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, 13 Sep 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 Tim Crabb on A RECORD SEARCH OVERVIEW. Record Search is the website linked on http://www.familysearch.org where the records are available that many of you are helping index through http://www.familysearchindexing.org .

This is a wealth of indexed records worldwide with millions more being added regularly. The home page has a clickable world map that will take you to a list of indexed records for that part of the world, or click on "View All Collections" to see them categorized by world location. These records include census, vital, church, and many other types, and the list shows which ones have images attached at present.

Tim Crabb is the Product Manager for Record Search in the Family and Church History Department of the LDS Church and will be describing the project. Previously Mr. Crabb worked in the high-tech industry for 17 years in many different capacities including sales, Information Technology and development, and enjoys using that experience in the exciting project of helping people find their ancestors using Record Search. For further information about Record Search you can also log onto http://labs.familysearch.org/ and Click on Record Search. The FamilySearch Labs blog, accessible from there, will keep you up to date on new developments and you'll see Tim Crabb's name there answering many questions about the project. To volunteer to help index go to the FamilySearch Indexing website shown above.

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. Searching for Completed Ordinances: IIGI and new FamilySearch, by Duane Dudley
2. LDS Databases, by Pat Andrus
3. Q&A on Record Search, by Tim Crabb
4. Individual Mentoring
5. Ancestral Quest, by Paul Johnson
6. Legacy, by Dean Bennett
7. RootsMagic, by Sue Maxwell.
   

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; Eileen Phelps, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, 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.