Check list of family history skills

I realize that not everyone can make it to every class.  However, over the past four months, you should have learned the following concepts:

PHOTOS:
using the shotbox to capture photos on your phone
how to upload, tag, and identify photos in familysearch

STORIES:
ideas for stories to share
how to write and upload a story to memories

making audio recordings

THE TREE:
different views (fan chart, pedigree, etc.)

SOURCES:
Is it a match? (rule of three, start with what you know and add from there)
how to attach documents
add sources

Find and attach vital records:
census, birth, marriage, death

access ancestry for free!

how to download documents and photos to your computer (and attach to ancestors)

Identify missing information (clues that there is work to be done!)

how to add family members (children, additional spouses, etc)

How to merge duplicates

organization of paper and digital files

how to use your phone to do family history research

using hints to expand your line

TEMPLE:
request temple ordinances
share ordinances with family and friends or the temple
how to print ordinance cards
there is a stake file for sharing the work

APPS:
take a name
Relative Finder

If you need a refresher course or further information on any of those topics, just contact me!

Opportunities at RootsTech

Free Book Scanning
The FamilySearch book scanning booth offers a free service to digitally preserve your family history or some other book of genealogical value. Let FamilySearch scan your book and publish a searchable, digital copy online to preserve it for the future! You keep the original. Bring your books and this signed permission form to booth 1635 during regular Expo Hall hours to get started.

Heirloom Show and Tell
Do you have an antique, an heirloom, or a photo that you’d like an expert to look at? Now’s your chance! Bring in any small item or a photo of a large item that you’ve been wondering about, and the experts will tell you more about it. No sign-up is required. Stop in during regular Expo Hall hours.

special RootsTech sessions for consultants

These will include information and inspiration especially helpful to you in your calling. 

Leadership Session Livestream 

The leadership session will feature messages from Elder Quentin L. Cook and Elder Dale G. Renlund as well as other General Authorities and Church leaders. You can join this session live on Thursday, March 1, 2018, at 7:00 p.m. on LDS.org.  

A wide variety of classes with your calling in mind are being offered at RootsTech 2018. See below to find full descriptions, times, and locations for each class. 

WEDNESDAY
9:30 am  Consultant Class: Start with the Heart**

Tamra Stansfield, FamilySearch

Before you help someone, inviting the Spirit and preparation are essential. Praying to be led by the Holy Ghost and Making a Personalized plan are key to a successful family history experience. Learn how others have used these principles to magnify their calling and bless the lives of those they serve. This class is the first in a two-part series.

*This session is designed for current Temple and Family History Consultants

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

**Note: this class is also offered on Saturday at 11:00 am, Room:Ballroom B

11:00 am  Consultant Class: Ministering to Others Brings Joy**

Diane C. Loosle, FamilySearch

Delivering a personalized family history experience is a joyful and powerful experience when it is led by the Spirit and is focused on the individual being taught. Deepen your understanding of how to minister one-on-one and invite individuals to act. This class is the second in a two part series.

*This session is designed for current Temple and Family History Consultants.

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

**Note: this class is also offered on Saturday at 2:30 pm, Room:Ballroom B

3 pm  Discover, Gather & Strengthen Your Family Together

Michael Sandberg, FamilySearch

This session will share several ideas that will help LDS Church members engage their families to discover, gather and strengthen their families through family history. From the kitchen to social media to the temple, all ages can be engaged.

*This session is designed for LDS Church members of all experience levels and ages.

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

THURSDAY
11:00 am Consultant Class: Living Memory Discovery Experiences**

Jim Greene, FamilySearch

Learn some of the basics of preparing a personalized lesson plan using living memory discovery experiences. Ideas will be shared on helping people find and remember their near ancestors; facilitating personal connections and approaching family members for permission to do temple work.

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

**Note: this class is also offered Saturday at 4:00 pm, Room:Ballroom B

1:30 Consultant Class: Discovery Experiences in the Tree

Bryan Austad

Learn some of the basics of preparing a personalized lesson plan for people you are helping who have fuller family trees. Ideas will be shared on how to begin, how to facilitate personal connections with ancestors and how to find names when you are not acquainted with the research area you are helping with.

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

FRIDAY
11:00 am Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records

Sunny Morton, Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems, Family Tree Magazine

Church records are vastly underused in U.S. research. They often contain family names, relationships, vital events and even migration clues, and they may predate or contain more information than local civil records. Learn strategies for identifying an ancestor's church. Learn to find and access surviving sacramental and membership records. Learn about rich collections of church records now online. Most importantly, see how to use U.S. church records to solve tricky research problems, such as finding maiden names, overseas birthplaces, and people who are underrepresented in records: women, the poor, ethnic minorities, immigrants and those who died young. Examples illustrate and compare major historical denominations since colonial times.

Difficulty:Intermediate

Room:155E

11:00 Find Your Family in Church History

Keith Erekson, LDS Church History Library

Learn how to find stories, photographs, and sources about your ancestors in the Church History Library.

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

1:30 Find Your Family in Church History, Part II

Keith Erekson, LDS Church History Library

Learn strategies for finding your ancestors in the databases and research tools of the Church History Library.

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

4:30  Helping Consultants Succeed

Mitch Wasden, FamilySearch

Learn about resources and strategies to help consultants of all ages and experience levels have success in their callings so they are able to effectively help others. This session will share ways and resources to inspire, train, and support temple and family history consultants so they can provide Spirit-led experiences to others. The session will also explore working with priesthood leaders in accomplishing temple and family history objectives. Whether you are called to lead temple and family history work or if you simply want some helpful resources to be more successful yourself, this class is for you!

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:151

SATURDAY
11:00 am FamilySearch and Ancestry: Discover More.

Brian Edwards

This session will guide you through the collaborative experience using FamilySearch and Ancestry together. Brian Edwards will help you understand how to tap into the power of these two websites, how to search from FamilySearch to find more records on Ancestry.com, and how to add your discoveries to the FamilySearch Family Tree. He will also walk you through some of the features on Ancestry.com available only to members of the LDS Church. Discover more of your family story using the combined power of these two great websites.

Difficulty:Intermediate

Room:Ballroom F


2:30 FamilySearch Mobile Apps: Family History, Anytime, Anywhere .

Todd Powell

At the touch of a finger, you can access nearly everyone you know. Did you know that includes your ancestors? In this class, you will learn how to use the FamilySearch mobile apps to experience family history in a new way. Find out how to easily complete simple family history tasks while waiting for an oil change or for dinner to cook. Learn about all the new features available now and coming soon as well as how to teach the younger generations.

Difficulty:Beginner

Room:Ballroom F

Remember: If you can't be everywhere at once, videos of the messages from Family Discovery Day [Saturday] will be archived at lds.org/discoverfamily for later viewing.

keep a record

Discovering the tales of an ancestor’s life does not come easy.  Often it is a matter of piecing together many little fragments.  Make it easy on your descendants.  Keep a journal, not necessarily daily or even monthly.  But at least keep a record of the important things of your life, the things that gave you direction, that warm the memory.  Your descendants will thank you for it.  -- Jay Huber

why we write

Identifying photos

80% of photo collections, whether private or public, are unidentified. 
There is no such thing as "overidentification."  There can never bee too much information concerning the history of the area, the people who lived there, the buildings, clothes worn, etc.  You may be the only person who has all the answers about your photograph.
The pictures you take now are the historic events of the future.

By Divine Design

By Elder Ronald A. Rasband, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (excerpts from his Oct 2017 general conference address)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell once explained: "You and I may call these intersectings ‘coincidence’ ... but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but … by ‘divine design.’”
Our lives are like a chessboard, and the Lord moves us from one place to another—if we are responsive to spiritual promptings. Looking back, we can see His hand in our lives.
President Thomas S. Monson said, "“There is a guiding hand above all things. Often when things happen, it’s not by accident. One day, when we look back at the seeming coincidences of our lives, we will realize that perhaps they weren’t so coincidental after all.”
Through the experience of my own life’s journey, I know that the Lord will move us on that seeming chessboard to do His work. What may appear to be a random chance is, in fact, overseen by a loving Father in Heaven, who can number the hairs of every head.  ...The Lord is in the small details of our lives, and those incidents and opportunities are to prepare us to lift our families and others as we build the kingdom of God on earth. 
The Lord placed me in a home with loving parents. By the world’s standards, they were very ordinary people; my father, a devoted man, was a truck driver; my angel mother, a stay-at-home mom. The Lord helped me find my lovely wife, Melanie; He prompted a businessman, who became a dear friend, to give me an employment opportunity. The Lord called me to serve in the mission field, both as a young man and as a mission president; He called me to the Quorum of the Seventy; and now He has called me as an Apostle. Looking back, I realize I did not orchestrate any of those moves; the Lord did, just as He is orchestrating important moves for you and for those you love.
What should you be looking for in your own life? What are God’s miracles that remind you that He is close, saying, “I am right here”? Think of those times, some daily, when the Lord has acted in your life—and then acted again. Treasure them as moments the Lord has shown confidence in you and in your choices. But allow Him to make more of you than you can make of yourself on your own. Treasure His involvement. Sometimes we consider changes in our plans as missteps on our journey. Think of them more as first steps to being “on the Lord’s errand.”
Heavenly Father can put us in situations with specific intent in mind. He has done so in my life, and He is doing so in yours.
“I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father knows each of us and that He continues to place us in each other’s paths for a reason."
When we see God working through us and with us, may we be encouraged, even grateful for that guidance. 
The Lord’s hand is guiding you. By “divine design,” He is in the small details of your life as well as the major milestones. 

Take a moment to write up a time when the Lord showed you a tender mercy (as evidenced by the timing and consequences that it was no coincidence!)

Bridges and Eternal Keepsakes

Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander, of the Seventy

Ensign, May 1999, 83

“Genealogies, family stories, historical accounts, and traditions...form a bridge between past and future and bind generations together in ways that no other keepsake can.”

Every family has keepsakes. Families collect furniture, books, porcelain, and other valuable things, then pass them on to their posterity. Such beautiful keepsakes remind us of loved ones now gone and turn our minds to loved ones unborn. They form a bridge between family past and family future.

Every family has other, more valuable, keepsakes. These include genealogies, family stories, historical accounts, and traditions. These eternal keepsakes also form a bridge between past and future and bind generations together in ways that no other keepsake can.

I would like to share a few thoughts about family history, bridges, and eternal keepsakes.

Family history builds bridges between the generations of our families. Bridges between generations are not built by accident. Each member of this Church has the personal responsibility to be an eternal architect of this bridge for his or her own family. At one of our family gatherings this past Christmas, I watched my father, who is 89 years old, and our oldest grandchild, Ashlin, who is four and a half. They enjoyed being together. This was a bittersweet moment of realization for me. Though Ashlin will retain pleasant but fleeting memories of my father, he will have no memory of my mother, who passed away before his birth. Not one of my children has any recollection of my grandparents. If I want my children and grandchildren to know those who still live in my memory, then I must build the bridge between them. I alone am the link to the generations that stand on either side of me. It is my responsibility to knit their hearts together through love and respect, even though they may never have known each other personally. My grandchildren will have no knowledge of their family’s history if I do nothing to preserve it for them. That which I do not in some way record will be lost at my death, and that which I do not pass on to my posterity, they will never have. The work of gathering and sharing eternal family keepsakes is a personal responsibility. It cannot be passed off or given to another.

A life that is not documented is a life that within a generation or two will largely be lost to memory. What a tragedy this can be in the history of a family. Knowledge of our ancestors shapes us and instills within us values that give direction and meaning to our lives. Some years ago, I met the director of a Russian Orthodox monastery. He showed me volumes of his own extensive family research. He told me that one of the values, perhaps even the main value, of genealogy is the establishment of family tradition and the passing of these traditions on to younger generations. “Knowledge of these traditions and family history,” he said, “welds generations together.” Further, he told me: “If one knows he comes from honest ancestors, he is duty and honor bound to be honest. One cannot be dishonest without letting each member of his family down.”

It is my desire that each of us will recognize the great keepsakes we have received from those who preceded us and our own personal responsibility to pass them on to future generations.”