Renee's Genealogy Blog (old)

Renee's Genealogy Blog has Relocated

2007-06-09T04:01:59Z

Renee's Genealogy Blog was originally created 19 Sep 2005 on LiveJournal. While creating a class on Blogs and Blog Readers I determined that Google Blogger was the way to go. So, after 200 articles and major frustration (with LiveJournal that is) effective 8 June 2007 Renee's Genealogy Blog has been relocated.

This older version of "Renee's Genealogy Blog" will no longer be updated.

I have placed both a feed and a link to the posts made on this older version of "Renee Genealogy Blog" at my new location. I am hoping to find a way to transfer my old posts into a usable format onto my new blog site. If you want a complete listing of all my previous blog articles, posted on LiveJournal, please go to http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~renee/ljlog.html
If you want to make life easy for yourself you could just visit www.harrisena.com (my main website) and find links to all my blogs there.

To continue to watch Renee's genealogy road of progress, areas of current research, findings, articles written, updates, and other items of interest please go to the new location of Renee's Genealogy Blog.

Renee's Genealogy Blog is also available on Atom Feed.

To receive the new version of Renee's Genealogy Blog by email fill out the form below.

See ya tomorrow, (on the new site) for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Primary Source Materials from 18th & 19th Century Periodicals Online

2007-06-04T05:02:55Z

I have the following announcement from WorldVitalRecords.com. As a personal note I wanted to mention that for the first 10 days after a database has become available on WorldVitalRecords.com they give free access to it. It is very worthwhile to sign up for their free newsletter so you will know when new databases become available.

Accessible Archives Inc. Partners With WorldVitalRecords.com To Provide Greater Access To Unique Historical Data
Important collection of 18th and 19th century periodicals now online at WorldVitalRecords.com

Land and Records Office

Provo, UT, June 4, 2007 --- Normally only offered in libraries, Accessible Archives Inc. has recently partnered with WorldVitalRecords.com to make millions of records from the 18th and 19th centuries accessible to a broader audience.

“We are very pleased to be working with World Vital Records getting our material to the masses on a global scale,” said Rob Nagy, President, CEO, Accessible Archives.

Accessible Archives typically works with nearly 300 universities and libraries to offer the databases in full-text format.

“We have had a great appreciation for the valuable content on Accessible Archives, and we are enthusiastic about being able to now provide what is typically library content to our subscribers at WorldVitalRecords.com,” said David Lifferth, President, WorldVitalRecords.com.

Some of the collections that will be available at WorldVitalRecords.com from Accessible Archives will be American County Histories to 1900, The Liberator (1831-1865), The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective, The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue Chester County (1809-1870), The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800), African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century, and Godey`s Lady`s Book (1830-1885).

“One of the databases in the collection of most interest to genealogists would be the American County Histories to 1900. These histories form the foundation of local historical research and contain many important details of genealogical significance that are unlikely to be found in any other resource,” said Yvette Arts, Director, Content Acquisition, WorldVitalRecords.com.

Accessible Archives’ databases contain more than 600 million words, and they are growing at a rate of 1-2 million words each month. The databases will be updated at Accessible Archives, as well as to WorldVitalRecords.com as they occur.

UVPAFUG Monthly Meeting 9 June 2007

2007-05-31T01:53:00Z

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 9 Jun 2007, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Justin Schroepfer on AN INTRODUCTION TO FOOTNOTE.COM. He will be discussing what Footnote.com is, how it got started, what records collections they have, and what you can expect from it. Justin Schroepfer is the Marketing Director for Footnote.com and has over 14 years experience in marketing and advertising for Franklin Covey, Ancestry.com, and several other companies. He has a BS degree in Business Marketing and MBA from the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. The LDS Church has just announced that Footnote.com will be available for free at FHC's, so this is a chance to find out how it can help you.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. Following are the classes currently scheduled for this meeting.
1. PAF 5 Basics, by Ralph Hansen
2. Using All the Features of PAF Insight, by Duane Dudley
3. Using Blogs and RSS Feeds, by Renee Zamora
4. Individual Mentoring, by Val Buxton & Kay Baker
5. Q&A about Footnote.com, by Justin Schroepfer
6. Video of last month's main presentation on WorldVitalRecords.com, by Yvette Arts, et al
7. Legacy, by Joel Graham
8. RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow, 1st VP; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker, Membership Chairman; and Bruce Merrill, DVD & Video Librarian, will be there to help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and to check out videos and DVD's of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's web site http://uvpafug.org . For further information see the web site or contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (225-6106), VP1 Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Tidal Wave Starting to Flood FamilySearch.org

2007-05-17T00:25:30Z

It sure has been an exciting past couple of days. Major announcements of databases and partnership with FamilySearch are starting to surface. The exact dates for availability of these database have not been announced yet. Family History Support will be notifying the Family History Directors of each Family History Center (mostly in North America) with directions and availability. It won't be long before we will see access to:

World Vital Records (worldvitalrecords.com)
Kindred Konnections (kindredkonnections.com)
Godfrey Memorial Library (godfrey.org)
Heritage Quest Online (This has been available through most public library.)
Footnote (footnote.com) so far only the U.S. Revolutionary War Pension records have been announced.

I thought I would send you a copy of the announcements as I received them.

-------------------------
Renee

We wanted to let you know that WorldVitalRecords.com will be making three partnership announcements tomorrow (May 16, 2007) at 11 a.m at the NGS Conference! The announcement will be made in the VIP Suite (room B20) in the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Click here to view a map to the VIP Suite. We would appreciate your help if you would spread the word when you are blogging. The partnership will be with FamilySearch, The Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation, and Quintin Publications.

Thanks,
partnering
Whitney

Whitney Ransom
Director, Corporate Communications
World Vital Records
whitney@worldvitalrecords.com
www.worldvitalrecords.com

Renee Note: As you can see no official date of launch was announced. I'll let you know as I get word.
DearMyrtle has done an excellent job of providing more information on Ellis Island and Quintin Publications announcements - links below.
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/05/historic-ellis-island-passenger-records.html
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/05/quintin-publications-partners-with.html

---------------------------
From: Family History Support

We have reached agreements with the following organizations to provide online services in the family history centers in North America.

World Vital Records (worldvitalrecords.com)
Kindred Konnections (kindredkonnections.com)
Godfrey Memorial Library (godfrey.org)

Additional information and a time line for availability will be forthcoming. We will communicate this information to you as soon as it is made available.

The databased to become available are:

---------------------------

From: Family History Center Support

We are pleased to announce that access to HeritageQuest Online will soon be free through selected family history centers. The HeritageQuest collection is one of the largest online collections of genealogical information available.

At present, only centers in the United States who 1) have installed LANDesk, 2) have more than two PCs, and 3) are open at least 10 hours per week will qualify to have access to this service. Selected centers in other countries will also receive access. Access to HeritageQuest Online will be available for on site usage only. You will be notified separately within two weeks if your center qualifies.

Please note that patrons may also access the HeritageQuest Online collection for free through over 4400 U.S. public libraries (both in the library and from home using their valid library card).

Our desire is to provide many excellent resources for patrons to more easily and successfully pursue their family history. We will therefore continue to add more record collections through FamilySearch Indexing and other agreements with record providers.

Should you have questions, please contact FamilySearch support at 1-866-406-1830.

Family History Center Support
support@familysearch.org

---------------------------

I'll let you know when I learn of any more announcements.

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

The First Bite is a Good One

2007-05-16T21:50:53Z

Revolutionary War Records Are First Fruits of New Record Services Program

FamilySearch Teams with Service Providers to Expedite Historic Records Access

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH-FamilySearch and Footnote announced today the first project of the new Records Access program-to digitize and index the historic U.S. Revolutionary War Pension records. The Record Access program helps archives and other records custodians publish their collections online. A significant collection of genealogical and historical significance will be accessible online by leveraging the resources of FamilySearch, the world's largest repository of genealogical information, with those of Footnote.

Footnote is one of the new breed of genealogy web sites working with FamilySearch to digitally preserve, index, and publish the world's records in concert with archives around the world. As part of the agreement, FamilySearch will digitize the images currently held in the National Archives Record and Administration's collection (NARA) in Washington, D.C., and Footnote will create the electronic indexes. When complete, the indexes and images will be viewable at Family History Centers and at Footnote.com. Indexes will also be available at FamilySearch.org. Numerous other national and international projects are under development at this time and will be announced as agreements are signed or data is published. To see examples of the Revolutionary War Pension Files, go to http://www.footnote.com/revolutionary-war.php.

Records custodians worldwide are experiencing growing pressure to provide access to their records online while maintaining control and ownership. At the same time, websites that provide digitizing and publishing services are struggling with the staggering costs," said Wayne Metcalfe, director of Records Services for FamilySearch. "The new Record Access program takes advantage of FamilySearch's resources and creates an economical and effective forum where records custodians and genealogy websites can work together to accomplish their respective objectives," added Metcalfe.

FamilySearch's new Records Access program provides tools and assistance to records custodians who want to publish their collection using state-of-the-art digital cameras, software, and web-based applications. FamilySearch Records Services has representatives worldwide who can work with archivists to determine how FamilySearch and affiliates can help them achieve their digital preservation and publication needs.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch (historically the Genealogical Society of Utah) is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.

About Footnote, Inc.
Founded in 1997 as iArchives, Inc., Footnote is a subscription-based website that features searchable original documents that provide users with an unaltered view of the events , places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com all are invited to come to share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

FamilySearch Tidal Wave Expected

2007-05-15T04:45:03Z

FamilySearch Unveils Program to Increase Access to World's Genealogical Records

Tidal Wave of Online Databases Will Result

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH-FamilySearch announced today its Records Access program to increase public access to massive genealogy collections worldwide. For the first time ever, FamilySearch will provide free services to archives and other records custodians who wish to digitize, index, publish, and preserve their collections. The program expands FamiliySearch's previously announced decision to digitize and provide online access to over 2 million rolls of copyrighted microfilm preserved in the Granite Mountain Records Vault. A key component of the program allows FamilySearch and archives to team with genealogy websites to provide unprecedented access to microfilm in the vault. The combined results ensure a flood of new record indexes and images online at www.FamilySearch.org and affiliated websites.

The plan combines the assets and experience of the Genealogical Society of Utah with the state-of-the-art technology resources of FamilySearch-all under the single brand name of FamilySearch. The Records Access program allows records custodians to publish their data online by themselves or with the assistance of FamilySearch or affiliate genealogical websites and historical societies.

"Records custodians worldwide are experiencing growing pressure to provide access to their records online while maintaining control and ownership. At the same time, websites that provide digitizing and publishing services are struggling with the staggering costs," said Wayne Metcalfe, director of Records Services for FamilySearch. "The new Record Access program takes advantage of FamilySearch's resources and creates an economical and effective forum where record custodians and genealogical websites can work together to accomplish their respective objectives," added Metcalfe.

Working with the records custodians, FamilySearch can leverage its extensive microfilm and growing digital image collection to create digital images for affiliate genealogical websites at a fraction of the cost. The affiliate genealogy organization will create indices of the digital images and then publish the images and the indices on its own website, the archive's website, or a jointly published site. A copy of the index will also be made available for free on the popular FamilySearch website, which will help drive traffic to record images on the custodians' or affiliates' sites. Full, free access to both the indices and images will be provided to family history centers, FamilySearch managed facilities, and the archives. If the record custodian seeks revenue to sustain operations, a small fee may be required to access images outside FamilySearch managed facilities or the archive.

For archives and heritage societies, the new program benefits include:

Digitally capture, preserve, and publish records online
Increase access to records while maintaining control and ownership
Increase patronage and business viability
Over 100 years of archival and publishing experience

For genealogy websites, the new program helps them:

Benefit from the knowledge and relationships of FamilySearch with the archival community worldwide

Significantly lower costs associated with acquiring, preserving, or providing access to data

Increase business viability and website traffic

Leverage an open platform that develops value-added services around FamilySearch, the world's largest repository of genealogical data.

Under the program, FamilySearch will also provide tools and assistance to records custodians who want to publish parts of their collection using state-of-the-art digital cameras, software, and web-based applications.

The archive can work with an affiliate, historical society, or FamilySearch to index the images or host a website for the records custodian. The index of the record collection will be available for free on FamilySearch, and the records custodian's site will provide access to the images for free or a fee depending on the needs of the archive and those assisting in the digitization.

One example of the tools FamilySearch can provide is FamilySearch Indexing, a web-based application that engages tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide to create searchable indexes linked to the digital images created by FamilySearch. "Through mere word-of-mouth promotions, literally tens of thousands of volunteers are already joining this effort to index the world's records by registering at FamilySearchIndexing.org and donating a few minutes a week online to the effort. Over 100,000 volunteers are expected to enlist in the initiative by year end with the numbers increasing as more projects-particularly international projects-are added," said Paul Nauta, manager of Public Affairs for FamilySearch.

FamilySearch will announce the first collaborative projects of its new Records Access program during the National Genealogical Society (NGS) Convention in Richmond, Virginia, the week of May 14, 2007. Many more project announcements are expected in the following months.

Record custodians and archives that would like additional information regarding the FamilySearch Records Services can contact Wayne Metcalfe (metcalfewj@gensocietyofutah.org) and genealogy web service providers should contact Dave Harding (hardingdp@ldschurch.org).

FamilySearch (historically known as the Genealogical Society of Utah) is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.

Partnership between Godfrey Memorial Library and FamilySearch

2007-05-14T06:07:44Z

I saw this announcement first posted by Dick Eastman at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/05/godfrey_memoria.html. I will be at the Family History Center tomorrow and check to see if we have access to anything yet. I am surprised that FamilySearch.org doesn't mention anything about the partnership. Maybe it's to new to have something written up yet. Since it mentions Pual Nauta I trust it's a done deal before it was mentioned on their site. I am dying to see if we have access tomorrow.

May 11, 2007

Director Richard Black is pleased to announce a partnership agreement between Godfrey Memorial Library and FamilySearch

"We are excited to include Godfrey Memorial Library to our list of premium databases or services offered throughout FamilySearch centers worldwide. They provide some premier resources that will certainly be of great value to FamilySearch center patrons," said Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for FamilySearch. "In return Godfrey Memorial Library will significantly broaden its reach and awareness by being introduced to scores of researchers through 4500 FamilySearch facilities in over 70 countries," Nauta added.

Many new genealogical websites and services are coming online everyday, making more and more records available. FamilySearch is teaming up with these online service providers like Godfrey Memorial Library to introduce patrons to these exciting services and provide even greater online access to the world's genealogical records. These premium services are available for free in family history centers, the Family History Library and FamilySearch operated centers.

FamilySearch is committed to providing as much genealogical data as possible to its patrons quickly and economically. The accomplishment of this initiative will come in part from its own programs, and others will come from affiliations with service providers like Godfrey Memorial Library. This will allow maximum and efficient use of industry resources.

Godfrey Memorial Library can greatly increase awareness of its services through the FamilySearch public distribution channels. FamilySearch workers will innately help patrons use/become familiar with Godfrey's online services. Some limited promotion by Godfrey will be allowed to properly introduce patrons to its full range of services.

Patrons to FamilySearch facilities get access to Godfrey's databases-an otherwise fee-based online service. The FamilySearch resources are frequented by mostly enthusiasts and professional researchers; many of which may elect to subscribe personally to the services for home or remote access.

http://www.godfrey.org/announce.html

"new FamilySearch" Rumors of Preparations to Roll

2007-05-12T14:45:35Z

I really wanted to go the UVPAFUG Monthly Meeting today and listen to the presentation on World Vital Records. I am having car troubles and will be Skyping the meeting if everything goes well. At least I will get a copy of the meeting on DVD later so I can see their screen shots. Skype just needs to have good video options.

Well, that wasn't what I wanted to write about today. I wanted to give a little information on "new FamilySearch". First have you noticed that everyone is starting to use the acronym "NFS" to stand for "new FamilySearch"? It is so much easier and I will be using that acronym for it too. You can actually google "NFS" and get the right results for it. Keep that in mind if you want to search the web for what others are saying about NFS.

Have I teased you long enough? You really just want me to get to the rumors don't you. You want to know when NFS is coming to a temple district near you?
As the time line has it about May 1st three temple districts where informed that NFS was coming in about 90 days to them. The 90 days or 3 months notice is given so they can prepare the members for the changes ahead. What temple districts were chosen? St. Louis - Missouri, Snowflake - Arizona, and Reno - Nevada.

Now I have only confirmed the St. Louis, Missouri temple district with an actual reader in that area, Rosemary Paul. Here is what she reported to me.

"Hi Renee
My name is Rosemary Paul. I enjoy reading your blogs. I thought you might find this interesting. A little while back, they asked us to help find people to beta test "nFH site". Then last week they told a very, very few to be on standby to test data April 30, May 1, and May 2. That was finished this morning. During the test, on Tuesday, I got in the mail a packet addressed to Family History Consultants that said." The Church has developed a new Temple and Family History Internet site, http://new.familysearch.org which will be introduced to stakes in your temple district within the next three months."

The data we tested the last 2 days was updated to include most of the ordinances included in "oFS" but March and April data seem to be missing. The search function seem a little better then before.

I read in your blog about how much fun and how exciting it was for newbies, I too agree. It's great! But in my testing they (newbies-new members) are the ones I'm most concern that this new program will not stop them and others from duplicating ordinances. I could find most of these duplicated records using "oFS and "PAF Insight" and with a a lot less personal time. (in fairness I did find one or 2 that I didn't find using the other sources, but there were lots more I would of duplicated.) If you have submitted a 4 generation pedigree (AF) or Pedigree Resource File it seems to be much easier to find the temple ordinances and the programs seem to learn. But if the work is done only once, and has never been combine before, It can be a bear to find and I fear a lot of temple work will be done over. (Extracted records with little information and often misspelled names etc, and are usually stand alone ordinances have the same problem of being hard to find sometimes. These too stand in danger of being done again.) I know I would of done a lot of work over in beta test 2 if I didn't have records of what ordinances I did years earlier. And newbies don't have temple ordinances information and many believe there are no members in their families.

I have to remember that PAF when it was first brought out was terrible, but now with the help of PAF Pal and PAF Insight, etc. and a lot of time I can't praise it highly enough. I love my PAF!

Also it took how many year to create the database? It will take a year or two to combine these records. That's to be expected. All those members who say "All the works is done in my family", now are some of the most important people that we need. They can help keep duplicated ordinances from being done by working in this great work of combining records. I hope everyone encourages these people to help.

I hope you, Renee, can pass along one of my big concerns to as many people as we can. We need to caution people that before they upload their GEDCOM with all their families that they should search in the database, the best they can, to see if they are already there. When teaching people to use "NFS", let them know if they are already in there, and they upload their GEDCOM, each family will double. Each child will have to be combined back together, which can be a lot of work. So plan where and when you need to upload a GEDCOM and then be nice and restore all uploaded families to a clean pedigree again.

In the packet's FAQ section the question is asked: "All my family history is currently in Personal Ancestral File (PAF). Do I have to retype all my information into the new FamilySearch?
Answer: " No. Members can import their PAF information in GEDCOM format."

What do you think people are going to do? There was no caution or warning that if these families already exist the work of combining each kid may be more work or mention the consequences of adding a GEDCOM. GEDCOMs are great but use them with care and clean up your work afterward. I also think we need to encourage those writing the help materials to let people understand what will happen. People don't know if we don't tell them. They do not know how the program works, until after 5,000 people import their GEDCOMs and theres no way to take it back. The writers are silent in these explanations, cautions and suggestions. I hope more people suggest some re-wordings. It will be easier for a lot of us to complain until they listen then having to try to set right what one unsuspecting person can do in seconds. I don't know exactly where to make suggestions, but I thought I might call the toll-free number for FamilySearch Area Support, 1-866-406-1830. We need to teach people how to make only partial GEDCOMs, so they can keep the pedigrees clean as they go.

Rosemary Paul"

----------
Thanks so much Rosemary. I really appreciate your insight into what is happening. It is good members like you, serving as local Family History Consultants that will help break in this system to make it more usable for everyone else. The roll out is meant to be small so the Church can learn all these potential problems. These three temple districts are going to take the brunt of the force in this live stage. I'm sure we have wise FHCs in these areas (that's why they were chosen) that will report what they learned in the trenches and prepare the way for all of us when we are live in the system.

Remember that NFS is a living breathing tool. It is not a static thing like PAF was when it was released. We had to wait then for new updates to improve and enhance the product. NFS will be able to be corrected in real time. Yes, adding full GEDCOMs will cause a lot of work, but it is a living work. It can be moved around and taken apart and brought back together again. We can fix what needs to be fixed in there. We won't have to wait for the next update to the program (like Ancestral File) to find out the reamifications of our additions or corrections we made. As local Family History Consultants and members work with the system we will discover what the vital first steps to training people to use the system will be. These first few chosen temple districts will help write and rewrite those helps and guides for those that come next.

It's kind of like the Mormon pioneers on their way to the west, some planted crops to be harvested by future wagon trains. Yes we had our explores to the system with the beta testers. We surveyed the land ahead, we reported our findings, we tried to tell the leaders any trouble up ahead. It wasn't until the pioneers pitched their tents and lived off the land that we truly understood what was living and breathing around us. Explorers never really develop the land they walk through, it's the pioneers that do that. Was it easy for the pioneers, no not at all. But the longer the pioneers stayed, the valley sure became greener and more productive for those that came after wards. Some would say it's too early, we are crazy to release NFS so soon. Didn't the explorers tell the Mormon pioneers nothing would grown in this valley? Remember this is the Lord's work and the prophet did say “It will be a truly remarkable thing with worldwide implications.” I sure do love and appreciate you pioneers.

Now if you are a Family History Consultant you will be relieved to know that you are not just going to be winging it the day NFS goes live in your temple district. You will have 3 months/90 days to prepare for it's coming. The Church is asking every FHC to register at http://consultant.familysearch.org/consultant/home.do or http://www.familysearchsupport.org/Redirect.htm so they can receive training on their calling and prepare for NFS ahead of time. It is my understanding that NFS will be released to the Family History Consultants six weeks before everyone else in that temple district. You will be able to then use NFS built in Help Center that includes Overviews and Guides along with slide presentations with audio on some pages. You will get training before hand it's not going to be just dumped on us like it's predecessor was.

What will happen if you log into the website early? You will get a lovely notice "FamilySearch is Not Yet Available in Your Area. Your membership number and confirmation date will have to be preloaded into the system for you to be able to register to use NFS. If you want to make sure you can "go live" when it's available in your area - make sure your ward clerk has your records especially if you have recently moved. The most important thing is to attend your meetings and listen for the announcement over your ward pulpit. Your local priesthood leaders will let you know when it is available. You're not going to discover your time frame on any list or website, we will only know AFTER you know. THEN let me know.

Some have asked what if I am traveling and I go to a temple in a different district and we are not using the same system? What I will tell you is the answer is in the cards... the temple cards that is. The bottom line is each system has the finally end result a temple card for each individual you are doing ordinances for. Each card has a bar code and can be read in a temple using either system. Yes some might have to travel to get to a temple to get the cards but this inconvenience won't last forever. Just plan ahead and don't do things last minute when you travel. It wouldn't be a bad idea to call the temple you are traveling to ahead of time to see if they are using NFS or not. OK, settle down your can survive transition.

You are extra lucky if you arrive at a temple using NFS and you discover you lost your cards. The workers there can just go into the system and reprint them, but that is only if they were originally submitted using NFS. The really cool thing is as family members on either side of the world get NFS they can clear names and just send a PDF copy of the submission request to whomever they want to do whatever ordinances. I recommend you get one of those free PDF creators like PrimoPDF that will installl and appear like a printer option. You can just send the PDF by email and your all set to go. Just remind family members to check in at the Family File desk to have cards printed up from the request form you gave them. Oh, and you don't get a request form for each individual, that wastes too much paper. You will discover that your whole submission is recorded on that little barcode on the request form. Just one paper for however many people you have requested work to be done for in that submission.

I was going to put together on my website some screen captures that I took of the beta test. I still might but thankfully others have already done this for you. I thought you would like to see what others are reporting and showing on their blogs and websites about NFS. I am going to just list them so you can check out what's out there. Let me know if you find any other sites.

1. Gary L. Foster's blog on "new FamilySearch" http://www.surnames.com/new_familysearch.htm click on the link "Future of Family History" this is a PowerPoint presentation.
2. Randy Bryson's auto slide show http://newfamilyhistory.googlepages.com/home or http://picasaweb.google.com/TurnerFamilyHistory/NewFamilySearchScreenshots/photo#s5038651576751940882
3. Gary's Turn web album http://picasaweb.google.com/GarysTurn/NewFamilySearchBeta2Screenshots/photo?pli=1#s5041793285388120498
4. LDS Tech http://beta.tech.lds.org this is an excellent site to read about what is happening in the Church with technology. You can register and join Forums and receive any postings that show up regarding NFS. You should check the site often too.
5. You can help beta test the next generation of new Family Search at FamilySearch Labs. A wide variety of users are needed to test the prototype service. Pedigree Viewer, Life Browser, FamilySearch Indexing http://labs.familysearch.org read their blog at http://familysearchlabs.blogspot.com/

After all the beta testing and now hearing of temple districts getting the word of when they will go live, I have one question? Where are the Research Forums? Are we going to be able to beta test them before any of these temple districts go live? I would think the Research Forums portion of "new FamilySearch" very vital from the beginning? I guess I will have to do a little digging there.

OK people let me know when you receive word your temple district is going live. I live in the Wasatch front and will probably be one of the last to do so. I will live vicariously through you for the next 1-2 years.

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

FamilySearch Server Problems

2007-05-09T23:09:48Z

Yesterday I got an email back on a problem I had with one of the links on FamilySearch. I was trying to download the new PDF guide of helpful websites found in the 30 Apr 2007 news article "Free Online Access to Records and Information". I thought you might like to hear what they said was going on with the FamilySearch site.

"If you have been trying to get the information from a link at www.familysearch.org in the last few days, you may have fallen victim to the dreaded server sappers. We have been having a server problem that has been raising havoc with searching and viewing the site. There is currently no estimate of the time/day that stability will be regained."

That didn't sound to encouraging to me. Oh, the PDF I wanted - I was able to download it by Googling the title: "Free Online Access to Records and Information", with the quotation marks in place. I was directed to a Spanish site that had the link that worked. Isn't that just to weird! It's a nice PDF by the way.

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

UVPAFUG Monthly Meeting 12 May 2007

2007-05-08T19:23:03Z

Utah Valley PAF Users Group

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 12 May 2007, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Yvette Arts on WORLDVITALRECORDS.COM AND FAMILYLINK.COM: SOCIAL NETWORKING IN GENEALOGY AND FAMILY
HISTORY. http://worldvitalrecords.com is a new web site with historical and family history databases, including some LDS Church information. http://familylink.com/ , currently in beta test, is a
web site associated with WorldVitalRecords and which provides a way of networking people and families in family history.

Yvette Arts will be discussing what these sites are and how they can be used. She will be assisted by Whitney Ransom and Jason McGowan. Yvette Arts, currently a Vice President of WorldVitalRecords, hopes to bring more meaning and life to family history. Whitney Ransom, Director of Communications at WorldVitalRecords.com, is currently pursuing a Master's Degree at BYU in Instructional Psychology and Technology. Jason McGowan, Project Manager of FamilyLink.com, is from Alberta, Canada, but with roots in England.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. Following are the
classes currently scheduled for this meeting.
1. PAF 5: Introduction, by Ralph Hansen
2. PAF 5: Advanced Search, Custom Lists, and Global Search & Replace, by Duane Dudley
3. Using Voice Recognition in Microsoft Office, by Paul Buss
4. Q&A on WorldVitalRecords.com & FamilyLink.com, by Yvette Arts, Whitney Ransom, and Jason McGowan
5. Individual Mentoring, by Pat Andrus and Lynn Shumway
6. Video of last month's main presentation: New Property Database and Early LDS in Nauvoo and Iowa, by Harvey and Susan Easton Black
7. Legacy 6: Event Dates, by Dean Bennett
8. RootsMagic 3, by Sue Maxwell.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there
are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow, 1st VP; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology
Editor; Kay Baker, Membership Chairman; and Bruce Merrill, DVD & Video Librarian, will be there to help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and
to check out videos and DVD's of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's
web site http://uvpafug.org . For further information see the web site or contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (225-6106), VP1 Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Free BYU Family History Training

2007-04-27T05:33:49Z

FREE Genealogy Web Courses

Brigham Young University's Independent Study program is offering FREE web courses in Family History/Genealogy. See below for course titles:

Family History/Genealogy - Introductory

FHGEN 68 - Finding Your Ancestors
FHGEN 69 - Providing Temple Ordinances for Your Ancestors
FHGEN 70 - Introduction to Family History Research
FHGEN 80 - Helping Children Love Your Family History

Family History/Genealogy - Record Type

FHREC 71 - Family Records
FHREC 73 - Vital Records
FHREC 76 - Military Records

Family History/Genealogy - Regional and Ethnic

FHFRA 71 - France: Immigrant Origins
FHFRA 72 - France: Vital Records
FHFRA 73 - France: Reading French Handwriting
FHFRA 74 - France: Genealogical Organizations and Periodicals
FHFRA 75 - France: The Internet and French Genealogy
FHFRA 76 - French Research: Paris
FHFRA 77 - French Research: Alsace-Lorraine
FHGER 71 - Germany: Immigrant Origins
FHGER 72 - Germany: U.S. Sources and Surname Changes
FHGER 73 - Germany: Jurisdictions, Gazetteers, and Maps
FHGER 74 - Germany: Reading German Handwriting
FHGER 75 - Germany: Calendars and Feast Days
FHGER 76 - Germany: Vital Records
FHHUG 71 - Huguenot Research
FHSCA 73 - Scandinavia: Jurisdictions, Gazetteers, and Maps
FHSCA 74 - Scandinavia: Reading Gothic Script
FHSCA 75 - Scandinavia: Church Records and Feast Days
FHSCA 76 - Scandinavia: Census Records
FHSCA 77 - Scandinavia: Probate and Other Records

Visit http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/freecourses.cfm for the courses.

NFS Observation and Prediction

2007-04-22T22:17:46Z

For those of us that have been doing genealogy for any length of time, and have very neat and well maintained genealogy databases the process of using "new FamilySearch" (NFS) seems like we are going back to the dark ages. You have so much combining and organizing of your families to do in this system. The system doesn't work as efficiently as our personal genealogy software programs do. Some seasoned researcher have concerns over people messing up their records and "stealing" their family history work.

BUT, to those that have never done genealogy (newbies) they will look at this as their way of finally doing genealogy, painlessly and from the convenience of their own homes. I watched my sister-in-law get so excited about genealogy when she sat and combined her family members together. (The key is to instruct them on what is a "good" match.) She could sit for hours just matching and combining her family members, a lengthly and frustrating project for me. Afterwords she felt a great sense of having done something - a feeling of Elijah. She heart was definitely turned to her fathers.

The "newbies" to genealogy will become the saving grace of this system. They will be the ones to share and contact other researchers to do more work on their lines and prevent duplication. I'm afraid I hear comments from more seasoned researchers that they don't intend on contributing all their information to NFS, only those names they want to clear and do temple work for. This will defeat the whole purpose of the system.

We will have to wait for the new generation to take over before this system mets it's full potential. The advancement of newer technology - the FamilySearch desktop project using FamilySearch API will have to be on-line and working before the more seasoned researcher will be convinced to use NFS. By the time the "newbies" to genealogy realize what real researching means they will be blessed to have the FamilySearch Scanning results on-line to access.

Just seeing the response by the youth in doing FamilySearch Indexing alone shows us how technology, the youth and those open to new ideas are the hope for the future. (Hopefully we all can fall into one of those categories!)

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

Note: I will try to follow up with more observation on my beta test experience as time allows.

Evaluators Needed for the New FamilySearch.org Website

2007-04-13T23:11:00Z

I received the following email from FamilySearch Support of the LDS Church today. They are looking for volunteers to beta test future versions of "new FamilySearch". You do not need to be LDS to volunteer. They are trying new and innovative technologies on this site. You can see some of the upcoming technology at their site at http://labs.familysearch.org/. If you wish to sign up please follow the directions given in their email. If you send me your request I won't be able to sign you up. As always you can leave comments about this post on my blog.

Renee Zamora

Request for Family History Consultants to Find Evaluators for the New FamilySearch.org Website

The FamilySearch evaluation team in the Family and Church History department invites you to help us find English-speaking individuals who can help evaluate the new FamilySearch.org website. We need to contact individuals interested in family history, including you, but ESPECIALLY those new and inexperienced in family history to spend an hour of their time. We will be testing new and future design ideas not seen on the current beta version of the FamilySearch.org website.

Since those who naturally enjoy family history work will likely be the type of person to volunteer, we ask a special effort be made to invite individuals you know that are new to family history or are inexperienced. We need them to help determine if the website is clear and easy to use.

Please email the letter below to your family, friends and LDS Church members over age 18. You may also post the letter in your Church building or family history center.

We appreciate your willingness to help. If you have any questions please send an email to the address below.

FamilySearch Evaluation Team

Family and Church History Department

evaluation@familysearch.org

Email this letter to those who may be interested in evaluating the new FamilySearch:

Dear LDS Church Members and Friends,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is developing a new version of the FamilySearch.org website. This new website will help members identify ancestors, link them to families, and provide temple ordinances for them.

Can you volunteer an hour of time to help evaluate this new website? Do you know someone else who might be interested? We need feedback to make the final website as easy and enjoyable to use as possible. We are especially interested in feedback from individuals who are new to family history work.

Anyone over age 18 interested in participating in this evaluation should go to:

http://labs.familysearch.org/temple/static/signup.htm

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm. We greatly value your time and opinion.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Evaluation Team

Family and Church History Department

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Beta 2 Tester Panic!

2007-04-06T21:26:41Z

YIKES!!! I just learned that beta 2 testing of "new FamilySearch" is scheduled to shut down TODAY. I had heard Saturday. I was informed a few minutes ago that they don't have enough people working Saturday to do the shut down then. Oh, my gosh, I'm not ready to give it up. I need to do more testing of the system. I am in a beta 2 tester panic. FamilySearch please reconsider and shut down Monday!

Temporarily Suspended Access to FamilySearch

2007-04-06T21:19:24Z

"Your access to FamilySearch.org has been temporarily suspended. Your computer or a computer at your location has sent a large volume of requests to FamilySearch.org and as a result access to FamilySearch.org from this location has been temporarily suspended. Usually the suspension occurs when a computer uses software to automate requesting information from FamilySearch.org from any computer in your location. If this message appears again, contact the vendor who sold you your software to obtain the latest release."

Several days ago I received the above message from FamilySearch.org. Now that I see discussions regarding it going around on the mailing lists I belong to, I thought I would tell you what I learned.

I called Family History Support (1-866-406-1830) and told them of this message. At the time I was looking at the 1880 census. I had my Legacy program up but wasn't searching the IGI with it. Was my program "secretly" accessing FamilySearch.org in the background? Something I highly doubted. They reassured me that it had nothing to do with my Legacy program.

FamilySearch.org is going through growing pains and they have found that they don't have enough server space to handle the internet load. The system is bogging down and overloaded right now. They have engineers working right now on resolving this issue. They are testing and checking people that are heavy users, doing research on a certain number of names and limiting their access. They will be bumped off the system for about 15 minutes. They need to sign off and come back into FamilySearch.org to resume their searches. So people, even if you don't think you are a heavy user there is a time limit right now as to how long you can stay signed into the system. The representative didn't have a time frame or number of searches that will trigger this incident.

The message we are receiving is generic. It was first used when FamilySearch.org had problems with the system being overloaded with PAF Insight search requests. Changes were made as to how PAF Insight accessed and used FamilySearch.org. If you are a PAF Insight user and current on the updates released the program shouldn't be causing this type of problem. When IGI search features where introduced to the RootsMagic and Legacy programs the restrictions on access were already in place.

Bottom line just be patient while they go through the growing pains. The LDS Church is working on the issues. The are sorry for the inconvenience it is causing. No time frame was given as to when this issue will be resolved.

Follow-up to Glean What You Can....

2007-04-05T07:06:31Z

This is a follow-up to my 1 Apr 2007 article "Better Glean What You Can Now BEFORE "new FamilySearch" http://rzamor1.livejournal.com/2007/04/01/

When I stumbled on the information for my second cousin's wife on the internet I was looking to fill out information on her in my database. Since I am LDS that includes wanting to have ordinance information. When I located her birth, death and parents names in the newspaper obituary I could then determine that the information earlier looked at on the IGI was indeed her.

It appears that the biggest problem people had with my earlier article is when I mentioned the future loss of living parents names on the IGI. I said: "That's really sad I want that information, especially when determining if temple work needs to be done or not." I think the key word here is DETERMINING as in making a decision if the temple work had been done. This was not with the intention of actually doing the work once that determination was made. There are many steps that need to happen before you actually SUBMIT names for temple ordinances.

What I was assuming was that everyone understood there is a two set process.

A. Gather information and then DETERMINE if temple work needs to be done. This is the RESEARCH process. PART of that research process is also using tools such as PAF Insight, Legacy or RootsMagic's IGI Search functions to see if work has been done or not. We don't want to duplicate ordinances previously done. Personally I liked having the parents' names available on their deceased children so I can make that determination. I do understand why in this day in age we need to suppress living people information even their names. I doesn't mean I have to like the trend. That's why I suggested if you want that help in making the determination if temple work needs to be done or not that you glean the info now. The key here is do your RESEARCH. Please don't ever only use the IGI as the only source for research. I felt pretty good seeing an actual Church membership record submission but not everything in there is so well documented.

B. Once we DETERMINE temple ordinances need to be done we have to go through the SUBMITTION process. As there are many steps going through a research process there are several things we need to complete before we complete the SUBMITTION process.

1. The individual must be deceased at least one year. We are pretty lucky that we are physically unable to submit a name for temple ordinances if the death date is less than one year ago. Unfortunately some members just follow that one rule and forget there are several very important ones to also follow in the road to temple name submission. The biggest step most often broken is number 2.

2. If the individual was born within the last 95 years you need to get permission of the closest living family members to do ordinances. The closest living relatives are, in this order: spouse, then children, then parents, then siblings. I found it interesting on "new FamilySearch" that one location mentions the 95 year rule but in another area it does not, it says: "When there are living family members, get permission..." This could be an oversight or a change in policy. I personally think it should be our policy.

I have a relative that died at the age of 101. One year later I could have submitted his name for temple work. He was a fellow genealogist and I think he very much so would love to have his temple work done. BUT, his wife was still living and his two daughters. I felt very much so it was only right to ask permission of them to do his work. Since the wife was older and not well I thought it wise to approach the family a year after her death. Call me chicken but getting permission is a difficult thing for me to ask. I thought it nice to approach the subject with the intention of sealing them together forever. It wasn't long before the wife dies and I am down to asking the daughters. When time came I asked the eldest daughter for permission, the answer was no. Even though the deceased individual met our "95 year criteria" I didn't feel it right to do the ordinance work. One daughter said no so in my opinion the other daughter doesn't even need to be approached. The rules doesn't say get a "child's permission" it says get the "children's permission".

Sadly so many members break this common rule of permission. A while ago when I was using Legacy's IGI search it located Camilla Eyring wife of Spencer W. Kimball (my fourth cousin four times removed) temple ordinances. I was shocked to see that her work had also been done several times after she died. Now come on people obviously some members are not following the rules here. At the very least they should have known a prophet’s wife would have had her temple work done during her life time. We can see here no RESEARCH process ever happened. If they had even then tried the SUBMISSION process the gathering of permission should have stopped this gross error.

We offend so many people with our lack of following the SUBMISSION process correctly. We need PERMISSION of the closest living family members in their proper order.

i. Ask the Spouse permission. If the answer is yes go ahead and submit the name for the work to be done. The spouse has the finally say in this condition.

ii. If the spouse is also deceased ask the children for permission. The key word is CHILDREN you must get permission of all the children not just a CHILD. If there are seven children and only one says no then don't do it. If all give their blessing then submit the name for temple ordinances.

iii. . If there is no living spouse or children, let’s say they never married; you need to ask permission of the parents. Once again the key work is PARENTS, not a parent but PARENTS plural. If one says yes and the other is a no then don't do it. We don't want to cause family relationship problems over trying to seal families together.

iv. Now if there are no living spouse, no living children, the parents are now deceased you still have to ask one more group of individuals for permission to do temple work. This is the individual's siblings. I think you understand now we are talking ALL siblings' permission, not just getting permission of one. That said, I would take the permission of one sibling who acted as spokesman for the other siblings after getting their group consensus.

I guess the only other time we need permission of anyone else is if we are dealing with someone that was a previous member and they were excommunicated or had their names removed from the records of the Church. Then you need permission of the First Presidency.

3. Another step in the submission process is to make sure you are doing work for your family members and not celebrities or personal extraction projects. I tried to find a statement on this and couldn't get my hands on it, so this is from my memory.

Many years ago I worked a night job taking phone calls. While I waited for these calls I worked on my genealogy. One of my co-workers worked on hers. The only difference was mine was for my relatives, hers was for movie stars. I kid you not she gathered names and vital information on deceased movie stars, found a little about their families and submitted the names for ordinance work. (I wasn't even going to ask her about the permission issue.) She felt this was her mission to do this work. The really sad thing was she was the only one in her family that was a member of the Church. Now I hate to ever call someone's "mission in life" as misguided but I was personally pleased when the Church came out and discouraged the submitting of celebrities and famous individuals for temple work. I could just picture this co-worker meeting her family on the other side of the veil and explaining why she devoted her time doing temple work for movie stars and their families and not hers.

How much trouble have members caused the Church by submitting these personalized extraction project names for ordinance work? If we are truly doing this work to seal families together shouldn't we be focusing on our families? Granted Wilford Woodruff did have the work done for the founding fathers of our country, but he had a pretty good indication that they wanted it done, personal verification from the actual source. I don't think that happens very often. The closest I would touch a personal extraction project submission is a surname study in a particular locality when you can logically assume someone is of the same family line but can't prove it. I gather names of all Harris' in the Harrisena community of Queensbury, Warren, New York for this very reason. My maiden name is Harris and I grew up in that community. I have a lot of research showing how we are related but there are a few that I just can't prove.

If I had a famous person I would have loved to have done the temple work for it would have been author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I also bet a true family member of Laura Ingalls Wilder would have loved to have done her temple work too. I wonder who really got to do it. She's in the IGI and it wasn't from the records extraction program.

I did mention earlier one famous person as my relative - that was Spencer W. Kimball, my fourth cousin four times removed. His 6th great-grandmother Martha Harris is the granddaughter of my 10th great-grandfather Thomas Harris. Let's suppose Spencer W. Kimball wasn't a member of the Church. I could have done research on him, asked permission of family members and then submitted his name for temple work since he is related to me. I don't just go up my ancestral tree I also go down into the roots and branch out and work the collateral lines. To see an explanation on "Branching Out on Your Family Tree" read George Durrant's article in April 2007 Ensign, pg 44-47.

Those that think their genealogy is all done especially need to understand the concept of branching out. If you learn to branch out your family tree you will never lack in individuals to research and submit for temple work. I often wonder if it is the lack of names or the lack of obedience that makes people submit names for temple work inappropriately.

I have been doing genealogy for a long time and I sure hope my children and future grandchildren will look at my genealogy work someday with the understanding of the need to branch out the lines. I want them to go through my records and find my relative that died at the age of 101 and still had living daughters in my lifetime. Someday those daughters will die and then the time will be right to qualify this deceased individual for temple ordinances. I hope my descendants will have the same feeling I did about sealing families together and want to now seal the daughters to their parents. Maybe the daughter's spouse or children will say yes maybe no. A genealogist work is never completed the legacy lives on and the next generation needs to carry on our efforts. The important thing will be that they ask permission like I did and follow the family's wishes. Someday, someday everyone will have the chance for their work to be done. I sure would hate to have my descendants loose their chance for exaltation over the issue of obedience. We shouldn't break the rules and ask for forgiveness later no matter now easy and righteous that road may appear.

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

UVPAFUG Monthly Meeting 14 Apr 2007

2007-04-04T03:57:27Z

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 14 Apr 2007, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000
North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Drs. Harvey B. and Susan Easton Black on A NEW PROPERTY DATABASE AND INFORMATION ABOUT EARLY LDS MEMBERS IN NAUVOO AND IOWA. They will be discussing recent projects, how they have done them, and the results.

Dr. Harvey B. Black is a Professor Emeritus of Instructional Psychology and Technology at BYU and his wife, Dr. Susan Easton Black, is a Professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU. Together they have worked on several compilations about early LDS Church members and they are presently working on The Winter Quarters Project at BYU - see http://winterquarters.byu.edu/ . They have just completed a project about the land ownership in Nauvoo which the Center for Family History and Genealogy at BYU published - see http://familyhistory.byu.edu/ . Between the two of them they have authored many books and articles, received many awards, and are in great demand as speakers. Susan was also the recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award in 2000 and is an Eliza R. Snow Fellow. She is a past Associate Dean of General Education and Honors and Director of Church History in the Religious Studies Center.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. Following are the
classes currently scheduled for this meeting.
(1) PAF5: Preferences, Lists, Users Guide, & Lessons; by Duane Dudley
(2) Adapting to the Ancestry Change in Family History Centers, by Robert Raymond
(3) Q&A on Main Presentation, by Harvey and Susan Easton-Black
(4) Video of last month's meeting on FH Consultant Training, by D. Merrill White
(5) Individual Mentoring, by RaeLee Steinacker & LaRita Evans
(6) Legacy: Getting It Right?, by Dean Bennett
(7) RootsMagic, by Sue Maxwell.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there
are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow, 1st VP; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology
Editor; Kay Baker, Membership Chairman; and Bruce Merrill, DVD & Video Librarian, will be there to help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and
to check out videos and DVD's of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's
web site http://uvpafug.org . For further information see the web site or contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (225-6106), VP1 Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

A New Version of PAF?

2007-04-03T05:20:21Z

The LDS Tech website answers the question regarding a new version of PAF or Mac OS support.

http://beta.tech.lds.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=83

While you're on the site take a look around the family history section of the forums and read the discussion about PAF and things related to new FamilySearch.

Thanks to James W Anderson on FHCNET for bringing this article to my attention.

Better Glean What You Can Now BEFORE "new FamilySearch"

2007-04-02T01:01:31Z

You know how you work on something and a while later you have gone down a totally different path and discover something new? Well I just did that.

I was looking on one of my favorite New York websites - http://www.genealogybuff.com/ny-glenfalls/. It lists obituaries found in the Glens Falls Post Star, in Warren County, NY. It's not a complete list but it's amazing what I will find there. After playing around for a long time I thought - Oh, I should look up my second cousin's wife Christine's obituary and see if it is there. Sadly she died young in 2000. Well lo and behold there was her obituary, even though she died in Salt Lake City, Utah. The extended family still lived in Warren Co., NY and had placed the obituary in the local paper.

Now what this did for me was resolve a question I had had about her. Since I was ill around the time she died I hadn't faithfully entered her information in my database. I really didn't want to call up my cousin now and say "When did your wife die and tell me all her personal info?" I'm sure it would of been a good bonding moment for cousins but I was a chicken about hitting a sore spot since he hasn't remarried yet. I was lucky that this part of my extended family had also joined the LDS Church. I had looked Christine up several months ago on the IGI and thought I had found her but it said she was born in Alaska. I hadn't heard that as part of her story so I wasn't sure if I had the right person. It told me her parent's names but I couldn't recall if that's what her parents names where or not. Unfortunately it didn't list a spouse's name on the IGI.

Since I just found her listed with her maiden and married name on the obituary website I though now I can confirm those dates with the IGI. Well yes it was a match so now I had all the info I wanted. But I thought let's see what "new FamilySearch" says about her record. Lo and behold I discovered her all alone with no parents, just a single individual. You see "new FamilySearch" protects living individuals information, since her parents and spouse are living they don't appear on her record. It made me realize that once "new FamilySearch" is in place all that lovely kind of recent information on parents and spouses will be gone. That's really sad I want that information, especially when determining if temple work needs to be done or not. I had been so busy earlier getting my database ready for upload to "new FamilySearch" I never thought of the information I needed to gather off the "old" FamilySearch before ALL living individuals information is suppressed. Makes you kind of think what else do I need to consider before "new FamilySearch" goes on line? Well I better get back to work and glean what I can, while I can.

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

Nova Scotia Releases Early Birth, Marriage, and Death Records

2007-03-30T15:33:12Z

I received the following press release from FamilySearch Support.

We would like to share the following press release with you:

One Million Historical Names from Canada Go Online

Nova Scotia Releases Early Birth, Marriage, and Death Records

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Early vital records of Nova Scotia, Canada, are viewable over the Internet for the first time and for free, thanks to a joint project by the Genealogical Society of Utah, FamilySearch, and the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM). The records include one million names found in birth records from 1864 to 1877, marriages from 1864 to 1930, and death records from 1864 to 1877 and 1908 to 1955. Users can search the database at www.novascotiagenealogy.com.

Nova Scotia is the first province in Canada to digitize all of its historical vital statistics and make them available online. "This project provides key information to researchers on their ancestors," said Genealogical Society of Utah regional manager Alain Allard. "It involves the vital records-births, marriages, and deaths-which are a key record set to find, identify, and link ancestors into family units."

The Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) first microfilmed most of Nova Scotia's vital records back in the 1980s. In 2005, GSU used FamilySearch Scanning to convert those microfilms to digital images, while at the same time capturing additional vital records with a specially designed digital camera. Volunteers for the Nova Scotia Archives then used the images to create the searchable electronic index, which was completed in 2006.

Anyone can now search names in the index and view a high quality digital copy of the original image online for free at NSARM's Web site, www.novascotiagenealogy.com. In the near future, the index and images will also be available on FamilySearch.org. Researchers who want to obtain an official copy of a record can do so online through the Nova Scotia Archives. The cost will be CAN$9.95 for an electronic file and CAN$19.95, plus shipping and taxes, for paper copies.

Nova Scotia Provincial Archivist, W. Brian Speirs, said the cooperation of GSU was crucial to this important project. "Without the Genealogical Society of Utah offering in the early days of the project to provide complimentary digitization of all the records as their contribution to the initiative, the proposed undertaking would have been dead in the water and gone nowhere," Speirs said.

FamilySearch is the public channel of the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.

Interesting Feedback from Ancestry

2007-03-22T01:16:58Z

The other day I wrote the following thank you note to Ancestry.

I wanted to thank you for allowing the LDS Church Family History Centers to have Ancestry.com so long for free in their Centers. I am sorry you are limiting access now. But I am grateful for the information I was able to get there while I could. I hope that you will reconsider reducing the cost of purchasing a subscription now that you will have more people buying their own subscriptions.

Renee Zamora
American Fork, UT

I received the following email back from Ancestry.com

Subject: FHC

Dear Renee,

We appreciate your message.

We understand your desire to have Ancestry.com inside your Family History Center. At this point we are not set up to engage in negotiations with individual centers. We remain hopeful there is still a broad agreement that can be reached with the Church."

Also, we have had a couple of FHC's wondering if they can sign up with a personal customer account to use at their centers. The answer is no.

Our subscriptions are designed for individual purchase and use. Sharing the user name and password for such a subscription is a violation of those terms and conditions, and publication of a user name and password in a public setting would be a material breach of the contract under which the subscription was purchased.

If there is anything else with which we might assist you, please let us know.

Ben
Ancestry.com
Family History Center Support
fhcsupport@ancestry.com

Research Forums Beta Testing

2007-03-19T20:32:46Z

For those of you that applied to beta test the Research Forums on "new FamilySearch" you will be happy to know you haven't been passed over. I received the following email from FHC-RESEARCHSUPPORT.

Dear Research Forums Beta tester,

Thanks for signing up to test forums in the new FamilySearch Help Center. Research forums will not be deployed in Beta 2. We are now developing a set of tools that will offer increased functionality for customers to obtain research advice. Policy prevents us from projecting a release date, but be assured that we will contact you as soon as the system is ready for testing.

Sincerely,

Michael Ritchey
Manager, Research Support

Ancestry in Family History Centers

2007-03-18T22:40:33Z

I received the following email from one of my readers today. I'm not sure if there is anything we can do in this situation. Since Ancestry appears to have been free to FHC and now they want them to pay for it I can't see that we have any recourse. I think if the Church paid for the services it would appear they are sponsoring them and they wouldn't want that connection to a commercial enterprise. If you have any suggestions or insight you can post them on this blog article. - Renee
________________________________________

Renee,

A friend forwarded this email to me last night. Apparently, it was sent by Tim Sullivan, CEO of The Generations Network to all their employees. I have heard that the company really wanted to continue to let Family History Centers use Ancestry, but that the Church rejected the deal when Ancestry asked to be paid like libraries pay them. I don't know what to make about this... What can we do about this? who can i write at the Church about this?

Thanks for your blog,

Genibird

________________________________________
From: Tim Sullivan
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 4:38 PM
To: FYI ALL
Subject: Update

As promised, it's been an incredibly busy first two months of 2007, so I thought it would be a good time to take a quick pause and take note of an amazing list of stuff that we've gotten done so far this year. This list is by no means complete, but it's a representative sample of traction on multiple fronts:

- Ancestry.co.uk successfully launched their WWI collection with an event at the Churchill Museum. The release of this content collection received fantastic national media coverage and drove material incremental traffic and new members.

- Together with the New York Daily News, we broke the "Al Sharpton / Strom Thurmond" story on Feb. 25th, generating unprecedented media attention in the U.S. with:

- 587 AP stories across the nation - in print, online, broadcast, and radio
- 87 Top-tier / regional stories in such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME Magazine, and Yahoo.com
- 1,261 broadcast stories reaching more than 100 million people, including MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, the Tonight Show, Inside Edition, and Good Morning America (and even The Daily Show and Colbert Report last night)
- 1,800 blog postings
- All of the press generated a huge spike in traffic on Ancestry. On Feb. 27th, Ancestry experienced a record-breaking day for both page views (20.7 million) and member trees created in one day (46,003).

- myfamily.com 2.0 has soft launched and is now promoted on the home page of www.myfamily.com and through advertising on Ancestry.com and Rootsweb.

- Business in Canada is ramping nicely and exceeding budget. Our Heritage Day promotion there was a tremendous success.

- The launch of our enhanced hint / search engine capability represents a huge step forward for our core technology. With the launch of this improved technology, the number of tree hints accepted nearly doubled over night.

- Our self-publishing platform for Ancestry.com has been released in alpha mode, and we continue to be excited about the idea of giving Ancestry.com users the ability to publish and share their family history.

- Family Tree Maker started limited beta testing March 2 and is barreling towards a major summer release

- And, finally, we welcome the Member Services team into the Riverwoods building. It is fantastic to have our customers that much closer to us..

This is a great start to the year. Congrats to all.

I also wanted to share a few thoughts with all of you on another topic. For the last seven years, our company has provided free access to Ancestry.com inside the family history centers of the LDS Church. During this time, we've done this without any formal agreement or compensation. Several months ago, we informed the Church of our desire to craft a formal relationship that would allow us to continue providing this free access. This is similar to the way that we license Ancestry.com to over 1400 public libraries in the U.S. and U.K. We do this for a license fee which lets patrons of these institutions use our service for free inside their facilities. As you can imagine, this is a very popular program among libraries.

Unfortunately, we were not able to come to agreement with the Church on the terms of this proposed relationship. We are disappointed by this, as we know that patrons of family history centers value Ancestry.com, and we think our institutional licensing program is priced very fairly. We remain willing and eager to have Ancestry.com available in family history centers, and we are even hopeful that at some point the Church will reconsider their position and decide to give patrons of their family history centers access to the world's greatest online resource for family history research.

We will continue to provide access in family history centers to a small number of databases which are covered by other agreements, and none of our other many agreements with the Church are impacted by this change. We continue to have a number of mutually beneficial agreements and relationships with the Church, and as two large players in the family history space, we share a common goal of getting as many people as we can interested in their family history. Our relationship is a good one, and we are always looking for ways to cooperate with the Church in order to grow our business and ignite more interest in the category. I'm sharing all of this with all of you because I am sure that there will be some unhappy patrons of family history centers, and I wanted everyone to understand that this was not a one-way decision on our part.

Finally, I am constantly asked whether we think of the Church as a competitor. The answer to this really depends on the underlying assumptions of the question. Are we competing for dollars? No. Do we have exactly the same goals? No. Are we unfriendly? Absolutely not. Is TGN committed to making sure that Ancestry.com remains the #1 resource for online family history? Absolutely. Is Ancestry going to continue to be the home of the world's largest online family tree? Yup. Should we be able to innovate faster than anyone on the planet in this space? Of course. Are we two large players that each have done tremendous things to help people understand their family history? Yes. Can we continue to cooperate with the Church to get millions more people interested in family history? We can, and we will.

I think we have a pretty good game plan for continuing to grow a truly great company.

Thanks,

Tim

Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases

2007-03-17T05:25:10Z

The following email was sent today to Family History Center Directors from the Family History Support Center.

Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases

For many years, Ancestry.com has provided free access to patrons of family history centers around the world. Ancestry has informed the [LDS] Church that as of April 1, 2007, it will discontinue this free access to the full Ancestry.com service.

Free access through Ancestry.com to the following databases will continue:

1. Index and images for the 1880, 1900 and 1920 U.S. censuses
2. Full name indices for the British 1841-1891 censuses (England and Wales)
3. World War I draft cards indices as created and miscellaneous other databases

Free access is likely to be discontinued for the remainder of the Ancestry.com databases including:

1. Index and images for the 1930 U.S. census
2. Index and images for the 1901 British census (England, Scotland, and Wales)

At this point, Ancestry.com is not offering an option for family history centers to independently purchase commercial or library site licenses. Patrons, of course, may choose to subscribe directly to Ancestry.com.

Free access to online databases is important and we therefore intend to add many new databases to FamilySearch.org. Much of the data preparation will be accomplished through the online indexing program available at FamilySearchIndexing.org. We encourage you to visit the website to learn more.

Volunteers have already begun indexing the 1900 U.S. census and other projects. Other censuses and vital record collections will be indexed as soon as the 1900 U.S. census project is completed. The more volunteers that participate, the sooner access can be provided. Since access to databases on FamilySearch.org is free to all, we anticipate that this will be of great interest to individuals around the world. We are also exploring opportunities to provide broader access to additional databases from other online service providers.

Please inform patrons regarding our plans to provide access to records and invite them to help by participating in the FamilySearch Indexing projects. We will communicate as more information becomes available. Thank you for all that you do on behalf of our patrons.

Family History Center Support

[Renee's Note: As sad as this information is don't forget many of you can access census records online through Heritage Quest. Check with you local public library to see if they offer this service and make it available to access in your home. Another good site to check is Free on Ancestry.

Pedigree Resource File

2007-03-16T22:14:59Z

New Press Release from FamilySearch.org

We would like to share the following press release with you:

Free Online Genealogy Database Hits 150 Million Names - also adds ability to view names in family tree format

SALT LAKE CITY - FamilySearch announced today that the Pedigree Resource File (PRF) database has reached over 150 million searchable names. Along with the milestone achievement, a new feature has been added that allows users to view genealogical and extended information for deceased individuals in a familiar pedigree (family tree) format. Users can search or contribute their personal genealogies to the free database at www.familysearch.org.

The PRF database is a popular destination for family historians seeking to find missing branches of their family tree and then preserve or share family histories online. People from around the world can submit their genealogies online at FamilySearch.org. Using a genealogy software program (such as the free Personal Ancestral File program found at FamilySearch.org), users can easily donate a copy of their personal family histories to the Pedigree Resource File. Details can be found online by clicking the Share tab on FamilySearch.org. Since its launch in 1999, the database has grown at a rate of about 19 million names a year. Today, it boasts over 150 million searchable names. To respect privacy, only information about deceased individuals is displayed online.

"Prior to this latest search improvement, users didn't always realize that there was additional information available for an ancestor found in the database. We also wanted to display search results for an individual in the more familiar context of a family tree," said Steve Anderson, Marketing Manager for FamilySearch. "This new feature allows them to do just that."

The Pedigree Resource File can be found on the advanced search page on FamilySearch.org:

www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

FamilySearch is the public channel of the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.