Roberts Roots & Branches

If you have ever Indexed on Family Search or if you have found an Indexed record on Family Search, then you need to know a kindness feature ! To my surprise I received this message in Family Search: What a nice little gesture . Then, recently, when I was researching and found a record, I saw the little button on the details page: So, I sent a thank you note to the volunteer that transcribed my record.  This is what Family Search automatically generates: What a wonderful feature!   Thank you Family Search!   Thank you for letting researchers reach out and send our appreciation to volunteers for their work! Thank you Family Search for acknowledging our volunteering in the Indexing program! This is really cool.  Please use this feature and let Indexers know how much they are appreciated!

Want to have some genealogy fun with your friends? Try the Relatives Around |Me on FamilySearch Family Tree Quite a few years ago I heard about this concept at the RootsTech innovator competition.  It was fun to watch and hear about the thoughts behind the concept. Today, it is fun to participate and use the program. The first time I used this feature was at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  It was fun to see who else at the Library was related.  But then, when we left the Library and went across the street to the mall we saw several of "our relatives" throughout the afternoon. It was interesting to be out in the "world" and see "relatives" that otherwise I would not have known.  It was a "connection" with the rest of the world. I have used it several times with my friends while we were at lunch.  To my surprise twice, with two different friends, I am related through colonial ancestors! I have used it several times ...

Understanding:   FamilySearch, FamilyTree,  Historical Records, Ancestry,  Findagrave, and Personal Software  Floor Plan of FamilySearch Imagine FamilySearch as a house with several rooms.   FamilySearch includes the whole house with many rooms, similar to a house floor plan.   Your personal tree and ancestor information is a room in our house entitled FamilyTree.   If you click the “search” tab you are able to search historical records, which is another room in the house.   The historical records and FamilyTree are two separate rooms in the same house. When you source a fact in FamilyTree from historical records, you are adding a door from your tree to the room with the historical records.   Photo’s is another room in FamilyTree.   When we tag a photo we add a door from the tree to our photographs.   So, a single ancestor in FamilyTree may have two doors—one door leading to sources and a second door leading to phot...

There are many exciting changes and happenings on Family Search’s Family Tree.   Contributors may source link documents to ancestors and attach photographs and stories.    As a researcher, however, I see a real issue with the linking process:   you don’t have to examine the record you are attaching!!!   It is like dressing in the dark—you grab a shirt and pants and hope it matches?!?! The only information you have to go with is the computer generated result from the contributor’s foundational information and the transcription of the original document.   You just click and it is attached.   There is no analyzing the document, accessing the original information or reading the source for clues to further your research.   This scares me as a researcher; but as a click as you go “Family Search” contributor this is as easy as one, two, and three. Are we doing a disservice to newbie’s by telling them it is as easy as one, two, and three? ...

The Family Search research Wiki is one of the most underutilized tools researchers have.   The Family Search research Wiki, here after referred to a as the Wiki, is Family Search’s attempt to follow the online Wikipedia format for genealogical research help and assistance.     The Wiki is a valuable free online resource for all researchers to use in their endeavors.    The research Wiki gathers up all the information available from researchers, professionals and volunteers for a single portal to all available information. The Family Search Wiki describes the Wiki as: “The FamilySearch Wiki is not about finding the names of your ancestors.  It is not, in fact, about finding people at all.  The Wiki is about finding records that may have been generated about your ancestors and the places in which the records might be found. It is a vast record depository of the paper trail that people leave behind long after they are gone.”(1) There a...