Insights Into Our Future And Our Past

For those who may be concerned about using the new Flash User Interface for the FamilySearch Family Tree, fret no more. My nephew proved to me that the new Family Tree is easy enough for anyone to use.

It’s not every day that you hear a six year old boy chirp, ”I just can’t WAIT to do some genealogy!” when he is asked if he wants to go to the movies.  (more…)

Yesterday a friend of mine, Sharon, told me a great family history research story. Sharon’s  research goal was to document the death dates for her ancestors who either died or were buried in Utah. My friend discovered that FamilySearch Record Search had a collection of death certificates, so she wanted to use the resource to improve her documentation. She started by creating a focused list of individuals who either died or were buried in Utah between 1850 and 1957. With the list in hand, Sharon began her search for the death certificates.

Finding the certificates in Record Search was simple. She typed in the names on her list and browsed through the possible matches. When she found a match she quickly entered the details on the certificate as documentation.

During the process of reviewing the list of possible matches, Sharon noticed that her grandfather’s name was listed as the father of a female child whose name she didn’t recognized. “Who was this child?” she thought because the name was not one that she had in her records. Sharon’s interest was piqued because the child had died when she was eight months old and her father never mentioned that he had a sibling.

Sharon printed the little girls death certificate and studied the details in comparision to her own records. The details on the record made the conclusion easy: There was no question that this little girl was her father’s half-sister. The little girl was never mentioned by her father in his life-time and never recorded on any other family records. Thanks to the Utah death certificates on Record Search, a lost and forgotten little girl was linked into her Family Tree.

I love to hear stories like this one. Stories like this one encourage me to keep searching and never give up. Now it’s time to go check Record Search again…

On Saturday I was working at the Family History Library. When I am working I try to introduce the Wiki to everyone who asks for research advise. This is especially true when the person is visiting from out-of-town.

On Saturday I helped one lady a couple of different times but the third time we talked I discovered that I hadn’t told her about FamilySearch Research Wiki. She was thrilled to learn about the Wiki and also about the Forums that are linked from the Wiki. After the introduction she said, “Ok, let’s give it a test.” Then she said that she wanted to find out how to use the ward maps with census records for Pennsylvania. I didn’t know if any information about using the ward maps with census research was in the Wiki, so we went looking.

First we looked at the pages for Pennsylvania Census records, but nothing was mentioned about using the ward maps. Next we looked at the page for Pennsylvania Maps. Right at the bottom of the page was an explanation for using the city ward maps when doing census research. The article also linked to the catalog entry for the maps that are available at the Family History Library on microfilm and microfiche!!! She was thrilled with what she learned about using the ward maps. Evidently she had been trying for a long time to find out if ward maps were available and how to use them. Within a few short minutes, the Wiki answered her question. She loved what she saw and was anxious to share the news with friends back home.

The FamilySearch indexing application is available in three new languages: Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. These languages are in addition to English, French, German, and Spanish.

We have current indexing projects in all of these languages except Portuguese. We will be introducing a Portuguese project in the near future.

Volunteers can help with any of this projects by registering online at FamilySearchIndexing.org.

Recently Completed Projects

(Note: Recently completed projects have been removed from the available online indexing batches and will now go through a final completion check process in preparation for future publication.)

• UK - Cheshire - Church Records
• District of Columbia - 1920 US Census
• Florida 1885 Census
• Florida 1935 Census
• Massachusetts 1865 State Census

Current FamilySearch Indexing Projects, Record Language, and Percent Completion

(*This percentage refers to a specific portion of a larger project.)

Current FamilySearch Affiliate Projects, Record Language, and Percent Completion