Roots Tech 2012

Family Search Centers

FamilySearch offers a network of 4,500 facilities offering public access to genealogical records from all over the world. These range from the world’s largest in Salt Lake City to locations in more than 80 countries.

They used to be called, and some still are called, Family History Centers,

but now they are called Family Search Centers because that's what people do in them:

SEARCH!

This is the Riverton Utah Family Search Center: quite modern...and large enough to accommodate dozens of patrons!

Why go to a FAMILY HISTORY CENTER?

WE have many resources online that you can use, including ancestry.com. This is a subscription service that you would have to pay for, costing currently $155.00 annually for US records and $195.00 annually for World Records.

The latest new thing is that now you can order microfilms from your home computer! They will be sent to the Family History Center of your choice so you can peruse them there on the microfilm readers.

https://www.familysearch.org/films/

To find one in your area...go to familysearch.org and click on Family Search Centers. Then type in a location. You will get the closest Family Search Center to you and a map which will show you hhow to get there. It also will have the phone number and hours of operation.

Here in Victorville, our facility is called:

Victorville California Family History Center

12100 Ridgecrest St. (corner of Bear Valley Rd.and Ridgecrest)

Victorville, CA 92394

USA

Phone: 1-760-243-5632

(The door is a separate door on the South wall of the building, recessed in...do ring the doorbell and someone will let you in.

We have a very helpful and knowledgeable staff.

Our hours: Tues through Thursday 9am to 9pm

Friday 9am to 5pm

Sat 10 am to 2 pm

Here are some Family Search Centers that I may find myself in when I am traveling to visit family members.

Hales Corner Family History Center (near Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Mesa Family Regional Family History Center in Mesa, Arizona.

And here is a work station in the Phoenix Family History center.....computers and microfilm readers.

5 Minute Genealogy

This is great! A lovely, bouncy young gal named Jessie Davis has put together 16 short episodes (videos) in a very entertaining and memorable way.

The program is called "5 Minute Genealogy".

Here is the link to Episode 1 (4:29 or running time of 4 minutes 29 seconds):

This can be found on youtube.com (Type in: 5 Minute Genealogy Episode 1)

https://www.familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/5-minute-genealogy-episode-1-find-a-record-in-five-minutes/234

From there, after that episode finishes, you don't have to do anything but just sit there and immediately you will be shown Episode 2 and so forth. You can view any episode by clicking on it...there will be places to click in the space below the video the video. Go check it out!

This is a fun and entertaining way to get started in Family History PLUS you will feel confident you are doing the right things in the right way. Jessie is a genius! This is the best beginner's tutorial I have seen yet!

Who Do You Think You Are? Season 2

Lisa Kudrow's second season of"Who Do You Think You Are?" begins with singer-actress Vanessa Williams, and Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Ashley Judd, Rosie O'Donnell, Lionel Richie and Kim Cattrall are set for future episodes. Kudrow had her own history traced in the first season, and she realizes people are sometimes surprised she's the driving force behind the show.


Here is the link to the site where you can view the full episodes from this series.

http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/video/

Friday Night TV Special Continues

I was so impressed with the 1 hour program on NBC last Friday night called "Who Do You Think You Are?" It is about tracing one's family history and is very entertaining, educational and emotionally engaging. I was very touched by Sarah Jessica Parker's enthusiasm and her feelings as she went back in history to a very dark period of our country.

If you want to see the entire first episode...here is the link. It is 42 minutes long (no commercials!).

http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/video/episodes/#apl=true

I do not know if subsequent videos will be available, nor how long this link will be active.

If you want to get re-excited and re-motivated about doing your own family history, this will surely help.

It will be on TV again this Friday. 8pm on NBC. The celebrity being researched that night will be Emmitt Smith.

Here is a comment regarding the vision of this program from the NBC site:

Some of today's most-beloved and iconic celebrities including Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Susan Sarandon are set to star in NBC's new alternative series "Who Do You Think You Are?"

From executive producer Kudrow ("Friends," "The Comeback") in conjunction with her production company Is or Isn't Entertainment and the U.K.'s Wall to Wall productions, the series - an adaptation of the award-winning hit British television documentary series - will lead celebrities on a journey of self-discovery as they unearth their family trees that reveal surprising, inspiring and even tragic stories that often are linked to crucial events in American history.

Additional celebrity names will be announced shortly.

The announcement was made today by Paul Telegdy, Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

"No other program gives this unique glimpse into the personal lives of celebrities or takes viewers on a quantum leap through history in such an entertaining way," said Telegdy. "We are thrilled to have Lisa, Susan and Sarah Jessica kick off this groundbreaking series."

"This show personalizes history and turns it into a gripping narrative," said Kudrow. "The most striking thing about the show is the realization of how connected we all are."

Each episode will take viewers on an emotional, personal - and often mysterious - quest following one of America's best-known celebrities into his or her past, sharing the celebrity's surprise as they uncover stories of heroism and tragedy, love and betrayal, secrets and intrigue that lie at the heart of their family history.

At the same time, the series celebrates the twists and turns of a developing great nation and the people who made their way here in search of freedom and opportunity. As each one discovers their unknown relatives - most of whom overcame hard times - the show will take the audience back into world history to expose how the lives of everyone's collective ancestors' have shaped today's world.

http://www.nbc.com/Primetime/Who_Do_You_Think_You_Are/index.shtml

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!