Family Tree

Hopefully by now, you have been able to register for Family Tree and explore through it a little bit. So, what is Family Tree? Family Tree is an online program created by the LDS church. The LDS church is a huge advocate of Family History and Genealogy. If you want to know why, click here: http://mormon.org/values/family-history. Because genealogy is such an important work within the LDS church, they are always updating programs and making it easier for people to do their family history. Family Tree has several functions.

1.       It is a free online organization tool. It is where you can store all your information. You’ll never have to fill in a 5 generation pedigree chart again. With it being online, you will have access to it as long as you have access to the internet. Trust me when I say your information will not be lost! The LDS church backups all their stuff. The reason we have a lot of records that we do today, is because the LDS church went in and microfilmed all these records and backed them up.

 

2.       It is a database of thousands of names (probably even millions)! Back in the day, people could submit their ancestry through Ancestral File. The LDS church also extracts records and submits this information into the large database (Formerly called the International Genealogical Index or IGI). There were also 2 or 3 other resources, but I can’t remember the names. All these resources were combined together and put into the new program: new.familysearch.org. The idea of new.familysearch was to get everyone to work together and combine all the multiple records. Some people were in the database at least 50 times. Meaning 50 people submitted the same name, or they came from the other records, such as extractions. People were duplicating work that had already been done 50 times!! So for the past several years, people have been combining these records on their pedigree charts. Not all names are combined. The problem with new.familysearch.org was that you couldn’t change the information that was in there unless you submitted the information. You could add another opinion and we all know how everyone has their own opinions. So new.familysearch was getting overcrowded. Family Tree allows anybody to change information, but you have to put in your source and the reasoning for the change.

 

3.       Mentioned above, Family Tree functions as a way to all work together and correlate information. If you click on individuals in your pedigree, you will see all the changes that have been made on the right hand side and who made those changes. You can click on the name of the person who submitted the information and contact them. Why piece that part of your puzzle together, if someone else has already done it for you? You can also choose to “follow” an individual in your pedigree. That way, when any changes are made, you will be notified.

 

4.       This last one applies only to those with an LDS account. It functions as a way to submit your family names for temple work.

The goal for the week is to fill in as much of your puzzle (pedigree) as you can. Some of you may already have all your corner pieces (tree branches) filled in for you. Some of you will have an empty puzzle. This may require you to call your family and get all of the information. Remember, this will be the last time filling in a 5 generation pedigree, because you are going to enter the information into Family Tree. It’s not the most fun task, but do it! If you know some of the information but not all the details (like dates) then try these before you make the phone calls.

1.       Log on to Family Tree. Go to http://www.familysearch.org/ click on “Family Tree” and enter your user name and password. Once in Family Tree, if you have an empty spot, it will say “add husband” or “add wife”. Click on “add husband” or “add wife”. Enter all the information that you do know and click “Find” at the bottom. A list of possible matches will come up. You will probably find a lot of information is already in the system, you just need to connect them to your pedigree. If you find a match, click “select”.

 

2.       If you have a few generations already in Family Tree, but need help getting to at least 5. You can try looking for duplicates. Click on an individual and a box will open, click “person” located at bottom of the box. It will then go to that person’s individual page. On the right side in the middle of the page, there’s a box that says “Tools”. Click on “Possible duplicates” within that box.  A page will come up with a list of possible duplicates or it will say “no results found”. If you find a match click on the match and “merge” the duplicates. If you are LDS, you must always look for duplicates before submitting names for the temple. When you merge duplicates, three columns will come up. One column will be what you have in your tree, the 2^nd column will be what information the duplicate has, and the 3^rd column is what information you will have when the first two are merged. So the 3^rd column is the important one to look at.

Are you getting eager to move pass “getting started”?  Think of these first few steps as organizing your puzzle. Before you begin, you need to turn over all the pieces and sort out all the sides and similar pattern pieces.  Remember our goal for the month: Pick a corner of your puzzle