FamilySearch.org Tour
The FamilySearch.org site (see Figure 12-1) has several tools, databases, and documents to help you with family history. Go to FamilySearch.org and register with a user name and password. If you have a GEDCOM, you can upload your own data to start your tree, or you can type all your genealogy into their user-friendly form online and save it that way.
FIGURE 12-1. The redesigned FamilySearch.org has links to the various site sections.
The opening page has these links: Fan Chart (also a link to Puzzilla, which will be covered later in the chapter), Photos, Family Tree, Search, Indexing, and Family Booklet.
• Fan Chart This shows you an interactive graphic of your tree on FamilySearch.org. Each person is a clickable link to a page with the data you input, the historical records attached to it, the latest changes you have made, and any multimedia.
• Photos This is a link to the multimedia aspects of your tree. You can add not only photos, but also stories, scans of original documents, a list of the tagged people in your photos, and people in your tree that are tagged in other photos that have been uploaded. Once you leave the opening page, all this multimedia will be under the Memories link.
• Family Tree This is a link to your genealogy as input or an uploaded file.
• Search This is the link to the records, genealogies, Family History Library Catalog, and the FamilySearch.org wiki, which explains and expounds on FamilySearch features and resources.
• Indexing This is a link to the software to download if you want to volunteer to expand the records available on FamilySearch.org. Projects include civil records, church records, and more.
Search and Family Tree are the links you will use the most, so let’s look at those.
Search
Search has been redesigned and consolidated. Records will search birth marriage, death, probate, land, and military records, as well as IGI (International Genealogical Index) extracted records. Trees will include the old uploaded Ancestral File genealogies. Catalog, of course, is the Family History Library and Centers card catalog. Books will search over 100,000 digitized genealogy and Family History publications from the archives of Family History libraries around the world. Wiki searches the FamilySearch wiki. This is a user-written collection of more than 60,000 pages about records, localities, subjects, and methods that can help you find your ancestors. It’s the how-to wiki by users for users.
Records
The new search includes several different databases and records. Among them are:
• The IGI is a database of over 400 million names extracted between 1973 and 2008 from public records by volunteers and also contributed to by LDS members. There are duplications, and some entries were indexed, while others were not. Other limitations include that burials and death records were not indexed, unless they apply to children who died before the age of eight, but illegitimate infants who died young were not indexed. Furthermore, some of the data were censored because FamilySearch does not have permission to publish them online; such entries are still available on microfiche and CD-ROM versions of the IGI. Still, IGI is a good resource for clues.
• The SSDI is included in the searches as well. As noted in Chapter 11, Congress passed restrictions on access to the most recent three years’ records of the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). The older records are still part of the searched databases at FamilySearch.org and can help you find people who died after 1938. You will find that some sites charge you for this search, but on FamilySearch, it is free. Under Search | Genealogies, you can also search the trees of all other FamilySearch.org users, the old Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource files, and other user submissions.
• Ancestral File is a collection of databases uploaded with Personal Ancestral File (PAF). As mentioned in Chapter 2, the PAF software is no longer supported, but the uploaded data is still on the site. The Pedigree Resource File (PRF) is a searchable database of submissions from FamilySearch.org users.
In addition to these, the search includes indexed public, church, and fraternal records. It really is an amazing collection.
Trees
Personal genealogy databases are called trees in FamilySearch.org. My tree is shown in Figure 12-2 in Fan Chart view. This view makes it easy to see where I need to put in more data. However, it only shows direct lineage; for example, all my grandfather’s siblings are not shown.
FIGURE 12-2. Fan charts can be viewed and printed in the Family Tree tab of FamilySearch.org.
Other views include Portrait, which shows any pictures you have uploaded, and Traditional, which contains boxes and lines with names and dates. The Traditional view gives one more piece of information: the FamilySearch.org record number. Someone else who is descended from William Reason Powell, for example, will have entered him into FamilySearch.org as well. That entry will have a different number. If you use the Search for Duplicates Number feature, you can find other entries in family trees that might be the same as yours. If so, you can merge the two into one record. Furthermore, you can search all family trees for your ancestor’s assigned number to see if he appears elsewhere. Finally, if you find a person in a record that you want to add to your trees, you can search by that number to see if you already have them.
As with most online genealogy sites, you can upload a GEDCOM of your genealogy, or as noted in Chapter 2, several genealogy software packages are able to connect directly with FamilySearch.org and input the data online as you enter it on your desktop computer. But let’s say you are starting from scratch and will enter each family member one at a time.
As you enter each name, starting with yourself, you can enter sources for the information, or once you have the name, at least one date, and a place for that entry, you can click Search. This will first search the records section, but with a click, you can also search each section.
Now in the 1910 census I find my great-grandfather at age 56, my great-grandmother at age 51, my grandfather at age 18, and my grandfather’s siblings at ages 15, 12, and 8. Attaching the census record to J. Toxie Powell (my grandfather) and his parents is easy because they are already in my tree. Adding the other people is a little trickier. I have to keep my family tree open in one tab (or window if that is easier for you) and the census record in another. In the Family Tree tab, I click Add Person, type in Renie Powell (one of the sisters), and put in what data are available from the census record: female, parents, estimated birth year. Once I click Save, FamilySearch.org first checks that I have not already entered her. If not, then she is assigned a number in my tree. However, it will also search other trees to see if someone else is also searching this family, and if there is a match, offer to merge.
Once people are entered, I can go back to the census record and attach it as a source to each person. I can note in the entry that the census is why I think this is an accurate entry (besides the fact that my grandfather told me of them when he was alive). You have to be very careful, however. Because I have three generations of James Powells and the display truncates names, it was easy to accidentally put my grandmother as spouse to my great-grandfather instead of to my grandfather. Fixing that was not easy or intuitive at all.
Also, someone else’s trees had the same people, but with mistakes on the births. After the search for duplicates, I had a chance to tell those users how I would change those entries and why and let them decide whether to accept that.
Note
When you find an online family tree, remember it is inspiration, not gospel. Another volunteer uploaded that data, so ask for permission before you use it, and check the original sources yourself.
Puzzilla
Puzzilla.org is a third-party site connected to FamilySearch that I found very helpful. At Puzzilla, you log in with your FamilySearch account. Give it a few seconds to load your genealogy information into a diagram that looks like a wire schematic (see Figure 12-3). You are at the center at first. Hover over a dot, and it will show you the vital statistics for that relative
. Click a relative, and that person’s descendants are drawn. Clicking a descendant’s data balloon will take you back to the FamilySearch default search. For example, find an ancestor with large gaps between children, search on one of the parents, and you may find a child or widowhood you didn’t know about before. Or you may find that you have data that are not yet attached to that person and you need to add them to your tree. While in Puzzilla, you can change the number of generations shown, change the root person to a specific FamilyTree ID number, and select View Path To Ancestor/Descendant for a direct line view. As you complete each of these changes, records are retrieved from FamilyTree one family at a time, which is time consuming, so you have to be patient. The “Retrieving” count in the control panel shows how many requests are still waiting for a response from FamilyTree. New requests wait until prior requests have finished.
FIGURE 12-3. Puzzilla helps you visualize your FamilySearch.org tree and search for more data.
Once Puzzilla sends you to search in FamilySearch, look on the right side for Research Help and click Search Records. This searches for historical records for that descendant and takes you to the Search Results page. Tune your searches by varying the search parameters.
Compare the descendant’s details in FamilyTree to the records in the Search Results page. If they match, you have found historical record information about the descendant. Add the new record to your sources, and add spouse, children, and parents to the descendant in FamilyTree.
Success Story: FamilySearch Proves a Family Legend
I had the names of my great-grandfather, his two brothers, and both parents—along with the name of the little town they were born and raised in Wales. For three years, I searched for evidence of the parents who were presumably named Hugh Jones and Mary Ellen Williams. The information was furnished by their grandson.
In the quest to acquire as much evidence as possible on every person in my line, I ran a query on the LDS site. Some of this information was transcription, and some was by submission of family group sheets (without source citations). I was fortunate to find what could potentially be my great-grandfather’s christening record as a transcribed set of bishop’s records for the parish. Correct place, correct year, but wrong parent names—or so I thought. I was able to run a query using the parents’ names only so that I could find all birth records in that county where these two names appeared as mother and father. Sure enough, each of the other two boys and a bonus daughter appeared. The parents were Moses Jones and Elizabeth Jones.
Subsequent research further supports the information. In fact, both died before the grandson informant was even born! Perhaps he mistook an “adopted” set of grandparents as his own… who knows? Three years of trying was blown away by five minutes’ worth of Internet research. Now, I use the Internet for a large portion of my research.
—Heather Jones DeGeorge
FamilySearch Indexing
This is where you can give back to the world of online genealogy. Using this software, you can extract family history information from digital images of historical documents to create indexes that assist everyone in finding their ancestors. This could be census pages, church records, vital statistics records, and so on. It is fun, interesting, and one way to give back to the genealogy community at large.
Get Help
Tucked way up in the top-right corner is a small link: Get Help. It has a drop-down menu, or you can go straight to the page at FamilySearch.org/ask. From the drop-down menu, you can call or chat with staff members, learn how to visit the Family History Library, or send a message.
The other links can take you to pages for help with products, how to get started, videos on how to use FamilySearch.org, and the wiki with how-to articles. It is under the Learning Center link where you will find the excellent research guides on how to search places, subjects, and so on.
Note
Need to know where your local Family History Center is? Check the phone book under “Churches—LDS,” or go to www.familysearch.org/locations and search by typing in the city you want.
A Visit to a Family History Center
Family History Centers (FHCs) are to genealogists what candy stores are to kids. There are big ones and little ones, elaborate set-ups and simple ones. But they all have something to help your search, and going to one is usually a treat.
The best way to find a Family History Center near you is to look in the White Pages of the phone book for the nearest Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Call them and find out where the nearest FHC is and the hours. Honestly, because the hours vary so much from place to place, the best time to call is Sunday morning around 10:00 A.M. Everyone’s at church then!
If you call any other time, give the staffers lots of rings to answer the phones, which might be on the other side of the church from the FHC. Another easy way: Use the Search box on the FamilySearch.org main page. Scroll about halfway down the page, and you’ll see a box to input your ZIP code. For a more detailed search, go to www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp.
Note
Some FHC directors insist that if you use a disk to take home information, you buy one from the FHC. This is to prevent accidentally introducing a virus into the system. Similarly, while Wi-Fi may be available in a certain FHC, if your laptop has a virus, you will be asked to take out your connection card.
All FHCs are branches of the main LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The typical FHC has a few rooms at the local Mormon Church, with anywhere from one to ten computers; a similar number of microfilm and microfiche readers; and a collection of atlases, manuals, and how-to genealogy books. The FHC in my neighborhood in Navarre, Florida, is small and cozy. Others in bigger towns are larger and more elaborate. All of them have materials and expertise you can tap into when you visit.
Wrapping Up
• The LDS Church is the largest online resource for genealogy.
• The newly revised site has several formerly separate databases under one search.
• User genealogies are now more interactive than before.
• The Indexing program has projects you can search and help index.
• Family History Centers are where you can view microfiches and microfilms of actual records, as well as order copies of records. Most FHCs also have Internet access, including access to subscription online databases.
Chapter 13
Ellis Island Online: The American Family Immigration History Center
Are you one of the 40 percent of Americans who can trace an ancestor to the immigration center at Ellis Island? If so, you definitely want to check out Ellis Island Online at www.ellisisland.org (see Figure 13-1).
FIGURE 13-1. Immigration records from 1892 to 1924 are available at www.ellisisland.org.
The secret to success is searching this or any other ships’ list database is to have at least some data at hand. You should have a guess as to when the immigrant arrived. Sometimes, you can find this on a death record as “how long in the United States,” or whatever country you are searching. Sometimes, you can find this data, or enough to make a good guess, in census records or naturalization papers. Other clues that help are approximate age, occupation, and birth location. It also would help to know with whom the passenger might have traveled. Relatives for sure, but also friends or employers might give you a clue as to where to look.
The opening page of the site has a link called Genealogy. It will lead you to the Genealogy Learning Center with these links.
Genealogy Getting Started Tips
This section for beginners to family history research serves as an online “Genealogy 101” to guide you through the basic steps. This step-by-step approach will help you to grasp quickly the key concepts of all levels of genealogy research.
Genealogy Charts and Forms
The section has several different downloadable documents for you to print, copy, and share freely with others as you organize your family data. These include multigeneration pedigree charts,
family group sheets, and other documents in PDF format, and should be accessible by most computers. You have to print them out to fill them out.
Locating a Genealogy Society
Any aspect of genealogy research has a corresponding genealogy society: surname, geographic area, historical, ethnic heritage, and family societies have been the foundation of American genealogy for more than a century. To connect you with an area of particular interest, the site has a page called the Ellis Island Society Links Network.
Hiring a Professional Genealogist
This section contains information about professional genealogists and why you may want one. Through an alliance with the Association of Professional Genealogists, this page will connect you with individuals skilled in different geographic, ethnic, and other areas of research specialty.
Helpful Websites for Genealogy Research
This section introduces you to just a few of the places online that you are likely to find of general interest relating to your family history research.
Besides those helpful links, the opening page also has a link to the history of Ellis Island (Ellis Island), information about the organization that runs the site (About Us), the gift shop, and a place to donate to help keep the online search free for everyone.
Genealogy Online Page 18