Indexing Obituaries -- a rare opportunity to see the past

When we participate in the FamilySearch Indexing project, we a get a unique opportunity to open a window into the past we may never have experienced except for our indexing efforts. As genealogists, we stick pretty much to the sources and records of our own families, but as indexers we can see records that we never would have looked at any other way. The effect of this exposure to a large variety of records from around the world can be unpredictable.

For example, FamilySearch is looking for volunteers, in a recent blog post entitled "Obituary Arbitration in 6 Easy Steps," they asked:

FamilySearch needs hundreds of additional arbitrators to help with the new obituary projects, both to help publish the records and to help others get past the learning curve for this new record type.

I have an insight into this activity having scanned thousands of death records from the City of Mesa Cemetery and I can say that reading death notices will change your understanding of life. This new emphasis on obituaries is part of a larger effort to focus on modern records that connect recent generations. The advantage, of course, to the indexer is that text is not usually in a foreign language, it is printed and it tells a story. I think we will see some interesting reactions as people begin indexing this type of record.

If you are interested, FamilySearch has prepared an instruction document called "Indexing Obituaries and Death Notices." As a matter of fact, this document is a remarkable analysis of obituary entries and would be useful to anyone researching obituaries.

Who can get lists of Stake, District, Ward or Branch members registered in FamilySearch programs?

I realize the title to this post is quite long, but it asks a question that has been coming up lately in our Ward discussions. There is a Help Center document addressing this very issue. The questions it addresses are the following:

• How can I get a list of members who are registered in new FamilySearch in my stake, district, ward, or branch?
• Can I get a list of my ward members who are registered in new FamilySearch.org?
• How can I get a list of members who are registered in FamilySearch.org in my ward or branch?
• How can I register all my ward members for new FamilySearch?
• How can I get a list of members who are registered for an LDS Account in my ward?

Quoting from the answer, we find that this access is allowed through proper Priesthood channels. Here is the answer from the Product Support portion of Get Help:

There is not a way to obtain a list of members who have registered in new FamilySearch or FamilySearch.org.

You can find a list of your local ward Family History Consultants in the Help Center under the Local Assistance Tab.

You can obtain a list of those who have registered at consultant.familysearch.org or priesthood.familysearch.org for consultant mailings and for training in the Help Center of new FamilySearch from an Area Family History Adviser. This list contains Family History Consultants, priesthood leaders, family history center directors, assistant family history directors, and others who have registered at consultant.familysearch.org or priesthood.familysearch.org. These lists are usually provided to stake and ward priesthood leaders only.

It is possible for authorized members to obtain a list of those who have obtained an LDS Account. Most stake presidency members, district presidencies, bishoprics, branch presidencies, high priest group leaders and elders quorum presidents have access to what is called “Administrator Options” on LDS.org to enable them to add information and other content to their individual unit websites. The stake, district, ward, or branch website administrator also has the same authority. Those who have this authority can access this list by signing into their own stake, district, ward, or branch website and then, in the blue area to the left, scrolling down and clicking on a small box called ‘Administrator Options’. Once that screen opens, they can scroll down in the green area and click on ‘Registered Users’. This will open a list of members in the unit who have an LDS Account. Because a member has an LDS Account doesn’t necessarily mean that these individuals have signed in to new FamilySearch. It only means that they have a user name and password to enable them to do so.

Other information, such as reports on the number of people volunteering for Indexing etc. can also be obtained through proper channels. This particular answer refers to New.FamilySearch.org, which, of course, has now been made READ ONLY.

The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, Judy Russell and Stephanie Nielsen at RootsTech 2014

I find it very interesting that the "big name" keynote speakers at the huge RootsTech 2014 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 6 - 8, 2014, are well-known bloggers. There are 3 of the 6 speakers that are bloggers; Ree Drummand with The Pioneer Woman blog, Judy Russell of The Legal Genealogist blog and Stephanie Nielsen of the NieNIe Dialogues blog.

Ree Drummond is one of the opening keynote speakers for RootsTech 2014. Through her popular blog, cookbooks, and Food Network show, she shares glimpses into her life as a ranch wife and a mother, with photos, memories, stories, and food. In February 2010, she was listed as 22 on the Forbes' list of top 25 web celebrities.

Drummond said, "I love sharing stories about my family and our experiences on the ranch, so I'm really excited to be part of RootsTech this year. It's all about finding ways to share family stories and strengthen family connections. And of course, not all stories have to be about life on a cattle ranch or buttery adventures in the kitchen-every family has its own unique history! I'm looking forward to sharing a little of mine at RootsTech."

Also speaking at RootsTech, on Saturday, February 8, is Stephanie Nielsen, author of the popular blog, NieNie Dialogues. In 2008, Stephanie and her husband were in a serious plane crash. Over 80 percent of her body was burned. Her story of survival and recovery are documented on her blog and has been recounted in interviews with Oprah Winfrey and on the TODAY show. In 2012, Nielsen published her book Heaven is Here.

One interesting comment, in my own Ward and in talking to members in other Wards, I find very few who have heard of RootsTech 2014 or any other RootsTech Conference. I was talking to a patron at the Mesa FamilySearch Library yesterday who is taking a Genealogy class at BYU Idaho and she had never heard of RootsTech at all. It might be a good idea to have the BYU folks make their students aware of the Conference. If you read this, it also might be a good idea to talk about this in your Ward. 

Where Are the Instructions??? - FamilySearch Family Tree and Photos

I realize that there are many of us that do not feel that we need help with new products. I am usually one of these people, but of late, I have taken to reading the instructions completely before starting a new project. It may come as a surprise to many users of the FamilySearch.org website, but there are complete and extensive instructions for all the programs. The key to finding these resources is the Get Help menu at the top-right of the Startup page. Here is a screenshot showing the link:

As usual, you can click on the image to see an enlarged view. Clicking on the link opens a pull-down menu:

If you are signed in as a member, you will see the following screen, if not, the icons concerning the Temple will be missing.

I highlighted the icons for Family Tree and Photos and Stories. Clicking on those icons adds extensive support material at the bottom of the page for each of those products. There is also a place to enter search items to search past answers to questions.

The one thing that is missing from this list is a link to the Reference Guide to Family Tree. That is located on LDS.org. Here is the link to the complete Reference Guide. Be sure and check back periodically for updates to all the materials.

My Ancestors and the Temple

Many of the stories of my ancestors deal with their interaction with the Temples. My 3rd Great-grandfather, George Jarvis, and his family worked on the construction St. George Temple and Tabernacle. Some of the stories come from a highly fictionalized account of his life as follows:

Kleinman, Mary Miles. The Essence of Faith. Springville, UT: Art City Pub. Co, 1973.

I might note that this book is in the FamilySearch Library catalog and also in WorldCat.org. I got the link to the FamilySearch Library from WorldCat.org. The OCLC number for this book is 50688381.

Back to the stories. In another book,

Overson, Margaret Godfrey (Jarvis). George Jarvis and Joseph George De Friez Genealogy. Mesa, Ariz: s.n, 1957.

The following story is told about George Frederick Jarvis, one of my uncles and the son of George Jarvis. 

An incident should be mentioned in connection with the plaster work our George was doing on the Temple. He was working on a scaffold high up near one of the southwest corner round windows. There was a scaffold above his head on which other workmen were, also. He thought he heard someone say, "Step inside the window. " He looked around to see who had spoken, but saw no one. Again he heard, "Step inside the window. " which he immediately did. Just then the workman from the scaffold above stepped down on the one he had been on, struck a knot in the plank, causing it to break. Had he not moved inside the window, he would have been struck by the plank, and knocked to the ground. The other workman went through the scaffold to the ground, and those below expected to see him mashed to a jelly, but on being examined, found that no bones were broken, 'tho' he was badly bruised. He was off work for a few days only. There were some other accidents that were narrow escapes, but when the Temple was completed it was found that the Prophesy made by President Young at the start of building, had been literally fulfilled. He had promised, "If you do right and Keep the Commandments of the Lord, no lives will be lost during the erection of the Temple.

Recently, FamilySearch had a blog post entitled, Temples and Our Ancestors. Quoting from that post

In the past year we have read and heard the quote from President Hunter teaching us that there are two halves to the blessings of temple and family history work. We are first blessed by attending the temple. We are further blessed by taking our own ancestors’ names to the temple for temple work.
Elder Neal A Maxwell said that “Temple attendance…provides a powerful and pointed invitation to become better. The ways of the world receive constant reinforcement—should not the ways of heaven?’’ We want to improve in our own lives. Doing our ancestor’s temple work opens the doors for them to improve also. As we do more and more temple work, it becomes a wonderful circle of improving ourselves while giving others the opportunity to do the same.
FamilySearch has gathered videos of many people bearing testimony to the joy and strength they find in their lives as they participate in family history work. These videos are available to you for your inspiration and for you to use as you teach others about this important work. Find these videos on lds.org under Media library: Family History: Work of Salvation.

From time to time, I will share more stories from my ancestors about their experiences in and around the Temple.

Genealogy Presentations inside and outside the Church

This past weekend I had a very interesting experience. On Saturday, I attended the Yuma FamilySearch Center Conference in a Stake Center in Yuma, Arizona. Yuma is about three hours south of Mesa and this is the third year in a row I have attended and taught at that Conference. I taught 6 one-hour classes in a row. The very next day, I taught essentially one of the same classes to a Ward in Gilbert, Arizona during their Sunday School time of the Block. Both classes were about the same subject; FamilySearch.org's Family Tree Program. After the second day's class, I had to remark about the distinctive difference between the two classes and put down some of my thoughts.

I am going to compare the two classes I taught on the same subject. Bear in mind that in Yuma, I was teaching at a Conference where the people attending were not all members of the Church. Also in Yuma, the people who came had chosen to attend the Conference on a Saturday. They did not have any obligation to be there. In contrast, the class on Sunday was part of a regularly scheduled set of Sunday meetings we call the Block. None of the people there were there because of their prior interest in genealogy or FamilySearch or Family Tree. Both meetings were well attended. I estimate the Yuma meeting had over 100 people. The Gilbert meeting had close to 250 people. Both meetings were held in the Chapel of a Stake Center. My presentation in Yuma was very specific about the program and generated a great deal of comments and questions from the participants. In Gilbert, the presentation was mainly a PowerPoint and there were very few comments and even fewer questions. As a side note, I knew only a very, very few of the people in Yuma, maybe one or two. In contrast, I saw probably a dozen or more people in the Gilbert Ward I knew personally.

Now what were the main differences between the two classes on two different days? I assure you, the experiences were completely and dramatically different.

A first impression was that the differences between the meetings could be attributed to the voluntary vs. quasi-involuntary nature of the two groups in attendance. But I think the differences run much deeper than that. Genealogy is a touchy subject to discuss in the Church. I am in a position to talk to both those who are members of the Church and those who are not, on a one-to-one basis almost every day, day after day. When I talk to people about genealogy in a non-church setting, such as my class last week at the Maricopa County Library, I find that those in attendance are mostly very curious and have a lot of questions. They are concerned about how to proceed to find their ancestors and are very surprised at what I say and tell them. I get the exactly opposite response generally from members of the Church. When I bring up the subject of genealogy in any context, I seldom hear questions and I almost always get a change-the-subject negative reaction. There are a few notable exceptions, but they are mostly with people who are already involved in genealogy one way or another.

What was interesting to me was that this difference in attitude came across as the main contrast between the Yuma and Gilbert classes. When I am teaching, I can tell if the class members are responding to what I am saying. If they are not, I feel like I am wading through mud or talking to a brick wall. That is what I felt like with the Ward in Gilbert. I could sense the antagonism and lack of interest. This is not just a passive disinterest, but an active antagonism. As a consolation, I did have several people after the Gilbert presentation who went beyond the polite, "thanks for coming," type of response and indicated that they had learned something during the class. But, the overall feeling of the meeting was in sharp contrast to the open, interested response in Yuma.

Why is this the case? Why do members of the Church generally respond in a negative fashion to the ideas of doing family history? Was it the content and manner of my presentation? From my perspective, I was talking about the same subject in almost exactly the same way to both groups. In the case of Yuma, I felt the positive response of the audience and in Gilbert it was almost exactly opposite.

It seems to me that this attitude of Church members generally has to be addressed. I do not think it is lack of interest per se. When I address any congregation of members in almost any context where they are in a formal Church meeting, I frequently get the same negative response to genealogy. I am reminded of the old saying, familiarity breeds contempt. Family History is viewed as "just another program" that will add more time and responsibilities and has no clear benefits. It is like repeated pleas to "do your home teaching and visiting teaching." Everyone in the Church "knows" that they have this responsibility, but they have no idea how they are going to add this "new" program into their already busy and distracted lives. They see people like me who are involved on a regular basis and they see that as a threat. It is an entirely cultural and not a religious response. They see genealogy as a threat to replace something they already are doing and value as a positive activity with an activity they find boring and uninteresting.

In any event, the issue is real. There is a distinct negative response to Family History or genealogy or whatever you want to call it from members. Perhaps as I write about this subject, I can come up with some positive suggestions to alleviate this antagonism? I certainly hope so.

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