The Latest Consultant News From FamilySearch

The following is from FamilySearch.

FamilySearch Consultant Newsletter May 2012 Welcome to the family history consultant newsletter. We’re excited to now be hosting this publication online, so you can easily access articles, see past issues, share your comments, see what others have written, and help grow the community of family history consultants and priesthood leaders. In this issue: 1940 Census Update Consultant Monthly Update Family Tree Update BillionGraves Memorial Day Opportunity Call for Research Help Story Chain New Blog Format Success Stories: Ward Family History Activity Brazilian Youth Connect Family History, Temple Work 1940 Census Update On April 2 of this year, FamilySearch, its partners, and an army of volunteers embarked on a truly remarkable effort to index the 1940 U.S. Federal Census so that the public could easily and quickly find their ancestors in this valuable census collection. Many people living today are listed in this census. For others, their parents, aunts, uncles, friends, and neighbors can be found. This census collection has long been anticipated by genealogists and the general public with great excitement. Read all about the progress of this great cause.   Consultant Monthly Survey Starting with this issue, each of the family history consultant and leader monthly newsletters will include a link to a consultant survey. We want your feedback! This month we want to know about you and your calling. Click here to take the survey. Be sure to check back next issue to see this month’s results.   Family Tree Update The Family Tree team has been really busy fixing defects and preparing for the release of several new features to help you better manage the relationships between individuals. Before we can turn those features on, we’ve got to finish the non-trivial task of moving all 1.25 billion relationships into the Family Tree. Yes, that’s over a billion! We have about 130 million left. Read more.   BillionGraves Memorial Day Opportunity This is the time of year when people around the world are focusing their attention toward remembering and honoring their loved ones who have died. As you visit the gravesites of your ancestors, why not bring your smartphone along and capture images of your loved one’s tombstones? Learn how. Call for Research Help You may not know this, but FamilySearch volunteers facilitate free research help in more than 100 online communities. These genealogy research communities have been created to help you and others researching in the same area to ask questions and receive answers, collaborate on your research, and share knowledge you have gained as you’ve done your own research in a specific area.One such example is the Ohio research page. To see all available research help projects, visit https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Join_a_Facebook_Research_Community. Join a Facebook research community today, and share your knowledge with the world!   Story Chain Our mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and neighbors found in the 1940 census are known as "the greatest generation." We all have special memories of those found in this important historical collection—now it’s time to record and archive those stories. FamilySearch is providing everyone the unique opportunity to remember and share with the world just what they feel made these people great. On this new FamilySearch site you can submit photos, scrapbook pages, stories, or links to videos and Facebook pages in their honor under the Who’s In It tab. You can also post information about How It Was living where they lived, as well as stories telling Where They Were during major events in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The power of this online experience is that you can start a family and friend “Story Chain” and invite others to join in the conversation! Read what others have written and share your stories here.   New Blog Format You may have noticed something different about the family history consultant and leader monthly newsletter—we’re now delivering it via a blog. That means we’ve created an online community where you can get ideas, share successes, and engage with others from around the world who share your same calling.  Read more here.   Success Stories Ward Family History Activity: I would like to share some insights from a family history activity that was put on by a ward. The details of this activity were shared with us by Sue Maxwell, who also posts to her own family history blog.Read the post and share your success story, too! Brazilian Youth Connect Family History, Temple Work:  The director of the family history center adjacent to the Campinas Brazil Temple started inviting visiting youth to participate in indexing when not in the temple. As a result, young people index thousands of names at the center and even more once they return home. Click here to read more.