New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 10

I've been thinking about working on new FamilySearch all week. Right after I finished my article last week, I discovered a yellow caution symbol on my great-grandparents' file. What that means is that some temple work needed to be completed. I couldn't believe it when I realized that my grandfather hadn't been sealed to his parents.

I looked in my records and I have no sealing date to his parents. I emailed my father and he has no sealing date to his parents either. My father doesn't recalling doing the work. He might of overlooked completing the work using the old paper sheets.

I couldn't wait to get into NFS this week and do some more research. Would I possibly be able to reserve my grandfather's sealing to his parents? That would be so cool. But first I need to make sure the work wasn't already done and that my grandfather didn't have more duplicates out there. I looked again in NFS and it says the sealing is "in progress". That was kind of disappointing. This is what the help center says about it.

Temple Ordinance: In Progress

This ordinance is in the process of being completed. Specifically, one of the following events has occurred:

• A FamilySearch user has reserved this ordinance and has not yet completed it.
• The ordinance was assigned to the temple, and the temple has not yet completed it.
  

When the ordinance is done, the status will change to "completed."

I wasn't sure what category my grandfather's sealing to his parent's really is in. I sure hope my father or I didn't put on our Ancestral File submission something other than an actually sealing date. I understand that if you typed in anything in the temple date fields, i.e. DO NOT SUBMIT, etc., that in NFS it will show up in progress or completed.

I started simply by looking for possible duplicates of my grandfather on NFS. Somewhere the work is in progress. I ran more searches in NFS limiting information from the search fields as I went. Nothing. I wanted to see what the IIGI had on my grandfather's temple work. I ran some tests using both Legacy and RootsMagic's IGI Search. I did discover that he was listed in the IIGI with "Cleared" in the temple date field.

One thing that was interesting in this process is that Legacy and RootsMagic both brought up the same ordinance information. I noticed RootsMagic's IGI Search results come back sooner than Legacy's. RootsMagic also lets me view the details as to who submitted the information. That was useful to me. What did I learn? That someone submitted the ordinance information after 1991, and no submitter information is available.

Now 1991 was about the time my sister submitted my grandparents to be sealed together. There is a possibility that if I call the Toronto temple, where she submitted and did that work, that I might find out if we have lost a temple card somewhere along the line. I put that on my to-do list - call the Toronto temple and see if I can learn more information. I sure hope I hear something positive that I can do. I would hate to have my grandfather's sealing to his parents in limbo land.

I planned on spending the remainder of my time on NFS this evening making sure that the duplicates for my grandfather's siblings were combined and cleaned up. I was shocked when I looked at my great-aunt Hazel's file. There is a living, breathing, person with contact information in NFS contributing information on her file. Is it possible there is an unknown member in our family? The contributor is Hannah Lynn Clark and her email address is at BYU. I hurried and sent her an email. I can't wait to find out how we are related!!!

Deborah Ann Hawkins and JKubricky are also listed as submitters but I can't see that they are on NFS yet. While I was working on my great-aunt Hazel's line I ran into another relative Roni Len Tambasco. I couldn't believe it, I forgot all about the Tambasco family. They joined the Church in my early teens. I used to play with Tina all the time. I knew she was my cousin but I didn't know how we were related.

New FamilySearch is sure bringing back memories and potential research partners for me. I feel like I hit the jackpot and I'm only on the second sibling for my grandfather and have five more to go. Roni had claimed their NFS submissions so I hurried and send off another email to them. I guess I had forgotten about them because they either moved or went in-active. I can see Roni submitted one of Hazel's children's temple work back in 2003 so they must be active. WAHOO! more families. I know Hazel had five children and I only have one listed. NFS only shows one so the others must be all living and one descendant possibly a member of the Church. What a find!

It might not seem to you that I was on NFS for very long tonight but I was. I've decided since I am tired that I will work on my grandfather's other siblings some more next week. I spend a lot of time looking at my two aunt's families. It has been really insightful and I hope I hear back from the emails I sent.

I did want to mention one thing I had thought about this past week and I'm not sure if it has helped my attitude about working on NFS or not. I realized that in FamilySearch Indexing I get to see some stats when I finish and then I have a sense of having accomplished something. In NFS you have no stats to compare and judge your progress by. It would be so nice if it did keep track but I don't think it ever will.

One of the things I learned, from seeing demonstrations on how genealogy programs are going to sync with NFS, is they have the ability to keep track of who you have synced with NFS and those you have not. I loved how RootsMagic had a great opening screen to give you all these stats on how many individuals were synced and those that were not, plus those needing temple work done. It probably won't be until we are able to use commercial products with NFS that we will be able to track our progress. That is going to make a world of difference.

I don't know why, but it was just insightful to me to realize why Indexing is more motivating to me. That's because I can compete against myself and keep track of my goals and stats. I just love tracking my progress when I am working on things. Realizing that NFS right now is lacking that feedback made me understand how I tick better.

I do have to say this week was different because I had a goal; to find out if my grandfather's temple work needed to be done or not. Now I'm even more psyched because I am finding living relatives. It would be major cool to somehow track my progress on NFS. I guess I could keep track of the individuals I work on. Maybe I could make a spreadsheet. I don't know if that will be beneficial or not. I have to ponder that some more. It really won't be that long before my RootsMagic will sync with NFS and keep track of my stats for me. The future sure looks bright....but I want it now!

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