Networking - Group work

I don’t know about you, but when I am trying to put together a big tough puzzle, I prefer help. Putting together a puzzle as a group is easier and more fun than doing it all by yourself. So, where do you get help with your genealogy puzzle?

1.       Family Tree – My first recommendation on this blog was to sign up for family tree. Once you are signed into Family Tree, go to the person or family you are researching, click on “view person” (not view tree). On the right hand side of the screen, there is a column that says “latest changes”, within that column, click “show all.” A list of changes will come up and it will say “by”. Most of the changes will probably say “familysearch”, but the most recent ones may have a person. Click on the person’s name and it will show you the contact information for this person. Email or call the person and ask them to share what information they have.

 

2.       Track down living family/distant cousins. In the U.S. this is easy with the 1940 census. Find your ancestors family in the 1940 census and then look on whitepages.com for one of their children.  You can check the Social Security death index (SSDI) to see if they have died. If you can’t locate them on the SSDI then chances are they are still living. Call them or write them and ask them if they have any pictures of their ancestors or any other information.

 

3.       Facebook pages. Join a genealogy group, either by surname or place where your ancestor lived. To find a familysearch community page, go to this website and locate your community page. https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Research_Communities_on_Facebook Once you locate a page, then like the page. Once you like the group, you can make a query on the surname you are researching.  Currently I have “liked” general family search, Pennsylvania, and Sweden. These groups can also be helpful in locating sources. You ask questions about churches, cemeteries, anything you want to know the answer on.

 

4.       Rootsweb has genealogy boards and email groups. Go to http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ and you can search previous posts or you can search an email group by place. Once you search for a group, join the group by following the directions or send an email to “subscribe”. Once you subscribe, send an email to the group (directions for this should be on the page you subscribed on), in the email put the surname in the title or subject. For surname rootsweb email groups, search here: http://rsl.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

If you have any questions, just comment, and I’ll be happy to help. I have found several people willing to share information. That is how I get most of my pictures and family histories. Plus you have distant family friends for life.

Family History Centers

What do you do once you have exhausted all online resources? There are several resources online, but sometimes you just can’t find what you need online. Ancestry.com (a pay site) has some church records online, but most of the time church records are rare to find online. Same with land records, wills, tax records, and lots of other resources.

Most historical societies will have all the local resources that are available, but if you aren’t local, then you usually have to pay to have someone search the local records.

The LDS church has hundreds of family history centers located throughout the world. Remember in my previous posts, the LDS church has preserved and microfilmed millions of records. These records are slowly being made available online and indexed by volunteers. But, it could take years for all the records to be made available online. So in order to view records that aren’t available online yet, one can go to a family history center and browse microfilms. To find a family history center near you, go to http://www.familysearch.org/locations/ then type in your address.

Once you find a family history center, you will need to visit the center to see what microfilms and books are there. Every center will have different microfilms and books. If you can’t find anything from the resources there, then you may want to check out the family history catalog. This is the catalog for all records that the LDS church has. You should be able to order any microfilms or microfiches to your current center. This does cost and your local center should be able to help with this process. Or you can visit here https://familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/online-film-ordering-ordering-microfilms/697 and order them online. I’m not sure how much it currently costs or the process, but it was $7 a microfilm. If you live in Utah and can make it to Salt Lake City, then you can visit the Family History Library. They have all these resources available. No need to order them. To learn more about the family history catalog, you can go here: https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Introduction_to_the_Family_History_Library_Catalog

Another advantage of going to a family history center is they have several “pay” sites that you can search for free such as ancestry.com, fold3.com, and even international sites. There are also several volunteers that are available to assist you or answer your genealogy questions. There may also be family history classes.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment.

Process of Elimination

I’d really like this blog to be more interactive. So, for next week’s post, I will be answering any questions you have. Here’s your opportunity to get help. This week make a comment on the blog (not facebook). I’d like to see any questions you have or what piece of your puzzle that you are working on. What surname, location, and time period are you working on? It’s not hard to make a comment. Just click on the bottom of any post where it says “comment”, if no one has commented yet it will say “no comment”. Click there, and then scroll down to the bottom of the screen. There will be a white box and right above it says “Post a comment”.  Below the white box, after you type in your comment, it will say “select a profile” click on the down arrow and highlight “Anonymous”. You can sign your name in your comment. Please share with your friends and family. I’d like to help as many people as possible.

Now for this week’s post. This past weekend, the National Swedish Archives were available to browse online for free. Here’s a key word, “Browse”. I think we’re so spoiled with all the indexes that have been made available and search functions, that we have become lazy and seldom “browse” records. I’ll admit, “browsing” is always my last resort. I search all the indexes available and then if I can’t find my information, I start browsing. “Browsing” is the old school of genealogy. It’s the tedious, time consuming work of genealogy.  Is it necessary? Absolutely! There are millions of records that have not been indexed and unless you are willing to roll up your sleeves and work for those hard to find records, you will never find all your puzzle pieces.

Yesterday, I spent about 5 hours, “browsing” the National Swedish Archives, only to find “nothing”! I probably scanned through 400 pages of records looking for one family. One may say, “what a waste of time” and that I didn’t make progress.

Have you ever done a Sudoku puzzle? Sometimes, you have to solve the puzzle, by process of elimination.  It can’t be this number or that number, so that only leaves two other numbers. So it is with genealogy. Sometimes, the only way to find information is to eliminate possibilities. This is especially true in your hard to find “brick wall” lines. There are three “John Taylor’s” living in one county/area. One is my relative (chances are they all are relatives, but only one is my direct descendant). I start looking at one of the “John Taylor’s” until I determine he is mine or not. If he isn’t, I haven’t failed, because now I know that one of the two remaining “John Taylor’s” is probably mine. (But, remember always double check your source)

Yesterday, I eliminated 400 possibilities. This makes me closer to finding my ancestors. Now for another very important part of eliminating possibilities: Keep a record of all your search efforts. Next time the National Swedish Archives are free online again, will I remember what I searched or will I spend another 5 hours searching the same 400 records? Now that would be a waste of time!!! It’s simple to track your searches. I simply use a word document. I have a search log for each of my surnames. Yesterday, I was searching “Lundell”, so I will save in my Lundell word document, what records I searched yesterday. How do you track your searches?

Family Search Wiki

Lots of people have asked for help finding puzzle pieces in foreign countries. Countries, that I have absolutely NO experience. Fortunately, someone out there does have experience. Family Wiki is an online guide where those that have experience with specific countries, share their knowledge and resources.

Here are step by step instructions:

·         Go to http://www.familysearch.org

·         Then click on “Search” (Located at top middle of page)

·         Then click on “Wiki” (Located at top middle of page)

·         Then search a place, for example: Malmohus, Sweden

·         There will be a number of search results. For Malmohus, Sweden, I clicked on the 3^rd result down, which is the County page for Malmohus, Sweden.

·         From there it gives me a history of the county and individual parishes/towns within the county and the parish/town page.

·         After clicking on one of the parish pages, it didn’t give me a lot of information. So, I’m going to search just “Sweden”

·         After clicking on search result “Sweden”, I found lots of information and resources. For example: getting started with Sweden research, research tools, maps of jurisdictions, where to find vital records, and lots more.

I have mentioned this in another post, but also try “browsing” family search records to see what is available online for the specific country that you are looking for. Some records might not be indexed yet and won’t show up when you do a search. For example: Family search has Husförhörslängder records (Kind of like census records) under the browse section, but these have not been indexed. I can browse these records for free online; I just have to do the dirty work of searching each individual record. For instructions on "browsing" read this post: http://pieceyourfamilytogether.blogspot.com/2013/07/family-search.html

What places are you currently searching? Where have you found resources and search help?

Cemetery Records

Today we are going to talk about cemeteries. Cemetery records can be hard to locate if you don’t live nearby. If you live close to where your ancestor died, I’d encourage you to go visit the local cemeteries and find your ancestors’ graves. Most cemeteries have an office or an indexed registry. Sometimes the office may be the mortuary as well. They may be able to give you an obituary or copy of death certificate. It’s worth it to at least ask. Once you locate your ancestor’s grave, walk around in a circle, check the other graves. You may find an ancestor that you didn’t know about.

If you don’t live nearby, here are two of my favorite free online resources. http://www.findagrave.com and http://www.billiongraves.com Both of these websites function off of volunteers.

On Findagrave, you can make photo requests of your ancestor’s grave. Volunteers fulfill those requests. I have also found obituaries and death certificates on some of the “memorials”. One downfall of Findagrave is the search function. It’ll conduct an exact name search, unless you click the box that says “Do partial name search on surname”. So again be creative on your search. Try different spellings. Here are step by step instructions on searching Findagrave.

·         Go to http://www.findagrave.com
·         Notice the left side is for famous graves and the right side for any other grave.
·         Click on the right side “Search 103 million grave records” (This number could change if viewing later)
·         Type in search information

Billiongraves is kind of new (to me). It is very similar to Findagrave. The difference is Billiongraves, the volunteer takes a picture with a GPS App. The advantage of this is you can see (long distance) which graves are close to each. The disadvantage, you have to be a special member to use this benefit. But, anyone can search for free. Here are step by step instructions on searching Billiongraves.

·         Go to http://www.billiongraves.com
·         At the top of the website, click “Search”
·         Type in search information

Cemetery records can help you find birth and death dates. On both websites you may find some names that don’t have the birth date listed, but when you look at the picture, it may say “Aged” and you can figure an estimated birth. Remember always double check your source.

Google - My favorite side piece

To simplify a puzzle, I think most people find the side pieces and put those together first.  I think the reason for this is because it’s the easiest part of the puzzle.

So, what is the easiest part of genealogy or family history?  I’m sure this is different for everyone, but the easiest part of genealogy for me is what is most easily accessible. Basically, what I can do from home and for free.

Google is one of my favorite side pieces. Here are a couple of ways I search Google. You will find that there are many ways to search and the more creative you get, the more you will find. If you have an ancestor with a unique name (like James Marberger), you’ll want to widen your search. If you have an ancestor with a common name (like, John Taylor) then you want to narrow your search.

Here is a step by step:

1. Go to http://www.google.com or any search engine that you prefer.
2. Put your ancestor’s name in quotation marks. For example: “James Marberger” Any time you put something in quotation marks, the search engine will conduct an exact name search.
3. If you have an uncommon name, then you may end up getting “no results”. You’ll need to widen your search. Try searching your name without quotations. For example: James Marberger
4. If you have a common name, then you may end up getting several results. You’ll need to narrow your search. Try searching your name in quotations and adding the city, county, or state where your ancestor lived. For example: “John Taylor” and Kentucky.  Or “John Taylor” and Warren, Kentucky. Or “John Taylor” and Bowling Green Kentucky.
5. If you still need to narrow your search more, try using one of your ancestor’s sibling’s names. One less common.  For example: “Pleasant Taylor”
6. If you still need to widen your search, try using just a surname and location. For example: Marberger and Schuylkill Pennsylvania.

I have found several resources from searching the search engines. I have found histories that people have written, wills, other people searching for the same ancestor, and even pictures. Have fun with it, but remember last week’s post: Check your source. Just because you find it on the internet doesn’t make it true. You’ll want to double check it with your other sources and use it as a guide to help you find more pieces of your puzzle.

Check Your Source

Have you ever put a puzzle together where the pieces are very similar? Sometimes so similar that you accidently put two pieces together that don’t belong together?

This happens all the time in family history and genealogy. Sometimes you will find information that may fit with your puzzle, but isn’t the correct piece. Double check your pieces and double check the pieces that came stuck together (genealogy that has been done by other people). Ask the following questions:

What is the source?

Where did this information come from?

Who gave the information of the source?

Who recorded the information of the source?

Is there another source to confirm this information?

Did I find this information from an index?

Let me give you an example. My main ancestry line of interest is Marberger. When I first started doing genealogy, I remember receiving help searching census records. The ladies helping me suggested looking at some Marburger families. A simple one letter spelling change. NO WAY, I thought! My family’s name is Marberger and there’s no way someone could make that mistake. I know it was very naïve of me. But, some of my naïve thinking came from not knowing how the census was taken. My Marberger family originally came from Prussia (Germany), and settled in German communities within Pennsylvania. The census records were recorded by census takers. The census taker would go from house to house and simply ask for the information of the household. The census taker would just write what they heard. With this information in mind, I’m going to ask the above questions.

What is the source? Census record. (It helps to know about the source, we’ll learn about census records another time)

Where did this information come from? Who gave the information of the source? The person who answered the door, usually the head of the house. My ancestors weren’t always the head of the household. Some were “boarders”. If my ancestor was simple lodging with a family during the census, how well do you think the head of household knew my ancestor?

Who recorded the information of the source? Like I said earlier, my Marberger ancestors settle in German communities. There wasn’t a big need to learn English. If the census taker was not German, then it might have been difficult to understand and interpret a name like Marberger. Remember the census taker wrote what he/she heard.

Is there another source to confirm this information? Census records were taken every 10 years. I could check another census or I could check maybe a little more reliable source such as a birth, marriage, military, or death record.

Did I find this information from an index? If you have ever looked at a census record or any handwritten record, you might understand why you should ask this question. Indexers record what they see.  Handwriting can be difficult to read. An o might look like an e or a r can look like a n. It’s the indexers discretion. With this in mind, try to view the actual record, don’t always believe the index.

Through my research I have found the following variations of Marberger: Marburger, Marbarger, Morberger, Morburger, Morbarger, Merberger, Merburger, Mulberger, Mulbarger, and Mulburger. All these names descend from the same family. I have traced my “Marburger” family back to Prussia near the city of Marburg. Once the family came to America, it all got jumbled. When, where and why the name changed, no idea. The important part, if I hadn’t checked my sources, I wouldn’t have half the information that I have.

One last important, but uncomfortable question needs to be asked about your source: Did your ancestor lie? Here are just a couple of reasons an ancestor may have lied on a record. Age requirements: such as marriage and military. To cover up: by this I mean something like an illegitimate child. Yes, I actually have an ancestor who wrote in his bible that his grandson was actually his son. Although, I don’t know the real reasoning behind the incorrect information, it does appear my ancestor was an illegitimate child.

Here is another helpful article I came across this week about sorting fact from fiction. http://genealogy.about.com/od/family_legends/a/common_myths.htm

Double Check Your Source!!!

In Honor of Pioneers

The state of Utah has a state holiday this week, July 24th, Pioneer Day. It's to commemorate the day the Latter Day Saint pioneers arrived to the Salt Lake Valley. The first pioneers arrived July 24^th 1847. I have many LDS pioneers and I love to hear of their faith, courage, and devotion to the Lord. In honor of those pioneers, this post is to help us find our pioneer puzzle pieces.

This website is a database of the “Mormon” pioneers who travelled across the plains to Utah.
http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/

Simply put in your ancestor name and search to see if and when they came across. Once you locate your ancestor in the database, you will learn the company and captain that your ancestor travelled with. You can learn more about your ancestor’s journey by reading about the captain or any journals from others that travelled in that company. If you have a link that says “Trail Excerpt” in blue letters, click on the link and it will take you to where others have written about your ancestor in their journals.

This website is a database of the “Mormon” pioneers who travelled overseas first and then had to make the additional journey over the plains. If you have ancestors from overseas, then chances are you will find them in both of these databases.
http://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/find

This last website is one of my favorite Utah resources.
http://digitalnewspapers.org/

The University of Utah has collected early state newspapers and has digitized them and made them available online for free! So you may be able to find an obituary of your ancestor. Or in the Deseret News you may find your ancestors arrival. You may find a marriage or birth announcement. Don’t give up after one search. Try many different ways of searching.

Have fun searching and honoring your LDS pioneers. I hope you find some stories and learn from your ancestors faith and sacrifice.

Family Search

I promised last week, that we would start finding puzzle pieces this week. I feel we need to cover one more important thing, before searching for pieces. I’ll quickly refer to it this week and then move on to finding pieces, but next week we have to go back over it. Check your sources!!!! A couple of weeks ago we talked about “Family Tree”. I can already hear it…”It must be correct, I found it on Family Tree.” Family Tree is not a source. It’s guidance to the sources. PLEASE…Just because you find information on someone, doesn’t mean it is necessarily correct. So until next week, please think about the source behind the puzzle pieces that you start to find.

Family Search. What is Family Search? Is it different from Family Tree? Yes they are different. Thankfully new.familysearch.org was changed to family tree, but you still have to go through the familysearch.org website to get to family tree. Remember Family Tree is an organization and collaboration tool. To read my previous post about Family Tree, click here:  http://pieceyourfamilytogether.blogspot.com/2013/07/family-tree.html  

Have you ever heard of “indexing”? As mentioned in my previous posts, the LDS church is a big contributor to the preservation and sharing of historical records. They have thousands of microfilms, books, and microfiches that are accessible through their local Family History Centers (we’ll talk about this another time). The LDS church, has decided to index ALL of their records. This will take a lot of time and a lot of help. Thousands of volunteers from around the world have volunteered their time to look through images and index these microfilms. As each microfilm is indexed, it becomes available on Family Search. As of today, 1,033,339,449 records have been indexed. That’s a lot of puzzle pieces!!!! To learn more about indexing you can click here: https://familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing  

Follow these steps to search the 1,033,339,449 records indexed. Go to http://www.familysearch.org.Then at the top of the page, in the middle, you will see “Family Tree”, “Photos”, and “Search”. Click on “Search”. Now enter what information you know about the ancestor (corner) that you have chosen to work. Let me know if you find any puzzle pieces.

Family search also has records that are not indexed, but have been scanned and put online. Again…these records are not indexed. You have to “Browse” through them individually page by page. But, they are very beneficial because you can search through records from the comfort of your home, instead of having to go to family history centers and ordering the microfilm. To browse records, follow the instructions to get to “Search” and then scroll down and on the left hand side of the screen in blue letters you will see “Browse All Published Collections”. Click on it and then click on the location of your ancestor to see what resources are available. The ones that say “Browse Images” are the records that are not indexed.

Have a fun week of searching and hopefully finding at least a few more pieces to your puzzle. If you get frustrated and aren’t finding anything, don’t give up, leave a comment and I’ll help you. And don’t forget to check your source.

Don't Forget the Descendants - AKA your distant cousins

One of the most significant tips I can give you: Don’t ignore branches of your tree. Anyone who says “all the work has been done” is ignoring the small branches of their family tree. Most people work only on their main family branches. They work back in time. Their puzzle looks a lot like this.

They are missing these small but significant pieces. If you look at these two pieces, they barely have any “skin” on them. They are mostly “sky”. So when organizing and putting the puzzle together, they get left out.

The puzzle just isn’t complete without them.

This is the same as descendant research. Most people work on their main branches and go back as far as they can. The puzzle appears to be done. But, there are significant side pieces missing. If you are having a hard time picking your corner because it appears the corners have already been done, then check the smaller side branches. After all, my cousins are some of my best friends!

Descendant research also is a huge help in brick walls. Some of you may know what I mean by “brick wall”.  You just may find your missing puzzle piece after you connect with your cousins. Tracking down living distant cousins has helped me immensely in my family history. Not only do you make new friends, but they may have some information you might never be able to find anywhere else. (Such as family bibles, pictures, journals, family stories)

Don’t just look at the living distant cousins. Look at all your cousins. I have been able to find information for brick lines (place of birth, mother’s maiden name, and death dates) through siblings of my ancestors.

Please pick your “corner” by next week. Next week we will begin looking for the missing puzzle pieces. If you are still having a hard time picking your corner, think about these questions:

·         Am I drawn to a certain family name?

·         Do I feel a connection to one of my ancestors?

·         Do I want to work on the part of the puzzle where lots have been completed, or do I want to try a part of the puzzle where lots of pieces are missing?

·         Is there a family name that isn’t as common? (Example: the surname Smith or Roberts may be a lot more difficult than surnames like Marberger or Delahunty)

·         Are you more familiar with a certain country or state or place of one of your ancestors?

·         I’d suggest starting with the easiest line, but this isn’t absolutely necessary. I started with a “brick line” and that is how I learned about all the different resources.

·         Have you looked at descendant research?

·         Do you know anything about your ancestors who’s already been researched by others? (You may want to start with an ancestor who has already been done by others, you never know if others have skipped over that small but significant piece?

·         Do you have a line that isn’t researched very far back? (The most recent, the more records available)

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

Beginning Your Family Puzzle

 

If you’ve never put a puzzle together, it’s overwhelming to start with a puzzle as big as your family history. My almost 2 year old son loves puzzles and is really good at them. If I gave him a 200 piece or even a 25 piece puzzle, it’d be too difficult for him and he’d have no interest. If I gave him a puzzle more at his skill level, he’d happily put it together.

My point: If you’ve never done genealogy and have no clue how to do it, then you aren’t going to have much interest in doing it. So, let’s break this puzzle down into more manageable sections, piece by piece if necessary.

 

This is how I simplify a puzzle. First, I sort out all corner and side pieces and any pieces that are still stuck together. Then, I put these pieces together. Sounds simple, but here’s the hardest part of putting your puzzle together…deciding where to start!!! This month’s homework assignment: decide what branch of the tree you are going to piece together. Pick a corner!

Some strategies on picking your corner:

1.   Back in the day, you were asked to start your family history by filling in a 5 generation pedigree chart. If you are anything like me, you probably have filled out several of these and lost them every time. It was such a pain, to call grandma or grandpa and ask for everyone’s birth and death dates over and over again. Lucky for us, the LDS church has a free program online called Family Tree. Puzzle tip #1: Sign up for Family Tree.  Here’s step by step directions:

·         Go to http://www.familysearch.org/

·         At the top middle of the page, above the picture, you will see Family Tree, Photos, Search. Click on “Family Tree”.

·         On the next page in the upper right hand corner you will see a gray button that says, “Create an Account”. Click that button.

·         Fill in all the information. If you decide to use a difficult username and password, then please write it down, where you won’t lose it!!! If you lose and forget things easily, keep it simple. Username can be as simple as your name.

·         If you are LDS, click the LDS button. You will need your membership record number. This is on your temple recommend OR given to you at the end of the year on your membership paper that they give you with your tithing summary paper. OR you can ask the membership clerk to print it off for you.

·         You do not have to be LDS to participate and have an account.

·         Once you have registered, you will need to confirm your email. Do this by going to the email that you put on your account. You should receive an email from Family Tree. Click on this email and within the email there will be a link that says “confirm your account.” Once you click that link, it should say “your account has been confirmed” or something like that.

·         Login to Family Tree. Go to http://www.familysearch.org/ click on Family Tree, enter your login and password.

·         Now explore and tell me how you are doing in the comments of this post.

·         If you need further help, let me know in the comments.