Sharing is Caring

Remember in the parable of the talents, the Savior taught that to one was given one talent and to another, another talent that all may benefit?  I find that the same holds true in genealogy.

Some have the gift of research.  They can find a name wherever it may be hiding in the leafy treetops of the family tree.  To another is the ability to recall events in great detail.  They are wonderful storytellers.  Some have the knack for taking and collecting photographs.  And as everyone in the ward knows, Dennis Preece is the man to go to if you have male endowments you want to get done! 

Dennis can do something I can’t.  No matter how many male names I find, I cannot do the temple work for them.  I need help.  That’s why they created the stake credenza so you could share your surplus names with other people in the stake.  I have 3 daughters who love to do baptisms for the dead.  It is a great family activity!  But they outnumber me 3 to 1.  Do I say to them, “Stop!  You can’t do any more baptisms until I catch up on endowments.”  Heavens, no!  This work will roll forward as a rock that gathers no moss.

But we have a problem.  There is a limited amount of space in the stake file.  If my cards are taking up three inches of space in there, then others aren’t able to share their names.  We have received a directive from the stake presidency in this regard.  They have asked that we have no more than 10 names needing work under any given ordinance in the stake file: 10 baptisms, 10 initiatories, 10 endowments, 10 sealings (40 total).  So what am I to do with my stack of names?  It’s not like collecting baseball cards; you want to share them with others.  There are temples around the world that don’t generate enough names to hand them out to patrons.  You either bring your own names or you don’t go to the temple.  We can share our surplus with them.  It’s very easy.  I go to the stake credenza and I pull out all the cards that I’ve submitted that need work done.  I then walk them over to family file and hand the names to a worker.  Done.  I will not get the cards back.  So if you are sentimental about some of the names of close friends and family members, I would hold on to those.  But if you are working on “your mom’s great uncle’s wife’s grandma’s niece’s husband’s aunt on father’s side brother’s daughter’s second cousin” and you’re not exactly sure how you’re related, then this is the way to go!    

Remember, names you have reserved are only good two years from the date you reserved them.  After that the church will release the names so the work can be done in a timely manner.

Inactive Ordinance Reservations Now Being Released

• Reservations for an individual will only be unreserved if the most recent ordinance was completed more than two years ago. (So, reservations with progress more recent than two years ago will not be unreserved.)

share with family via email

share with temple

share in stake file (credenza, limit 10/ordinance)

share with temples around the world (family file)


HOW CAN YOU SHARE GENEALOGY WITH OTHERS?

show someone how to index a batch

write your life history (or that of a family member)

collect true family stories to give as Christmas gifts

upload some photos to family tree (identify those you know)

take your family to the temple to do family names

family history story of the week

We've been talking about attaching a record.  How would you like the app to tell you where to find records that need attaching to your tree?

(They are located at the bottom of the home page in family search.  Log in and go to App Gallery.)

Find-a-record
It generates different types of research opportunities such as finding missing information, finding missing people, finding sources, fixing problems and reserving ordinances.
This "3 minute" genealogy is 100% free.

Demo: go to sources (green box).  In drop-down box, click record hints. search.
Notice that it shows how these people are related to you.
let's attach Charles Frederick's death record.
After attaching the record, click fixed.

Check out the yellow box (ordinances)

David is 55 years old and he just printed his first 3 family name temple cards.  It went something like this...
He wanted to find a direct ancestor to do temple work for.  This is very difficult to do with so many Cardons being members going back to the pioneers, so I suggested he look on his mother's side.  Using the app "find-a-record" and a Kozak name, he was able to locate three ordinances: two couples who needed sealed and a child to parents.
He requested the ordinances.
He printed them off at home.
He cut out the cards.
He took them to the temple to do the work (same night.)
I was there to witness the event.  The Spirit in the room was undeniable.  I was brought to tears as Catharina with the last name that couldn't be pronounced and had to be spelled (Hricz) was sealed to her husband.  She was originally married 8 November 1858 in Hungary.  Now on the 29 of November 2017, some 159 years later, she could be married to her husband for time and all eternity.  I knew in that moment, she didn't care if her name couldn't be pronounced.  She was just eternally grateful for the ordinance that had been performed in her behalf.
I submit to you, that the best Christmas gift you can give to someone this year is to do the temple work for them.

What other apps have you used to successfully find names?

Take a name (Android phone):
Find temple ready ancestors. Take a Name searches the FamilySearch tree for your deceased ancestors and double checks that LDS ordinances are ready for the temple. Request LDS ordinances and print temple cards – from your phone!
Take a Name typically delivers dozens of temple ready family names in a matter of minutes.

how attaching records can solve mysteries

Case Study:

Attaching records can not only help you correct information, but it can help you discover information.

While attaching a 1930 census to the Yearwood family it was noted that a grandson, Carl A Pace, was living with them.  Since only one daughter was listed with the last name Pace, I took Mildred to be his mother.

Wanting to discover more information about Carl, I searched until I found his obituary.  His mother was listed as Kyra, not Mildred, and his father's name was given as O.G. "Shorty" Pace.

I went back to that 1930 census.  Sure enough, Kyra was listed as married, but her last name was her maiden name.  However, Carl was listed directly under her name not her sister's.  Could the census taker have made a mistake? 

 What did the O and G stand for?  Is there any way I could prove whom Pace had married?  Searching for a marriage license proved futile.  But then I found what I needed in the most unlikely of places:  a 1939 city directory for Mt Vernon listed Pace Oral G "Shorty" (Kyra) and gave their address.

REL C 261 Family History-Genealogy

Rebecca just started taking a family history class at BYU.  You can see the manual and lessons here.

those little hints could be telling you something...

Take a moment to attach records to every name mentioned - not just the principal person.  I was given a list from family search of ancestors that were found in historical records.  Almost by rote, I began the attaching process.
A few minutes in, however, and I noticed the name for Nelson Willits wife was not what I was expecting.  Someone had listed her as Lucy A. Holsinger (no documentation attached and no parents. see 2S3B-SK9)  This record spelled her name Hattinger.  As I began attaching records, I found her name as Haltinger and Haddinger.  These new spellings open up opportunities to find her family: parents, brothers, and sisters.

census records

divided into 4 time periods:
Early census years (1790-1840) = citizenship, occupation, disability, education
mid 19th century (1850-1870) = where born, school, occupation, property
late 19th century (1880-1890) = ages, marital status, where they were born and where their parents were born
20th century (1900-1930) = all the birth dates of the household, where they and their parents were born, if they own their home, immigration/naturalization

visit: lesson 1: the federal census:an historical overview
note (to view the video, you need to be in firefox)

What information was collected about the people in different census time periods?  It might provide new clues to research.

Census records are available to view 72 years after a census was taken.  (This provides privacy for living individuals.)  The 1950 census will be released April 1, 2022.

Most of the 1890 census' population schedules were badly damaged by a fire in the Commerce Department Building in January 1921.  The records of only 6,160 of the 62,979,766 people enumerated survived the fire.
The original 1890 census enumerated people differently than ever before that time. Each family was enumerated on a separate sheet of paper. 1890 was the only year this was done.

Hints: start with what you know and work back in time.  That way you start with more accurate information to guide you in the right direction for your research.

Spelling it wrong can make research go right

Often, beginning genealogists miss their ancestors by sticking too firmly to the idea that “that’s not how my family spelled their name, so it can’t be my ancestor.”

This statement ignores these basic truths:

1) Ancestors who were illiterate would have no idea how to spell their own name, let alone how someone else should spell it.

2) Until the twentieth century, spelling rules were far more flexible and fluid than what we think of today. That was true for routine words, not just surnames.

3) Even if your family was highly educated and truly did feel strongly about how their name should be spelled — the record taker might not have been as concerned. Ultimately, it depends on how the record creator chose to spell the name – not what your family thought about how it should be spelled.

4) Human error happens.

I’ve divided the types of errors into three basic categories – “sound alikes,” “look alikes,” and simple human errors.

SOUND ALIKES

Many so-called “spelling errors” can be attributed to various ways of spelling the same sounds. Consider the following situations:

Even single letters can sound similar. Think about a time when you may have had to spell your name for someone on the telephone. How many of our letters sound similar when said? B, C, D, E, G, P, T are just some examples. Even if your ancestor was spelling their name for the record-creator, it might not have been heard and recorded correctly.

This matter is further complicated if there was an accent involved. Perhaps your ancestor was an immigrant, struggling to still learn English, or unable to speak it at all. Maybe the  census taker was from Boston, but had recently moved to southern Alabama. Undoubtedly differences in pronunciations might affect how a name or other information was recorded.

I personally remind myself to “think like a third-grader” when I’m trying to develop a list of alternate spellings for a surname.

LOOK ALIKES

Anyone who has looked at original handwritten records knows how difficult they can be to read. If the ink has faded or blurred, or the original microfilm image was poorly filmed, legibility is further compromised. It can be easy to misread letters, and even a single letter may throw off your search.

Many genealogical search interfaces, like that of Ancestry, allow you to control how precisely your search term is matched,  and broader matches catch many misspellings of little consequence (like an O being misinterpreted as an A for example). But sometimes, a misread or truly misspelled name may not be able to be picked up by a search engine.

Just as there are audible confusions among letters that sound the same (B, C, D, P), likewise there are written letters that can often be visually confused. Lowercase As, Os, and Us may be almost indistinguishable.  Uppercase I and J are extremely similar, and may rely heavily on the rest of the word to be interpreted accurately. Lowercase double Rs can look like a single N.  The lowercase letters N, M, and U can also shape-shift into one another.  Think about likely visual misinterpretations as you conduct your searches, and use these “misspellings” in your search terms.

HUMAN ERROR

These examples point out our third category of misspelling – human error.

All of the indexes and data contained in databases like Ancestry are typed in by people. And despite many levels of quality control and review, human error can still occasionally creep in. Transpositions, extraneous insertions, or accidental deletions and oversights within the typed indexes can occur. 

SEEKING OUT MISSPELLINGS

It can be helpful to compile a list of alternate spellings, either that you have brainstormed yourself, or more importantly, that you have actually encountered in records. Use this list of alternate spellings when searching databases and indexes.

Recognize that as a practical matter, few individuals will have their name spelled precisely and consistently in all records throughout their entire lifetime. Records keepers might have been careless, uneducated, or used different spellings for the same phonetic sounds. Handwriting interpretation and transcription is always difficult. And even the most detail-oriented and accurate people may still occasionally make small errors which could impact your search. The myth of believing that “our family always spelled it that way” can impair your research, and hamper your progress. Using broader, “sounds like” settings and thinking of creative, alternative ways to spell your family’s surname can help move your research forward.

Note: for the full article go here.