Untangling Difficulties in FamilySearch Family Tree

I recommend this online webinar to everyone who is interested in doing their family history.

Untangling Difficulties in FamilySearch Family Tree.

James Tanner is a very competent genealogist who is now a volunteer at BYU Family History Library. This webinar is a BYU Family History Library webinar that was presented on March 18, 2016.

Almost everyone who has accessed FamilySearch Family Tree has had difficulties or found gross errors in their family tree. This is particularly true for multi-generational members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And those who are descendants of pioneer polygamist families will encounter the phenomenon of IOUS (Individuals of Unusual Size).

James Tanner explains how FamilySearch Family Tree was created and which records were used to create it. He also enumerates some of the common mistakes that will be found such as many duplicate entries, wrong individuals in families, and dates and places that don't work with the people involved.

This webinar was a reality check for me. Recently I heard a speaker who extolled the virtues of FamilySearch Family Tree. He said that the average church member could find 200 individuals who need temple work done just by doing a search at Family Tree. I tried that and found only 2 possibilties in my pedigree. So any hopes of finding "low hanging fruit" in my research were dashed. I will not be able to do my family history work by just looking for "green arrows" or whatever icon is now used in FamilySearch to indicate that one can reserve temple work for that person.

There is going to be no substitute for good old-fashioned research. I need to find good sources and write citations for them and document everything! I need to do the detective work. Unfortunately there is no easy way to "untangle" the difficulties in FamilySearch Family Tree. No Free Lunch!

James Tanner recommends that you start with "the first person in the line with verifiable names, dates and places." All information beyond this point is conjectural and unsupported. I have heard this before. Every real genealogist will say, "Go from the known to the unknown." Be ready to revise the traditionally accepted genealogies. Resist the temptation to jump back in time before the records are substantiated.

Therefore, I have concluded that I need to start my research from the very beginning and create an accurate genealogy in my Legacy Family Tree program. This will be a lot of work. But maybe by the time I establish a good foundation FamilySearch will have eliminated the New Family Search program. Then FamilySearch Family Tree will be more correct and easier to work with.

Three Rules of Genealogy from James Tanner

Today I am writing a very simple post with three important rules of genealogy that should be obvious.

First rule of Genealogy: When the baby was born, the mother was there.

Second rule of Genealogy: You can't find what's not there.

Third Rule of Genealogy: Everyone dies. 

For more elaboration on these rules please consult  Genealogy Star, an excellent genealogy blog written by James Tanner.  Genealogy Star

Mocavo and FindMyPast

From James Tanner's excellent blog post of Wednesday March 23, 2016 on http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/ I learned that the merging of Mocavo.com and FindMyPast will soon be completed.

FindMyPast has really grown and expanded. It started in the United Kingdom as a company focused on British genealogy and was part of Bright Solid which merged with D. C. Thompson & Co., Ltd. Now it has added numerous databases and I believethat now it actually has more United States records than British records. FindMyPast was a major partner in the Community Project of the indexing of the 1940 U.S. Census. Because of collaboration between FamilySearch  and FindMyPast, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can have free subscriptions to FindMyPast.

There are employees working in Utah. One of them is my grandnephew Jeremy. Preparing Mocavo for the merge is Jeremy's project. Kudos to Jeremy!

The Find My Past area in the Expo Hall at RootsTech 2016 focused on its large collection of marriage records. We were given formal invitations and small organza bags of Jordan almonds as a promotion.

We are very very blessed to have so many convenient online resources for genealogy research.

Adventures with BYU Relative Finder

I have heard of Relative Finder before. But I decided to visit the web site because on March 19, 2016 I was at the Saturday Seminar at the Riverton FamilySearch Library and attended a class by Van Celaya. Van Celaya is an instructor for BYU Family History Library. His presentation was very positive and upbeat and his enthusiasm for family history is contagious.

So I decided to check out BYU Relative Finder and login in with my Family Search account and see who I am related to.

Here are some of the results:

The closest relatives of the "celebrities" on their list are:
Henry B. Eyring -- 3rd cousin
Mitt Romney -- 3rd cousin
Jeffrey Holland -- 4th cousin

Other apostles that I am related to are:
Elder Cook
Elder Oaks
Elder Stevenson
Elder Ballard
Elder Hales
Elder Bednar
Elder Anderson

I am related to a multitude of U.S. Presidents including Barack Obama!

I am related to about 20 Mayflower passengers, but the one I have thought was my relative, John Billington, was not on the list.

Movies stars that I am related to are:
Lucille Ball
Humphrey Bogart
James Stewart
Oliver Norwell Hardy
Henry Fonda

My husband is related to
Elder Haight
Elder Christofferson
Elder Perry

It is interesting that most of these relationships come through the lines of my 2nd great grandmother Laurinda Atwood. The program said it would find your closest relationship and that you might be related in other ways as well.

Of course, because of errors in FamilySearch some of these relationships may not be true.

The whole experience made me realize that virtually everyone is our relative and we need to be more kind and understanding of all of our Heavenly Father's children. We are all brothers and sisters.