A Family History Mission: From Books to Paper

No. 70

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 or click back through all the posts.

It took us an entire day to convert our camera station over from digitizing books to digitizing flat paper. Most of the day was spent working out the automation of the program that runs the controls for making the images. We use an external device that is programmed for several different functions and by moving to digitizing flat paper, we have a different series of tasks to perform and so we need to change the programming of the switches. For example, we need to have the digitization program we use automatically crop the area of the photo so the image has a black border. Here is an example of a digital image that has been automatically cropped. 

Maryland, Anne Arundel County, probate
Accounts of sale, T2552/C27-1, EV, v. 1, 17 Feb 1777-27 Jan 1779

Since this is a book, the right side of the image shows the center of the book and a part of the adjoining left-hand page. The software will automatically allow the user to take a photo of the two-page spread and the automatically split the images on the middle of the page with a definable overlap. The main difficulty in digitizing books is that they do not lay flat unless they have very few pages or the binding is entirely broken. If you look closely at the images, you can usually see some of the other pages of the book along the edge of the page away from the binding. 

After only one full day of digitizing paper, we realized that we had to relearn a lot of the commands and procedures that had become automatic to us when we were doing books. Surprisingly, the work also turned out to be considerably more tiring than doing books for some reason. Fortunately, we have the other experienced Senior Missionaries there to help get us out of our mistakes as we go along. We have to constantly keep monitoring our progress to make sure we have overlooked one step. If we do miss a step, we have to figure out how to go back and make the correction. 

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we often talk about Temple work and Missionary Work and other kinds of work. What we learn from these experiences is that the key component of service of any kind is work. Real work. Hard work. Time-consuming work. Tiring work. I see a great divide in Church and in the world in general between those who are willing to work and those who try to avoid working. It is real work to get up five days a week at 6:00 am and get ready to go to work. It is also hard work to sit or stand all day and prepare or digitize documents. 

I think it is a tragedy that so many in our society look forward to "retirement." What would I do if I did not work? I cannot imagine spending time playing some pointless game or whatever. 

One thing happens when we work. We learn to love our work and the people who work with us. This may not always happen when we work in the world's pursuits, but it is inevitable when we work for the Church and serve our Savior in some way. 

Are these new developments for the FamilySearch.org Family Tree?

Just when you got comfortable with the FamilySearch.org Family Tree, there may be some new developments on the way. Above is a screenshot from Beta.FamilySearch.org showing a possible change to the detail page for all the entries in the Family Tree program. Remember, this is a Beta program and if you accidentally add any information or make any changes, they WILL BE LOST when you leave the program. So this is a place to look and see and try things out not do actual work.

Here is another possible addition to the Detail Pages.

Both the timeline and the map would be welcome additions. But while they are making changes, why don't they make the difference between the "Tree" link and the "View Tree" link more obvious.

Another possible change moves the Life Story to a "Talk" link.

You can see the suggested changes for yourself by logging in to the Beta.FamilySearch.org website.

The End of an Era: Mesa FamilySearch Library is Closing Completely

No other recent event points out the tremendous rapid changes in the world of genealogy and family history than the closing of the Mesa FamilySearch Library (aka Mesa Family History Center, Mesa Multiregional Family History Center). This Family History Center had been in operation since the 1930s and began with a library inside the Mesa Temple itself.

Now, it has been announced that the Mesa FamilySearch Library will be totally closed on Friday, September 14, 2018 at 5:00 pm. I am sad I will not be there for the final day.

Why is the closing of this facility so important? The closing is really a symbolic event. The closing of this very active and vibrant Family History Center represents the changes from all of the traditional ways of doing family history. In the most recent announcement, it was even made clear that the "missionaries" serving there would not be able to continue holding conferences as they faithfully have during even the years when they had no facility to work in. This is the final nail in the coffin.

I have written many times about the significant changes in family history and genealogy as it has been done for a very long time. Even though there are still a lot of people who practice genealogy in a very traditional way, I can see that technological changes, changes in values and the inexorable changes in attitude have finally done their work and forced us to move on.

I will miss the friends and acquaintances I worked with for so many years. My words cannot express the feelings I have for the dedication and huge knowledge bank of experience that is represented by this Family History Center. No new center can replace this storehouse of experience.

It is time to say goodbye and best wishes to all who have made such a significant effort over the years to help people find their family and their heritage.

A Family History Mission: Finishing Books, Moving to Paper

One of the last books we digitized

No. 69

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 or click back through all the posts.

During our entire assignment here in Annapolis, Maryland at the Maryland State Archives, we have been digitizing books. We also understand that previous volunteers (missionaries) have been digitizing books at the Archives for about five or six years. These books are the copies of the documents made for the court records throughout Maryland since the 1600s. 

We finally digitized the last available book this week. However, there is still one county in question and some books that are in "conservation" that will eventually need to be digitized, but my wife and I are now moving on to digitize "flat paper" or in other words, the documents that were submitted to the courts in Maryland directly by the people involved in the probate actions. 

Our last few books were a real challenge. As you can see from the photo above, they were in pretty bad condition. But we finished all of the books that are readily available. 

Now in moving to paper records, I thought it a good idea to show how these records are processed for digitization. We are digitizing Probate Records from the Maryland State Archives and each of the counties. The individual records are stored in boxes on shelves in the archives around the state. The books are also stored on the same shelves. At the Maryland State Archives, these are all in climatically controlled storage areas. The county records are stored in other locations. Here is what some of the shelves look like.

I have written about the books previously. The paper records are stored in boxes or clamshell boxes. Here are photos of both types of boxes.

Different Archives have different methods of storing their records. They also have different levels of access and restrictions about viewing and handling the records. Note that the age of wearing white cloth gloves to work with paper documents has ended. Archives have learned that bare hands cause less damage to paper than gloves.

The boxes of documents, most of which have never been touched since they were filed away, are delivered to the document preparation (prep) area.

The volunteers and missionaries work at two long tables set up in the Main Reading Room of the Archives. Here is a photo of the table with the missionaries and volunteers working on preparing the documents.

It looks dark, but there are individual lights shining on the table for the workers. Here is a box of the folded documents ready to be sorted and put into folders for the prep work of opening the documents and filling out a target sheet that waypoints the information (i.e. partially indexes the name of the deceased, the date of the probate filing and other information used by the Archives, but not yet used by FamilySearch).

The documents are sorted by date and put in individual file folders a few in each folder to await unfolding.

Now the documents are ready for the missionaries and volunteers to process.

Each folder has from three to eight or nine documents. They are then processed by carefully unfolding the documents and then extracting information from the documents and entering the information in a target sheet. All work is done in pencil and no marks are made on the documents. If there are any metal fasteners on the documents, they are removed. The metal will rust and damage the documents. The processed documents are then replaced in the box. The processed documents are each reviewed to make sure that the information recorded is correct.

The information from the target sheets is then entered into a spreadsheet which becomes an index of the documents.

The processed documents are returned to the control of the Archive staff. The staff of the Archives continues processing the documents and then delivers the documents to the camera workstations.

The camera stations are set up to digitize the documents. During the process, the target sheets are also digitized and the information is cross-checked with the spreadsheet. This is how the processed documents are stacked and ready to digitize.

The camera operator takes each document and digitizes it while checking it off on the spreadsheet. The plastic plate shown sitting on the box is used when the documents will not lay flat.

The digitized documents are then returned to the Archives personnel for storage. The digital images are stored on a hard drive and each week, the hard drive is sent to Salt Lake City for further processing and ultimately, the images are put online on the FamilySearch.org website and the Archives receives a copy of the digital files for their own use.

This whole process runs smoothly because of the highly experienced Maryland State Archives staff members. The Archives staff are great to work with and provide a huge amount of support to all of the missionaries and volunteers. It is a great privilege to be involved in this great work of preserving genealogically important records.

Whittling Away at the Free Partner Access Programs and Other Problems

What is there about the word "free" that I don't understand? Hmm. It looks like to me that some of the FamilySearch partners are deciding that some content is not part of the agreement or never was. I certainly understand that as these large online websites negotiate agreements with record repositories around the world that they may encounter some non-negotiable restrictions on the content and their ability to provide "free" access. The basic issue here is monetization of genealogically significant records.

I recently wrote a short post about Reclaim the Records. See "Reclaim The Records Challenges the New York Department of Health Over Ancestry.com Priority." If you go to their website and read the "case studies" about the various records that were withheld by government agencies, you will begin to see the problem. The basic issue is whether or not someone or some entity can "own" records that contain information about us or about our ancestral families. For example, who owns your birth record?

There is a second issue that is raised by the lawsuit discussed in the Reclaim the Records post above. That is can a third-party, some entity that was not part of originating the records and is not the person or family named in the record gain some kind of interest in the record by payment or otherwise that entitles them to charge a fee to view or copy the record? For example, when I was born, the state of Utah created a "birth certificate." I did not ask them to do this. I did not consent to them obtaining the information about my birth. All of that was done by people who did not consult me as to whether I wanted a birth certificate or not. To add insult to injury, I was totally incapacitated at the time. I could not speak, read, or write. Now, 70+ years later, if I want to obtain a copy of the information they obtained without my knowledge or permission, I have to pay the State of Utah a fee. What is more, they can "sell" my information to a third party such as Ancestry.com and then I will have to subscribe to Ancestry's website to see my own birth certificate.

OK, since I was a baby at the time, my parents acted for me as my parents. But essentially, any rights I had to my own information was given away at the time I was born. So now, I have no right to even view my own birth certificate without paying either the State of Utah or some other entity.

Let's take this one step further. Who owns my parents' records or information? Many genealogists think they own the information in their genealogy files? What if I want to obtain a birth certificate of my own father or mother? In almost every state of the United States, with the possible exception of Arizona, I would have to pay to obtain that information.

This is not just an issue in the United States, this is a worldwide issue. In fact, some countries and other quasi-governmental entities are increasingly making obtaining genealogically important information more difficult and more expensive. The reasons given for this action include privacy and ownership interests. Of course, the issue is much broader than our narrow genealogical interest. The real issue is the monetization of information on social network programs.

One interesting part of this issue is that the United States has Federal and State Freedom of Information Acts that require the governments to give their constituents access to certain types of records some of which have genealogical significance. Now comes the question. Can these governments "sell" that information to a third-party who then sells it to the public?

There are costs involved with obtaining and maintaining all records. Who pays for those costs? If I pay to obtain a record shouldn't I be able to charge to access the record to recoup my costs?

I am sure you will see more from me on these issues.

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

Deciding on a Project 

With a seemingly endless number of options, The FamilySearch.org Family Tree can be overwhelming. Where do I start? How do I know what to work on? The real key is found in 1 Nephi 4: 6

6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we should never get so "wrapped up" in our work that we forget that we are involved in giving those who have moved on to the Spirit World the opportunity to accept or reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we live worthily and pray for guidance, we will be led to those parts of the Family Tree that need our attention and work. On the other hand, if we approach our work with the Family Tree to prove something or to just "find a name" without being led by the Spirit we may lose the opportunity to help those who are ready to accept the Gospel in the Spirit World.

I find that when I approach the Family Tree with an open mind and listen to the promptings of the Spirit, I fond new discoveries every time. For example in the screenshot above, I have three direct line family surnames that I do not ever recall researching previously: Brindle, Worsley, and Leigh. Granted, all three of these lines start in the 1700s, but I am used to doing research in that time period. All of these people are my grandparents. Let me choose one line to see what happens.

Jane Worsey has six sources attached, but very little information. Here is my relationship.

There is only a minimum of clean up to do for this individual because little has been done. There are several children listed in the family of Jane Worsley and Adam Brindle, but it appears that they are in different locations and probably suspect.

Because so little work has been done on this family and because the parents are direct line ancestors, there is a substantial interest in cleaning up the entries and working on adding additional information. Sometimes the Spirit leads you into situations where there is a lot of work to do. Here is what is in the Family Tree for the family as I start the process:

An initial review shows that some of the information for this family comes from the IGI or International Genealogical Index. This is another indication of the lack of research that has gone into this family so far even counting the information going back a hundred years. What is here, may or may not be valid. But this is a good opportunity to see what can be found.

Most of the entries need some standardization of dates and places. An initial review of the children listed reveals the following locations recorded for births or christenings.

• Ann Brindle: Pemberton, Lancashire, England
• Alice Brindle: Christening in Deane, Lancashire, England, Birth in Manchester, England, United Kingdon
• Esther Brindle: Birth in Deane by Bolton, Lancashire, England
• Adam Brindle: Birth and Christening in Deane, Lancashire, England
• Ann Brindle: Christening in Deane by Bolton, Lancashire, England
• Betty Brindle: None
• Jane Brindle: None
• Rachel Brindle: None

The father, Adam Brindle, is shown as born in Rivington, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom. There is no birth or christening information for Jane Worsley. There are two places (at least) named Deane in England. There is one in Lancashire. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Deane in Lancashire.

Deane is an area of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south west of Bolton and 11 miles (17.7 km) northwest of the city of Manchester. 

Historically a part of Lancashire, the Parish of Deane was one of eleven parishes within the hundred of Salford and covered roughly half of the present Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The Church of St Mary on which the parish was centred was in the township of Rumworth.

So all of the places, when listed, are consistent. The three children with no birth or christening information are problematical. A quick search for Brindles on Findmypast.com shows that there are about 191 people with the Brindle surname about this time period in Deane. At this point, I will spend some time adding any records I can find to this family through searches on FamilySearch and the Partner programs. [Time passes]

OK, now I am back with this family. Basically, I went through each of the children and the parents and searched for additional records for each individual. As I added in the records, I resolved any standardization issues and merged all of the duplicates. Fortunately, there was a will attached to Jane Worsley of her husband Adam Brindle. In the will he names each of his children and their spouses. But one of the listed children, the first one named Ann Brindle married to Peter Ellison is not mentioned in the will. She is also the only one not born or christened in Deane, Lancashire, England.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few "Ann Brindles" in the surrounding area. But the Ann mentioned in the Will is married to Joseph Helm and it is very unlikely that the family had two daughters with the same name who both lived to adulthood and got married. It is not unusual to see children with the same name when one of the children dies very young.

Now, there is another clue in the Will, the Ann mentioned has two children at the time the Will was signed and the first Ann has three children listed who would have been born at the time of the Will. On balance, it looks like the first daughter considering her place of birth, children, husband etc. is not part of this family.

Hmm. Guess what? I am no longer shown as related to this family. Well, that does happen. The Ann Brindle married to Peter Ellison is still my ancestor.

Time to start with a different family.

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

In this project, I started out by picking a somewhat random person from my ancestors or my ancestors' descendants who may have lived into the 20th Century from the FamilySearch.org Family Tree and to hopefully 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 19th Century by much harder the further you go back in the past. As I continued to examine individuals in the Family Tree my objectives have changed. I decided to include anyone who, from the lack of information in the Family Tree, needed research.

To clarify this project, I will not be reserving any of the people I discover for my own Temple List unless I am related to those I find. For those I find to whom I am not related, 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.

Now, after I got going doing the research, I got a couple of requests to research some people further back in time. These turned out to be old, established "end-of-line" situations. Since my original idea was to demonstrate finding people, I started with easier challenges. But in any event,  I may or may not find new people to add to the FamilyTree. Since some of the families I choose are in an "end-of-line" sort of situation independent of the time frame, 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.

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 Project Eleven 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.

Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days

https://history.lds.org/saints?lang=eng&cid=rdb_v_saints_eng

I have been reading the serialization of the new publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that are appearing in the Ensign and Liahona magazines. It is so engaging and interesting that I have been reading parts of it out loud to my wife and this has engendered some further discussions. The book will be a four-volume series called, Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. You can read about the book here:

https://history.lds.org/saints?lang=eng&cid=rdb_v_saints_eng

You can also start reading the book here:

https://www.lds.org/languages/eng/content/history/saints-v1/01-ask-in-faith