Find-Take-Teach Moments

The new form "Helping Others to Love Family History" helps consultants have meaningful F-T-T sessions.  By obtaining the Helper Number and username before meeting with those who are new to descendency research, the consultant can quickly guide a patron to a Green Temple Icon where ordinance work is needed.  The pathway to discover the icon with no duplicates or data problems is recorded in the lesson plan under "What to do in Family Tree".  After the lesson the form can be left with the patron so they can see the relationship to the person that is ready for Temple work.  This form is now available on this blog under the training tab at the right.

Alayne Favreau and Susan Aston of the Hermosa Vista Stake recently shared a Find-Take-Teach moment.

A Big Thanks goes to all those who indexed during the Worldwide Indexing Event July 15-17.  Number of participants were 116, 475 which surpassed the original target of 72,000!

FamilySearch: Individuals of Unusual Size (IOUS) Can Now Be Merged

In the past, the Family Tree system had some limitations in merging duplicate records that had been merged many times. These were sometimes referred to as Individuals of Unusual Size or IOUS, because of the many pieces of data that had previously been merged. With the upgrade of the Family Tree system, the limitation is now gone so these large duplicate records can be merged. 

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On the FamilySearch Family Tree mobile app, you can now add and edit “Other Information” such as an alternate name, military service, naturalization, and residence. This will let you provide more details and improve the quality of information for your ancestors.

1. Tap Add Other Information
2. Tap the type of information you want to add or edit.
3. Tap Edit to add or edit the information.                                                                                                         Some of the other information you can add is listed below:

To view the complete What's New Blog Click here

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Do you have a direct relative that served in World War II?  Do you know that you can obtain their military records and metals that they earned during the war.  Check out this site!

Grandma’s Pie: A Fun Visual App from BYU

Described as a “visualization tool that allows you to see where your ancestry is from at a glance,” Grandma’s Pie “organizes your FamilySearch tree data in pie chart format in order to give valuable insight about your ancestors’ origins.”

Grandma’s Pie shows the countries of up to seven generations. It is color coded and charts the percentages of the user’s known ancestry by country. For example, in my husband’s case, 59 percent are from England, 25 percent are from the United States, some are from the British Isles, a few are from France, and, yes, a few are from Estonia.

See the complete blog Click Here

Learn about Find-a-grave, the Closest Thing to Being There  Click Here

DPLA and FamilySearch Partner to Expand Access to Digitized Historic Books Online

In concert with the American Library Association national conference in Orlando, Florida, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and FamilySearch International, the largest genealogy organization in the world, have signed an agreement that will expand access to FamilySearch.org’s growing free digital historical book collection to DPLA’s broad audience of users including genealogists, researchers, family historians, students, and more.

Family history/genealogy continues to be a popular and growing hobby. And FamilySearch is a leader in the use of technology to digitally preserve the world’s historic records and books of genealogical relevance for easy search and access online. With this new partnership, DPLA will incorporate metadata from FamilySearch.org’s online digital book collection that will make more than 200,000 family history books discoverable through DPLA’s search portal later this year. From DPLA, users will be able to access the free, fully viewable digital books on FamilySearch.org.  

See Complete Blog Here

New Added Features to FamilySearch Memories

There is now an easier way to upload photos into memories.  On the photo page you will now see upload buttons.  Check out what else is new: learn more

Family History Events to put on the calendar

Family Discovery Days:

     August 6----Tempe Stake, 1871 E. Del Rio, 9 am to 11:30 am

     September 17--Alta Mesa and Red Mountain Stakes, 5350 E. McLellan Road. 8 am to 12 noon
     check out the web page register here

Mesa FamilySearch Library's Family History Conference is coming on October 29th

     This free Conference will be held at the ASU Institute Building again.  Registration is required            and will start in September--more information will be coming.

Roots Tech to be held in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on February 8-11.  Registration starts September 15th.

If you have an event that you would like to put on the Calendar, send an email to edithhaws_560@msn.com.

The Mesa FamilySearch Training Center reopens on August 1st after being closed the month of July.
     Address:  464 E. 1st Ave, Mesa    
     Hours of Operation:  Monday 9am to 5pm

                                    Tuesday through Friday  10am to 6pm
     Consultant classes will resume in September
     A four week Genealogy Crash Course for small groups            (4-8) can be scheduled on Wednesdays 7 to 8:30 pm.

Wilford Woodruff and the Signers of the Declaration of Independence

                

               

  "I will here say . . . before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, “You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God.”

“These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights. I thought it very singular, that notwithstanding so much work had been done, and yet nothing had been done for them. The thought never entered my heart, from the fact, I suppose, that heretofore our minds were reaching after our more immediate friends and relatives. I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon brother McCallister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all, including John Wesley, Columbus, and others; I then baptized him for every President of the United States, except three; and when their cause is just, somebody will do the work for them."   -Wilford Woodruff (Journal of Discourses, Vol.19, pp. 229-31; September 16, 1877)

                   WORLD WIDE INDEXING EVENT

              HELP SAVE THE WORLD'S RECORDS!

       It only lasts for 72 hours---July 15 through July 17

           The Goal is to have 72,000 people indexing during this time

           Be part of the biggest worldwide indexing event ever!  Index one batch, and help                                  someone else do the same!

                                             Sign up to join the event:  click here

                 Mesa Family Search Library Closed in July

The Mesa Family Search Library is now closed through July and is scheduled to open the 1st of August.  If you have films waiting to be viewed, they will be extended so you will still have time to view them after the Library re-opens.

                                 

                      Social Media and Family History

    Have you ever thought that you might be doing family history work by commenting on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.   Check out this blog: Click Here

Check Out the Leader's Page

Do you need a little help as a Priesthood Leader?  click here

Things to Remember

    1.  If you haven't signed up to host a Roots Tech Discovery Day Click Here

    2.  Mark your calendars for October 29, 2016--Mesa FamilySearch Library will hold the next  
        conference at the Institute on the ASU campus. Click Here

    3.  Discover helpful resources for your calling in Family History Click Here

    4.  For questions or to subscribe or unsubscribe from this blog contact:  Edith Haws at
         edithhaws_560@msn.com  or Wallace Haws at wrhaws@gmail.com

    5.  Check out the sidebar to this blog for other training materials and resources

Family History Videos

Inspiring Movies

LDS Media Library:  Family History Videos

Searching for Emma

Letters from Estonia

Clan McCloud

Grandfather's Journal

What is an Ancestor?

What's a Family Tree?

Treasure Hunt at Home Fuels the Find!

So why is indexing so important?

                        

Finding a name to take to the Temple is an exciting discovery.  Many have been able to do just that.  The indexing effort has a direct relationship to discovery.   The chart below shows just how many records have been indexed at the time this article was written (1,305,948,057).  These indexed records are placed in the Family Search database and become searchable.  They also are matched to individuals as record hints, which in turn make it possible to discover new cousins and ancestors. 

Unfortunately not all languages are equal in the amount of records indexed.  The majority of current records indexed are in English.  There is now a Call to Arms going out to those who speak a foreign language or those willing to learn to index in a foreign language.  A special focus for French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish speakers is being made.  New training guides and videos and other resources are available to help willing volunteers to learn how to index certain types of records in these languages.  Visit FamilySearch.org/indexing for more details on these new materials and training sessions.

The videos and training can also be accessed within the indexing program.  Go to Help, and then to Resource Guide, then Indexer, and then Language and Handwriting Helps.  Be sure to enter the language in which you want to volunteer.   Here you can find Quickstart Guides and videos and other resources.  Now the treasure hunt begins! Click Here to view Quickstarts

Have a Little Fun While you are Indexing!

The Indexing Song Click Here

Inspector General  Click Here

Liahona 1st Ward, Mesa South Stake

We are pleased to highlight the Young Women of the Liahona 1st Ward and Sister Berta Lujan, the Ward Indexing Director.

We give our special thanks to Shannon Lista, Nadia Morello and Shelem Romero, the adult Young Women Leaders who made this happen and for the constant help and testimony of Berta Lujan.

The Liahona 1 Young Women are participating in Family History by working on indexing in spite of the difficulties many have because they do not have computers in their home.

Do You Need Help?

Whether you need help with Indexing or Family History research, there are several places you can get help.  Does your Stake have a Stake Indexing Director?  Do you know who your Ward Family History Consultants are?  You can check out the Get Help at FamilySearch.org.  Local help is also available at the Mesa FamilySearch Library Training Center.  Starting May 2nd the Library has new extended hours.

Location: 464 East 1st Ave., Mesa, Arizona

Times:  Monday:  9 am to 5 pm

            Tuesday - Friday 10 am to 6 pm

Consultant and Priesthood class:  Tuesdays 7 pm to 8:30 pm 

During the month of July the Library will be close for some electrical work.

New Information:

New Sunday Lesson Materials can now be ordered from the LDS Store Click Here

Family History Priesthood Leadership Session 2016 from Roots Tech is now online Click Here to view

  Leader Resource Page Click Here

Temple Reservation List

 Why Your Temple Reservation List May Change

Perhaps you have seen changes to the names you have reserved for Temple Work.  Recently as I was preparing to do sealings I double checked the names in my list to make sure it agreed with the cards I had printed about four months ago.  I noticed that one of the cards no longer showed an endowment that my printed card showed as needing to be performed, but the sealing work still needed to be performed.  I always check for duplicates and wondered how this ordinance had been completed.
On occasion a duplicate record is found by someone else or added by familysearch from the new.familysearch program that is being phased out.  It appears that this is what happened to me. I'm glad that the system will automatically change the reservation list if  a double record is added to the system and the records are merged. Another reason for changes have to do with the Two Year Reservation policy which the following article addresses:

TWO YEAR RESERVATION POLICY

Family History Consultant and Priesthood Leader Class Starts April 5th

Family History Consultant and Priesthood Leader training is scheduled for the first four Tuesdays in April, starting April 5th.

Where:  464 E. 1st Ave.

Time:  7 to 8:30 pm. 

Questions:  480-964-1200

Walk-ins are welcome!

New Sunday Lesson Resource Brochures 

A new Sunday lesson is now available at lds.org >serve and teach>all callings>family history> Sunday Lesson: Family History Stories.  Three brochures that can be used in the lesson on how to find a name to take to the Temple and can be viewed and ordered at 
Click here:    LINK TO BYU PRINT SHOP

There is also a PDF that can be downloaded free for the brochure called “Find Your Family Names: a First- Time Guide”.

BYU Family History Library- A Good Source of Information

Are you ready to learn a little more about researching your ancestors?  Or perhaps you need a resource to help someone or teach a class.  The BYU Family History Library offers webinars. Go to:

 THE BYU FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY

Click the link below if you missed or wanted to review again the following helps:

HARRIS 1ST WARD

DESCENDANCY RESEARCH TRAINING

Descendancy Research

This post will teach how to do descendancy research.  It is hoped you are able to find the names you need to be Temple self-sufficient.  This is just one way to find names.

We encourage you to always check for duplicates before reserving names for the Temple.


Click here to get a PDF file with instructions

Click here to watch a video showing the process

Harris 1st Ward, Mesa Central Stake

With the permission of President Hiatt, Bishop Crites and the others shown on this highlight, the highlight for this blog post is the Harris 1^st Ward, Mesa Central Stake.

The Harris 1^st Ward experienced an increase in their Family History Key Indicators from 8% in October, 2015 to 42% in January 2016.  This represents a 34% increase in submitter rate in a 2 month period.  

The way they accomplished this remarkable increase is instructive.  Bishop Crites  holds the keys of and directs Temple and Family History work in his ward and empowered the High Priest Group leader to come up with a plan to present to the Ward Council.  The Ward council supported wholeheartedly the plan and the high priest group leader coordinated the plan successfully.

Listen to Bishop Crites’ testimony below.   He attributes the success of the ward to the inspiration of his high priest group leader and family history consultants.

 Click =>   Bishop Crites

The ward High Priest Group Leader, brother Hathcock, took the challenge received from Elder Tilleman, our Area Seventy, and made it a matter of prayer.  He developed a family history plan that was approved by Bishop Crites.  Listen to his testimony.

Click =>  High Priest Group Leader Testimony

Listen to the inspiring testimony of the Ward Family History Consultants, Sister Ash and  Sister Hathcock.

Click here =>  Ward Family History Consultants Testimony

Brother Hathcock prepared the following sheet to explain the spiritual keys to their success.

Spiritual Keys to Success

We also invite you to review the training information below which focuses on the admonition we received from Elder Tilleman.  It might just help you in your stake and ward!

High Priest Group Leader and Family History Consultant Training