Riverton FamilySearch Library Saturday Seminar August 21

The Riverton FamilySearch Library will host a seminar on August 21, 2012, from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Ever wish that your enthusiasm for family history research was contagious and you could get priesthood leaders and others excited about the potential of family history and temple work? If so, you will not want to miss Shipley Munson's keynote address at the Riverton Saturday Seminar. In his address, "Getting Priesthood Leaders Psyched," he will share ideas intended to motivated and inspire leaders and others to do family history.

Shipley Munson serves as the director of the marketing division of FamilySearch. In this role, he helps people get excited about their family histories and works to establish the FamilySearch brand in the minds of the general public. Munson came to FamilySearch after a 25 year career in marketing where he advised a number of major corporations. He speaks seven languages and has two degrees from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Following the 9:00 a.m. keynote presentation, there will be two blocks of four classes each that will cover topics of interest to both beginning and advanced family history enthusiasts.

Classes to be held from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. are:

Records Say the Darndest Things- The Ancestry Insider

Pennsylvania Research: An Overview- Tim Bingaman
Navigating the Globe with Google- Devin Ashby

Introduction to Italian Indexing- Brad Jensen

The classes available from 11:00 a.m. to noon are:

Tips, Tools and Freebies, Part 1- Ron Ray

Learning to read Scandinavian Gothic Script-Anka Macgee

FamilySearch Wiki: Our Number one Tool- Pat Jensen

Features Beyond Paf 5 in Ancestral uest- Gaylon Findlay

Use your Smartphone to Aid your Family History Research

When our bishop,Jason Frazier, has a few minutes to spare, he takes out his smartphone and goes to his Ancestry.com app and does a little family history research. I think that is way cool.

In the old days, when you went to a library or repository to do research, you might have to lug a whole briefcase full of information. In the electronic age, that has mostly changed. Although it is still a good idea to have a pencil and a pad of paper, the up to date researcher will more likely carry a camera, a digital audio recorder, a laptop computer and perhaps a scanner. What happens if you find yourself with some extra time near a research location and don't have all of your equipment with you? Today's smartphone just might save the research opportunity.

The average smartphone is really a sophisticated computer. Most smartphones (and most cell phones for that matter) also have audio recording capabilities and a camera. Some even have high definition video recording capabilities. There are apps for smartphones that let you take all of your genealogical data with you so you can conveniently ckeck your existing file to find out if there is something that can be found in a particular library. Some smartphones have become so powerful, they are taking the place of a laptop for some applications.

Let's go on a hypothetical research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. You didn't plan on having any time in Salt Lake, but a snowstorm has cancelled your flight and you have a couple of extra hours to spend. You quickly go to the Family History Library, but realize that you have none of your normal research equipment or notes. What can you Do? If you have used your smartphone for genealogy in the past, you just might find that you have all the equipment you need to make your unplanned visit a success. First, you search the Family History Library Catalog for information about your ancestors in New York. You find a book in the library that looks interesting and go and pull it from the shelf and start reading. Here is a whole page of information about your ancestory's family. In the old days, you would grab your pencil and start taking notes. With your smartphone you simply pull out your camera and take a picture of the page. Then I suggest that you also take a picture of the books's title page showing the publication information. Now you can either copy those pictures to your computer when you get home, or you can load the pictures directly into a program such as DropBox, and the photos are already on your computer at home. But what about microfilm? You spend some time searching church records in New York and find some interesting information on the microfilm. To record the information, you pull out your smartphone and take a picture of the projected microfilm image.

How about another example. You are on a trip out of state and realize that your trip will take you right by a town where your ancestors lived. You realize you have left all of your research equipment at home. But you also realize that you have your entire genealogy file with all of the references and sources right on your smartphone. You know there is supposed to be a cemetery in this town, and in fact, you had recorded the coordinatges for the location of the cemetery in your genealogy notes. You read through you notes and find the coordinates for the cemetery. You use a GPS app to enter in the coordinates on your smartphone and in a few seconds the program has drawn you a map to the cemetery location. You drive to the cemetery and then use the smartphone's camera, this time to take pictures of the grave markers. You realize that you can upload the burial information directly from your smartphone to an online cemetery database. You can also share the photo with friends and relatives on a number of social networking sites.

On you way out of town, you see a familiar surname on a mailbox. On a whim, you stop to ask if you are related. You find a long lost cousin. You use your smartphone to record the contact information and even record a short video interview with your cousin about your great grandfather.

The Familysearch Center

The FamilySearch Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, is located east of Temple Square in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. This facility is an extension of the Family History Library and is an excellent place for beginning genealogists to start their family research.

The center's 100 computer terminals provide access to several easy to use genealogical programs and databases. Visitors can type in known names and dates of their ancestors and then press a button to see what information has already been compiled on their family.

They may search:

The internet at www.familysearch.org for information and related sites. Compiled databases on compact disc, including Vital Records Indexes with birth, death, and marriage information from various regions of the world.

The Family History Library Catalog for descriptions of records in the Family History Library collection.

Admission to the FamilySearch Center and use of the computers and microfilm workstations are free.

Research supplies such as photocopies, disks, and computer printouts can be purchased for a nominal fee.

Helpful staff and volunteers are trained to give computer assistance and research tips.

The Family Search Center is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The facility is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Groups can be accommodated. To arrance group visits, call 801-240-4673 or fax 801-240-3718.

Hidden Resources on FamilySearch.org

Over the past year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made some grand changes to the classic FamilySearch site located at the following website, www.familysearch.org.

The website has many many courses to teach you how to do research on your own ancestors from the comfort of your own home. When you are on the home page of FamilySearch, click on the LEARN tab at the top. You have three different areas of learning that you can spend hours on; Research Wiki, Resource Courses and Get Started.

If you click on Resources Course, you will be able to view over 140 online videos that have been divided by categories. Whether you are a beginner in family history research or a long time researcher, you will find valuable information. Some of the classes include everything from Beginning Genealogy: 5 Minutes Genealogy, to Russian History, Geography, Records, and Resources and everything in between. There are even several lessons in Spanish. I would take the time to see what is available and to check back often as additional resources are being added all the time. Keep an eye on the category list on the right side of the page so you can jump to a category for quick navigation. This page will also tell you how long each video is so you can plan you time around your busy schedule. The best part of the video series is that once you start viewing the video of the presenter, you will also view the slide show pesentation which is similar to a PowerPoint Presentation to the right. Such a huge amount of information and all of this is provided free of charge and not just to LDS Church members, but to the community as well.

FamilySearch is on Facebook and YouTube. Both can be found at www.facebook.com/familysearch and www.youtube.com/familysearch. Both sites will give you additional nuggets of information to keep you research techniques fresh and up to date.

Birth Announcements in Newspapers

The following article was written by Stacie Duce for the Deseret News and appeared on Thursday, November 17, 2011.

I've been working on a research project that's led me to wander through newspaper archives from the 1920s. The front page articles and writing styles have distracted more than I care to admit and I've found a few things our modern newspapers are tragically missing-birth announcements.

As important as our current obituaries, in the past, birth announcements received just as much ink. The birth of babies of prominent and regular families alike were celebrated with hundreds of words, or sometimes, just a few endearing ones.

Today, we are hard pressed to find birth announcements at all. Parents at our local hospital can chose whether or not to have their baby's birth announcement in the paper and many are declining for the sake of privacy, I assume. One OB nurse I interviewed estimated that only one in five new mothers are choosing to have the vitals of their baby submitted to our hometown paper. Even then, if printed, the information is not archived online.

So for the sake of our posterity and those invested in family history, genealogy or any research project, let's up the importance of publishing and digitally archiving birth announcements along with obituaries and everthing else on the front page on a newspaper.

Another revelation I've had while researching this year is the importance of safe, yet accessible space for historical documents and especially personal histories that memorialize history like no other.

Last summer, I visited several small town libraries in Utah and was impressed to find a treasure trove of personal histories written by hand, photocopied in rudimentary books or professionally bound like novels that were all protected with white gloves and glass walls. Most volumes seemed to be a retirement project or holiday gift to extended family with an extra copy donated to the local library. Even as an outsider, history came alive in colorful fashion when written by the hand of one who lived it.

Recently, a friend let me borrow an original typewritten family history where one of seven sisters with writing talents wrote 200 pages on her family's adventures. Each long chapter was from the perspective of each sibling.

Her writing was vivid enough that I could imagine the details of baby births, house burnings, road building, weekend dances and marriage ceremonies from the early 1900s. Her tales were more telling than any textbook and helped me appreciate the past and present. I wish the stories were available to others, especially school age children. But sady, the solitary version of the book with duct tape as binding sits gathering dust on my friend's shelf.

So, here are a few suggestions for those needing a project while the snow flies:

Record your family's history or create an electronic copy of one previously written.

Put the text on a family website or blog so that the stories will be digitally accessible. (Your middle school aged granddaughter can help you with that, if you have one.)Submit a copy of your work to your local library, the LDS Church's Family History Library, museum or to the Daughter's of Utah Pioneers or Sons of Utah Pioneers.

Do the same with photographs. Buy a scanner for Christmas and have techno-savvy relatives help you scan family photos and publish them online. Or if you don't know what to do with family photographs of local importance, label each one the best you can and donate them to a local organization with safe storage.

Family History Seminar Nov 19th in Riverton

Thousands of local moviegoers have been moved to tears while watching the popular movie 17 Miracles. At this month's Saturday Seminar series at the Riverton FamilySearch Library, keynote speaker and filmmaker T.C. Christensen will share his unique prospectives gleaned from writing, directing, and filming the movie. In his presentation, "17 Miracles in Retrospect," T. C. will share the story of the Willie and Martin handcart companies, their struggles, and the miracles they witnessed as they crossed the plains.
T.C. Christensen has also made several films about the Prophet Joseph Smith. Among these are Joseph Smith: Prophet at the Restoration and Emma Smith: My Story. He also made A Giant Among Men on the life of President Gordon B Hinckley. Other LDS films include Testaments and The Work and the Glory.
T. C has also been involved in many feature films including Rigoletto and Forever Strong as well as IMAX films including Lewis and Clark for National Geographic and Roving Mars for Disney. His short films include The Touch of the Master's Hand, The Pump, Only a Stonecutter, and The John Tanner Story.

Following the 9:00 a.m. keynote presentation, there will be two blocks of four classes that will cover topics of interest to both beginning and advanced family history enthusiasts.
Classes to be held from 10:00 a.m. are:

Searching for Ancestors Step by Step: FamilySearch Wiki Goldmine"-Sheri Lynn Lemon

"Sharing Time: Increasing Productivity on the New FamilySearch Website"-Andrea Schnakenburg

"Archives.com: A Simple Tool for Online Genealogy Rewsearch"Craig Bullough

"Families and the War between the States: Getting to Know Your Civil War Era Ancestors"-Yvonne Curry

The classes available from 11:00 a.m. to noon are:
"Certified Genealogy Software that Makes New Familysearch Easier"-Janet Hovorka

"Hansel and Gretel: Finding and Following Our German Ancestors' Trail Home"-Tammy Stansfield

"The Tired, the Poor, the Huddled Masses, and the Wretched Refuse: U.S. Immigration from 1820 to 1854"-Beth Taylor

"Introduction to legacy 7.5 Tree maker and Legacy Family Search, Part 2"-Carl Holland

Registration is not required for this free seminar. The Riverton FamilySearch Library is located in the LDS Riverton Office Building at 3740 Market Center Drive. The facility is near the intersection of Bangerter Highway and 13400 South, just east of The Home Depot.

Learn More on the Research WiKi

FamilySearch has over 2.5 billion records online, but did you know that by clicking the "Learn More" button feature with each record set, you can connect to additional information about the record sets on the FamilySearch Research WiKi? By clicking on the "Learn More" button you are instantly accessing a wealth of information on the FamilySearch Research WiKi that can add depth and insight to the records you are using for your family history research. While the information provided can vary slightly, there are 10 types of basic information that are provided for each record group including:

COLLECTION TIME PERIOD-This indicates the time period the collection encompasses.
RECORD DISCRIPTION-The description tells the kinds of records a collection contains. If a record collection contains only baptisms and marriages and you are looking for a death record, for example, then looking in this record collection may not be the best place to start.
HOW TO USE THIS RECORD-Have you ever wanted or needed instructions on how to use a record collection? It may sound silly, but it is important to know how to use a particular record collection. FamilySearch Research WiKi provides detailed instrucitons on how to use each collection in an easy to understand format.
RECORD HISTORY-Knowing the historical context in which the records were created as well as the reliability of the records contained in the collection can help in evaluating the records.
RELATED WEBSITES-Familysearch Research WiKi provides links to additonal information for the collection.
RELATED WIKI ARTICLES-If there are volunteer-contributed articles that pertain to a record collection, then the links to those articles are listed here.
KNOWN ISSUES WITH THE COLLECTION-Record collections can have issues and concerns that come up from time to time, and knowing these can help in evaluating records.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS ARTICLE-This is where users can add any information they have on the particular record collection, adding more insight to the records.
CITING FAMILYSEARACH HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS-No more worries on how to cite a record-examples are provided here.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR THIS COLLECTION-knowing the sources of a collection can affect users' decisions about records.

As you can see, FamilySearch.org provides vast collections of records, but the FamilySearch Research WiKi provides added value to those collections by providing more information about them. Click the "Learn More" button while you research, and let the Research WiKi add depth to you family history records.

DID YOU KNOW THAT FAMILYSEARCH.ORG HAS A NEW LEARNING CENTER WITH OVER 300 ONLINE COURSES? From right in your own home, you can learn from the world's best genealogical experts about a variety of family history topics targeted to beginning, intermediate, and advanced genealogist. The "5 Minute Genealogy" videos are infomative and entertaining and are a great way to get a friend who is new to genealogy involved with family history. Share the "5 Minute Genealogy" video series with a friend today to get him or her started with family history reearch.

You may do most of your genealogy work at a computer or by studying in a quiet library, but that doesn't mean that you have to do genealogy alone. Join our new online research communites on Facebook and Skype to ask questions, help others, and learn about all the new activities going on as you research your ancestors in specific regions all over the world.