How Stable is the FamilySearch Family Tree?

First, here are a few statistics as of the date of this blog post.

There are a total of 4.35 million total Family Tree contributors. They have uploaded 22.61 million photos and 1.62 million stories to the Memories section. There are 910 million sources attached to the entries and 1.2 billion records in the Family Tree. As as a side note, there are 9.63 million registered users on the FamilySearch.org website. 

If you have the perspective of the number of users vs. the number of complaints about the Family Tree program, you might just begin to understand that for most users the Family Tree works very well. The main venue for "complaints" and suggestions is the GetSatisfaction.com website section dedicated to FamilySearch.org. Here is a screenshot of part of the page dedicated to the most popular topics of discussion about the Family Tree:

The most popular topic had its last reply over 4 years ago. Almost all the discussions have less than 25 participants. Many of these topics have gone for years without any additional comments or replies. Now, if you think about it, with that many people involved in one unified, collaborative program it is amazing that there are really so few real issues. Yes, there have been a few serious issues involving the data, but the data is mostly the main issue, not the program.

There is still a long way to go before all the old entries will be corrected and updated with sources and standardized entries. But, the work that has already been done is immensely useful and provides an almost endless supply of work that can be done.

So who is complaining? My experience is that there are two main detractor groups; those who are working on remote ancestors who lived before 1700 and those who are upset with the changes per se and are fixated on the "bad" changes. Both of these groups are not likely to ever be satisfied with the program. What we have found is that the changes are manageable. We also find that as sources and Memories are added, the entries become more stable. But by and large, the entries we have worked on are stable and have few changes.

Now, if you have a relative that is a "loose cannon," just watch all the entries and keep changing things back the way they are supposed to be. Patience is a virtue.

New Labels for the FamilySearch Family Tree

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/dont-label-mebut-label-ancestors/

Quoting from the above blog post,

Navigating such a large tree to connect with your ancestors can be tricky. We recently added a new feature called “Labels” that will, as it continues to develop, provide a new way to place your ancestors in better context. 

You’ve used labels on other sites and in apps to easily organize and view similar types of things. You can now add labels to your ancestor’s listing in Family Tree to honor their accomplishments, signify their involvement in a group, or memorialize their profession.

Here is where the label function shows up on my Grandfather's page.

In looking at the options, I was able to add the following label

When I click on the label, I get a link to the website listing those who served in the military.

It would be nice to have a feature that would let us browse different categories. There is apparently some lag time in connecting the websites. Perhaps they are all being reviewed.

LDS Classes from RootsTech 2018 Online

I have started to watch the RootsTech 2018 Family Discovery Day classes online and really enjoyed what I have seen so far. These are excellent Sunday or Family Home Evening opportunities, especially for those of us who are older and without children at home. I enjoyed seeing the presentation for Temple and Family History Consultants. It is interesting how what is being presented is very similar to the presentations we have been giving at the BYU Family History Library for the past couple of years. Maybe someone is actually watching what we have been teaching?

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/2018-family-history-leadership-session/

From the attendance at the Leadership session, it looks like I might have been able to attend had I been in Utah at the time.

Take some time to check out the videos, they are well worth watching.

Building a Family Tree: An Example on FamilySearch.org -- Project One

In this series, I am going to pick a somewhat random person who lived in the 20th Century from the FamilySearch.org Family Tree and show, step-by-step, the research needed to extend that person's family tree back several generations. Finding a person who has no apparent ancestors in the Family Tree is relatively easy for those who lived in or into the 20th Century. However, I am not able to use any of my own family lines because my direct lines all end back, at least, six generations. To clarify this project, I will not be reserving any of the people I discover for my own Temple List. I will simply leave the "green icons" on the Family Tree for that person's descendants to find and use for themselves. Please refrain from doing the temple work for people to whom you are not related.

Why am I doing this? For the past 15 years or so, I have been helping hundreds (thousands?) of people find their ancestors. I simply intend to document the process in detail with real examples so that you can see exactly how I find family lines. This past week, I helped one of the missionaries serving at the Maryland State Archives extend her family line by three generations. It took about two hours of research to do this. I simply want to show where those "green icons" come from. Since the FamilySearch.org Family Tree is entirely cooperative, I will simply assume that when I find a family that needs some research that I am helping that family. By the way, this is Part One of the series because I intend to do this over and over with different examples.

There is another reason why I am doing this. Because I constantly offer to help people find their ancestors and I get relatively few that take advantage of that offer. I need to spend some of my excess energy.

So, here I go. First, I will look around for a possible research project. After looking around for a short time, I found Frank Seldon Warren, K8P8-1B5 (b. 1876, d. 1951) who was married to my cousin Amelia Ventom DeFriez, KWVR-QCP. He has no parents in the Family Tree and a quick check showed no initial indication of duplicates. Of course, as I do a little more research, duplicate entries might show up. It will be interesting to see if he connects to anyone already in the Family Tree. Here is a screenshot of his entry.

Here are the sources already in the Family Tree.

The initial review shows that there are U.S. Census records for 1920, 1930, and 1940. The idea is to look at what is missing. If he was born in 1876, he should appear in the 1880, 1900, and 1910 censuses also. Let's see what I can find. I will first check on FamilySearch because it is the first website on the list and it is easy to attach the information from any records I find.

I find a California Death Index record that might be the same person. The death dates match, but the birth date is different.

For the time being, I will assume this is the same person since the birthdate is the same day and month but off by two years. I will attach the record and change the birthdate. I see that the record has his mother's maiden name. I will likely come back to this. Oh, I was looking for census records. But I never let that stop me from looking at anything else that turns up. Back to the search with the new information. By the way, the FindAGrave.com record also has a birthdate, but according to the Death record, the date is wrong. FindAGrave is not a primary source so I defer to the official death record.

The earliest listed Census record from 1920 shows him married to Millie Warren. I see from the record for his wife that here nickname was Millie. I take a side trip and clean up the entry for his wife to reflect her correct birth name and put Millie in as a nickname. I also delete the duplicate "Birth" names in her entry. Hmm. I seem to get easily sidetracked. I do find him as a possible lodger in Nevada in the 1910 Census in Caliente, Lincoln, Nevada and this agrees with the place where he was living in the other Census records, so I feel that this is probably the right person and add the record. Another quick look shows that Caliente never had more than about 5000 people and was founded in 1901. So the possibility of there being another Frank S Warren in the town seems slim.

All of the census records agree that he was born in California and his age matches the 10-year census interval. There is a legacy source that has his birth year probably wrong and a place. I don't put much confidence in these sources but they do help from time to time. There are a lot of Frank Warrens on FamilySearch, so it is time to change tactics. Remember the Death record had his mother's maiden name. So now, I will put that into a FamilySearch search. I find his World War I draft registration card. That gives us the name of his wife and shows that they were living in Caliente, Nevada.

The Draft Card also has his birthdate. Hmm. He says he was born in 1876. Looks like the Death record was wrong. So, I change it back. Then again, he could have lied about his age, but at 43 he was not in much danger of being drafted or at 45 either. Interestingly, the next draft card is also a Warren. This is not unusual for relatives to be listed at the same time for the draft. The name on the next card is William D. Warren and he lists his nearest relative as Mrs. Maggie L. Warren in Ursine, Eagle Valley, Nevada. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Ursine, Nevada.

Ursine is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Lincoln County, Nevada, United States. It is located in the foothills of the White Rock Mountains on Eagle Valley about two miles downstream from the Eagle Valley Reservoir and Spring Valley State Park. The population was 91 at the 2010 census.

Well, now, in 1918 William was living in Ursine in Lincoln County. The county seat is Pioche, Nevada. Let's see who is in the 1920 U.S. Census for Ursine, Nevada. I will search in FamilySearch for Warrens in Ursine or Lincoln, County. Not too helpful. I will switch over to Ancestry.com and do the same search. I find Frank's Social Security Application and it has 1877 as his birth date. I am beginning to believe that he himself didn't know how old he was.

The 1920 U.S. Federal Census record we already had, shows him married to Millie or Amelia in Caliente, Lincoln, Nevada. So now we have another clue. A Waren family living in Ursine about 40 miles away. We still need to find Frank in an earlier census record.

Now we have a very interesting situation shown by the 1880 U.S. Federal Census Record for Spring Valley, Nevada where I find William Warren as a two year old. His father is listed as George B. Warren and his siblings are born in Utah and his was born in Arizona, which is also shown on his WW I Draft Registration Card.

The next entry is for a James Edwards married to Ellen and they have a son named Frank S. Edwards who is the right age to be Frank S. Warren and the record shows he was born in California. Could they be the same person with a changed last name? Spring Valley is part of what is now Las Vegas which was settled by pioneers from Utah. They apparently move to a rance near Ursine in subsequent census records. OK, now this is getting really strange. Here, I start checking on the two families. George B. Warren is married to Mary Ann Newman. Remember, the Death record for Frank? His mother is listed with name Newman. Here is the 1880 Census Record for reference.

Their neighbors, James Edwards and Ellen shows that Ellen was born in England. Mary Ann Newman Warren's entry in the Family Tree shows her born in England with a sister named Ellen who is shown as deceased with no death information. Hmm. Was Ellen Edwards the sister of Mary A Warren who lived in the sam area in Nevada? Did Frank S. Edwards become Frank S. Warren? Seems more and more possible. What do I need to know to make this assumption into a good conclusion?

Ellen Maria Newman's record shows that she immigrated to Utah and she is shown in the Utah Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Database. Looks like these people all match up and I have found the missing husband for Ellen. There are a lot of Ellen Maria Newmans in England, by the way.

I searched for James and Ellen Edwards and so far the only place I found them was in this 1880 U.S. Federal Census record. I did find a J. Edwards in Nevada in the 1875 Nevada Census. In all the census records for Frank S. Warren, he lists his parents as being born in the United States. Here is my guess at this point. Franks parents died and he was "adopted" by his aunt Mary Ann Newman Warren. He did not know his parents well enough to remember them. What we have is the California Death Record for Frank with his mother's maiden name of Newman.

In order to take this matter further, I would need to have access to records on FamilySearch.org that have yet to be digitized and these records are only available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The records that might unravel this dilemma are the membership records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Well, with a random choice, this turned out to be a major research issue. Stay tuned as I take on another ramdom choice in the Family Tree.

With all the fabulous online tools now available, there is really no reason to ignore the benefit of doing the research. Be sure to add all the information you find in the records into the entries in the Family Tree. We do have one problem to resolve, it any of this is correct, then the mother's birthdate is wrong or something else is wrong. You will have to wait and see how this all works. If you can't resist jumping in and correcting everything, be my guest, I'm not related to these people except through the marriage of one cousin.

Building a Family Tree: An Example on FamilySearch.org -- Project Two

This isn't really a series, as such, it is really a number of unconnected posts about conducting research on the FamilySearch.org Family Tree and is more of a project than a series. I decided to put my comments about the process at the end of each post for reference. 

Here is Project Two:

I am selecting this post's project from my family lines where I find that much of the "clean up" work has not been done. This is usually a good indication that there is little online activity and therefore a lot of opportunities to find people who are not presently in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. 

As I did previously, I am selecting a person who lived all or part of his or her life in the 20th Century and who does not have any ancestors (parents etc.) in the Family Tree.

This is Arthur Tomlinson who has no parent, birthplace, or any other information other than a marriage date and place. 

The first thing I do is figure out where these people were living. Here is the information from Wikipedia. 

Willesden (/ˈwɪlzdən/) is an area in north-west London which forms part of the London Borough of Brent. It is situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It was historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965.[1] Dollis Hill is also sometimes referred to as being part of Willesden.

I can use FamilySearch.org to find a copy of the marriage information which, unfortunately, is not attached as a source.

This record corrects the entries and adds a middle initial for his wife. Kate Faulkner is my cousin. Because I had the marriage record, I could find another English marriage record on Ancestry.com, this one showing Arthur's father and his wife's complete name. 

This record also has a complete marriage date and place. Now, we are on our way, once we add all the new information. 

Now I look for more information based on the newly added information. I am going to guess that his birthplace is in Brent or London. Searching on FamilySearch is a strikeout. I will try Ancestry.com. The challenges are that the British Census records only are available up to 1911 and that George and Arthur are very common British names and so is the name Tomlinson.

This is the challenge of trying to find people who lived in the 20th Century. We will see the 1921 British Census in 2022. I tried the 1939 Register without success. So, this is another example of reaching the end of the records. Searching the General Register Office for a death record requires information about the date of death. Here are some other places I searched the England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 on FamilySearch without success. Then I found a Death record for Kate Phyllis Tomlinson on the England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007.

I also found a probable death date for Arthur Tomlinson.

It is possible that there might be some additional information in a newspaper search. Once again, future research will have to wait until I can be in the BYU Family History Library or the Salt Lake City, Family History Library. My guess is that someone who is directly related to these people can use what I have found to talk to relatives. 

Explanation of how this project began and why I am pursuing it.

In this project, I am going to pick a somewhat random person from my ancestors' descendants who lived in the 20th Century from the FamilySearch.org Family Tree and show, step-by-step, the research needed to extend that person's family tree back several generations. Finding a person who has no apparent ancestors in the Family Tree is relatively easy for those who lived in or into the 20th Century. However, I am not able to use any of my own family lines because my direct lines all end back, at least, six generations. To clarify this project, I will not be reserving any of the people I discover for my own Temple List. I will simply leave the "green icons" on the Family Tree for that person's descendants to find and use for themselves. Please refrain from doing the temple work for people to whom you are not related.

Why am I doing this? For the past 15 years or so, I have been helping hundreds (thousands?) of people find their ancestors. I simply intend to document the process in detail with real examples so that you can see exactly how I find family lines. I simply want to show where those "green icons" come from. Since the FamilySearch.org Family Tree is entirely cooperative, I will simply assume that when I find a family that needs some research that I am helping that family. By the way, this is Part One of the series because I intend to do this over and over with different examples.

I may or may not find new people to add to the FamilyTree. Since the families I choose are in an "end-of-line" sort of situation, there is no guarantee that I will be any more successful than the average user of the Family Tree in finding additional family members. In any event, I hope that my efforts as recorded will help either the family members or others to find more information about their ancestral families and relatives.

There is another reason why I am doing this. Because I constantly offer to help people find their ancestors and I get relatively few that take advantage of that offer. I need to spend some of my excess energy.

A Family History Mission: The Challenges of Digitization

No. 46

Note: You can do a Google search for "A Family History Mission James Tanner" to see all the previous posts in this ongoing series. You can also search for "James Tanner genealogy" and find them.

The document shown above is actually from Rhode Island and not one of the documents we are digitizing here in Annapolis at the Maryland State Archives. After spending a couple of months digitizing and preparing documents day after day, I find that my perception of what I am seeing online has changed considerably so I decided to show some of the digital images and discuss what you are actually looking at when you see the images on FamilySearch.org.

Let's look at the document above. First of all, it is a photograph of two pages in a book. The image also has an "attachment." That is the piece of paper covering up part of the text of the book. Properly, there would have to be another photo of the same page showing the part covered by the attachment. The book is laying on a camera stand and the camera is situated directly over the pages to be photographed. Here is a photo of one of our camera stands.

In this photo, you can see three clamps used to hold the book level. If you go back to the photo at the beginning, you can see a clamp that is just barely visible in the lower left-hand corner of the book page. The idea here is that the pages of the book have to be kept flat and perpendicular to the camera so that the images are in focus at a high resolution. Every time we start taking photos, we have to calibrate the camera. This means we test the focus, white balance, and resolution or lines per inch before taking any photos. We do this to assure that the images are clear and uniform. We have two large lights on either side of the camera stand that need to "warm up" every day for fifteen minutes so that the light is uniform.

Here is a photo of the lights with a "whiteboard."

By taking a photo using the whiteboard, the camera is calibrated to white with the available lighting. This allows the camera to "see" the book being photographed in the existing light and take the best possible photos. It is essentially a way to measure the intensity or temperature of the light. However, since all these photos are in grayscale, it is really a way to set the amount of light entering the camera lens, i.e. the aperture or f-stop.  But since this camera is a fixed installation, the aperture remains the same but the speed of the sensor chip can be modified. The easiest way to understand what is happening is to say that the camera adjusts to the light.

However, the grayscale, or relationship between light and dark areas also needs to calibrated. For this, we use a standard Kodak grayscale strip. The camera reads the strip and makes the adjustments to get the best contrast for the photos.

If we are taking pictures of single page documents, then the distance from the document to the camera never changes. But if we are taking pictures of a book, then every time we turn a page the distance from the lens to the page changes slightly and the level of the pages also changes. As we work through a book, we have to constantly be changing the level of the two sides of the book to keep the plane of the pages level and perpendicular to the camera. We get better at this with practice. We use a series of wedges and blocks to level the books. We also use foam cushions.

Well, that's enough for today.

A Family History Mission: Some Random Observations

No. 45

Note: You can do a Google search for "A Family History Mission James Tanner" to see all the previous posts in this ongoing series. You can also search for "James Tanner genealogy" and find them.

Time is passing rapidly here in Annapolis, Maryland. We are working on our fourth month on a mission, but who is counting? I thought it might be a good time to review some of my random observations. Here they are:

Driving in Washington, D.C. is like the Polar Bear swim at Scout camp. It is terrible to consider and even worse to experience. We quickly realized how much easier it was to take the train into the city. We also discovered the buses. There is a really convenient bus called the DC Circulator that has a loop route around the Museums and attractions in the Mall area near the Capital Building. It is only a dollar and half price for Seniors with the convenient Senior Smart Trip Card.

Traffic on the freeways when there is room and not completely stopped, travels between 75 and 80 mph even though the speed limit is 65. Since that is also the case in the Phoenix area, we are not overly impressed. However, the speed limits in Phoenix are much higher. In Utah, the speed limit on the Interstate outside of the cities raises to 80 mph.

We are getting used to living in an apartment. The last time we lived in an apartment was when we lived in Panama while I was in the Army almost 50 years ago. Our biggest challenges are one small bathroom and two flights of stairs when we have store purchases.

We love working with the other missionaries. Two couples are finishing their mission this week and going home. But we know there is at least one more couple on the way. We like the cooperative nature of the experience and the collaboration on digitizing problems and procedures. The Archive employees are also very helpful and dedicated.

We are attending the Spa Creek (Spanish) branch and that is another adjustment. It is a very small branch with a Sacrament Meeting attendance of only around fifty people including all of the children. Of course, all the meetings are in Spanish and it is a challenge understanding all of the accents from different Spanish-speaking countries. We are warmly received and have had some very nice experiences.

I have been going to the Annapolis Stake Family History Center every Tuesday and Thursday evening. I have been having quite a bit of success helping others and finding my own records. I am starting to talk to people and meeting them at the FHC for help. That works out very well. We might also have access to the FHC during Sunday School so we can help the Branch members find their ancestors.

The weather here is very different from both the Salt River Valley and the Wasatch Front. The temperature seems to go up and down sort of randomly and there is a lot more rain than we are used to. We are watching some of the flowering plants start to grow and so we think that Winter might end sometime and we will see what the town looks like with leaves on the trees.

Before we came to Annapolis, we kept hearing about how beautiful the city was and that it was quite an attraction. It does have some nice old buildings but the streets are extremely narrow, there is almost no parking anywhere near the old downtown area near the dock, and the rest of the town looks pretty much like the rest of the United States with malls, fast food restaurants, and other businesses. We have found the stores we need for shopping and our apartment is very centrally located.

The apartment doesn't have assigned parking unless you want to pay for a covered space. If you come back late in the evening, we have to park almost a block away from our apartment.

We enjoy working at digitizing the records. The records are an endless source of interesting names and other information. We really appreciate the local volunteers who come to help prepare the records and even help with the digitizing.

I would still strongly recommend a Senior Missionary experience. We have a great time. We would have to grow old and live our lives anyway, so we might as well be doing something useful and enjoyable.

All the missionaries get to work right around 7:00 am despite traffic and weather. This shows me that they are all enjoying their experience here in the Maryland State Archives.