What is Ancestral Quest and Why You May Like It

Some people like PAF, some folks like Ancestral Quest, some like Roots Magic. All of these programs are for your personal computer and is accessed anytime...whereas new.familysearch.org is only accessed through the Internet, so you have to go online to see it.

Most people, besides storing all theirinformation on new.familysearch.org, also store it on a software program on thier own computers

You can spend hours cleaning up your information on new.familysearch.org and then go back to the site a few days or weeks later and it could have reverted back to the original messed up data. Different people are cleaning up the same files now.

Ancestral Quest is a program you can buy. You put your own information on it. It links to new.familysearch so you can do temple submissions.

http://www.ancquest.com/index.htm
The offer a free trial.
It costs 29 dollars. People I know who have this program absolutely love it.

PAF is still available as a free download from http://familysearch.org/.

If you have been using PAF, you can transfer info to Ancestral Quest.

All You Need To Know About new.familysearch.org

On Sunday, November 1, I gave a 20 minute presentation on how to use new.familysearch.org. Here is the complete text of the handout I gave out:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 November 2009
Everything You Need To Know About Family History and Temple Work

1. Names are now submitted to the temple from your home computer.

2. To do so, you need to have an account on new.familysearch.org (do not use www.)
~You will need your confirmation date and your membership number to create an account.
~You will be asked, when you create your account, to compose a username and password, which you should remember. (Write it on a card to put in your wallet or put it on your cell phone or whatever you do to save your passwords.)
~If you do not like using computers, a family history consultant can log on for you and do the data entry and temple submissions. You will still need your membership number and confirmation date. If you have no computer you can go to the Family History Center at the Apple Valley Stake Center on the corner of Ridgecrest and Bear Valley Road. Their hours are Tues through Thursday, 9am – 5pm. Fri. 9 am through 5 pm. Saturdays 10:00 am-2:00 pm (every other Saturday. Phone Number : 760-243-5632.
There are 3 Family History Consultant in our ward (Silver Lakes Ward) who are just waiting for people to call them up and ask for help! They are:
Joan Hulihan, John Hulihan (760-241-1420) and Anna Peeler (760-245-2860)
~Your membership number is on your temple recommend. The ward clerk has it also. He also has your confirmation date if you do not.
~You can write your user name and password here on this sheet for a handy reference:

new.familysearch.org
My username: _________________________My password:_______________________

3. This site has a very thorough tutorial for you to go through step-by-step on how to use new.familysearch.org to prepare names for submission. It is so clear and taught so well. There are 6 “lessons”, 10 minutes each. To do this: After you have logged on with your user name and password, and you get to the Welcome Page (hit Skip Overview to get to the Welcome page and click on Help Center, click on Training and Resources, and click on E-Learning Courses. You could also click Learn How to Use New Family Search on the Welcome page.
If you are really stumped with a problem and you can’t figure it out from all the Help pages, and the family history consultants don’t even know how to help, the church has a toll free number
(Their HOTLINE) you can call: 1-866-406-1830. The people who answer these calls really know their stuff!

Note: To begin your pedigree on new.familysearch.org, click on Skip Overview and then See Me and My Ancestors. Your name will have been automatically entered because you are a member of the church. From there you build your pedigree. Your are the main person and you start filling in your people…parents, grandparents, etc. As you type in names, the computer will search for what names the LDS church already has on its records and you will get to clean up the files and combine records so you have the most complete information now on your account.

There is a lot to learn about new.familysearch, so allow yourself time to absorb it and get used to the site. It will take time to build you pedigree, but once you have all the information put in, it is so easy to request temple work! The site will teach you how..or again..you can call your consultants or you can call the church’s HOTLINE.
ALSO: After you have established your account on new.familysearch.org, you will be able to go to familysearchlabs.org. Click on Family Tree and enter your user name and password. You will then see all your information but in a different format. The church is experimenting and would like your input about this new site.


4. Helpful blog: Sister Hulihan has a “family history helps” blog at elijahcame.blogspot.com

RESEARCH: You can go to familysearch.org. You can type in a name and a date of a main event in that person’s life…and a place and see what you can get. The church as a new pilot program that has even more records: on the main page of familysearch.org, see Search Records tab. Click on that and see the drop down menu. Click on Record Search Pilot.
And of course, there is ancestry.com.…or… oneworldtree.com . Check it out. They have free stuff…and you can put your entire genealogy on their site for the whole world to see if you want to. This is a great place to do research. Your people may show up on someone else’s Public Family Tree. Play on this site often. Join for a month or a year for $$$ to access all the US censuses (which are every ten years from 1790 to 1930.) The census is a gold mine for researchers!

Temple Attendance : The 3 Reasons

View of the Redlands Temple at Night

Why Temples?

The Latter-day Saints build temples because they have been instructed to do so, in order that holy ordinances may be performed in them for both the living and the dead. The performance of these ordinances is possible because genealogical work and temple work are inseparably connected. It is important to realize that the blessings of the temple are not limited to any special class, but are available to all worthy Church members properly accredited.

I would like to briefly refer to three areas having to do with temple attendance.

First, for the living: For the living, such ordinances as baptism, the bestowal of the Holy Ghost, and the ordination to the priesthood may be performed in any proper place outside of a temple. However, through modern revelation we are told that certain ordinances such as the endowment, eternal marriage, sealing ordinances for both the living and the dead, and baptisms for the dead must be performed in a temple.

The temple endowment embodies sacred covenants upon which blessings are predicated. It is also, in effect, a course of instruction whereby many of the answers are given to the question “What is the purpose of life?”

The endowment, of course, is an ordinance for the individual, whereas sealing ordinances pertain to a family relationship.

Second, for the dead: The ministry of Christ was not confined to the few who lived on the earth in the meridian of time, and it is not confined only to those living now. The apostle Peter made it clear that those who do not have the opportunity to hear the gospel on this earth will have such an opportunity in the spirit world (see 1 Pet. 3:18-20; 1 Pet. 4:6). And the apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians asked, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” (1 Cor. 15:29).

Temple worship provides an opportunity to do ordinance work for our kindred dead and for others, an opportunity for us to serve the dead. This service is the source of eternal satisfaction. However, it is well to remember that vicarious service for the dead by the living does not affect the right of the dead to accept or reject such vicarious service.

Third, as a retreat: A temple is a retreat from the vicissitudes of life, a place of prayer and meditation providing an opportunity to receive inner peace, inspiration, guidance, and, frequently, solutions to the problems that vex our daily lives. A temple is a place where the divine spark in man, or the infinite in man, can seek the infinite in God.

by Franklin D. Richards, "Happiness and Joy in Temple Work," Ensign, Nov. 1986, 70

Black Sheep Ancestors

http://blacksheepancestors.com/

is a site that helps people do research on any relatives who were in prison, who were outlaws, etc.

IGI No Longer Being Updated

Picture courtesy of....
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~airliegenealogy/ancestors.htm

Hi everyone. I just found out (as I was doing a search for an ancestor on the IGI) that the IGI no longer updates its files. If you want to see what work has been done on an individual, you now use new.familysearch.org

Here is the official statement from the church:


Document ID: 107347 All temples will record ordinances using the new FamilySearch System July 2009By the end of July 2009, all temples (with the exception of 5 of the Asia temples; Tokyo, Fukuoka, Taipei, Hong Kong and Seoul) will record ordinances using a new ordinance recording system. Completed ordinances will no longer be updated in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) by temples on the new system. Because of this, members should meet with a family history consultant or visit a family history center to view and verify the latest ordinance information. Family history consultants and family history center staff have the information necessary to help members view completed ordinances using the new FamilySearch system.
After verifying that an ancestor needs temple ordinances, members may continue to prepare ancestral names for temple ordinances using the TempleReady process. After a TempleReady submission file has been created, the family history center staff can assist the patron to create and print a Family Ordinance Request form that will be taken to the temple, and used by the temple staff to print temple name cards.
Family history consultants and center staff may also use a helper function in the new FamilySearch to prepare ancestors’ names for temple ordinances, print a Family Ordinance Request, and bypass the need to use the TempleReady process.

https://help.familysearch.org/publishing/590/107347_f.SAL_Member.html#home

NEW program the Church has developed for you!

This is in the pilot stage which means they are still tweaking it and welcome your comments and suggestions.
Go to familysearchlabs.org (do not use www. in front of it)

The first item is Record Search. You can get the 1900 census on this! Just type in the name of an ancestor you think may be on the 1900 US Federal census, type in the name of the state...hit Search. If your ancetor is indeed on that census up will come your ancestor's name and on this page you can click on his name and then click on View Image . It will show you the actual handwritten page of the census. It will be small so you need to use the "zoom" button. Near the upper right hand corner will be the "zoom" button to click on and drag so you can see an enlarged image of this record.
Play around on this site..it is fun and has lots of other features.

Now....the next item on the home page of familysearchlabs.org is
Family Tree. To get in this you need the same username and password you chose when you registered for newfamilysearch.org.

This will have all the information you have viewed or entered, into your new.familysearch.org account..only this is more user friendly. Any information you add on this familysearchlabs.org site will automatically go into your new.familysearch.org account. You can even prepare Temple Submission Requests (and print them) on this new site...I like this new site becuase it is a bit easier to navigate...try it out...explore. This is why computers were invented in the first place: to speed up the work we need to do.


NOTE: You will need Adobe Flash Player 10 for this...which you can upload free...you will be directed on how to do this.

NOW...if you never have registered yet for new.familysearch.org
account, this is how you do it (AND YOU NEED TO DO IT) :

Obtain your church memebership number (on your temple recommend or from your clerk) and you confirmation date. Also..you need to have an email address.

Go to new.familysearch.org (do not use www. in front of it)

Click on Register for the new FamilySearch and follow the instructions. You will be asked to choose a username and password


Note: Write down your username and password in a place you will remember...in case you forget it. This is important. If you do forget it and the place you put it...thank goodness you have an email address..the church will send it to you. The church will have your email address becuase you will have given it to them when you registered for new.familysearch.org. The church will not lose your email address. What a relief!

But let me say this: If you USE these wonderful programs regularly, your username and passowrd will not be forgotten easily. Try to go to the sites several times a week. It takes time to learn and process and get good at navigating all the features on these sites.

Mormon History Site

This is Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store where the Relief Society was first organized March 17, 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Got it from a cool site I just discovered today.

Cut and paste the following address into your address bar and see what a great site this is..you get a map of the US and can click on different areas of the map and get pictures, stories, descriptions of what happened there and when.


http://www.mormonhistoricsitesregistry.org/USA


I will put a link on the side for this, too.

Dream Come True-1900 Census Online Free

Wow! A new wonderful thing has happened. The church has digitalized the entire US 1900 census and has made it available to anyone free.

The 1900 census is one of the best censuses around! You can access it free online by going to familysearch.org and typing in a name of you ancestor that might be in the census. Go..explore..you will be amazed!

Not Sure How to Use the newfamilysearch.org site?

1. Remember that there is NOT a www. before the address.
go to new.familysearch.org


2. To register, you need your confirmation date, and your church membership number
Ask ward clerk if you do not know your confirmation date.
Your membership number is on your temple recommend. Or ask your ward clerk.

3. Create a sign in name and password. Write it down somehwere so you do not forget it. Oh, yes, you also need an email address for yourself.

4. OK..if you did all the above..YOU'RE IN !

5. Now..you may ask..how do I use this? Take the course! It is excellent!

OK...after you sign in. You will see where you can have a 10 minute overview or you can skip it. You should watch it at least once. It is 10 minutes.

Otherwise, click SKIP OVERVIEW.
Click on Help Center
Then..click on Training in Resources tab near the top of the page.
Then...click on Training & Resources.
Then...click on E Learning Courses....and begin.

You do not have to do it all at once..it is a 4-5 hour course. Very well done. Little quizzes and practices along the way. You even can print out a certificate at the end of the course, that stares you completed the course.

Your computer will remember where you left off whenever you log off and then sign in again. It is fun..and you really need to do it so you will feel confident with this new program. Call me if you have questions! Joan Hulihan 760 241 1420