FamilySearch adds an Interactive World Map for Searches

The Search page of the FamilySearch.org website has had a map of the world as a graphic for some time now. Now, they have activated the map and turned it into an interactive search aid. Here is a screenshot showing the map:

Clicking on one of the sections of the map brings up a list of more detailed places in the same area as that on the map.

When you make a selection, the dialogue box provides some general information and a link to start searching. Here is another screenshot showing the popup image:

Take advantage of this shortcut to research any particular country in the United States.

Mentoring Family History in the Church

There is a crucial passage in the Leader's Guide to Temple and Family History Work, To Turn the Hearts, referencing the duties of the Ward Family History Consultant:

Consultants take the initiative to reach out to members, especially those who are not comfortable using technology, by: 

• Helping a few individuals or families at a time to work on their own family history so they can perform temple ordinances for their deceased relatives. The most effective place to do this is in members’ homes. The ward council could determine specific individuals or families for the consultant to work with. The high priests group leader assigns these families to the consultant.

The Ward Family History Consultant is not called to "teach a family history class." There is nothing in the description of the duties of a Ward Family History Consultant that mention the family history class. In fact, the Leader's Guide talks about a family history class in conjunction with activation and new members of the Church. Here is the section from the Leader's Guide that addresses classes:

Members of the ward council help the bishop ensure that the doctrines, principles, and blessings of family history and temple work are taught regularly in ward meetings. They encourage members to receive their own temple ordinances and participate actively in family history and temple work. 

Each family can receive the Member’s Guide to Temple and Family History Work to use in the home and in family history classes. 

Holding a temple and family history class is a good way to increase participation and interest in family history. The class can be used to help with ward activation, retention, and missionary efforts. Anyone may be invited to attend the class. The ward council may decide to invite certain ward members. 

The class is taught by an effective instructor, who may or may not be a family history consultant. The class may be taught during Sunday School or at another time that is more convenient for members. It is taught under the direction of the bishopric rather than the Sunday School president. (emphasis added).

You may also note that the class is taught by an effective instructor, who may or may not be a family history consultant.

Ward Family History Consultants need to be mentors not Sunday School Class Teachers. A Ward Family History Consultant does not have to sit around and wait for the Ward to hold a Family History Class during Sunday School to do his or her job. Read and re-read the sections of the Leader's Guide and think and pray about your calling as a Family History Consultant. Talk to the High Priest Group Leader and explain your calling and refer him to the Leader's Guide. Quoting from the Leader's Guide again about Family History Consultants:

Consultants help ward leaders learn about family history so they can share it with those they serve.

The Challenge of Increasing Family History Activity in the Church

As evidenced by the number of articles and talks most recently found in Church publications concerning involvement in family history, there appears to be a dramatically increased effort to involve members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in seeking out their ancestors and submitting increased numbers of ancestor's names for Temple ordinances. There is obviously a correlation between the ever increasing number of Temples worldwide and this renewed effort. Much of this effort has gone into general admonitions to the members to become more involved in preserving and remembering family history including stories, photos and documents. The implication of this effort is that an increased interest in the stories from the past will result in an increase in the submission of ancestral names to the Temple. However, the connection between the two appears to be somewhat unclear.

In teaching about genealogy day after day, I find many people who are earnestly seeking after their ancestors but lack the tools and the training to advance past the interest stage of their involvement. Much has been said recently about hastening the work of salvation. I would like to focus on the work part of the statement. This "hastening" takes work on our part. From my perspective, the work of salvation for the dead is most certainly hastening all around the world. Marvelous tools are being provided by those both inside the Church and outside the Church that enable us to do the work more efficiently and can accelerate the process of finding our ancestors. But it seems that the work part of the process has been somewhat neglected by the Church members.

We can hope for the salvation of our dead but without the work of actually seeking them out, this will not happen. In Mormon 9:27 it reads as follows:

O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

In an epistle from Joseph Smith the Prophet contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 128: 18,

I might have rendered a plainer translation to this, but it is sufficiently plain to suit my purpose as it stands. It is sufficient to know, in this case, that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time. And not only this, but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times.

What is the work of salvation for the dead? It is the process of researching and finding ancestors who have not yet had the opportunity of receiving the saving ordinances of the Temple. Once your heart is turned to your fathers, you must still do the work of finding those who need the work to be done.

Although I never knew my paternal grandfather, I was often told something he believed, that anything worth doing is worth doing right. Certainly the work of salvation is worth doing and just as certainly, it is worth doing right. Learning how to find your ancestors is interesting and can be challenging, but in the end being involved in family history is work, just as doing Temple work, is work. Let's get to work.

BYU Family History Library Classes on YouTube

The BYU Family History Library has its own YouTube Channel. The videos online include dozens of short instructional presentations and they have started videoing my hour+ long classes. If you subscribe to the Channel, you will get a notification when new videos are added.

How do I Start My Family History on FamilySearch Family Tree?

One of the most common questions I am asked, involves getting started with FamilySearch.org's Family Tree program.There are two completely opposite positions possible; the person has no family history in FamilySearch.org's Family Tree or the person has thousands of ancestors already recorded. Of course, these two situations vary with the amount of previous involvement your family has had in recording your ancestral lines.

The easiest of the two situations from the Family Tree perspective is if the person has almost no family history recorded. In this case the answer to getting started is rather simple: start entering information, photos, stories or documents about your family's history. You can use the "Search Records" option to search the Family Search Historical Record Collections to add additional individuals to the family tree. The idea here is to document the information you enter into the family tree with the sources where you obtained the information. A source is some kind of historical record that contains information about your family. This could be a census record, a birth or marriage certificate, a school or church record or anything containing information about your family. Avoid the temptation to copy your ancestors from someone's previous list or pedigree or book, unless they supply sources about where they obtained the information.

Beginners who find a lot of names in Family Tree have the tendency to focus on whether or not an ancestor's ordinances have been recorded in the Family Tree program. If you search back through the information already on Family Tree, focus on the individual's detail pages. The first thing to check is whether or not anyone has added sources to the detail page. Here is a screenshot showing a detail page where there is no information showing any sources:

You can see where the sources are supposed to be listed and there are none listed. If there had been sources listed, the entry would look like this:

The lack of sources indicates that the information given about the person may not be reliable or accurate. In fact, the person may not even be one of your ancestors. Even if there are sources listed for the person, you may still not be related because any one of the ancestors connecting you to this person may be wrong. To rely on the information in Family Tree, you need to have a chain of sources connecting you to the individual. This is especially true the further back in time you go. If you simply jump back until you find someone who looks like they need Temple ordinances, you cannot be sure that you are related to that person or that the person really exists.

So, assuming that you have a lot of people listed in your pedigree on Family Tree, where do you start? You start by examining the details about the individuals and building a bridge of sources so that you can rely on the information in the file. This may seem a lot less interesting than jumping around in the file trying to find green arrows or Temple icons indicating available ordinances, but it is really necessary to establish that you are really related to these people listed in the program.

One very excellent tool that has been developed to graphically indicate what needs to be done on your particular family is the Descendancy View. Here is a screenshot of the first person above in the Descendancy View:

The blue icons on the right indicate that she has no sources attached. In addition, she has no parents listed and if you look at her basic information in the traditional view, you will find that there are, at least, three different entries in Family Tree for a Margaret Whitmore although there are presently no matches found if you search for a duplicate in the program.

The answer to this question is that the data in Family Tree needs to be verified before you launch off and claim that your supposed ancestors' Temple work needs to be done. This is especially true if you find yourself on the side of the spectrum with many, many names already in the program.

Sources exchanged between FamilySearch Family Tree and Ancestry.com

The past few days as we added new individuals to FamilySearch.org's Family Tree directly from Ancestry.com's family tree, we noticed that the resulting individual in Family Tree had all of the sources from Ancestry.com. The same thing happened when we added a new individual to Ancestry.com's family tree from Family Tree. i see this as a big step towards the ability to fully share sources between the two online family trees.

Un fortunately, I cannot simply demonstrate the process without having an individual to use as an example and all the examples I saw this week were from other people's family trees. None-the-less, here is a screenshot showing the link in Ancestry.com where you can add a family member to the family tree:

Clicking on this link will bring up a list of the individual's family members which can be added one by one. My family tree on Ancestry.com has been there for years and I don't have any particular individuals I need to add from the FamilySearch Family Tree. But if you do have someone you wish to add, you can do so by clicking on the link and selecting an individual to add.

The ability to share data between the three large genealogy database programs and Family Tree is in the development stage and you can expect developments to happen unannounced. I am guessing, but I would think that this will be a feature highlighted at #RootsTech 2015.

Traditional Pedigree View on Family Tree to change

A blog post from FamilySearch by Robert Kehrer announced the there would be "A New Look for the Traditional Pedigree View on Family Tree." As of the date of this post, the change was not evident, but the FamilySearch post outlines the changes:

Traditional pedigree is being redesigned. It will have the look and much of the same look and feel of the landscape view. It will also have some of the same functions that are found in the descendancy view. For example data errors, hints, and so on. It also offers new options to change colors.

There are a number of significant improvements to this popular view. These improvements include:

• Marriage Information—Each couple link will now display the marriage date and place.
• Scrolling—Users can now use their mouse scroll to move the view.
• Photos—The preferred photo will be displayed for each person.
• Indicators—Research Suggestions, Data Problems, and Record Hints will be displayed for each person.
• Two Color Schemes—Users can now choose between two different color schemes (Daybreak and Nightshade).
• Simplified Alternate Parent and Spouse Selectors—It’s now much easier to select preferred parents or spouses.
• Easier to Identify the Descendant—The direct descendant of an ancestor now stands out in contrast to their spouse.
• No Hover Actions—The controls on each link are always displayed (i.e. Children). This improves support for touch pad devices.

It appears to me that the changes will be welcome. I am not especially a fan of the present design of the "Traditional View."