31 December 2014

Interested in knowing if your ancestors knew Joseph Smith?

 Joseph Smith

Paul G. Nauta from the FamilySearch blog writes, "The Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is pleased to announce an exciting collaborative effort between the Joseph Smith Papers Project and FamilySearch. FamilySearch.org users can now easily view documents in the papers of Joseph Smith that mention their direct ancestors. With just a few clicks, it is now easy to see how your ancestors interacted with Joseph Smith and other early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The new website is free and available now at FamilySearch.org/josephsmithpapers#."

30 December 2014

26 December 2014

Training Video on Being a Good Detective

Kent Jaffa created a great genealogy video explaining how Family History research is like being a detective. It's entitled "Is Your Great Uncle Really Your Great Aunt?" In the video Jaffa explains some of the basic rules for good research while tackling a case where good detective work proved that Philander M. Sawyer was really a female and not a male as was shown in the 1850 US Census.

In a follow up video entitled "Advanced Detective Studies" learn why relying on transcripts of records can lead to mistakes, why you cannot trust a single document by itself and then solve a more complex problem where children were assigned to the wrong family.

Cleaning up Family Records

The blog "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad..." recently posted a terrific article on cleaning up entries in FamilySearch Family Tree. Here's a direct link to the article.

The author, James Tanner, offers some great advice that can easily be applied to all our family history relatives. Here's just a few of the steps he outlines:
  • Entering a life sketch when available
  • Checking the names of individuals to see that they are correctly entered
  • Verifying and standardizing dates and place names
  • Completing and regularizing death and burial information
  • Verifying and editing family member information

Merry Christmas!

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24 December 2014

The First Gift of Christmas

Do you know what the first gift of Christmas was?



 
The first gift of Christmas was a simple gift given by a father to all his children, to us. He gave us His son, the Christ. He is the gift. This Christmas season, how will you share the gift? http://christmas.mormon.org

23 December 2014

"Takin' it to the streets" of New York City

Literally.
My Heritage, one of the top Genealogy Companies in the world brings Family History to the streets of New York City!
This genealogical search company promises "Enter a little information and you can find ancestors and relatives in seconds."
Here's a video that shows what can happen...