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

How do we hasten the work of genealogy? Family History Work in the Ward...

Please click this link to read James Tanner's post on this topic today. 

FamilyTree 2013 Review

In my last post I told of James Tanner's new blog on genealogy for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This week he reprints some statistics found in the Church News that gives a good recap of 2013 at Family Search. 

"Statistical Review of FamilySearch in 2013". You can read the rest of his article here. 

James Tanner authors blog for Consultants

Genealogist and contributor to the FamilySearch Research Wiki James Tanner has created a new blog at this link. http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogspot.com/ I encourage all our Canon City Consultants to read it.

How Do I Edit and Manage Photos?

When my husband and I attended the Family History Expo in Colorado Springs in August, I attended a class taught by James Tanner about Family Tree, the new product for our genealogy at FamilySearch.org. A light bulb came on in my head. I decided that Family Tree would be the best place for me to store (and archive) the Family History research I've performed in the last 15 years. Because of the new developments on the Family Tree, we are now able to upload a maximum of 5,000 photos to our personal account and can attach photos to the appropriate individuals in the Family Tree.   

If the photos we want to upload are not already online or in digital format, it's necessary for us to scan those photos into a digital format. I've resumed  my activity of staffing the Family History Center each Wednesday 5:00-7:00pm so I can help our Consultants and Patrons learn how to scan and edit our family photos and upload them to the Family Tree. 

I encourage our Consultants to get familiar with Family Tree and start sharing (and storing) our old family photos so we can collaborate with others. 

I regularly follow the posts that James Tanner publishes on his "Genealogy's Star" blog. I've learned so much from his teaching. Today he posted an article called "Update on Photo Management Software for Genealogists".  Since I use Picasa for my photo editing software and have been teaching it in the Family History Center, I'm sharing what James posted about it in his blog. 

At the entry level, there is Google's Picasa. This program is up to Version 3.9 and is a free download from Google. The program will automatically begin searching your computer's hard drive and any attached hard drives for images. It does not make a copy of the images and it does not share any of the images with the online world. It merely makes a thumbnail version index of each image and leaves the original image exactly where you had it on your hard drive. You then have a visual index of every image on or connected to your computer. Using Picasa you can move an image to a different file, rename images, rename file folders and find the original image on your computer. The program will also do some basic photo editing. There are many more functions of the program including tagging people in the photos and adding metadata tags to the images.

Family Tree Revolutionary?

Genealogist and blogger James Tanner offers a very good article on his Genealogy's Star blog about why Family Tree is revolutionary. You can read it here. 

Resources for FamilySearch Family Tree

Expert Genealogist James Tanner has written an excellent article at his blog 'Genealogy's Star' about the wonderful resources available to help us learn Family Tree at this link. We're grateful to James for making this list available to us.

Family Tree Updates

Today on his Genealogy's Star blog, James Tanner provides us with a very good update on FamilySearch Family Tree.

Family Tree Available to All

James Tanner, in his "Genealogy's Star" blog today, tells us: 
Family Tree is available through a link on the FamilySearch.org website, but you have to initiate the link before it will appear. The instructions for gaining access to the program on a PDF file called Gaining Access to the FamilySearch Family Tree (pdf). Here are the instructions: 


1. Go to http://www.familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab.
2. Enter the required information in the fields provided.
Important: When you enter your user name and password, enter the same user name and password that you use on familysearch.org and new.familysearch.org. This lets you see your FamilySearch Family Tree and all of your changes as they appear in new.familysearch.org in the FamilySearch Family Tree.
3. Click Register.
The FamilySearch Family Tree appears. You are in the main position on the screen. To get to the FamilySearch Family Tree from now on, go to www.familysearch.org, and sign in. The link to the Family Tree appears in the upper-left corner of the screen, next to the FamilySearch logo. 

Family Editing Possible at Family Tree

Big News Family Editing Comes to FamilySearch Family Tree

FamilySearch is a moving target. No matter what you knew about it yesterday, you need to look at it today to see what is going on. Here is a summary of the (one of the) different parts of FamilySearch and the latest news:

Family Tree is part of the biggest change being made to the FamilySearch.org website. Good news and waiting. Family Tree is the replacement forNew.FamilySearch.org.  There are a series of incremental changes going on nearly constantly. For example, today I found that marriage dates can be edited or deleted. Family relationships can also be edited, such as biological, adopted, step etc. You can also change the parents of a child. You can also add a source directly to a marriage and a child relationship. In short, all of the incorrect family relationships in New.FamilySearch.org can now be edited in Family Tree.

You can also add people to the database. I hope you realize how big this really is!!! 

Get to work and correct your family!

Source: James Tanner at "Genealogy's Star" Blog Wed. July 11, 2012

Progress at Family Tree

Genealogist James Tanner has written an excellent article titled "The Jargon of Family Tree" on his blog "Genealogy Star". Please click this link to read it. James works at the Mesa Regional Family History Center, writes his blog and frequently contributes articles to LDS Tech Tips. By reading his article, we can get a good overview of all the progress being made with the change from new.familysearch.org to Family Tree at familysearch.org.