Category: Organization

family-history-guide-front-page

Back in July, while I was still in the long process of moving, I was contacted by Bob Taylor, CEO of the Family History Guide (see image above). He was looking to include information about my blog onto his website as well as interview me on genealogy. In exchange, he wanted me to let my readers know about his website.

Months later, I finally have the chance to type up my review! It took a while to actually go through the website because there is SO MUCH to it! Really, it’s quite an amazing place for beginners in genealogy or anyone who wishes to know more about how to use FamilySearch.org to the best of their ability!

About the Family History Guide

Bob Taylor, the CEO of The Family History Guide (FHG) along with Bob Ives, created this guide for those who feel overwhelmed with all the information out there. With all the websites that offer this and that, many people aren’t sure where to go next. The FHG is there to help guide them. It was presented at RootsTech in 2016 and that introduction helped to place the guide on the portal of the FamilySearch.org website. Although, it is not endorsed or sponsored by the LDS church, it is geared to those using the FamilySearch website for the majority of their genealogy research.

Here is their promotional video to help explain the basic purpose of the FHG:

So a brief run-down of what The Family History Guide has to offer both new and experienced genealogists:

It’s FREE
Step-by-step instructions for several projects (like creating a family tree on FamilySearch, using specific record sets, etc.)
Videos explaining the website and how to use it
Resources for training, children, and other genealogical endeavors
It’s pretty much a site created to help guide a new genealogist on where to go next in their research

In Depth Review

To Begin

Probably one of my favorite items that the FHG offers is a guide on basic computer skills, which I feel may be one of the most overlooked items for those beginning in genealogy. The items covered here are what you would expect really: using the mouse, using the keyboard, keyboard shortcuts, finding things on your desktop, internet basics, etc. It does include information for both a Mac and a PC as well as information on Windows 10.

Then of course, are the Family History Basics. This includes items like: genealogy definitions/terms, genealogy online, family myths, interviewing relatives, building a family tree online, information on several websites including FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, and American Ancestors. It’s a great place for anyone just beginning to start out.

Projects

Once the basics are covered, you can move on to the projects.

fhg-projects

There are eight projects on the Family History Guide and to me it’s the bulk of what the website has to offer everyone. It begins with the project you see above: the family tree. This specifically has to do with building a family tree on FamilySearch.org and the little nuances the site offers.

On the left hand side of the project page, you’ll find several resources. There is a tracking sheet (so you can go as slow or as fast as you wish), topics, the vault, and training (I’ll get into those last three a bit later).

The project is chopped into goals. In the first project there are 14 goals, and they really are a simple, step-by-step process for everything you can do with building a family tree on FamilySearch. It covers navigation, views, finding people on the tree, adding information, adding ancestors, changing information, adding notes, duplicate ancestors, and more.

The rest of the projects follow the same guidelines with goals for each project, a tracker, and resources, etc. The projects are as follows:

Project 2: Memories: This involves organizing and managing the several different kinds of documents (including photos) you already have and will eventually get. It covers gathering them, safeguarding them, organizing them, interviewing relatives, and adding the information in the Memory section on your family tree on FamilySearch.
Project 3: Descendants/Ordinances: If you aren’t an LDS member, then the Descendants part of the project is for you. That part of the project focuses on descendancy research. The Ordinances section focuses more on LDS items, which I am very unfamiliar with.
Project 4: Discover: This is the basics of family history research, which includes creating a focus and a strategy – key things in genealogy research!
Project 5: Indexing: Indexing on FamilySearch is probably one of my favorite things to do! This has all the information you need to get started on helping to index information onto FamilySearch.
Project 6: Help: This includes information on how to get help if you need it as well as how to help others with their genealogy. It also has information on publishing a family history.
Project 7: Tech: This covers several technological items that can help you in genealogy including social media, software, and webinars.
Project 8: DNA: The title says it all! It’s about DNA basics and using it in your research.

Training and Children

Besides all the wonderful information in the projects, the FHG also includes information on getting children involved. It’s a question I hear often in societies, how do we entice younger people to get involved in genealogy, and the site has some wonderful ideas and information for not just younger children but older ones as well.

The Training Section is for use in classroom settings, presentation settings, or one-on-one settings. It includes PowerPoints on using the FHG as well as just good information on how to create and prepare a presentation. It includes resources for tracking your progress, tips and tricks, and an evaluation form you can download.

Topics

The Topics area is really quite vast. It’s listed alphabetically for any topic that you may want to know more about in genealogy. It includes items like adoption, record sets, researching in specific countries/states, immigration, specific ethnic questions (like Jewish genealogy or African American genealogy), and more.

The Vault

Here is where you can find anything discussed in the website. It has all the resources and documents mentioned throughout as well as extra items. A highlight here is to check out the sections dedicated to research in other countries. It’s a great place to look if you’re going into a new area of research!

The Family History Guide Explorer

The Family History Guide Explorer is a newsletter published twice a month. It’s free and goes right to your email as a very colorful and clickable pdf. It holds some great information on what is happening on the website as well as other genealogical news.

The September 1st issue, the fourth one, includes an interview with me! You can find that issue here.

Overview

Overall, this website is large, but very well put-together. You can easily go from project to project, learning more and more about genealogy without being overwhelmed. It has a LOT to offer anyone, no matter the level, but is particularly wonderful for those just beginning. Although the focus is on using the FamilySearch website for the majority of items, because FamilySearch is free, it is likely the most accessible website to anyone wishing to know more about genealogy.

I highly recommend checking out the website and adding it to your genealogy toolbox!

the-family-history-guide

Tuesday’s Tip: Organizing Your Digital Files

By Nichelle Barra

On 12 May 2015

In Organization

There are many different ways to organize your genealogy files and everyone puts their own spin on things to make them individual. To find the best way for you, you need to try them and see what works best for you and that you’d use it. That’s the key – will you actually do this?

For example, I love the idea of color coding ancestors. A new color for every ancestor! Awesome visual! I won’t do it though. I know me. Also, using binders sounds great! I love the idea of a full bookshelf with lots of binders! I was a teacher after all and all my classes had the master lesson plans in binders. However, that’s a bit too expensive at the moment and I have file folders galore and a filing cabinet, so I will use that. What I”m saying here is be practical. If you know you won’t do it, then don’t and find what you will do. There is no perfect system!

Digital files tend to be dealt with oddly in the genealogy world. Probably because we are a world of paper and so many people just keep paper. The problem with that should be obvious – paper doesn’t last. Not that computer files will last forever either, but I’m not thinking that long term here, I’m thinking about those what happens if moments. Heaven forbid we experience such disasters – fire, floods, other forms of destruction that leaves your files ruined. But it can and does happen.

I personally already have all my paper files scanned and in my computer. How long did that take you ask? I won’t lie, it took a whole summer of spending a good chunk of my day, every day, scanning and filing the scan away. However, now I have a backup for my paper files!

How do I organize that? Simply put, the same way I organize my paper files:

Each hanging folder is a surname
In each hanging folder there is a manila folder with a specific person and the files are there
All joint papers (census records, marriage records, etc.) are with the head of household or husband
Woman are filed under their maiden names once known and with husbands until then

Simple. So, in my computer I have a file folder named Genealogy. In that folder it looks like this:

It’s just like my hanging files then – a surname. In each folder it will look like this, just like what my manila folders look like (that’s their death date following the name):

In each of those folders, I have images of scanned records or records I’ve downloaded as I’ve found them. Each image also has the citation on it. I’ve either written it on the paper before I scanned the item, or I used photo editing software (Picasa for example, which is free) to type it in:

You can adjust the margins too on certain software programs if there isn’t enough room like the above to type it in.

My advice for digital scanning – start now and take a simple route. File it the same way as if it were paper so you don’t get confused and be consistent. I created a word document called “Style Guide” and I use that to remind me how I file and what I call each file among other things.

You can always just start scanning in what you get now at the very least – begin right this moment! I use a scanner wand (something like this ) to scan in documents but if you already have a regular scanner, that works too. Mine happens to be portable, which makes it nice when I go to a library or archive that will let me use my scanner. For photos, I go to my library to scan them and that’s a whole different blog post (the scanner wand doesn’t do photos justice like a regular scanner would).

Either way, start now! Then slowly take a chunk of your paper files and do a stack once a week, once a month, whatever. But it’s important to start!

And then… don’t forget to back up your computer files (another blog post!) 🙂

Do you have a system you love and wish to share? Comment below!

Happy organizing 🙂

Category: Organization

The Family History Guide – Resource for Beginners

Tuesday’s Tip: Organizing Your Digital Files