FamilySearch is spoiling our Consultants

This message greeted me as I opened my email after church today. FamilySearch is notifying me that a cousin or member of my extended family is needing the Temple Ordinances to be done. I haven't seen this type of message prior to today. I opened the email and found this:

Of course, I promptly clicked on "Reserve Temple Ordinances" because I wasn't really sure who Mary Templing was in my ancestry. This is what I found: 

I am just stunned and so very impressed with the work being done by the FamilySearch department to give us every opportunity to get the Temple work done for our families. Not only have they developed an easy system on the Family Tree for us to identify and reserve names to take or submit to the Temple, but now they're bringing those names TO US and leading us right to the page on the FamilySearch site where we can reserve the names. 

While on this same page, I scrolled down and was shown the relationship chart from Mary Templing to ME, as sown above! And at the bottom of the chart, I can click to "Reserve Temple Ordinances". So I was informed that she needed her Temple Ordinances performed and was also shown how she's related to me, all in two clicks from my email message. I'm certainly being spoiled by the wonderful, inspired staff at Family Search. They're doing everything except reserving the names for me. 

There was another benefit to me as I looked at this information on the family tree. It brought to my attention the pedigree of my cousin Mary Templing, one which I hadn't previously studied.

I'm at the bottom left of the above chart. My grandmother is Amalia "Mollie" Koleber. You can see that her second cousins are Hannah Templing and Mary Templing. I hadn't realized until FamilySearch alerted me via email today that my grandmother "Mollie" Koleber Margheim was not only the sister-in-law of Hannah Templing, but also her second cousin! Here's the wedding portrait of Jacob Margheim and Hannah Templing.

Now I'm curious as to the cause of death of Mary Templing at age 18 and will spend time this afternoon researching this. 

I'm so grateful to the staff at Family Search for alerting me to the fact that Mary Templing was ready for her Ordinance work to be performed in the Temple and bringing my attention to this part of my family tree so I can learn more about my cousin Mary Templing. I am indeed spoiled as a Consultant in our Family History Center and am truly blessed to be so spoiled. 

Our Consultant Resources are Centralized

I recently discovered and learned how to use a great tool for our genealogy, called Trello. I've created a "board" that provides links to the many resources the LDS church provides for Consultants in our Family History Center. You can find this Trello Board here. 

The first "list" on the board provides links to tutorials that explain how to find your way around the board. Please check it out. 

Consultant Training all in one great place

We're encouraging the Consultants in our Family History Center to participate in the online training that FamilySearch offers us. When completed, we are asked to print our Certificate and submit it to the Director in our Center. This assignment is in conjunction with our current "60 Day Challenge", in which we have committed to assisting our Ward members in their homes to get registered on FamilySearch.org, get familiar with the Family Tree program, experience the activity of adding photos and stories to our Family Tree, and increase the number of temple ordinances done for our ancestors. 

FamilySearch is to be commended for making so many excellent training resources available to us. They can be found at this link:  
https://www.lds.org/callings/temple-and-family-history/family-history-consultants?lang=eng.

The core lessons are divided into these headings: 
1. Understand Your Calling
2. Work with Members
3. Work with Leaders
4. Prepare Names for the Temple
5. Do Your Own Family History

Additional Training and Resources are available with links to 
1. Family Tree Training
2. Family Tree Training "Sandbox"
3. Family Tree "Sandbox" Lessons
4. Temple and Family History Course Materials
5. FamilySearch Learning Center
6. FamilySearch Research Wiki
7. Family History Consultant Devotionals

Brimhall on Family History Centers

At this link you'll find an excellent presentation by FamilySearch CEO Dennis Brimhall on "Creating the Family History Center of tomorrow". Three videos are offered on this page, so click on the one with this title. 
https://www.lds.org/callings/temple-and-family-history/family-history-center-director/director-videos?lang=eng

New Developments in Family History are Ongoing

I'm indebted to Genealogist/Author/Family History Service Missionary James Tanner for his prolific articles in the field of genealogy that help us stay informed of the rapid developments in Family History. Today and recently he offers these interesting and enlightening posts: 

1. "Obituaries and Online Databases" in Genealogy's Star

2. "I'm Getting Old Fast. What Can I Do About It?" in Genealogy's Star
This is a favorite to me because it was one of James Tanner's classes at the Family History Expo in Colorado Springs in August, 2013 that made me start thinking about what I'm going to do with all my research paperwork and resulting reports to pass it on to my only son. After visiting with my son, I decided I would need to scan everything and store it online for access to my descendants, as he can't drag home files, boxes, binders, and books and store them or make them available to future family members.

3. "A Quick Start to Photos and Stories to Family Search Family Tree" in Rejoice, and Be Exceeding Glad

Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch, Talks About Family History

Every Family Has a Story

Each day's opening session at RootsTech 2014 started with the showing of an excellent 2+ minute video titled "Every Family Has a Story: Discover Yours". I encourage you to view it here:  http://youtu.be/wxuY1lzH4h0