photographs, family histories, scholarly publications, books, and art images have been digitized and are available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection at www.lib.byu.edu.

About ebrary (www.ebrary.com)

ebrary® is a leading provider of e-content services and technology. The company helps libraries, publishers, and other organizations disseminate valuable information to end users, while improving their research and document interaction.

The company has developed a flexible e-content platform, which customers may use in a number of different, integrated capacities: ebrary customers may purchase or subscribe to e-books and other content under a variety of pricing and access models, and they may license the ebrary platform to distribute, sell, and market their own content online. All options are delivered using a customizable interface and include the ebrary ReaderT with InfoToolsT software, which enable integration with other resources to provide an economical and efficient way to utilize information.

ebrary currently offers a growing selection of more than 120,000 e-books and other titles from more than 285 leading publishers and aggregators. Founded in 1999, ebrary is privately held and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.

Called to Serve the World

Family History Church Service Missionary Opportunity

“One of the most troublesome aspects of our temple activity is that as we get more and more temples scattered across the earth there is duplication of effort in proxy work …… We, therefore, have been engaged for some time in a very difficult undertaking. To avoid such duplication, the solution lies in complex computer technology. Preliminary indications are that it will work, and if this is so, it will be a truly remarkable thing with worldwide implications.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley, October 2005 General Conference

The Family History Department is looking for individuals to serve as Church Service Missionaries called to support the release of the new FamilySearch program as the program is deployed to temple districts throughout the world. Missionaries are also needed to answer phone calls and / or e-mails regarding other aspects of family history such as Family History Center Support, Internet Indexing, PAF, Family Search and other programs.

Missionaries will have early access to the new FamilySearch program and will be trained via a self-paced training curriculum that can be accessed from home.

Missionaries will serve completely from home in this capacity; there is no requirement for any travel. Missionaries will receive help and support via a variety of computer and internet-based systems as they seek to provide accurate and timely responses to patrons around the world.

The opportunity is available immediately.

In order to be called as a Church Service Missionary for the Family History Department, one should:

• Meet with their bishop and stake president to discuss the Church Service Missionary call
• Be willing to commit to at least a 6 month call, and preferably 12-30 months
• Be able to commit to at least 12-20 hours a week, preferably in 4 hour increments
• Have some prior family history experience
• Have a DSL/Broadband Internet connection
  

Potential Church Service Missionary candidates should be those currently unable to serve a full-time mission due to health, family or other concerns. Stake presidents and bishops should look at this opportunity to serve as an ideal one for temple-worthy young men and women that are unable to serve full-time missions in the mission field.

Comments from those currently serving in this capacity include:

• “I am grateful that it isn’t only the 19 or 21-year old…or the retired, that are capable of, or willing to serve a mission…to learn and grow spiritually, while being of benefit to others. Next to the Lord and my family…family history is my greatest love in the world. Serving a mission—even part-time-- from home is an opportunity of a lifetime for me…a dream come true,…for I love serving the Lord”
  

• “I could not now, nor do I think I ever will be able to go on a mission outside of the confines of our home. While this saddens and disappoints me, I appreciate the fact that now I can make some small contribution from my home. This blessing gives some comfort to me because I really do want to serve.”
  

• “It is the Lord's work, and I feel highly privileged to be accepted as a Church Service Missionary at this time of my life, when many think my time of usefulness is past.”

• “We came home and served two years in the temple and then my husband died and I felt like my life died. My bishop knew how I felt and came to me and suggested this mission since I had a computer and had done quite a lot of genealogy. It has been a life saver.”

• “This calling of Family History Support Missionary is one of sitting down at a computer with little physical labor. I feel that the Lord has answered my prayers for a position I could handle and help build the kingdom.”

We are certain that similar, rich experiences can occur in many of the stakes and wards across North America as Church Service Missionaries are called to support this work. Missionaries are truly a necessary part of this remarkable work with worldwide implications.

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 24

I had a difficult time getting on to FamilySearch Indexing today. I kept getting the message that the server was unavailable. I finally waited about 45 minutes and then had no problem getting on. I wonder if there are a lot of people out there that made FamilySearch Indexing one of their New Year resolutions?

I saw the message that Headquarters had for us. I meant to give the F1 a try but I forgot. Maybe because I really didn't have any questions on my batch this week.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Indexing and Arbitrating Tips
Date: 31 Dec 2007

REMEMBER: If you have general questions about how to index or arbitrate, try pressing F1 while in the FamilySearch Indexing application. The information contained in that database may just answer the questions you have.

Please keep up the good work. We greatly appreciate all your efforts in creating these important indices

Happy Holidays!

I chose to index the Massachusetts 1850 US Federal Census - Mortality. I did two batches for a total of 70 individuals. Making my grand total to date 2290 names indexed. I feel like I am a little behind even though I haven't really set any goals yet. I guess that would be a good idea to finally use that tool and set some while indexing this year.

The Mortality Schedule was very interesting. I don't think I've ever really used them before in my genealogy. It has very useful information and I think I better look for them in my area of New York. I had the census with only one page. From the project notes it appears that their are two types. One with one page and another with two pages. I had to use the ruler to keep track of what line I was on. It didn't have the highlight tool available for the project. You also needed to add lines to the table for all the entries. I knew of the option to add a line at the end of the indexing but this project only had 3 lines to start with so you had to set up more lines in the beginning. The project went fast, was different enough to be interesting, not difficult to complete and gave me more experience in records to use in my research. Overall it was a successful indexing day.

This past week I received an interesting email from Kip Sperry, letting me know about one of his students in his BYU Religion 261 class for the fall 2007 semester. Kip has all of his Religion 261 students index one batch of names as an indexing assignment. One of his students went far beyond that assignment and indexed 10,000 names in a few short months.

We wanted to recognize their terrific effort but the student has requested that their name be withheld. They wanted to promote the idea of doing FamilySearch Indexing but not have anyone compare themselves to them in particular. I asked for their story and here it is.

Brother Sperry,

I just wanted you to know that I have reached my goal for the number of names indexed this semester. It was 10,000 names. I just completed the 10,028th name.

I did 1133 names in the 1868-1892 Marriages - Ireland Civil Registration; 3318 in the 1871 Canadian Census; 42 in the District of Columbia - 1850 US Federal Census; 210 in the Illinois - 1850 Census; 1505 in the Irish Birth Indexes 1864-1883; 3389 in the Irish Death Indexes 1864-1884; 375 in the Irish Marriage Indexes 1868-1892; and 56 in the Michigan - 1900 US Federal Census.

Thank you for introducing us to the program. I love it. Thanks again for the class. It was just what I needed.

All the best for the New Year.
A Student

Here is how they described the experience to me:

I think it was great fun to do. I just thought about how sometimes I don't use all of my time as efficiently as possible. When I discovered that it only took me about fifteen minutes or so to do an 1850 US or 1871 Canada census batch, depending on image quality, I decided that I could easily fit in a batch or two after my scripture study and before my day really got going. You know, my bit of service for the day. I think days go much better when I've done some family history.

It just happened that I'm between semesters at school right now, so I had more discretionary time than I'll probably have for a while, so instead of doing some lame activity like watching a movie or some other recreational activity, I instead decided that indexing was very recreational, and I would spend an hour or two indexing. Took me about an hour to do one of those Irish projects (375 +/- names).

The projects are so simple. Whoever put together the system made it very user-friendly. I was able to get someone to help when I had a real question. All-in-all, I'm just hooked!

Whatever you do with my information, please try to not make it look like what I've done is something everyone should do. Not everyone is in the same place. In fact, in a week or so I will be back to full-time studenting and my production will need to dip significantly.

But I will still probably do at least a small batch or two every day, leaving the big ones for Sundays when I don't do schoolwork anyway.

And congratulations on over 2000 names! I think that is a great achievement in itself! Just think, if out of those 2000+ names, even only one faithful person received their saving ordinances, how great will be your joy.... Actually, all of our joy, as surely we will rejoice together.

Kip Sperry's student appears to be one special person. I look forward to embracing her in the next life as we rejoice together in having worked together in this wonderful project. Usually when I find someone that has done 10,000 names I ask you to post a message on their website. Since this student wants to remain anonymous you can leave your messages for them on my site.

If you have a special person that has done a fantastic job in FamilySearch Indexing let me know I would love to recognize them. We all have 24 hours in a day and it's amazing what some people are able to accomplish in it.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Mark Your Calendars - UVPAFUG Meeting!

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 12 Jan 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Barry J. Ewell on DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR GENEALOGISTS.

Barry Ewell lives in Riverton, Utah, and is a Senior Marketing Manager for IBM. He is a writer and researcher with extensive genealogical experience in Internet and field research, digital and software resources, and mentoring genealogists. His research interests and expertise include Eastern U.S., United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Germany, and Russia. He will discuss turning your digital camera into one of your most valued genealogical research tools to effectively acquire records and preserve documents. It will greatly cut reproduction costs and help you achieve more with your available time. He will also discuss how to preserve, catalog, and file images for easy access.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following:

1. FamiliySearch Indexing and Record Search, by Duane Dudley
2. Installing and Configuring a PHPGedView Website by John Finlay
3. What Can I Do with SMGF DNA Test Data? by Gerhard Ruf
4. Video of the main presentation at the last meeting: FHL Internet Favorites by G. David Dilts
5. Individual Mentoring in the Family History Center by Lila Sowards and Sherry Stevens
6. Ancestral Quest by Gaylon Findlay
7. Legacy by Geoff Rasmussen
8. RootsMagic by Bruce Buzbee.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Eileen Phelps, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Genealogy and Technology Simplified

I had a fun time this evening re-watching episode 204, from the popular PBS Ancestors series, on Genealogy and Technology. I found it really refreshing and simple. Sometimes you get so rapped up in technology that it's almost impossible to put it in layman terms. I think this episode would make a great introduction to computers and the internet for any one new to the subject.



See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

My Genealogy To-Do List for 2008

I’m excited for the year 2008 to come. I am looking forward to New FamilySearch going “live” all over the world. Since my temple district is in Utah and is reportedly scheduled to be one of the last it makes me all the more hyper to see the roll-out happen. I’m also excited to see all the commercial genealogy software developers’ show off their API to interface with NFS. March just doesn’t seem like it will come soon enough for that. So many neat new websites came out this past year and I still haven’t given them a far shot, i.e. WorldVitalRecords.com and Footnote.com are the tops on my list. I thought instead of making my genealogy resolution list I would just give you a peak as to what is on my genealogy to-do list this year.

1. Move from Legacy to RootsMagic as my genealogy software of choice. Legacy has served me well for many years and it is an excellent program. I just want/need something different. I also think with its layout I will enjoy using it better while interacting with NFS. March will confirm that suspicion to me, even if both programs had a major rewrite I still think the over-all feel of the programs will be the same and RootsMagic just does that for me. There are two things I need to do before I complete the move from Legacy.

A. The Geo-database was my deciding factor in using Legacy and I need to finish using this tool before the move. I like how Legacy will tell you if the county you have assigned for a locality is correct for the event time-frame. I will finish that tool then feel confident in making RootsMagic my primary database. I have done quit a bit on this part of the project but I realized I need to go back and make events for when the counties changed just to make the records read better and to use as a research tool. I want to have this locality clean up completed before NFS and the API Interface goes prime time.
B. RootsMagic doesn’t have the address field for the cemeteries. I need to go through all of those records and make them separate events so I can search on them. If anyone in RootsMagic know a work-around to this let me know! I think it best to complete this project while still using Legacy.

2. Organize my files on my computer – using Mary E. V. Hill’s Color Coding System on my four main family lines (blue, green, red, yellow). I have a program that will let me add color-coded file folders icons to organize them by. Everything Mary Hill does with paper and folders I will do digitally with all my records. Some rules I have thought of are:

A. File by last name, first, date, and document type.
B. When I file by locality I will go from the Largest to the smallest locality.
C. Keep a digital log of where everything is located

3. Transfer everything in my Treepad database over to EverNote. I have been a long time Treepad user but I think EverNote is a better program. Time and use will give me a better picture here. The main point is I need to kinda tear apart my organizing system and have some major re-doing going on. Some things in Treepad I want to turn into documents so I can file them and link them into my RootsMagic database. Some things need to be made into pages on my website. Others would just benefit from a different layout to make retrieval easier.

4. I need to have a Scanning Party – 2008 is going to be the year that I finally go digital. First I think I will join Scanfest (you can read about it here) The target date to begin scanning is January 27th 2008. Hopefully with a little help from my friends I will develop a new habit, find a consistent time to work on my scanning and get lots accomplished. I am planning on not only scanning all my photographs, documents, letters but also all my old genealogy magazines and paper syllabuses that I just can’t bring myself to throw away. After I finish scanning the magazines and syllabuses I plan on donating them to my local Family History Center. Wow, will I have some more space!

5. Document and organize everything I have scanned and record where it is located. All my photos will get labeled and put into albums or scrapbook pages. Then I will link the scanned images to individuals in my genealogy database. Scanned magazine articles and syllabus class outlines will be listed in a spreadsheet document so I can actually search and find them by subject. While I am at it I should do an inventory and catalog all my books so I can find all the resources I have on one single subject.

6. Something old - Move all my old Live Journal blog articles over to the new Blogspot address. It bugs me that I haven’t completed this project. I just want to make it easier to search for my old articles and finding anything on Live Journal is a joke.

7. Something new - Learn to write research summaries and keep a better research log of my failed online database search attempts.

Well as you can see 2008 is going to be a major move in organization for me. My friend Teresa just laughs at me, she thinks I’m already organized enough. I read every book on the subject and am totally obsessed with it. My goal is that should I leave this earth I want people to be able to pick up from where I have left off. Right now I know where things are but I’m not sure others would say so.

Oh, I’m good about the back-ups and such but I realized the other day that if I had a flood or fire wipe me out all my personal papers would be gone. I would be useless in providing a copy of my mortgage and title, my home insurance papers would be no where to be found. I don’t have scanned images of my children’s birth records, my marriage certificate, or my husband’s military service. I also don’t have an inventory of my household belongs. Yes I need to take care of that area also. Giving FEMA a copy of my mother’s death certificate will not impress them in the least. So when I scan and organize I am going to make sure my personal home records are done first. I will put them on a password protected flash drive and leave them in our cars in case of emergency.

I’m hoping that if my kids can find things based on what they do know then they will understand my organizing system for all the stuff they don’t know. Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we don’t practice what to leave.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day.