2021-01 Jan - Using FamilySearch Hints

Jan 7, 2021 family history hints

Hello from your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants:

WHY?

• The January 11–17 Come Follow Me lesson about D&C 2 says:

  “Elijah came to turn my heart to my ancestors. What do words like “plant,” “hearts,” and “turn” in this section teach you about the mission of Elijah and the blessings of the priesthood keys he restored? How have you felt your heart turn toward your ancestors? Think of ways you can experience such feelings more often.”

• These small sacrifices of time, help me and all other related descendants know our ancestors a little better. Where they lived and what they did.

• We encourage you to consider whether adding record sources to your ancestors is only “more proof” (temporal), or can it help us “children” turn our hearts to our fathers and mothers of yesteryear (spiritual)?

• These small things may give someone years from now a better sense of who these ancestors are and you helped too (I’m helped by others regularly).

• I testify this is spiritual work. I feel my heart turning to my ancestors as I do this work. I pray you can feel that blessing too during these difficult times.

WHAT?

• Add some small records to your ancestors in Family Search with a little bit of this extra time stuck at home during this pandemic
• Family Search helpfully finds some of these small records for you to review as indexers complete their sacrifice of time for this work (they use computer algorithms, but they need us to confirm and pattern-match because humans still do that far better than artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms).
• For example, today in about 5 minutes, I added 11 elementary school enrollment records for one of my ancestors on a cousin line in Oklahoma.

WHO?

• You and any youth in your home (it’s easy to do)
• Temple & Family History Consultants as needed

WHEN?

• Jan 2021

HOW? (7 EASY steps)

1. Go to familysearch.org.
2. Look for the section titled Recommended Tasks on the familysearch.org home page .
3. Select the Records tab in that section (the 3 choices are All, Records, & Temple).
4. Check if this home screen section offers any of these records for you to review for your direct lines or cousin lines.
5. Review by comparing what is already known to this record. When it’s your people, use the attach button to match them to the right member of that family. Look at the image to be more sure if there is one.
6. Pay attention to any extra information that occasionally pops up. For example, today I found that Mary Kirby’s school record showed her middle name which no one had found before as “Verice”. Nice.
7. Enjoy the payoff. Take a moment, smile, and say a prayer of thanks when the Lord helps you find a little more about your ancestor that helps us turn our hearts to them. Witness how each of the people in the service-chain (indexers, family search website developers, and you) have their efforts coalesce into these small moments to provide small miracles of extra insight about one of our ancestors. It is sublime. It is a blessing for the work offered. It helps us become more as our hearts are turned as the Lord commands.

Have no fear. Any mistakes can be undone, or “rolled back” with the site’s existing functionality. So don’t let worries about your potential mistakes stop you from making this important effort. Do you best with the information you have now. The Lord will use all the efforts of all the people working it to get it right. You won’t break the work. His hand is in this work.

HERE A LITTLE, THERE A LITTLE - We can help you step forward in faith to succeed little by little, one thing at a time. Feel better by doing small & simple things. Great things come to pass over time, so don’t give up. We can help you start!

Your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants