Secret to Success

Accepting the Find-Take-Teach Challenge

How does a Stake organize their Family History work? Mesa Arizona Citrus Heights Stake took the Find-Take-Teach challenge and have seen outstanding results. They recently revealed their secrets to success. Listen to Gordon and Susan Porter, Stake Family History Center directors, and Karl Huish, High Councilor over Family History in the Stake reveal the secrets to the success!  Click: here

Some points to success: 

1. The Stake Presidency supports the Center Directors 100%. 
2. The Stake High Council Member over Family History actively supports the program.
3. The Stake purchased 20 new laptops to further the work of redeeming the Dead.  
4. Each building has a Family History Center, either a small room or a large one at the Stake Center, which can be accessed on Sunday, used during Sunday School time as well as at other times.
5. Ward Consultants support the Stake Family History Center Directors by serving as asked and scheduled by the directors.
6. Youth groups are scheduled on Wednesday nights.
7. Upon entering the FHC each person is given a one page sheet showing the simplified method of descendancy research. They are then encouraged to find a name on their own.
8. A consultant will assist the patron only if additional help is needed.

Step # 2 F-T-T---Finding Opportunities

Have you been searching for "green Temple" icons and found it difficult to find a name to take to the Temple?  If so, you are ready for Step # 2--- Opportunities.  Step # 2 describes how to identify a person who is in FS without a spouse or children and lived long enough to have the possibility that they were married and had children.  To look at this sheet click here.  (This blog has a sidebar which takes you to the link under the heading "Training"

                                              Findarecord.com                                                                                                                                                   Another help to cleanup records in FamilySearch or find ordinances that need to be performed is findarecord.com.    Try out this site if you have little time but want to accomplish something that will help perfect the information in FS.  

Click the item you want to accomplish.  For example if you need an ordinance for Temple work, simply click the box that says Ordinances. (Hint:  the more generations you have it search, the longer it will take the program to load.)

You Are Invited to Join the FamilySearch Arizona User Group

Are you a FamilySearch user?  Perhaps a consultant or FHC Director? the FamilySearch Arizona User Group meets once a month to participate in webinars presented by people from FamilySearch.  They meet the last Thursday each month at the Mesa FamilySearch Training Center, west of the Mesa Temple.  If you would like to be added to the email list, contact:  Mike Ostler, michaelostler@gmail.com

Mesa FamilySearch Library

The Mesa FamilySearch Training Center at 464 E. 1st Ave (West of the Mesa Temple) is open for patrons. Films and fiche can now be accessed and viewed, books are available, and photo scanners are waiting to be used.  For more information call 480-964-1200 or 480-962-9611

OPEN: • Monday - 9:00am to 5:00pm
             • Tuesday - 10:00am to 8:30pm
             • Wednesday - 10:00am to 6:00pm
             • Thursday- 10:00am to 6:00pm
             • Friday - 10:00am to 6:00pm
• New Consultant and Priesthood Leader training on Tuesday nights at 7:00pm. 

Upcoming Training Events

Jan 14, 2017- Community Discovery Day at the Interstake Center, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sponsored by Mesa South Stake

Jan  21- Red Mountain Institute Genealogy Conference

Feb 8-11 - Roots Tech in Salt Lake City

Feb. 25 - Family Discovery day at Glendale Stake Center, 8602 N 31st Ave, Phoenix.

Roots Tech 2017 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah is taking registrations. Scheduled to happen February 8-11, it will be the largest Family History Event of the year and is sponsored by FamilySearch.  https://www.rootstech.org/rootstech-2017

Training for My Calling

Don't lose the vision of your calling.  Make sure you are up to date on your Family History calling. Go Here for the latest.  
The page for the High Priest Group Leader has been updated.  Click Here

Audacity

Audacity is a free shareware program that allows you to edit audio files.  Why would you want to do that?

An example is you would like to upload an audio file of your grandpa talking or singing, but the audio file needs to be cleaned up.

• To many pauses between words and sentences making the file way to long
• Background noises you would like to remove
• He started a one story at the beginning of the file that he didn't finish until the end of the audio
• You would like to interject audio notes of explanation occasionally before you complete the audio
• You want to add background music as your grandpa is telling the story

There are many other reasons you might want to edit a file.  Usually you can cut any file down in size by a minimum of 50% making it far more interesting and easy for people to listen to.

You can download "Audacity" from the internet and 1000s of videos that will explain it.  Just type Audacity program into Google.

This one sheet instruction sheet to help you get started.

GETTING STARTED WITH AUDACITY

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION

Ancestry.com LDS Account

Ancestry.com under special contractual arrangements with the Church allows members to use Ancestry.com for free.  Anyone can use Ancestry at any one of the recognized Family Search libraries, but members of the Church can use Ancestry for free in their homes for a limited time.

Ancestry is a powerful search engine that increases the number of records you can search over what is available as searches on Family Search.  Ancestry also makes a direct link with Family Search so you can add documents and people between Ancestry and Family Search simply by a click of a box.

Click on this link to get a PDF instruction sheet that tells you how to get and use your LDS Ancestry.com account:

PDF:  LDS  ANCESTRY.COM ACCOUNT

You can also watch this 2 videos explaining the process.

INTRODUCTION TO ANCESTRY.COM  LDS ACCOUNT

DEMONSTRATION OF ANCESTRY/LDS ACCOUNT

Sister Lopes

The Spiritual Aspects of Indexing and Abitrating

Natalia Lopes of the Mesa South Stake indexes and arbitrates records in Portuguese.  She relates experiences of guidance through the Spirit and bears testimony to trust in the Lord and not be afraid when coming to hard to read records.  Her beautiful story and testimony is a great example.  

Sister Natalia Lopes tells how she got started arbitrating:  Click Here

Sister Natalia Lopes Testimony about indexing: Click Here => Natalia Lopes

Becoming an Abritrator

Things to do:   

1.  Study every Project Instruction Page BEFORE working on a batch.   

2.  Look closely at every Field Help example and explanation in the project.   

3.  Index several batches BEFORE starting to arbitrate in a new project.   

4.  Focus your efforts in a limited number of projects that you have studied thoroughly.  This creates the greatest success for arbitration.
    

The goal is to publish accurate records.

Examples of Accurate Arbitration:

Key B is correct.  Basic Indexing Guidelines teaches:  "Maiden names are indexed before married names in the Surname field."  We know "Fisher" is a maiden name for Nancy because the surname of her father is "Fisher".  Arbitrators must be alert to potential maiden names and accurately record them in the surname field.  

If you would like more training in Arbitration, check out the link on the sidebar under training or contact Wallace or Edith Haws; note contact information below the header.

 Family History Conference to be held October 29th 

at ASU Institute

ANNOUNCING the 2016 Family History Conference, Putting the Puzzle Together,
 sponsored by the Mesa AZ FamilySearch Library on Saturday, October 29, 2016.    The conference is FREE and will be held at the Tempe Institute of Religion on the ASU Campus, 1000 South McAllister Avenue in Tempe, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:20 p.m.  Attendees can select from the 50+ classes available and register for as many as five classes.  They may also purchase lunch provided by Jason’s Deli.   Registration is still open, but get registered soon because classes fill up fast. Click Here

Other Events Approaching

Jan 14, 2014 -  Large Community Family Discovery Day at the Interstake Center, sponsored by Mesa South Stake--more information is coming.

Feb 8-11, 2017 - Roots Tech in Salt Lake City.  Register now!  Click Here

Wooden Village - Apps to help find information @ familysearch.org

Debbie Holtzendorff, a Church Service Missionary for FamilySearch recently conducted a webinar to the Arizona FamilySearch Users Group to describe a webpage that she has helped to develop with links to apps that assist and expand searches in FamilySearch.org/familytree.  Check out this great webpage at woodenvillage.org: click here.  Anyone interested in attending the meetings of the AZ Users Group is welcome.  Meetings are held on the 4th Thursday of the month at the Mesa FamilySearch Library, 464 E. 1st Ave, Mesa, AZ.  The next meeting will be held October 27th at 7 pm and will discuss changes to the Research Wiki.

New Features in FamilySearch

1. Attaching sources in FamilySearch from My Heritage is now easier with a new link. With one click a source is saved.  Find out more here

2. New Partner:  "Geneanet is the first site dedicated to genealogy in France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. With this account, you will be able to search their Genealogy Library of more than 3.5 million old newspapers, books, magazines, and partner indexes."  Click Here

3.  Many noteworthy Partners of FamilySearch  click here

Have You Added Family History to your Sabbath Day?

Perhaps you’ve heard the promises associated with family history work. Elder Richard G. Scott promised: “Do you young people want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary in your life? Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors [and] prepare their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in the temple…. I can think of no greater protection from the influence of the adversary in your life.” Elder David A. Bednar has declared: “Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary.”

And what about the promises associated with keeping the Sabbath day holy? President Russell M. Nelson encouraged: “The Sabbath provides a wonderful opportunity to strengthen family ties.” And in a worldwide training on Sabbath day observance, President Nelson promised: “As we learn better how to hallow the Sabbath day, faith will increase across the world.”

Remember that you now have the ability to print your own Family Ordinance Cards from home.  To review the process, click here.

Arbitrator Training

ARBITRATOR TRAINING

Examples of common mistakes by Arbitrators => Common Errors

Youth Family History Consultants are Amazing!

Two Youth Family History Consultants in the Mesa Central Stake/ Harris 1st Ward are an inspiration! Not only do they display enthusiasm for the Work of Salvation, but have experiences that exemplify that Youth Consultants are in the know and a great asset to the Work.   Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk and video about Youth Consultants is exemplified in our own Mesa Area with youth from one of our own Stakes. 
To view the videos of the Youth Consultants, Maia and Makenna:  CLICK HERE

FamilySearch Apps---New Features are here! 

 FamilySearch Family Tree and FamilySearch Memories just got better!

The Memories App now features a new "Landing Page" where you can easily navigate to upload Photos, Stories, Documents and Audio.  You can also view your memories in the grid view OR the list view.

Download the Apps and give them a try!

Also when making a Audio Recording you can use suggested questions provided by FamilySearch to help, such as:

What do you remember about the place you grew up? 

What would you tell your family who might hear this in the future?

FamilySearch Family Tree App can Now Search Historical Records

 Just like you do from your computer, you can now do searches from your phone or tablet. Note the new option that now appears:

When you search from the person page, the app will give you the option to search FamilySearch or Ancestry.

You can also add  or edit notes in the app under a person's detail page:

Another new feature allows you to add photos, stories or audio the the Family Tree app:

To read about other new features, view the complete blog HERE

 Family History Conference to be held October 29th 

at ASU Institute

ANNOUNCING the 2016 Family History Conference sponsored by the Mesa AZ FamilySearch Library on Saturday, October 29, 2016.    The conference is FREE and will be held at the Tempe Institute of Religion on the ASU Campus, 1000 South McAllister Avenue in Tempe, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.  Attendees can select from the 50+ classes available and register for as many as five classes.  They may also purchase lunch provided by Jason’s Deli.   Come join us as we learn about “Putting It All Together.” Registration opens on Wednesday, September 14, at www.mesafsl.org.

Training Resuming

Family History Consultant/Priesthood Leader classes are resuming on Tuesday, 6 September.  Classes will be for the first 4 Tuesdays of each month from 7 pm to 8:30 pm.  Don't miss this opportunity to get a boost in your calling.

Need Help?-Visit the Training Center

464 E. 1st Ave.  Mesa, AZ
Hours:  Monday: 9 am - 5 pm
                Tues thru Fri: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Local FamilySearch User's Group to meet each month at Training Center

The monthly webinar for the FamilySearch User Group will now be presented the last Thursday of each month at the Mesa FamilySearch Library Training Center.  If you are interested come and join them.

September 29

Time:  7 pm

Place:  464 E. 1st Ave., Mesa

Indexing is still important

Have you indexed this month?  The lastest FamilySearch Indexing project is marriage records.

This project is really valuable because these records most often include women! In most cases, there is information about the wife, including her maiden name and parent’s names.  And what is fun, you can pick your favorite State to index!  Maybe you will find someone one your line that you have been looking for!

FamilySearch Blogs---Stay posted

Doing research in Mexico? This blog will help you--click here!

Principles to Help People Love their Ancestors and Family History click here

Five Steps to Identify Old Photos:  click here

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.