Ben Baker

How to Get More

Involved in Your Family

History Despite

Limited Available Time

Thinking vs. Doing

• According to a 2008 BYU study

– 95.9% of members think that doing

family history is very important

– 84.6% of members spend less than one hour per

month doing family history

• Only 2.6% of adult members have submitted a

name for temple ordinances during the past year

• Find a way to end “Temple Welfare”

Family History Department

Mission Statement

To help church members fulfill their divinely appointed

responsibility to find their families and qualify them for

temple ordinances

Discover people you don’t know about already

Should be doing temple work for your own family

Family History Process Flow

Simple Ways to

Move Your Work Forward

• Indexing

• Family Tree

– Add sources

– Edit bad data

– Flag non-matching duplicate people

• Prototype Method for Prioritizing Relatives

Records Being Added Daily

•Over one million images processed every day

•23% of vault is digitized

•Expect to have all 2.4 million rolls of microfilm

at vault digitized in 3-4 more years

•Over 200 cameras at archives throughout world

Indexing

http://indexing.familysearch.org

Makes it possible to easily find

people in records

Anyone can help

– Can do in short time periods

– Great for youth

– Practice mission language or

learn a new one

Family Tree

• Will replace new.familysearch.org soon

• Public access, not just LDS church members

• Ability to attach sources

• Can edit data/relationships others contributed

• Provide justifications for all changes

http://www.familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab

http://www.familysearch.org/invite/public1

https://familysearch.org/tree-training

Sources

• Links historical documents to people in the tree

Search for Records

Find Relevant Results

https://familysearch.org/blog/familysearch-webinar/

My Source Box

Add Sources To Person in Family Tree

Edit Bad Data

• Edit or delete conclusions and relationships with change history

• Justifications for changes

Possible Duplicates

Merge Duplicates or

Mark Not a Match

For more information, see manual, handouts and webinars at

https://familysearch.org/tree-training

Who is My Family?

“I would invite you to read carefully in the sections in the

Doctrine and Covenants that focus on this sacred

responsibility. And the language that says that you are to

perform these ordinances not for the dead, but for your dead.”

~Elder David A. Bednar

• See Doctrine and Covenants sections 124, 127-128

• Direct Line Ancestors

• Descendants of direct line ancestors and their families

• Probable ancestors (Ex. Same town and surname)

http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/FHD/Local_Support/Consultant/Temple_Policy-Name_Submissions/player.html

Temple Tab

Only useful if you already have already submitted names for the temple

Hunting for Icons

Who are my closest relatives that …

– May already be ready for LDS temple work?

– Have data that needs correcting?

– Have potential historical record matches?

– Are missing sources to document conclusions?

– Are end of line ancestors?

– Have probable unknown children?

– Are not being watched for changes by others?

– Have potential duplicates that should be merged?

– …

Prioritization Scheme Wish Direct Ancestors Collateral Relatives Relatives Through Marriage

Parents

Siblings

Grandparents

Great Grandparents

Spouse

2G Grandparents

Aunts/Uncles

3G Grandparents

4G Grandparents

1st Cousins

5 G Grandparents

Great Aunts/Uncles

Parents-in-law or step-parents

6G Grandparents

7G Grandparents

2G Aunts/Uncles

8G Grandparents

Siblings-in-law

9G Grandparents

Grandparents-in-law

Weighted Relationship Distance

WRD(g, c, m) = α(|g| + 1) eβc eγm

• g – Generational Distance

• c – Collateral Distance

• m – Marriage Distance

• α, β, γ – Weighting Factors

Generational Distance

• Number of generations from base person

• Positive or negative integer

• Examples:

– Father: g = 1

– 2nd Great Grandmother: g = 4

– Child: g = -1

Collateral Distance

• “Horizontal” distance from base person

• Positive integer

• Examples:

– Sibling: c = 1

– 1st Cousin: c = 2

– 4th Cousin 3 Times Removed: c = 5, g = 3

Marriage Distance

• Number of marriages from base person

• Positive multiple of 0.5

• Examples:

– Wife: m = 1

– Brother-in-law: m = 1, c = 1

– Additional wife of great grandfather: m = 0.5, g = 3

Generational Distance Weight

• WRD(g, c, m) = α(|g| + 1) eβc eγm

• G = α(|g| + 1)

• Absolute value to handle negative generational

distance

• α – Weighting factor to apply

• If g ≥ 0 then α = 1 else α = 1.76

• Use of α = -1 for negative values of g

• Generally corresponds to number of

generations – i.e. linear

Collateral Distance Weight

• WRD(g, c, m) = α(|g| + 1) eβc eγm

• C = eβc

• β – Weighting factor to apply, default 1.0

• Exponential as collateral distance increases

Marriage Distance Weight

• WRD(g, c, m) = α(|g| + 1) eβc eγm

• M = eγm

• γ – Weighting factor to apply, default 1.42

• Exponential as marriage distance increases

• Higher default weight causes faster increase

than with collateral distance

Assigning Weights to People g c m G C M WRD

Self 0 0 0 1 1.0 1.0 1.00

Parents 1 0 0 2 1.0 1.0 2.00

Siblings 0 1 0 1 2.7 1.0 2.72

Grandparents 2 0 0 3 1.0 1.0 3.00

Children -1 0 0 3.52 1.0 1.0 3.52

Great Grandparents 3 0 0 4 1.0 1.0 4.00

Spouse 0 0 1 1 1.0 4.1 4.14

2G Grandparents 4 0 0 5 1.0 1.0 5.00

Grandchildren -2 0 0 5.28 1.0 1.0 5.28

Aunts/Uncles (only children of grandparents) 1 1 0 2 2.7 1.0 5.44

3G Grandparents 5 0 0 6 1.0 1.0 6.00

4G Grandparents 6 0 0 7 1.0 1.0 7.00

Great Grandchildren -4 0 0 8.8 1.0 1.0 8.80

1st cousins 0 2 0 1 7.4 1.0 7.39

5G Grandparents 7 0 0 8 1.0 1.0 8.00

Great aunts/uncles (siblings of grandparents) 2 1 0 3 2.7 1.0 8.15

Parents of spouse or other spouse of parent 1 0 1 2 1.0 4.1 8.27

6G Grandparents 8 0 0 9 1.0 1.0 9.00

Nieces/Nephews -1 1 0 3.52 2.7 1.0 9.57

7G Grandparents 9 0 0 10 1.0 1.0 10.00

Other Potential Applications

• “Doneness” of a person’s family’s temple work up

to a specified threshold

• Relationship to a person’s temple card given to you

• Easily view relatives with the same relation to you

(Ex. All siblings of 3G Grandparents)

• Average closeness of all temple name submissions

• Average closest relative needing temple work for

all users

• …

Prototype Demo

Q & A

Images Used • Slide 1

– Right image – https://mediafinder.ldschurch.org/entry/4b26f30d8400488088d3798b81b89a12

– Bottom left image –https://mediafinder.ldschurch.org/entry/e05e8929cd9d4158aa0898a60a55d6d8

• Slide 2

– Top right image – Image from my personal collection (my great-grandfather, grandmother and great-uncle)

– Bottom image – Screenshot I created of a portion of new.familysearch.org

• Slide 4

– Image - Diagram I personally created

• Slide 6

– Bottom left image – https://mediafinder.ldschurch.org/entry/05147849c33340fda426cd3ec79be3f5

– Bottom right image – https://mediafinder.ldschurch.org/entry/7689f631f0f345ac88c835919a79e37f

• Slide 7

– Left image – Screenshot I created from indexing.familysearch.org

• Slide 9

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

• Slide 10

– Top right image – Image from my personal collection (my father)

– Middle image – Screenshot I created of familysearch.org

– Bottom image – Screenshot I created of census record publicly available on familysearch.org

• Slide 11

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

• Slide 12

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org search results

• Slide 13

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

• Slide 14

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

• Slide 15

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

• Slide 16

– Top image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

– Bottom image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

• Slide 18

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org

• Slide 19

– Image – Screenshot I created from familysearch.org