Danish Research Webinar June 4, 2015

Map: Jarke

June 4: Danish Research—Using Multiple Record Types to Find Your Family Webinar. This class starts at 7:00 P.M.

Instructions for attending webinars can be viewed by going to FamilySearch.org. 

Click the Search link. 
Select Wiki. 
TypeFamily History Library in the search field and click the top entry (Family History Library). 
Click link 2.2 (Live Online Classes)for details. Scroll to find the desired date and class and click on the link to get information about attending the class or webinar online.

How Does the FamilySearch Family Tree Work?

LDS Media Library

The Family Tree at FamilySearch is a great online tree with many features that help family historians capture and consolidate families with photos, documents, stories, audio, etc. It isn't perfect, but it is a great resource for us. Check it out here! It is totally free and living people are private. You don't have to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and it is totally available anywhere in the world where Internet is available. It is easy to add sources provided by Record Hints (similar to "shaking leaves" on Ancestry.com). What are you waiting for?

If all of this sounds daunting, there are also many lessons to help you learn Family Tree. There is also a sandbox to play in. If that sounds strange to you, click here to find out more. 

Join the Worldwide Arbitration Event!

Join the Worldwide Arbitration Event!

When: May 1-8, 2015
Goal: Arbitrate 2 million images
Where: Endless possibilities

Go here to check out the specifics. Add your support to this wonderful project!

German Resources Webinar

This is a post from the familysearch.org blog!

German Resources Webinar Open for Public Access

March 23, 2015 By Yvonne Sorenson

Be the first of your German friends to find out all about the German website Genealogy.net also known as Compgen.de. This useful website will be explained on Saturday Mar. 28 in a webinar presented from 9:15am to 12:15. The following hands-on classes will be taught both in the Family History Library Main floor lab and also broadcast as a webinar:

9:15 Finding and Using German Address Books on Genealogy.net. This class will teach you how to locate these address books and find names and locations of your ancestors.

10:15 Finding and Using German Lineage books (OSB) on Genealogy.net. The Family History Library has many village lineage books in house, but this site has many that are online and can be searched right at home.

What is a village lineage book? It contains the families or individuals from a specific town in Germany and has been organized into families! Find birth, marriage, and death dates for ancestors. Village Lineage books are not available for all towns in Germany.

11:15 Using Metasearch on Genealogy.net. This class will discuss how to search all the databases available on Genealogy.net simultaneously and tell you what they are about. Some of the databases on this site include the Schleswig-Holstein census, WWI casualty lists, member submitted trees, and tombstones.

See if some of your German ancestors can be found on this site to help you grow your family tree!

Family Discovery Day is Here!

Tomorrow, March 7th is the Grove Creek/Timpanogos Stakes Family Discovery Day. Anyone who is in the area is welcome. It is going to be great! The schedule is below!

Salt Lake Family History Library Classes for March 2015

There are some great classes scheduled for the month of March at the Salt Lake Family History Library. For more information beyond the titles, click here.

March 7:  New England States Research Series. 

March 7:  Arbol Familiar Para Principiantes Webinar

March 14:  Hispanic Research Methodology: A Case Study Webinar. 

March 21:  Hispanic Research Series Webinar. 

March 28:  German Research Series. 

If You Are In Utah...(or visiting!)

Our third annual Family Discovery Day will be held on March 7, 2015 from 9:00 am-4:00 pm. All are invited and the event is free. Registration information is provided above. This day is for all ages and abilities and you don't have to live in the Pleasant Grove area. We welcome all! Hope to see you there! 

February Classes at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City

This is from the FamilySearch Blog...

During the month of February, the Family History Library will be hosting a number of free online family history classes as well as a Boy Scout genealogy merit badge workshop. These classes and workshops are designed to help individuals and families find their ancestors and teach important family history techniques. They are free to the public. Information about specific classes is listed below, as well as information on how to register for classes.

The Family History Library Announces Free Classes for February, 2015

February 7:       Registros civiles y censos. This class provides instructions on how to use Spanish civil registers and census records. It is for Spanish-speaking guests and is taught in Spanish. Class starts at 1:00 p.m.

February 21:     * Boy Scout Genealogy Merit Badge Workshop. This workshop begins at 10:00 a.m. Register for this 90-minute class at least one week prior to the workshop to find out which requirements should be completed before attending. For registration information, call 1-801-240-4673.

February 21:     Qué dice? Cόmo leer la escritura antigua. This class provides tips and guidelines for reading old Spanish handwriting. It is for Spanish-speaking guests and is taught in Spanish. Class starts at 1:00 p.m.

February 26:     FamilySearch Historical Records Collection Webinar. This class begins at 6:00 p.m. It provides an overview of what the FamilySearch Historical Records Collection has to offer researchers and some tips on how to get the most from your searches.

February 28:     * British Research Series. These classes include “British Resources on FamilySearch.org,” and “British Resources on Ancestry.com.” Classes run from 9:15 a.m. to noon.

February 28:     * German Research Series. These classes include “Learning to Read Old German Script” (2 hours) and “Extracting Information from German Church and Civil Records.” Classes run from 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

February 28:     African-American Research Series. The topics include “Keynote Speaker,” “Beginning African-American Research: Post 1865,” and “Southern Plantation Records.” Classes run from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

These classes and workshops are designed to help individuals and families find their ancestors and teach others family history techniques.

*Registration is required for classes with an asterisk. Register by 9:00 p.m. the Thursday before the class date by sending an email to FHLClassReg@familysearch.org or calling 1-801-240-4950. Go to https://familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library for additional information.

England Research Series--January 26-30, 2015

Photo Credit:David Iliff

There will be two topics presented each day at 11:00 am & 1:00 pm. The topics included will be Online Websites, Maps & Gazetteers, England & Wales Census Records, England & Wales Civil Registration, Church of England Church Records, Nonconformist Church Records, Probate Records, Parish Chest Records, and Poor Law Records. If you have English ancestry, this webinar series is not to be missed! For more information, click here.

Boy Scout Genealogy Merit Badge

Photo Credit: BSA

Do you know of a Boy Scout that needs help earning the Genealogy Merit Badge? Possibly you are in an area where there isn't much opportunity to earn this badge? On January 17, 2015, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah will be presenting a Boy Scout Genealogy Merit Badge Workshop. It is 90 minutes long and you will need to register at least one week prior to this workshop. Call 801-240-4673 for more information!

Spanish Genealogy Classes

Family History Library

In January 2015 there will be two Spanish genealogy classes offered by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Saturday, January 3, 2015 at 1:00pm
Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 1:00 pm

Click here for more information.

Simple Christmas Projects for Children

Photo Credit: USMC

There is nothing better during the Christmas season than little projects with your kids...yours, mine, ours, the neighbors, cousins, etc. The holiday season is a fun time to bond together and create lasting memories. FamilySearch has some great ideas for Christmas projects to do with children. Check out the ideas here.

Christmas Ideas and Traditions

Photo Credit: AlexR

Can you believe that it is Christmas time again? I love Christmas! It is so fun to get together with family and friends and celebrate the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. Christmas is also a great time to create those lasting family memories and traditions that bind us together for a lifetime!

Our family has created some fun traditions over the years:

We do the traditional scripture reading.
When the kids were little, we acted out the nativity scene.
We have Christmas stockings and a tree. The tree is decorated with many ornaments that the kids have made over the years!
We always participate in our neighborhood food drive for the food bank.
For our Christmas dinner, we choose and prepare food from different countries.
We send Christmas cards.
We take lots of pictures.
We call family members that don't live close to us.
We used to bake Christmas cookies until I finally admitted that I don't like to bake. Some years my husband does the cookies now and some years we do without!
This year we created a family cookbook. Hopefully my kids will open it and at least look at the family history pictures.
At the moment, our favorite tradition is creating photo books for each of our grandkids. They are priceless and the grandkids love to see themselves through the past year. Desktop publishing has become so easy and affordable that my husband looks forward to creating the books every year.

As you can see, there are many, many ways to create family traditions. The list above is just a sampling of our family traditions. For more ideas, see these Christmas Ideas from FamilySearch!

Laura Bush and daughter Jenna at RootsTech 2015

Laura Bush

Jenna Bush Hager

Laura Bush and her daughter, Jenna, will be the keynote speakers on Friday, February 13, 2015 at RootsTech 2015. Learn more about them here. There is still time to register for RootsTech 2015.  Passes start at $19.

December 7, 1941--A Day That Will Live in Infamy

Photo Credit: By USN [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 

Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. The United States had been able to stay out of WW II up to that point. December 7th changed all of that. FamilySearch has created a Pearl Harbor Memorial Page. Watch the video and learn about that day from someone who was there. Click on your ancestors tab. Who knows, you may have had an ancestor connected to Pearl Harbor and didn't even know it! Even if you don't there are veterans out there who would love to share their Pearl Harbor stories with you.

Do You Have Irish Roots?

Photo Credit: Georgie Sharp

The National Library of Ireland will have a dedicated website of Catholic parish registers available online by summer 2015. They will be free, although there may be a few records that will be behind a pay wall. Read about this coming online collection here.

Family Discovery Day at RootsTech 2015

If you haven't realized it by now, the face of family history is changing! It used to look like this:

However, the people working on family history are starting to look more and more like this: 

Photo Credit: LDS.org  Media Library

We used to work individually on "OUR" families, but now we work together on the family of mankind and realize that we are "ALL" related.

Photo Credit: LDS.org Media Library

Come join the crowd and work with your family on Family Discovery Day at RootsTech 2015.

2015 Featured Speakers & Performers on Family Discovery Day

It's going to be awesome!

David Archuleta and Studio C at RootsTech 2015

David Archuleta

Studio C

David Archuleta and Studio C are the latest acts to be announced for RootsTech 2015. If you have no idea who Studio C is, you have to learn more about this very funny and talented group from BYU. Check them out here! This is going to be one whale of a conference! For more information, click here. To learn more about RootsTech 2015, click here.

Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group (UVTAGG) Meeting--November 8, 2014

Peg Ivanyo
Image: UVTAGG

UVTAGG] Press Release for UVTAGG meeting Saturday morning 08 Nov 2014

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, 08 Nov 2014, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo.  Information about the Group, meeting location, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on their website  http://uvtagg.org  and the press releases are at  http://blog.uvtagg.org .  On the blog you can subscribe to receive the press releases via email when they are posted a week before the meeting.

The main presentation this month at UVTAGG is by Peg Ivanyo on ADDING A VISUAL DIMENSION TO YOUR RESEARCH.  In spite of the technical tools available to us today, we often resort solely to the written word to analyze, plan, and summarize our research. This presentation will explore some simple tools that can help us "see" our research more clearly, and perhaps even break through a brick wall or two.  Peg Ivanyo is owner of All Things Related, which blends her former career as a meeting planner/consultant with her love of genealogy and teaching.  She serves as a ward family history consultant, as a member of the Springville Family History Center Education Committee, Assistant Director of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), and conference administrator for the Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS).  She earned a bachelor’s degree in merchandising and business through Utah State University, completed graduate courses in Tourism Administration at George Washington University, and has taken courses in Family History at Brigham Young University.  In addition to her membership in UGA, Peg maintains active membership with the National Genealogical Society (NGS), the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History (ISBGFH), the Leicestershire and Rutland Family History Society (LRFHS), the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International (CGSI), and the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).  More information about her is at https://www.apgen.org/directory/search_detail.html?mbr_id=5747 .

After the main presentation the following classes are scheduled; check the meetings page at  http://uvtagg.org/  for last minute changes or additions.   (1)   Making a Case for Re-proving Old Work, by Peg Ivanyo;  (2)  Video of last month's main presentation, The FamilySearch Catalog: Key to the Collection, by Sharon Monson;  (3)  Ask an Expert (Personal Help), by Don Engstrom & Finn Hansen;  (4)  Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay;  (5)  Legacy:  Multimedia, by Brad Monson; and  (6)  RootsMagic, by bruce Buzbee.  There will be no MAC class this month.

MyHeritage.com Now Available at Family History Centers and Libraries!

This is big! MyHeritage.com is an affiliate of FamilySearch.org. Yes, they are a  subscription database, BUT now you can use their site for free at family history centers. With 73 million worldwide subscribers, they definitely have something to offer everyone! Maybe you will even find that cousin you didn't know about living in one of the former communist countries of eastern Europe. Maybe they will have information that you didn't know existed! Maybe they will know where you need to look for that particular record! That is one of my fondest dreams! However, until that day comes, I will continue to leave no stone unturned and MyHeritage.com is one of many weapons in my arsenal. Click here for the information on the FamilySearch blog.

MyHeritage.com has some awesome tutorials to get you started. To start, click here. YouTube has lots and lots of videos relating to MyHeritage.com.