2012 Was a Very Big Year!

Photo in possession of Rayanne Brunski Melick

FamilySearch made huge strides in the family history community in 2012. To get a breakdown (love those stats!) of what FamilySearch accomplished, read this article! It is amazing what is going on and how fast records are coming online. Thank you FamilySearch!

What to Do With Those All those Pictures?

 Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

You know that you have them! Zillions of them! What to do with them? Of course, I'm talking about family pictures. Well, since FamilySearch Family Tree is now open to the general public, why don't you spread your wealth. Upload your ancestor pictures to Family Tree so that the rest of the world can see those pictures that you have been hoarding! Besides, you may meet some relatives that you didn't even know you had! All well and good you say, but you don't know how to digitize pictures? For an excellent article on this very subject go to one of my favorite bloggers, James Tanner (Genealogy's Star), and read as he walks you through the process! Happy scanning!

Family Tree is Now Live for the General Public!

Family Tree is now live for all users! That means that anyone can use Family Tree, not just members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS, Mormons). Click on the Family Tree tab, just to the right of the FamilySearch logo in the tope menu bar.  If you want to learn more about it, click here! Cool stuff going on! Go to familysearch.org and discover your roots!

March 2013 Classes

Today the sun is shining and it feels slightly warm! Yahoo! The above is a self-portrait (well, not really!)

The Grove Creek Stake is offering Family History Classes on Tuesday nights from 7-9 pm. The first hour will be a class and the 8-9 pm hour will be the opportunity for a hands-on lab. The schedule for March is listed below. All levels of family history interest are invited and welcome!

March 5th     Family History-A Spiritual Endeavor
          12th    Let's Look at Family Tree
          19th    How & Where to Get Started
          26th    Beginning Research

Classes!

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Our Tuesday and Thursday night classes are going well and growing! They are open to everyone, regardless of skill level. Please come join us! The schedules are posted below and they are also listed on the FamilySearch Wiki. The schedule for Tuesday nights in March will be posted next week. See you soon!

Thursday Nights

Jan 10th      Introduction and Inspiration
Jan 17th      Lesson 1—The Purpose of Temple and Family History Work
Jan 24th      Lesson 2—Getting Started
Jan 31st      Lesson 3—Gathering Information from Home
Feb 7th       Lesson 4—Recording Family History Information
Feb 14th     Lesson 5—Gathering Information from Family
Feb 21st     Lesson 6—Gathering Information from Public Records
Feb 28th     Lesson 7—Providing Temple Ordinances
March 7th    Bonus 1—Search Techniques and Best Practices
March 14th  Bonus 2-Cemeteries, Obituaries, and Newspapers
March 21st  Bonus 3-Immigration & Naturalization
March 28th  Bonus 4-Family Tree Sources & Corrections

These classes are at 7:00 pm, followed by a hands-on workshop at 8:00 pm.
Get individual help with research and all of your family history questions at the workshop. Everyone is welcome regardless of skill level.

Tuesday Nights

Feb 5th       A Spiritual Endeavor

Feb 12th     Family Tree Intro

Feb 19th     How & Where to Start

Feb 26th     Beginning Research

These classes are at 7:00 pm, followed by a hands-on workshop at 8:00 pm. Get individual help with research and all of your family history questions at the workshop. Everyone is welcome regardless of skill level.

How to Use Family Tree Wisely

If you look on this blog, you will see a new link under Family Search. It is the manual How to Use Family Tree Wisely by George W. Scott. I highly recommend the reading of this tutorial as it gives you the ins and outs, whys and wherefores of Family Tree. This manual is free to use by all who would like to download it. Although Family Tree isn't perfect, it is moving in the right direction! Check it out!

Tuesday Night Classes at the Grove Creek Family History Center

We are happy to announce that the Grove Creek Family History Center will be hosting classes on Tuesday nights. The schedule is outlined below. The classes are taught by family history consultants and others from the Grove Creek Stake area. All are invited to come join the classes. Regardless of skill level, there is a place for YOU! The schedule for February is below. Feel free to call 801-796-8805 with any questions you might have. See you there!

Grove Creek Family History Expo

Come learn some new tricks!

Thursday Night Classes

We are happy to announce that the Grove Creek Family History Center will be hosting classes on Thursday nights. The schedule is outlined below. The classes are taught by family history consultants from the Timpanogos 3rd Ward, but any and all are invited.

UVTAGG January 2013 Meeting

Our Next Meeting 12 Jan 2013from 9 AM to noon Presenter: Alan Morrell Main Presentation: The Church History Library’s Online Presence and Databases More Info

The UVTAGG Meeting is this coming Saturday, January 12th. Even if you don't live in Utah, if you will check out their website you will find a myriad of helps in your family history and genealogy endeavors!

Story@Home

This year at RootsTech there are a couple of new additions. One is the Getting Started Track and the other is Story@Home. Story@Home is a great addition, particularly as we (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints/Mormons) have been encouraged to connect with our relatives through stories. I know that my kids aren't really motivated by a pedigree chart, but a story will get them every time! If you are looking for a way to engage your family in your hobby/passion, go for the stories. Story@Home will give you some great ideas and resources. For a schedule of their classes, click here.

(Nope, not affiliated with Story@Home!)

Year End Happenings!

Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah

Both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org have changes happening at the moment! Click this link to find out what the big changes are and scroll to December 18th. The FamilySearch announcement has extra information for indexers! Thanks AncestryInsider!

Happy Birthday Crystal!

Crystal Dawn Melick 1983-1987

Dearest Crystal,

Today you would have turned 29 yrs. old. Where have the years flown? We want you to know that we still miss you and think of you every single day. We sure hope that you know that you have not been forgotten. We are grateful for the short three and a half years that you were with us. We look forward to an eternity with you!

Love,

Dad, Mom, CAM and Alyssa

P.S. The journal that we kept about you will get us through the day. Just know that you are in our thoughts and prayers. We love you!

Journals...Not Boring Anymore!

Let's face it. Either you are a journal keeper or you aren't. In my family, I am the journal keeper and my husband isn't really. As for the kids, they're split on the topic! However, whenever anyone wants to know something, they are grateful that I have made a note of it. For instance, today my youngest granddaughter rolled over and back for the first time. Somewhere down the line, someone will ask me about it. Another instance...my daughter has a little one close to potty training. My daughter asked me when she was potty trained. I told her to go look in the journal that I kept for her! My obsessiveness may seem bizarre, but I feel strongly that I need to record these things.

As many of you may have figured out, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon). We are big journal keepers. Last month in the magazine that is produced for the youth (ages 12-18) there was a great article on journal keeping. What I loved is that it wasn't your everyday journal article! It had ideas on how to keep a journal that fits with what you love and your lifestyle. Here is the link!

Another idea for journaling... an online journal! I use ldsjournal.com (I have no connection and receive no compensation from ldsjournal.com). The account is free and anyone can use it. I find that I write more when I can type it because I type so much faster. I have journals for my three granddaughters and myself at ldsjournal.com. They give you the ability to print out your entries at any time and also the ability to create a book of your entries. How I would have loved to read a journal of any of my ancestors!

Fun Family History Christmas Presents

The older I get, the more I value Christmas presents that have a meaning. I have outgrown the '70's "gotta have" bell bottoms teenager stuff, the '80's newlywed casserole dish infestation, the '90's Pogs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze for my kids, and the 2000's stuff, stuff, and more stuff! I am hearkening back to what really means the most to me... Family! Everything else can come and go, but families are there through thick and thin forever!

This is little Miss Oaklie. We decided to do a book of pictures of her throughout the year that we had taken. It captures her year very well and you can really see the personality shine through. She is a little pistol that can shoot you a look that just melts your heart! Typical grandmother feeling, I know!

Next person up was Raylie Kay. Isn't she adorable? We pulled from our storage bank of pictures of Raylie through the year. At this point, we were on a roll and decided to keep going!

After the granddaughters, we decided to try out a book about our daughter's wedding! After all, she was the reason we had granddaughters! I suppose we should have started here, but were coming from a different place at the time. Once we got going, we realized that we could make books of anything! It was fun to do this wedding book because we used pictures that we took with our own camera, not the official photographer's pictures.

CAM's wedding came next! By then, we were semi-pros at this book creation thing! Again, my husband was the mastermind behind the project!

Finally, last year was our 30th wedding anniversary and we took ourselves to Europe for thirty days. We came home with about 1400 pictures, but we were able to narrow them down enough to create a memento of the fun we had!

These books were created with Shutterfly, an online photo company. It is one of many companies out there that are into desktop publishing. Google desktop publishing and you'll be amazed at what you can do!

Hopefully, seeing these will give you some ideas. It may be a little late for this year, but a great time to get started for next year! The sky's the limit!

Collaboration in Family History

There is a lot of talk these days about collaborating in family history! That means that we actually could get a lot done if we would just talk to Aunt Mabel or Cousin Fred. We didn't grow up in a vacuum and neither did our ancestors. Our relatives have information that we might not have. We may also have information that our relatives don't have! So, how could collaboration work? Watch this cool video to see an example of real time collaboration. This can be done NOW! The future is here! There is also a wiki document here to get you started! Happy collaborating!

The Pinterest Phenomenon

Have you been sucked into the Pinterest phenomenon yet? What is Pinterest? It is a virtual pinboard and it is quite the social networking site at the moment. I have looked at it and I'll admit it is fun to see ideas that my mind can't even begin to put together. To say that I am creatively challenged is a huge understatement! However, I do enjoy seeing other people's ideas. On that note, I wondered if there was anything out there having to do with family history and genealogy. Well, that was a dumb question! I searched on both family history and genealogy and came up with tons of stuff! There were ideas for your own family history, pictures of celebs in high school (do we really care?), and lots of pointers to work on your own family! I was pleasantly surprised. Check it out yourself at Pinterest.com. In the top left hand corner, there is a search bar. Type in family history or genealogy and see what you get! Actually, I have typed in all sorts of family history and genealogy keywords and I am amazed! I think I will create a family history board! My kids might even be tempted to peak! They are both very visual and this might just be the ticket for them! Maybe one day they will see this and say "I know that girl!" That's my mom!

Rayanne circa. 1971!

Another favorite of mine is James Tanner's posts on FamilySearch.org/techtips. I enjoy his insightful remarks. He has even tackled the Pinterest world! Read his post about Pinterest here.

Doing the Family History Happy Dance!

Charlie Brown (of the comic strip "Peanuts") used to say that "Happiness is a warm puppy!" I beg to disagree! Happiness is finding out that a new source THAT YOU NEED has been digitized and is available at FamilySearch.org. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for something altogether different when I saw a listing for Pennsylvania, County Marriages 1885-1950. That would fit my grandparents, a bunch of aunts, uncles and probably a partridge in a pear tree! I was excited!

I bravely typed in my grandfather's name, Peter William Brunski, and this is what I was rewarded with:

This is the scanned original of my grandparents marriage license docket, complete with parent's names and places of birth! For the parent's place of birth, it also gave me a clue as to where they were born. Because Lithuania has been independent for very short periods of it's history, the documents that I find either say Russia or Poland as a birthplace. This was helpful to me to see that they considered themselves born in Russia. Although my great grandfather was dead at this time, my great grandmother was still alive and could have provided this information (I'm assuming). Not perfect, but pretty close!

Another example:

This application for Marriage License is for my Uncle Pete and Aunt Theresa! I got lucky in that it is even typed! I didn't have Aunt Theresa's parents names or their birthplaces. I also didn't know where exactly they were married. This document provides lots of info for me! Happy, happy!

By the time I got done searching in this database, I had 22 marriage-related documents for my extended family. I have never hit big like this! What a wonderful day! Thanks FamilySearch.org and your great team of volunteers!

Where to Start When You Are Clueless?

Tasmania

Have you ever found yourself at a complete loss on how and where to start a search? Do you know how to find information on a person who died in a penal colony in Tasmania? Sounds bizarre, but that was what I faced with the very first patron I helped in the BYU Family History Library! So...what to do? Well, head over to the FamilySearch Wiki, of course! It is a great place to start and the pages are very informative! If you don't believe me, check it out yourself! By the way, two hours after my first patron walked in with his question, he walked out with info to further his search and get the information that he desired.

The BYU Family History website has many resources to choose from... whether you live across the street or on the other side of the world.

UVTAGG Group November Meeting

Press Release

UTAH VALLEY TECHNOLOGY AND GENEALOGY GROUP MEETING (UVTAGG)

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group - UVTAGG (Formerly the Utah Valley PAF Users Group - UVPAFUG) will be on Saturday, 10 Nov 2012, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo.  Information about the Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on their website http://uvtagg.org and the press releases are at http://blog.uvtagg.org .

The main presentation this month will be by Jill Crandell on RESOURCES OF THE CENTER FOR FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY AT BYU.  This Center is NOT the Family History Center in the BYU Library.  It is located in the Joseph F. Smith Building on the BYU Campus and has the website  https://familyhistory.byu.edu/Pages/Home.aspx  .  It has many projects ranging from the Immigrant Ancestors Project to the Script Tutorials and from the British Marriage Index to research on the community of Nauvoo.  These resources and projects of the Center are done by faculty and students and are available online to the public at no cost.  This presentation will show you some of the resources and how they can help you with your personal research.  Jill N. Crandell, MA, AG®, is Director of the Center For Family History and Genealogy and is accredited in Midwest U.S. research.  She has taught research and technology classes at BYU for nine years and was a founding commissioner for ICAPGen, the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists.  She currently serves as treasurer of that organization.

After the main presentation the following classes are presently scheduled: 

(1)  ResearchTies: An Online Research Log, by Jill N. Crandell;  

(2)  FamilySearch Family Tree Update, by Merlin Kitchen; 

(3)  Creating Your Own Website with TNG (The Next Generation), by Darrin Lythgoe; 

(4)  Personalized Help, by Don Engstrom and Finn Hansen; 

(5)  Video of last month's main presentation: 50 Google Searches Every Genealogist Needs to Know, by Barry Ewell;  

(6)  MAC's and Genealogy: Effectively Using Reunion Flags and more, by Ron Snowden; 

(7)  Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay;  

(8)  Legacy, by Dean Bennett; and 

(9)  RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee.

All meetings of UVTAGG are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually about 100 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Laurie Castillo, 1st VP; Don Snow, 2nd VP; Liz Kennington, Newsletter Editor; Renee Zamora, Secretary; Kay Baker, Gerry Eliason, Don Engstrom, and Rayanne Melick working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen working with the DVD Library. Several of these will be there to answer questions, help with membership, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter TAGGology, and check out DVDs of past presentations and classes to members of the group. 

Many members don't live close enough to participate in the monthly meetings, but belong so they can receive the monthly newsletter and purchase DVD's of the presentations and classes.  And many members give gift memberships to friends for presents.  Information about the Group, presentations, classes, and class notes can be found at the websites mentioned above.