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!

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 9

The way things have been going for me I should just say I'm going to write my New FamilySearch Tree Sagas articles on Saturdays. Either that or I am way procrastinating doing this every week. I just haven't found the perfect day like Sundays are for FamilySearch Indexing.

I did received one comment on my article last week since I was wondering if there was anything new in NFS after it was down for maintenance.

Yes, there is something new in NFS this week. If you try to merge two people who are above some record limit recently established and not elaborated upon, you get the error "These records could not be combined for the following reason: the combined record would be too big". Oh great. Now we will CERTAINLY have duplication, as if it wasn't causing enough already. From what I can see, if there are already around 100 records merged, you can't add any more... no way to get around it. Wow. What will they come up with next?
Shoebox Genealogy

I actually think that the limit, as to how many individuals you can now combine into one file, was added the build before this last one. I just think some people are coming across this challenge for the first time now.

I found further information on the combining limitations on FHCNET. This is in response to someone mentioning, while trying to combine some duplicates, that they got this screen saying that they can't be combined because the file would be too large.

This refers to a change made in the .93 service pack. It makes it impossible to combine records if the resulting record would contain more than 80 records. When you try such a merge, you get the standard "Merge failed" screen with an error message explaining that the resulting record would be too large. Will be fixed in the future.

Why might records not be combined? (272faq0460)
Why might records not be combined?
In the new FamilySearch, records cannot be combined for the following reasons:

You may not be able to combine records if one of the individuals is still alive. If you were allowed to combine these records, then the individual's record would be treated as if he or she were living. Only users who are directly related to the individual would be able to see the record. This might prevent you or the original contributor from seeing it. Some individuals' records have restrictions that limit the types of changes that can be made or who can make changes.
These restrictions may prevent you from combining the records.

• You cannot combine two records that came from Church membership records.
• You cannot combine records if one individual is male and the other is female.
• You cannot combine records if the combined record would be too large.
  

If you find an individual with two Church membership records, see How do I combine the duplicate records if an individual has two Church membership records?

If the new FamilySearch could not combine the records for any other reason, click the Feedback button, and request that a system administrator combine the records for you. In your message, include the following information:

The name and Person Identifier of each individual whose information needs to be combined. It is also helpful if you can include information such as a birth date or birthplace. The reason the new FamilySearch said that the information could not be combined. The reason you believe the information should be combined.

"merrillmount"

I believe "merrillmount" is Merrill White that works for FamilySearch. I have also heard of people getting this notice when trying to combine records on individuals with over 200-300 records already in their file. The reason you see such large files is because those records had been combined before the limitation went into effect.

It was necessary to put these limitations in place until a successful resolution could be worked out on trying to uncombine records for "IOUS" individuals of usual size. It was just a nightmare for people trying to uncombine these records when the wrong individuals had been placed in there incorrectly.

I haven't hit anyone in my file yet that had reached the size restriction in combining. But my last couple to work on, on my four generation sheet, is my great-grandparents Leroy Leander Harris and Alice Clare Osberg. Now this is the couple that my second cousins are descended from also. That means I might have more duplicate records now. Let the fun begin!

For my great-grandfather I just had two records to combine for him. Then I looked at how many combined records were in his file and there was 17. Definitely not anywhere near the limit. I did find a new "relative" that had contributed information. Their ID is Hawkins Deborah Ann1 [dhawkins916047]. Since it would allow me to claim the submission it must mean that Deborah hasn't had access to NFS yet. I wonder who this relative could be? There is also a pkubricky that is contributing information. I know this family but am unsure who is going by "P" on that line.

It appears that Deborah Ann Hawkins has contributed the wrong death year for my great-grandfather. She has the day right. I wasn't sure if I wanted to dispute her information. So I just decide to make sure mine is notated correctly. I will just check back later to see if she claims her submission. Then I can email her and discuss the date with her. For now I am fine just setting the summary information to show the correct information.

I notice that under my great-grandmother's information she has 3 more additional spouses listed. They all appear to be my great-grandfather. When I go under my great-grandfather's records it doesn't have any more duplicates for him. When I look more in depth with the advanced possible duplicates they are not listed on the first page. Since he is still showing that he needs temple work I have to find those duplicates and merge them. I also notice on my pedigree chart that my great-grandparents still have the duplicate star icon there.

At first I am at a loss why I can't find the duplicates. Then I remember Merrill White's comment on FHCNET that I quoted earlier. Sure enough as I look over the duplicate spouses for my great-grandmother all three are living. They had no information for birth or death listed. The system didn't know that my great-grandfather was born in 1879 and died in 1965. I had to go into each duplicate spouse and bump my grandfather off three times. Then he is noted as deceased and can be combined. The reason I saw these duplicate living spouses is because my name is attached as the contributer - even though they mainly came from my Dad's records.

That made for a lengthy session for me tonight. It's time for bed so I will pick up with combining the children next week. At least I got to experience something new and it's been an adventure.

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 8

I wasn't stuggling to get on New FamilySearch this week. I was just super busy. Late this afternoon I started to transcribe the minutes from the last UVPAFUG monthly meeting. All day I've been wondering if I could squeeze in my New FamilySearch time. It hits 9pm and the minutes are not finished. Soooooooooo, I stop what I am doing just to get into NFS. I am really curious to see what the new updates were since maintenance Sunday and Monday.

On the main page where you sign in there is a link off to the right that says "Click here to view a list of recent updates to the new FamilySearch" I was disappointed to find that no new announcements are there. It still has the updates from 19 May 2008. Well, maybe I will stumble upon the new enhancements while I work on my family members.

Last week I found my grandmother's middle name was Lavina on NFS. I had called my father to confirm it was in fact correct information and it is. WAHOO!! new data. I do wonder why in all these years I've never asked my father that question before? I think I even had only "L" for my grandmother's middle initial when I interviewed her back when I was a kid. She told me the story of her premature birth. Everyone had given up hope on her survival but her aunts. They kept her in the oven and feed her drops of brandy. She was so tiny you could put a tea cup on her head. Boy, have I got to get those tapes digitized SOON!

Because I am thinking about my grandmother Sarah Lavina Miller I decide to work on her parents and siblings tonight. Donald Carlton Miller and Ella Spinning. I have an interesting situation with my great-grandmother Ella Spinning. She was born illegitimate so my father had her sealed to her grandparents instead of her mother. Years later I had her sealed to her birth parents. Now I get to see the mess that is causes sealing children to their grandparents. I also found someone working on that line wapblair2043184. I have no idea how I might be related to that person. They appear to not have claimed their submission on NFS yet.

I had to go a couple generations back to get all the combining of parents done so I could work out Ella Spinning's relationship to her parents and grandparents. I was hoping it would let me change the relationship to her grandparents and note it as a sealing line. But, wapblair2043184, had contributed that information and I couldn't edit it. So I just disputed the relationship to her grandparents as her parents and then put a note as to why. It was rather an interesting process to work on that.


The above graphic is hard to read but you can make out the two little crossed out circles in the middle, next to Ella Spinning's name. This shows her relationship to her parents (grandparents) is disputed. I'm actually OK with this. My note and the symbols explain the situation. It doesn't look like her mother is her sister anymore. If someone would bother to look at the "Other Parents" listed then they can see the correct information for her.


See, I think this is all fine for me. I really wouldn't want her to be removed from her grandparents family because this is a sealing line. In the eternities she might decide she wants to be with them and not her parents that never married. She has the option to choose which family she will belong to in the next life and I wanted to make sure it was available to her. I just want NFS to also show her correct blood line.

Some of the things I found interesting tonight were:

• I have census events on some of my records. I must of submitted them with their personal records when I processed the names for the temple. I was surprised that carried over.
• I found some old notes that must of been off my Dad's family group sheets that he submitted to Ancestral File. It was under my name with my Dad's id next to it. It was one of the legacy contributions that I claimed. So it wasn't until today that I realized I should of been looking under individual and family notes to see what had been submitted previously to the Church. I could of been missing a gold mine by now. I wish they had put some type of flag next to the notes to make you realize they contained something. I had just assumed they were blank up until this point.

I'm still not sure if I have stumbled upon anything new in NFS. It didn't appear to be working any faster either. Well, it's past my bedtime and I have a full day ahead.

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 7

It's Saturday and once again I am struggling to motivate myself to work in New FamilySearch. I don't know what the deal is but I really want to develop this habit. As fate would have it I am not feeling well today. I think my body is just worn out from driving my husband to work in Salt Lake this week. I had to leave every afternoon when I normally take my four hour nap each day. (I have fibromyalgia) Then I would have to go pick him up and leave the house around 10:30pm. Making bedtime about midnight, which is not good when you get up early in the morning to go to work. After a week of this I couldn't get out of bed today until 3:30pm, well into the afternoon. Thank goodness the only thing on my plate today was to work in NFS.

On June 13th I put in a request to claim my father's (who is still living) legacy contribution. It only took 6 days to have this request honored. I was rather impressed on how fast a turn around that was. So this is my first time working on my father's side of the family.

My grandfather Marshall Harris has two different birth dates in my personal genealogy database. I was curious to see who add which dates. Was it me or my father? I have sources in my genealogy database but on some early records I typed them from my father's group sheets and wasn't sure if I had made a transcription error on the dates. I could see that somewhere along the line my father had submitted two different birth dates to the Church on his father. So it would depend on which of my father's family group sheets I got the wrong information from.

I think I finally have which date is correct so I was able to make my first dispute on NFS. Before I made the dispute I made sure that I had all duplicates of my grandfather combined. This made me realize that I do have close extended family members that are members of the Church. How could I of forgotten the Kubricky family? My second cousins, and my father's first cousin. Someone on that side of the family is submitting names for temple work. Could the "J" stand for my second cousin Jill? I know her sister Betsey's husband Ryan is interested in genealogy and we have spoken many times about the common line. I feel so stupid that I forget this family and how much they will be able to add to the help in working on combining duplicates on NFS. It gives me hope!

Anyways about the dispute. After I corrected all the locality names I was able to narrow down just the submission that my father and I have made. I then placed my dispute on the wrong date for my grandfather and gave an explanation of why I thought it was incorrect. I also put an explanation on the correct date and gave an explanation there. The other instances of the incorrect date were from Temple records or my cousin JKubricky. I left that instance alone so it will allow them to correct it if they so desire later.

It is amazing how quickly incorrect information can duplicate among a group of people. Just one typing error and someone can be born on a different day, month or year. Maybe now with NFS our two families will finally have the correct birth date showing for my grandfather. With leaving my own data disputed and showing the incorrect date as wrong others that might have carried on this incorrect information will be able to see the error too. The dispute feature on NFS is a great feature if you use it correctly.

I read this advise about disputing on a mailing list:

In the training I received in Salt Lake we were told not to do disputes because the original submitter can't change the information until all the disputes are removed. We were told to add another opinion instead, saves a lot of work for everyone later on.

That said I can't see anything wrong in disputing your own information so you can let others see which family falsehood or traditions are in error. Then it will stop anyone from adding the wrong information into the program. We should read the notes on the facts before adding a bunch of disputes or new information. It just might let us know our information could be wrong. Disputing correctly dispels errors.

What if you want to dispute a person in the family. Here is what one mailing list member mentioned about that.

I wish there was a list of "don't do's this will cause problems for engineers" ... I just learned we should not dispute an individual unless we are ABSOLUTELY SURE they don't exist. If they are in our family and don't belong ... we should dispute the relationship.

I haven't run into that problem yet but I am glad for the heads up and I am passing it along to you.

Now that I realize I have cousins with information on NFS it almost makes me want to add them as living people. This issue of adding living people to NFS has been discussed on the message board recently. This is the advice on this subject.

The official policy is that we not add living individuals to the new FamilySearch except as necessary to bridge ourselves to our deceased ancestors.

Go to (legacy) FamilySearch.org, select "product support" on the blue bar at the top of the page, and in the "Ask a question" window [ ] enter [add living]. The first document returned states:
- - -
Document ID: 103436: "The effects of adding living individuals to the new FamilySearch and why we shouldn't do it."

Problem: I added my living sister to the new FamilySearch, and now it shows that her ordinances need to be done. I've added living siblings to new FamilySearch twice and can't combine them. I get a read-only or restricted error.

Resolution:
New FamilySearch is a program created to bless the dead. The only time living individuals should be added is as a bridge to your first generation of deceased ancestors, if necessary. For privacy reasons, submitted information about living individuals will only be seen by the submitter, and it will often be a duplicate of records that are already contained in the new familysearch database. Please keep the data about your living family in your genealogy management program on your own computer.

That is excellent advice so I didn't add my cousins and link us all together. I already do have them in my personal genealogy database.

I moved from my grandfather's birth information to his death information once again there was inaccurate information. I don't know why my father put that his dad died in Queensbury, Warren, NY when he died in the Glens Falls Hospital in Glens Falls. I fixed the contributions from myself and my father's information. Which is showing with my name on it. I was able to fix this error and make a note of where he died. My cousins information is incorrect but I am hoping they will look into the note I placed under the right locality name and then correct theirs. Of course my cousins received their incorrect information from my father to being with.

I am so glad I waited until I had the ability to claim and then edit my father's legacy contribution. There was much to correct. The details look rather messy on my grandfather because of all the various dates and locality names. Some of which I can't correct. I am so glad I could set the summary screen for him with all the accurate information.

I was almost going to jump over the screen on my grandfather's record for spouse and children. I figured since all of my father's sibling are living and not members of the Church their information would not be there. I was surprise to find them all there. It must be because both my father and I gave that information to the Ancestral File and that contribution is linked to me. When I looked at my father's record it had a link under contributors to request a correction to his Church Membership record. Now that was a new one. I looked at all the records of my family members that are LDS and saw they have the same link. You just don't find it on those that weren't members during their life time. Which are the majority of the people in my database.

To finish up my project tonight I worked on my grandmother Sarah L. Miller's record. I found that unknown4470317 contributed her middle name. I never had her middle name only an inital. I kept meaning to ask my father what it was. It says Lavina is her middle name. I added it to my personal genealogy program. Since unknown4470317 is a contributor to information on Ancestral File or Pedigree Resource file and generic and non-claimable I can't determine who submitted it.

As I worked my way around my grandmother's file, cleaning up localities I found that my sister Brenda's id was listed as a contributor. I forgot that she had submitted that. I think it's the only temple work she has ever submitted. Her daughter did the baptism for my grandmother after she died. Then my parents came out to the temple there in Toronto to have my mother do the endowment while my sister was going through the temple for the first time and getting sealed to her husband. It was such a great time. I need to call my sister and have her claim her legacy contribution. Maybe I can convince her to help work on combining while I'm at it.

Well, I've learned a lot about my family and new FamilySearch tonight. I am calling it quits for another week. Don't forget that this Sunday and Monday the NFS site will be down for maintenance. I hope whatever changes they do to the systems helps it move a little faster.

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 6

It's been like pulling teeth this week to make myself get on New FamilySearch. I don't know why? Maybe I'm lazy or maybe the site is so slow it doesn't seem appealing to work on it. I transcribed the minutes to the UVPAFUG May meeting on New FamilySearch Synchronization Options: with Ancestral Quest, Family Insight and RootsMagic and I think I'm spoiled now. You can read the full minutes here.

The minutes are great but you really need to SEE the demonstration. The DVD presentation of this meeting is available to members on DVDs #142 & 143. It is interesting to watch and see how three different companies have decided to present their ability to sync with NFS. All have a different flavor and I am sure everyone will find one method to their liking. Legacy wasn't there because they were in the middle of rolling-out Legacy 7 and they had not prepared anything for NFS yet.

Here is a little synopsis of what I think.

Ancestral Quest - Gaylon Findlay has developed massive amounts of screens to show massive amounts of data. Appeared to be the most comprehensive but also the most complicated. You can use his program with your current PAF database or with Ancestral Quest. Ancestral Quest is 95% PAF anyways - with some enhancements that were sorely needed in PAF.

FamilyInsight - Which is the successor to PAF Insight was developed by John Vilburn. John has delivered his NFS sync using the same layout that PAF Insight users are familiar with. If you have used PAF Insight I think FamilyInsight will be very intuitive for you to use. He also has a neat freebie tool that he will be making available to everyone on his website called "GetMyAncestors". I think of it as the NFS way of making a GEDCOM, without the GEDCOM. You can download information off of NFS, way cool! Then I found out the other developers have the same feature but you have to buy their program to use it. Great marketing tool John!

RootsMagic - Now this is the one I was most interested in. Most of you know I switched to RootsMagic because I had this feeling it would interface better with NFS than all the others. I like how Bruce Buzbee's brain works. Lots of information in very uncluttered screens and very user friendly to boot. RootsMagic has "FamilySearch Central" where you can see in one easy snapshot all the stats you want to know about NFS and your database. Just loved that! It seemed to work faster than the other programs did too. I asked Bruce about his screens for notes and sources and he said they weren't ready for prime time yet but he will have them. RootsMagic did appear to be the most logically laid out and the easiest to use.

Now that I had a taste for what was coming, in working with new FamilySearch, it is so hard to go back to just working in NFS alone. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled but I will try to overcome that.

The first thing I noticed when I logged into NFS was this notice:

New FamilySearch will be down for maintenance on June 29th and 30th 2008.

I have to remember that because I like to work on NFS on Monday evenings. Which by the way I haven't done for several weeks now and we are into week 6 already. I'm working on being flexible, what can I say.

Last week I had submitted a request to claim my father's (who is living) legacy contribution. I haven't had a response back yet on that. It did say it could take 4-6 weeks and it really hasn't been a week yet so I'm not too surprised there.

I also put in a suggestion last week that they show my contributor information instead of just my name on the legacy contribution I claimed of my mother. I had this comment on my blog regarding that suggestion.

It is a known error that claimed submissions do not have any contact info. They are working on that.
Anonymous

Thanks Anonymous, it's nice to know they are working on that.

I had also thought very excitedly last week that I had a new found relative on NFS. I emailed Bill Stephens and found out he was the FamilySearch Support missionary helping me work on the issues I had with my chosen summary listing showing correctly. He didn't cover his tracks so that's why his name was appearing. I was so disappointed that he wasn't that long lost member relative I had dreamed of.

So with all this I did get onto NFS tonight and work on my family. I decided that since I don't have my rights to my father's legacy contribution I would continue to work on my mother's line for now. There went my theory to print out a four generation pedigree chart and work on everyone on it before preceding to a new pedigree chart. Being flexible can really get tiring when your a very organized person to a fault.

I worked mainly on my Bentley/Scranton line. I did notice while looking at possible duplicates some potential relatives that I need to look at closer. Every time I get in NFS I find something new to look into a little further. I gives me great research ideas while going over my families.

I found no knew bugs or any feedback that I needed to submit. It felt like I was moving around faster in the program. I don't know if it was the internet, FamilySearch, or that I'm getting more familiar with things. Kind of picking up a rhythm. I also found one little short cut that appears to be helping. Instead of looking at all the contributors under each event I just look at the contributor of the sex for the individual. That seems to give me everyone that contributed anything on the file in the old databases. I'm sure there are times it won't but it was accurate tonight. That is saving me time. Unfortunately I still seem to be the lone voice submitting work on that line. Maybe someday soon I will find a living kindred spirit out there.

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 5

I received a copy of President Hinckley's photo and quote that used to be on New FamilySearch's sign-in page. Thanks so much Joyce. I was trying to add it to this article but some reason it was just coming out fuzzy. I suspect it's operator error. Here is the quote.

"From the very beginning of this Church, its members have been under religious obligation to identify their ancestors."

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Another reader "Momklip" sent me the link to where you can see it, click here. It's on a Family History Consultant website, and now that I've posted the link I'm sure someone at FamilySearch will note the "error" and change it.

In last week's article I wrote about how I standardized a place in the detail view and then changed it to the corrected locality in the summary view. I found out that when I left the summary view and then later returned back it would go back to what I originally had listed and not the corrected version. It wouldn't stick in the summary view. I sent an inquiry to support to see what was going on.

That night even before I got off my computer I had a reply from someone at FamilySearch support. I decided to read it in the morning and reply to it. The person helping me was trying to have me change it in the details, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was changing it in the summary view to what I had in the details. Anyways to try and make a long story short after two phone calls and several attempts to fix the problem, all we succeeded in doing was making me have my name listed three times as the submitter of the same event information instead of twice as before. I feel like it's tied up somehow to my mother's legacy contribution that was changed to my name.

I did finally get an answer to support on the issue.

Document ID: 102972
new FamilySearch: Different information appears in the "Summary" view than in the "Details" view
Instructions for Area Support
Please thank the patron and let him or her know that the engineers are aware of this problem. Then close the case.
Problem
When you view the available items to set as the default Summary view, the same items don't appear in the Details view.
Resolution
This is a known issue and has been reported to the engineers.

So the bottom line - I've experienced my first bug with the system. At least it was only standardizing the locality name and nothing earth shattering.

Here is the reply I received concerning my name being listed twice, well three times now as a submitter on the same event.

Dear Sister Zamora
Thank you for contacting family search support.
You have a good question. I am sure you are right that when you took over your mothers legacy that put you in twice because each submission will put the contributor in. The engineers are trying very hard to update this wonderful program and the only way to make it better is feed back from us as missionaries and you as a patron user. May I suggest that you submitt a feedback to the engineers as I feel that is a good suggestion to combine the contributors if they are the same individual. At this point each entry has a submittor or contributor and that is why you are listed twice and maybe they will not feel combining is necessary but it would be nice to know.
I will also bring this up at our meeting that we have each week as well.
Good luck and thank you for helping us make the system work better
Respectfully
hsb

First thing I did tonight was find my grandfather's event that had me now listed three times as the submitter and give a feedback/suggestion to merge my contributor information together.

This past week I wrote my dad and asked him if I could claim his legacy contribution since he no longer does genealogy. He was very happy to have me claim it. I was able to find three different contributor ids for my dad and I put in a request to claim each of them. I wonder how long it will take to claim a living individual's legacy contribution? It says 4-6 weeks but it was only a couple of days to claim mine or my deceased mom's contribution. I will report back when I receive word on my request. I also wonder if on my grandfather's death information if I will be listed four times as the contributor since my dad contribution is there too.

I did get one surprise while I was looking over the submitters on my grandfather's record. Someone has claimed their legacy contribution and now I have an email address to contact them. The contributors name is Bill Stephens so I emailed him. It would be great if I found some long lost cousin that is a member of the Church. WAHOO! that means someone else will be working with me to clean up the files on my family.

Speaking of someone working with me I realized all week that my name will be all over the place on mine, my mother's and now my father's contributions. That means I really do need to do all this combining myself because I can actually edit my own stuff. If you were a previous contributor to databases on FamilySearch then you have a big job ahead of you. I guess my family could help but if they need to edit anything they would need me to go in there and make the changes. Well at least I have one potential partner in crime now.

Oops, I found on my great-grandmother Bentley's birth record myself listed as a contributor with my contact information and then me listed again with my mother's id information right after my name. But, it doesn't give my contact information. Is it suppose to be that way? I sent off a feedback to find out why. I really want to make sure that my contact information is available since I took over my mother's legacy contribution.

Well, it's time now to call it a night. I started over 4 hours ago. I did a lot of looking for my dad's contributor ids to claim. I have also done a little combining on my great grandparents Charles Bentley & Emmeline Green's family. Then of course standardizing all those localities. There is hardly a one that has come through as it should have. That Ancestral File submission of mine was soooooooooo many years ago and before I fixed all my localities. Now I have to go back in and correct them again! This is going to take me a lifetime. I'm off to bed for now.

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 4

This article was almost not written. I lost valuable time this week with the upgrade to a newer computer. Thankfully that is completed, I was actually finished with the re-installation of programs and the tweaking of settings Wednesday evening. But, Thursday was my UVPAFUG board meeting and Friday was my shift at the Family History Center. Today I have spent all day reading all my past emails and getting caught up on the recent news on the genealogy scene.

Since I am still in the developmental stage of creating this habit; to work on my family in New FamilySearch, I just had to find time to work on it. Once again, thankfully, it is Saturday and technically I will have worked on my family in NFS this week. I like Monday evenings best, but sometimes we have to be flexible.

The first thing I noticed this week before I even signed in to NFS is that President Gordan B. Hinckley's picture was missing off the sign-in page. I'm not sure when that changed but this was the first time I noticed President Thomas S. Monson's photo there instead. It has his quote

"I testify that when we do all we can to accomplish the work that is before us, the Lord will make available to us the sacred key needed to unlock the treasure which we so much seek."

I don't know it just made me sad to see President Hinckley missing from the site. It was through his inspired direction that this whole project was undertaken. Now I wonder what his quote used to say. I know we are equally guided through President Monson. It was just one of those moments that signals things have now changed.

Speaking of change last week when I was working on my family in NFS I put in a request to have my mother's legacy contribution change to my name. I put the request in on the 27th and on the 29th I received the follow email.

Dear Sister Zamora,

We have received your request to claim the legacy contribution of your deceased relative as yourself. Your relationship and the death information have been validated and the request has been approved. All of the contributions with the id of 'aharris684130' in newFamilySearch have been switched to you and have your new registration id as contributor. You should now be able to edit those legacy records.

Thank you for using new FamilySearch. You do not need to respond to this email unless you have further questions.

Sincerely,
Family History Support

I think that was pretty good turn around time.

All week long I kept having this thought come into my mind. You better put a note on mom's brother Rachel's file that he is a male child. I really hadn't looked closely to see if he was even listed as a male child when I worked on that family earlier. So first thing I did when I signed on was take a look. Yup, he's still a male. I noted the fact that he is a male child on his record. I have always been fascinated with his name and I really need to send away for his birth or death certificate.

I found a note in my mother's papers after she died that had the name Horathio on it and it made me wonder if Rachel could be short for Horathio. Rachel was only 2 1/2 yrs old when he died from drinking carbolic acid, which they used to treat their horses and cattle. I have always thought it weird that after having three girls in a row that my grandparents would name their first born son Rachel. I've never even heard of another male children named Rachel. Then again Johnny Cash used to sing about the "Boy Named Sue". I guess you never know the reason why with some people.

Sometimes on NFS you will run across individuals with the same name and info but listed twice once as a male and then as a female. Happily my uncle isn't one of them. You can't combine a male or female together because they are of the opposite sex. I know it annoyed me in the beta test when I would come across that. FamilySearch isn't going to correct that either. That is because they do not want to have repeated ordinances done for people even if incorrectly identified with the wrong sex.

What if someone later on see's my uncle with the name Rachel and goes "Oh my gosh they had his work done as male!" Then they would resubmit him as a female and redo the ordinances incorrectly. First I hope they read the note that he's a male child. If someone ignores that and still has his work done as a female than I would just dispute the female's information and put my note on it why it's incorrect.

Here is what FamilySearch Supports says about this matter:

"The record for _______ showing the incorrect gender was submitted by more than one individual, including a submission for temple ordinance work. This ordinance work is invalid but in order to prevent anyone else from submitting the name with the wrong gender and duplicating the ordinance work, the incorrect record will remain in New FamilySearch. By adding a dispute to the record with the incorrect gender it indicates to others that the information is wrong. We hope this explanation will help you understand the reason the records with the incorrect gender will remain in New FamilySearch."

Disputes and notes are wonderful features I am so glad they were designed into NFS. It's just to bad you can't flag a person's notes so someone will actually go in there and read them before they combine or redo ordinances with different names or sex. It would be nice if you could put a post-em on the record like you can on RootsWeb Worldconnect.

I guess I could always enter Rachel a female child into my grandparent's family and then dispute it. That would definitely be a good "flag". If in addition to that if I reserved the female's name for temple work and just never did it, no one else would be able to either. My luck would be I would accidentally submit the female Rachel's ordinance work unknowingly. Wouldn't I have mud on my face then! Another option is to make a small GEDCOM of this fictitious female Rachel and put some kind of note in the ordinance fields. Then when it's upload and put into the proper family the ordinances would say "completed" even though it's not and not let anyone do the work. Sometime these little bugs in NFS have some great benefits.

What did I do for my uncle Rachel? I just left him with a note saying he was a male child. In the mean time I need to get some birth or death records to verify that really is his name or not. It could be a nickname for all I know. I will just watch the record but it's not likely that my family will submit the name for temple work incorrectly, they are not interested.

I wrote to all my family members after my article last week.

Dear Family,

I am wondering if there are any budding genealogist in our family that might be interested in working with me on our family line? The Church is coming out with a new program called New FamilySearch and I could really use some help in cleaning up the old records of our family on there. Any takers?

I don't know if it made me feel better or not but no one responded. Well my Dad did respond to let me know he was sending me more of his genealogy papers because he is down-sizing his home and getting rid of everything. YIPEE? The other was my sister-in-law that I showed NFS during beta to. My only thought there was who's going to do her family's combining if she is working on my line? So, I guess I haven't been intimidating or putting off any would be genealogist in my family, they just aren't interested. Well, I guess at least not yet!

While working in NFS I didn't actually do any combining. I went through the work I had previously viewed and made sure that I had all the information correct. I was able to edit my mother's old submissions which was very satisfying. While working on my great-grandmother Harriett (Hattie) Hewitt I actually discovered that I had her burial date on her obituary. I was so disappointed when I received the obituary and found that it didn't list her parents names that I never realized it had the burial date on it. This is beginning to be a great review of my files since I am comparing everything. I guess it is helpful after all to have the system be so slow. I gives you time to look things over better.

My great aunt Flora has a daughter Blanche Irene Darling. I have Blanche's birthday, 27 Aug 1915, but no other information, i.e. when she died or who she married. There is another Blanche Darling in my database, which I have no birthday for, just an estimated birth of 1920. I know she married a Charles Weatherwax. I have always wondered if they are the same individual. In looking over my records I realized that since I have my great-aunt Flora's death date of 1 Feb 1982 that I could look up her obituary and see if it mentions who Blanche married in it. See this NFS and it's slowness is really giving me time to reflect and go over my records and come up with further research materials to look into.

I submitted one issue with the system tonight. I edited in the details the locality name for the death of my grandfather John Henry Weatherwax, Jr. [KFT1-VJC]. When I looked back in the summary it has not changed to reflect this correction. I cannot see anyway to make it reflect these changes even though I have gone in to change it in the summary. Since I had set the summary before making the changes I guess it's just all mixed up now. It's not really a big problem. I only standardizing the locality name. When I look at the contributors of the information I see my name added twice in there. I must of been mine and also my mother's submission. I guess they don't merge the contributors together after you take over a legacy contribution. I am curious to see what FamilySearch's response will be. And that is how I leave New FamilySearch for the week.

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 3

In less than 24 hours after requesting to claim my legacy contribution on New FamilySearch I received the following email.

Dear Renee Zamora:

This is an automated response to your recent request to claim a legacy contribution. New FamilySearch provides an opportunity to claim ownership of information that was previously submitted to Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, and temple submissions made prior to the release of New FamilySearch.

Your request for contributions with the Contributor ID "rzamora5528634" has been granted.

The New FamilySearch records affected by this notice have already been updated and have your new registration ID as contributor. You should now be able to edit those records.

Thank you for using New FamilySearch. We wish you success and satisfaction in your personal family history efforts.

Sincerely,
FamilySearch Support

Originally I was told it would take 4-6 weeks for it to be approved, so less than 24 hours is fantastic. Last week I also had questions on who contributor unknown4470317 was. I appreciate Christie's comments on my blog post telling me more about that contributor.

Oh and I just checked right now because I thought unknown4470317 sounded familiar. Yup. I've seen it on my lines, too. So plugged that number in the search box in the Help Center and got the following:

Document ID: 101836
new FamilySearch: Temple records show "unknown 4470317" for the contributor name
Problem

Cannot claim "unknown 4470317" as a contributor for legacy products.

Resolution

Instead of a contributor's name, you may see "unknown 4470317" if the information was submitted before current electronic record-keeping methods were in place (the code may also have been used in processing the information for temple ordinances).

"Unknown 4470317" appears if we do not have enough information to accurately identify the contributor or if the contributor does not have a contact name in our database. The code was created to track this type of submission. An "unknown 4470317" submission may not be claimed.

We have received your request to claim a legacy contribution as yourself. Unfortunately, that switch cannot be made. The ID "unknown 4470317" is a generic contact name used on thousands of temple records during a time when contributors' names were not being preserved. If the change you have requested were to be made, you would become the contact for all those temple records. However, you can add another opinion or dispute any wrong information in any of these records. You will not be able to edit any record with the "unknown 4470317" contributor name. Thank you for using the new FamilySearch.

Posted by Christie

It's just great getting feedback from those that have traveled the road before me and are now helping me out. Edith Neville also left me a post giving us directions on how to tile two window screens side by side.

To have 2 windows open side by side, you can R click on the task bar at the bottom of your computer, (a small window comes up). Click on Tile Windows Vertically. This tiles them side by side beautifully. Just be sure you only have 2 windows on the screen. Others can be open but minimized.

Posted by Edith Neville

If you want to see a visual demonstrated on how to use split screens you can go to John Willis' site www.masteringfamilyhistory.com and view his video on that.

Thanks for the tip, keep them coming. Speaking of tips, Alan Jones on the LDSFHCConsultants Mailing List came up with a handout with several wonderful tips for NFS. With his permission I have it reprinted and published in Google Doc's for everyone to take advantage of. The link is: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dsdztvf_0vvd9xtfm . I will add a direct link to it on the main page of my blog for easy reference.

One of the first things I did when I got onto new FamilySearch was to look up my mother's family and find her contributor id. Once located I put in a claim for the legacy contribution. My mother died in 1999 and I am the only one in the family working on our genealogy. I explained that to them. Now I wonder how long it will take for that request to be granted? I really need to talk to my father about claiming his legacy contribution since he no longer does genealogy. It's funny how my whole family thinks I can do all this genealogy stuff by myself. I'm really hoping that they will get on NFS, since their temple districts are now live, and catch the genealogy bug.

While I was working tonight on my family I was surprised to find out that I only have my great great grandfather Weatherwax's year of death and not his death certificate. It is really great that NFS makes you re-examine the information that you have. I really need to order my gg grandfather's death certificate now. He died in 1925 and New York should have a record of it by then.

While I continued going over this gg grandfather's family I found children without their temple work done - YIKES!! How did I over look them? I think I will have to experiment with reserving names for the temple.

I am having a really difficult time staying on my task of combining all the records for my direct line ancestors. I want so badly to add to and correct information on this old research. I know that as you combine records previously missing information might fill in the blanks. In this family I worked on tonight they didn't have any duplicates to combine.

It makes me wonder if I am being pulled so badly in this direction to correct things that maybe I need to explore going that avenue. My sister-in-law had so much fun combining people when I showed her NFS during the beta test. That really could be a good thing to have my family work on and I could clean up the details. Half of me thinks - but they might mess it up! Get real Renee, they have to catch the genealogy spirit somehow. I wonder if nobody in my family works on this with me because I don't share very well? It really has been all mine to work on. That could be possibly true, but then again I've never had any of them express an interest in our genealogy other than getting names to take to the temple. Ouch, maybe I have to re-examine motives and methods here.

As I am working through the lines it is taking forever to go over just one name. But if I just stayed with one person and fixed their records and made them correct then I could check them off my list. It just takes so long to move around in the system you might as well just visit these people once and not keep going over them multiple times. I think what I will do is finish my initial pedigree chart with only four generations on it. Then I will come back and work on all the descendants of that four generations and add and correct as I go over them again. Once I feel that sheet is done then I can plan to move on.

I really should give my siblings a call and see if I can assign them some work to do on this massive project. Well I'm doing a lot of thinking out loud here. Anyone with suggestions please feel free to comment. We are kind of learning this together after-all.

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 2

It's Monday night and me and my ancestors are meeting up on new FamilySearch. I am still into developing this new habit and I have done nothing but think about it all week. I was trying to work out in my mind just exactly how I am going to keep track and delve into this humongous combining project.

When I finally signed into NFS tonight I had this thought pop into my mind. I had heard that once a family history consultant had access to NFS that all the training materials were available there for them and they don't need to sign into Net Dimension. At first I couldn't find the materials, I knew I should have a special tab, but then I realized it was in the Help Center and not on the main page. The tab is called "Training & Resources". I went under the E-learning Courses and I received the following message:

"The Internet Learning System has found an account that was created for you when you completed the Family History Consultant registration survey".

It listed my name with the user names I used on Net Dimensions. I clicked yes that that was me. It took a few minutes and then I had this message:

"Great! The training history from your previous account is now connected with this new account. From now on, you must come through the Help Center in the new FamilySearch to view your online training (just as you are doing right now).
Thank You!

Then this popped up.

You have been automatically enrolled in new modules. Please review your current course listing on this page for this new information.

Now I was finally into the new training materials. I could see a new link "The New FamilySearch". It said: "This training course instructs family history consultants and FamilySearch Support missionaries how to use and support the new FamilySearch. For printable handouts, click the following link."

I didn't click the link I was just "looking". I found that they have the video presentations made at the Family History Consultant Fireside held on Thursday, 8 Nov 2007 at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. I didn't get to attend that one so I will later take the time to watch the video. These are neat tools. I'm sure I will make use of them now. For some reason I was really bad about going to Net Dimensions to do any of the training before.

I couldn't resist and I finally clicked on the New Family Search materials. It says it's a 4-5 hour course. It's broken down into smaller lessons but wow that must be a lot of material to take that long. I will definitely come back and go over that. Since I've answered that question that popped into my mind it was now time to get back to working on my family.

I say my family and I know that isn't the right mindset. New FamilySearch is not just my family it's our family, everyone's family. I just have to make sure that my ancestors and their descendants are included in it.

As I tried to go back to the main page I had four windows I had to close just to get out of the training materials. Wow, it would of been nice to not have it open so many windows. Well, at least I don't have to click the back button. I don't know just me mumbling I guess. Not sure which would of made me happy.

See Me and My Ancestors is the page I want to start on. I've been thinking about this all week and this is my plan of attack.

1. Open up my personal genealogy software database so I can make sure I am combining the right people.
2. Resize the NFS and the genealogy database screens so half is side by side. That way I can "see" everything better. I was pleased that NFS resized so I can see the details without having the scroll left to right to view everything.
3. Print out a four generation pedigree chart from my personal genealogy database so I can keep track of where I have been and where to start.
4. Work my way combining starting a generation at a time. This would mean I need to work on my grandparents. I heard it is best to combine the parents, then do the children. So I started to look at my mother's parents just because I was there last time.
5. I am not going to get bogged down in all the details. I just want to combine right now. My siblings are going to get into this sooner than later and I want them to see their lines and get excited. I will work on adding details later. I am building the skeleton and will add flesh on the bones later.
   

I couldn't resist I am sidetracked and wondering who contributor unknown4470317 is? Could that be my mother's submission? She is deceased should I claim it as my legacy submission? It only says it was submitted by LDS Church Temple Records then it notes: This contributor submitted information to either Ancestral File (AF) or the Pedigree Resource File (PRF). If you are the person, you can Declare This Legacy Contributor as Yourself. I decide to note the contributor id and watch it and see if I can determine if it is mine or my mothers submission. I changed my mind I decide to see if the same id is on my father's parent's records and it is. So it might be my Dad's submission. I need to make some phone calls before I claim this legacy as mine own. I will give Family History Support a call tomorrow and find out how you determine who the submission was submitted by.

It's already getting late and I haven't combined a single person yet - YIKES!! I know haste makes waste so I need to calm down this urge to fly through things. I decided to look at my mother's parents and instead of going onto the next generation I looked at all the children and low and behold duplicates. I didn't look at my mom's sibling last week. I also find that my aunt's duplicate is also my temple submission record for her. I can finally experience claiming a legacy submission. It's really easy just make sure you click on the link for the submitter so it will finally bring up the link so you can "Declare This Legacy Contributor as Yourself". I did so and it told me it would take 4-6 weeks for the action to occur and gave me a case number. WAHOO! this is great I actually did something.

My mother had 12 siblings so there were a lot of records to go through. I had such an urge to keep moving down my first aunt's descendants and get lost in their records. It was with great effort that I kept moving down all the siblings. It was kind of cool to see my temple submissions get combined together. It made me feel better some how. Yes, I will try to keep up this pace and work on my direct lines and make sure I combine all the children's information. I will work my way down and around the lines after I get the skeleton of the family outlined.

There is so much to do and I have to give myself a pat on the back. I was able to combine several records tonight and put in a claim for a legacy submission of mine. I guess if I hadn't stopped to look at the Family History Consultant training materials I would have been able to get to work on my father's parents. Hopefully someone out there needed to know that information. At least all father's siblings are living so it shouldn't be that hard to check off that family. Out of the 13 children on my mother's side only one of them is still living.

Well, I have another week to mull over what plan of action I should take and if I am on the right course. For now I feel good. Wish I could of done more but you do the best you can with the time that you do have. I certainly am further ahead than if I did nothing at all!

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

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 1

The time has come and a new saga begins in my life. Finally I am going to start working in new FamilySearch. I was involved in beta 1 and beta 2 but now this animal is alive and it is breathing down my neck. As I drive in my car or wake from my sleep I wonder when am I going to start and of course also write about my frustrations, pleasures and desires in working in new FamilySearch.

I found writing my weekly article on my Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing has created a beautiful habit. I wanted to move that forward and keep a chronicle of my new adventures in working on the Family Trees in NFS. My first assignment to myself was what day will I commit to working on NFS. If I don't have a set time and place it's really hard for me to develop the habit. Naturally I would love to do it on Sunday's but that's my indexing time. I have puzzled over and wondered to death on what day of the week I could commitment to working on NFS.

Monday seems to work for me. My family doesn't have Family Home Evening that night because my husband is working. Instead of working with my living family on Mondays I am going to work with my deceased family instead. In doing so I hope I can also connect to my extended family and pull us closer together and accomplish more with their help. When I finally settled on the day and sat down to begin to write I could just feel the flood gates open and my deceased family members surround me in my little computer room.

I know this article has to be written. That my saga will also become your saga and we will learn together as I wind my way around the trees. Yes, this is a big moment. I am going to place my hands on The Book of Adam's Children and leave my mark. I will be numbered among the valiant souls that labored to clean it up and make it one day presentable to the Lord. Can you not feel humbled by what you are stepping into? This is a project that is starting to be combined and I am alive to see it. In fact I feel like this combining generation is the only ones with the patience and ability to move the ancient records into the modern era. This generation has used both pen and paper and computers and knows how to make the transition. We are the chosen pioneers to embark at this epic in time.

I feel like I am marking the workings of my life with this beginning. I don't know if I will ever complete it in my life time, but then again who does ever complete their genealogy.

To begin one must sign into new FamilySearch. The website is located at http://new.familysearch.org . I don't have any figures as to how many people have access to NFS right now but at last count I have 34 temple districts live. All the Family History Center directors have access and those lucky enough to attend special classes offered by the FamilySearch department have logins. I attended a FHL class for FHCons. with the added bonus of receiving NFS access back in early Feb. That is how I received my access to NFS. It was right before the roll-out was put on hold and no one else could get access - so I was lucky. I don't know when or if those classes will resume. I will let you know when I hear word.

You have to have your membership number and confirmation date in order to login. I did this a while ago so I'm kind of rusty on the login part now.

The first thing I do when I learn something new is to visit all the tutorials available. I think it is especially important to do so when you login to NFS for the first time. You need to capture the vision. I noticed that the "Introduction to FamilySearch" that takes 10 minutes has a new "player" being used. I like the tans much cooler. It is a nice overview and I am not going to recreate it for you, you need to view it when you get access.

At the end of the introduction I realized that our FHC needs to get some headphones so patrons can listen to the introduction. All of our computers have the sound turned off so as to not disturb anyone. We really need to encourage people to listen to the tutorials so headphones would be nice. I had an older pair somewhere... I think I need to find them and make a donation.

At the end of the introduction they have two PDFs for you to read.

• Introduction to New FamilySearch - Chapter 1 in a User's Guide to the New Family Search. This is 16 pages long.
• A User's Guide to the New FamilySearch - 138 pages.

I downloaded both and have given myself the assignment to read then during the week. I know many people will skip these over but it's really important to read the directions. How long can it really take you. Think of the many hours of frustration you will avoid if you don't. Since I have some experience in NFS and have attended classes I just briefly skimmed over Chapter 1 of the User's Guide.

One thing I was trying to find was a mention or warning about making sure you create a sign-in name or contact name that you can live with. I went to the help center and found this article.

"You cannot change your sign-in name, contact name, password recovery questions, or information that came from your Church membership record, including full name, address, birth date, confirmation date, and membership record number."

I have all my contact information viewable and have my name as Renee Zamora. I've heard of some kids entering slick or cool names and then regretting them later. So a warning to you parents make sure your kids or yourself pick names that you can live with for the rest of your life. I figure my name is good enough - even if my husband died and I remarried I would probably still go with Renee Zamora since my kids are all named Zamora.

There are other helps and guides to teach you how to use NFS. I just played the one called "Help Me Get Started with Family History". After viewing it I made my first feedback/suggestion to FamilySearch.

It's short and sweet but I feel it doesn't give enough emphasis on making sure you have combined and searched for duplicated before submitting names for temple work.

Combining is the major emphasis that I will be working on in NFS. I felt like that 5 minute video missed a major point. I know FamilySearch listens to our suggestions so it's important to contribute to making it better for every one else down the line.

Now I do what I've been dying to do. I look around at the information NFS has about "Me and My Ancestors". My old Ancestral File submission has been linked to me so that makes it nice. I notice already that I submitted my children's birth places with the name of the hospital in the field. That's not how I feel it should be. The hospital name should go in the notes. WAHOO!! I could actually change my old submission stuff. Major coolness.

I realize that no one else is going to ever really see this information on my living children but me, but I am sorta playing and trying out the system. After I changed the locality to the standardized place I made sure to add the hospital in the notes and added myself as the source of the information. I remember giving birth!

It wasn't until my third and last child that I realized the flow is kind of messed up for editing an event. If you change the place and then go into add notes or sources when you come back the changes to the place are gone - unless you saved it earlier. But if you save it (hit done) then it takes you out of the edit screen and you have to re-open it to make the change. I sent a feedback on that. It's those types of little things that makes working in the system become even slower. Can you tell I like to give a lot of feedback.

My main objective was to finally see if there was anyone out there that has contributed information on my deceased mother. I could only find one other person (other than Church membership records) and I think it is my father's submission on Ancestral File. I had no combining to do for her. I looked at my grandparents and there were no duplicates for them to combine either. Well all this has taken until 11:30pm and I need to go to bed.

I will write more as I work in new FamilySearch. This is going to take me FOREVER!

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