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FamilySearchFamily Tree Essentials
Find, Take, Teach Series
April 22, 2015
Ben Baker
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My Background
• Over 5 years as a Software Engineer at
FamilySearch
• Currently work on Family Tree, but try to use
all our products
• Have previously given several presentations
going into more detail on several similar
topics. To view/download these
presentations go to
http://www.slideshare.net/bakers84.
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Purpose of FamilySearch
The purpose of the Family History
Department is to help Church members
fulfill their divinely appointed
responsibility to discover their families
and submit their names for temple
ordinances
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3 Great Myths of Family History
My genealogy is done / There is
nothing for me to do
Doing Family History is too hard and
time consuming
Family History is for old people
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Family Tree is “Our Tree”
• Freely available to anyone worldwide
• Reduces duplication of effort
• Increases collaboration to arrive at the best information
• Information added outlives contributors
• Link person profiles to additional information
• More on this topic in my other presentations on SlideShare
We can all go further faster by working together
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Critical Paradigm To Understand –
Part 1Where you can help the most
1. Find your relatives in indexed records and link them to persons in Family Tree
2. Upload photos, stories and documents of your relatives and link them to persons in Family Tree
3. Help index historical records
4. Clean up data in Family Tree
5. Reserve temple ordinances for your family
Family Tree
Digitized Images
Indexed Records
Historical Records (Microfilm and
original documents)
Living Memory
Photos, Stories, Documents, Audio
Completed LDS Temple
Ordinances
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Critical Paradigm To Understand –
Part 2
The best way
to find people who need LDS temple work is
to find people who are NOT in the tree yet
The best way
to find people not in the tree yet is
to find them in a historical record with
someone who is already in the tree
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Record Hints are Awesome!
• Searches indexed records for you
• Will find records based on all information, including maiden and married names
• Often overcomes errors in records
• Only presents high confidence matches
• Exponential increase in sources attached since rollout
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Congratulations!
You have just found someone in a record that is not in the tree
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Use Other “Tree” Views
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Achieving Regular Small Successes
• Look to resolve indicator icons on your relatives• Data Problems
• Record Hints
• Research Suggestions
• Ordinance Icons
• Add any memories you have• Photos
• Documents
• Stories
• Audio
• Try to work from closest to more distant• Start with closest direct ancestors
• Make sure children for direct ancestors are recorded and also have indicator icons resolved
• Move to grandchildren and great-grandchildren of your direct ancestors
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Landscape View
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Portrait Pedigree View
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Fan Chart View
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Descendancy View
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View Memories of Your Relatives
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Scope of Interest
Internal term used to define those persons who
will show up in this section of memories and
also in temple opportunities.
The system is showing you persons four
generations above you along with their spouses
and children. This may be expanded in the
future.
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View My Relationship
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3 Great Myths of Family History
My genealogy is done / There is
nothing for me to do
Doing Family History is too hard and
time consuming
Family History is for old people