2022 - The Year in Review

On the eve of 2023, I figured I would look back on my accomplishments and some of what I consider as the important events that happened in the genealogy world over the last year.  

After two years of Covid and virtual events, we were finally able to have genealogy events in person. The two years of virtual events did give us a great opportunity to participate in presentations beyond our usual area and it gave many organizations the opportunity to reach out to a broader audience. I spoke at 22 events during the year. Many of the local events were in-person while several international events were virtual. 

I was able to present at the Spring, Summer and Winter sessions of The Genealogy Show in the UK. My topics included Mapping Your Roots - Adding Maps to Your Analysis, Building the Story by Adding Newspapers, The Family History Guide, and Technology Trends in Family History. 

One of the biggest events was the second year of virtual RootsTech. In 2022, there were an estimated 3 million people who attended or were able to view the more than 1,500 presentations in over 30 languages. I presented four topics at the virtual RootsTech. The presentations included Discovering Online Dutch Archives, Discovering Online French Archives, Discovering Online German Archives, and a live panel discussion Building Community Context with Family History.

The Sandy Granite Family History Center in Sandy, Utah invited me to present several topics during their online classes. The topics that I presented were How Technology is Increasing Our Access to Archives, Mining the Census Records to Write Your Family Story, and Thinking Outside the Box. 

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Connecticut invited me to present Using Google Maps to Create Projects. That presentation focused on how genealogical data can be presented in map form.

I attended one in-person conference during 2022, the Martin County Family History Fair, where I presented three topics. The topics were Adding Maps to Your Analysis, The Future of FamilySearch, and Building the Story by Adding Newspapers. However, after speaking for three straight hours I lost my voice for about a week and was unable to speak at work. I'm sure some people were happy for that.

I was also able to speak at a virtual event in Kingston, Jamaica where I presented two topics: The Family History Guide and FamilySearch Indexing.

One sad note is that 2022 was the last year of me leading the German Genealogy Interest Group for Indian River County Genealogical Society. We decided to close out the group this year after I had led the discussions for several years. To replace this group, I will be leading the newly formed FamilySearch Genealogy Interest Group beginning in 2023. This group will still be virtual and is available for all members of the Indian River Genealogical Society to attend.

I started teaching a family history class at the Indian River Youth Guidance Academy this year. We had a handful of students attend the after-school program where we helped them learn basic family history skills including interviewing, timeline development, and online research. The students presented their findings in December and were able to show each other what they learned about their families. This class will likely be an annual class each fall.

At the end of 2021 and early 2022, I was working on compiling the stories of WW II veterans from around Minster, Ohio. I added the information to FamilySearch Memories for those that I was able to find and I wrote stories about those that were my relatives on my blog at http://ourancestories.blogspot.com. 

In 2022, I changed my focus a bit and began working on several projects to add families from Auglaize, Darke, Mercer, and Shelby counties in Ohio to FamilySearch. One of the projects was the 5-a-Day Project from BYU Linking Labs. This project sends you an email with five record hints each day that you can use to add sources to families or add new people to families on FamilySearch. The second project that I worked on was from Goldie May. Goldie May is a free app that you can add to your web browser. They have a volunteer project where you can select records by location or surname and then add them to FamilySearch. I also worked on records through the BYU Linking Lab's Map App. This app allows you to select records on a map and add them to FamilySearch. Another project that I participated in was the Family Bible Preservation Project. The goal of that project is to attach family bible records to people on FamilySearch. Many of these bibles have been rescued from thrift stores, flea markets, or garage sales and their records may be important to someone's family history research. All of that work in 2022 led to me adding nearly 25,200 new bits of information on FamilySearch. That total consisted of nearly 1,900 new individual profiles, nearly 1,000 Memories, and over 22,300 sources.

I also continued my work as the Education Director for The Family History Guide. I presented information about The Family History Guide at six venues and mentioned it in another dozen talks over the year. The Family History Guide has continued to grow and provide resources to help make your family history research easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable.

What do I think were the big news items in the genealogy world in 2022? Well, the biggest was probably the release of the 1950 US Census and the combination of human and computer aided indexing. Many of us participated in this this process which made the records of over 150 million people listed in the 1950 US Census searchable on multiple platforms, including FamilySearch, within a short period of time.

The 1921 United Kingdom Census was also a big item for 2022. The 1921 UK Census contains almosrt 38 million names and is now available on FindMyPast. Basic searches are free but you will need a subscription to view the images.

MyHeritage Time Machine

MyHeritage released the AI Time Machine. You can upload several photographs of yourself or anyone and then let the Time Machine convert them into photos from various time periods. I enjoyed playing with this app and created several hundred images of myself through time. I wrote about the app recently on my blog.   

Of course I have to talk about the FamilySearch milestones during 2022. The FamilySearch FamilyTree now has 1.46 billion people with 2.48 billion sources attached. Users now have access to 16.88 billion searchable names and records. The digital library has expanded to include over 555,000 digital books from 17 partner libraries. And the FamilySearch Wiki reached 100,000 research articles in 2022. All of this new information is availale to users for free!

We can expect another great year in family history research for 2023!

RootsTech 2023 will be a hybrid conference with both in-person and virtual opportunites. I am again a RootsTech Influencer and will be offering a chance to win a free ticket to Rootstech (a $98 value) in January. You can learn more about RootsTech 2023 and register for it on their website. 

After a 2-year hiatus, I will be coordinating and hosting the 4th Annual Indian River Genealogy Conference on March 25th. We have a great list of speakers lined up and the conference theme is Connecting to Ancestors Through Family History. We have a variety of door prizes which we will be giving out at the conference along with some special deals that we will publicize online. Keep an eye open and maybe you will find those deals at the end of February.

I am taking a three week family history trip to Germany with my son and about 50 other relatives this fall. We are planning on visiting the villages, churches, and homes of our ancestors.

What else is to come? I am sure we will see some big news from the major genealogy companies around RootsTech. I will be posting as many of these announcements as I can so keep checking back.

As we end 2022 and look forward to 2023, I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2023!

Giving Back to Your Community Through Family History

 As family historians, much of our work is to record the history of our families and try to tell the stories of our ancestors. Some of us have specialized in specific parts of our research such as DNA, photographs, or home histories. Through all of our research we have found new cousins who are thankful for the work that we have done recording these stories. But much of the information we use originates as a result of work by others. Those people, the ones who do indexing, record burial places, and provide access to the various records that we use, are the angels that we don't always recognize. There are many ways that we can give back to our community through participating in the preservation of information and making it available to others. I have participated in many of these projects and have created a few of my own over the years.

Some of the easiest projects to find are indexing or transcription of records. There are many indexing projects available online and with the isolation and closure of many repositories due to COVID-19, many more are making their records available to indexers. Here are just a few examples:

FamilySearch Indexing is the standard for indexing records. FamilySearch has a wide variety of records available for indexing in many different languages. They really need your help if you are able to read other languages. There are several interesting projects available which you can participate in. This year is the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote in the United States. As part of this centennial event, FamilySearch is providing more voting records that need indexing. Additionally, they have released a large number of city directories from around the US. Some of these city directories have up to 300 names per page. FamilySearch Indexing allows you to create groups where you can work with your genealogical society, church group, or any other organization to index records together. All of the records indexed on FamilySearch are freely available to researchers.

Zooniverse is a crowd sourcing platform where organizations and researchers can place their projects for citizen volunteers to participate in. There are a variety of projects posted there including some record indexing projects. One indexing project that they are hosting is the American World War I Burial Cards Project. This project helps to record the burial locations of over 78,000 American soldiers from WW I. The Every Name Counts Project is an attempt to record the names of the millions of people who were held prisoner or killed in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The ANZACS Project works to record the stories of the men and women from New Zealand who served during WW I. Another project, the Criminal Characters Project, tells the story of the English criminals who were sent to Australia as punishment.

This period of social distancing has also made archives rethink their operating plans. Many archives have allowed their staff to work from home digitizing documents and preparing them for online access. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has a Citizen Archivist Project where the public can help transcribe some of the many records held by the archive.

The Library and Archives of Canada has a similar project where volunteers can help record information so other researchers can use that information to discover their ancestor's stories.

Many states have also provided projects for volunteers to help record information. The Ohio Memory Project has their Ohio Memory Transcriptions Project where volunteers can work on several projects including the Toledoans in WW II, the Warren G. Harding Collection, and the Ohio History Collection. Search for your state to see if they also have projects.

We all need time outside to get exercise and just relax. Many of us have participated in FindAGrave and BillionGraves projects over the years. Both of these have their own mobile apps: FindAGrave app, BillionGraves app. You can see which cemeteries in your area still need burials recorded and spend a few hours in the fresh air, getting some exercise, and helping others find information on their ancestors.

BYU Linking Labs also has a variety of projects. These projects are developed by students at BYU to test many of the most advanced technologies such as handwriting recognition software. Assisting with these projects not only helps index records but is also used to develop more accurate computer algorithms. A list of their projects can be found on their Projects Page. Their African-American Families and Customized Geo Hints Projects allow you to search in a specific area or surname and attach records to their families in FamilySearch. The Automated Indexing Project uses a computer algorithm to select similar information such as surnames or cause of death. This is an easy way to index records by selecting choices that match the record you see on the screen and letting the computer program know if any of the words are not correctly matched.

There are also projects that individuals are working on to make more records available. The Family Bible Preservation Project is one such project. This project has over 5,000 pages, many of them from family bibles, which have been digitized and saved to FamilySearch Memories. Volunteers can select pages and attach them to the people on FamilySearch. Many of these family bibles have been separated from their families and found in various places such as online auctions, flea markets, antique shops, and yard sales. Without this project, many of these families would never know that there was a family bible with their ancestor's information.

You can even start your own projects. Over the years, I have purchased old photographs at antique sales and have attached them to their records in FamilySearch. Imagine doing your research and finding a picture of your great-great grandmother already attached to her profile. My current project is reading the stories in my hometown newspaper and connecting them to people from the community. My current focus is connecting stories about individuals during WW II. Some of these stories are about furlough visits, their letters, injuries, or missing or killed in action.

All of these activities are available for volunteers to participate in to make more records available to researchers. I don't always have time to contribute to these projects but last month I was able to index over 1,000 records for FamilySearch. Even if you only have a few minutes to participate in these projects, the records you contribute could be the one that someone has been looking for to break down their brick wall.

Family History Scavenger Hunt - Day 18

Overview & Purpose

We all love scavenger hunts, hunting for the clues and discovering new things. This scavenger hunt will occur daily during the month of June.

The clues will be posted each evening on the Indian River Genealogy Conference Facebook page (www.facebook.com/IRGConf), Friends of Vero Beach Family History Center Facebook group (www.facebook.com/159642411143167) and the genealogy blog at https://milesgenealogy.blogspot.com/.

The tasks will introduce you to a variety of online sources and help you learn new research sites and how to use them effectively to discover your ancestors.

Join in the fun, discover new sites, and learn how to research on sites that you may have never used before. 

Answers will be submitted using a Google Form found at https://forms.gle/M5RhkTGPB7jxXpEPA.    

Today’s Challenge

We are now on Day #18. I hope you were able to find some useful information yesterday exploring The Family History Guide (https://www.thefhguide.com/), a training site for family history researchers. Today we will explore the Catalog of FamilySearch.org.

Hint

The Search function on FamilySearch.org provides several ways to search for information. You can search the Records, Images, Family Tree, Genealogies, Catalog, Books, and the Wiki.

Questions

1. Search the Catalog on FamilySearch for Film/Fische Number 1030759. What is the title of Item #3 on this film?
2. Click on the camera icon for Film #1030759. Item #3 starts on image 392/479. What are the names and ages of the three siblings who were admitted on October 22, 1888?
3. Using the same film, find Bert McKee who was admitted on October 15, 1895. When did he leave the institution and what was the reason he left?
4. Search the Catalog for Gainesville, Florida. Find the yearbooks. What school’s yearbooks are online at FamilySearch?
5. Search the Genealogies on FamilySearch. How many individuals are listed in the International Genealogical Index (IGI)?

Bonus Points (Optional)

• Search Books for the “West Florida Rebellion”. For how long was West Florida a free and independent nation?

Action

Answers will be submitted using a Google Form (https://forms.gle/M5RhkTGPB7jxXpEPA).  I will provide the answers to all who have completed the scavenger hunt by 8:00 pm EST on June 18.  Even though we no longer have any prizes, I hope that you will continue to participate and invite your friends to join in the fun.

Answers

Family History Scavenger Hunt - Day 10

Overview & Purpose

We all love scavenger hunts, hunting for the clues and discovering new things. This scavenger hunt will occur during the month of June and will include daily prizes for a lucky winner who gets all the answers correct in the allotted time.

The clues will be posted each morning on the Indian River Genealogy Conference Facebook page (www.facebook.com/IRGConf), Friends of Vero Beach Family History Center Facebook group (www.facebook.com/159642411143167) and the genealogy blog at https://milesgenealogy.blogspot.com/.

The tasks will introduce you to a variety of online sources and help you learn new research sites and how to use them effectively to discover your ancestors. Those who get the answers correct will be entered into the daily drawing for prizes.

Join in the fun, discover new sites, and learn how to research on sites that you may have never used before.

Answers will be submitted using a Google Form found at https://forms.gle/Gm274RwaG4hgwMxj7.   
Today’s Challenge

Did you know that there are over 4 billion (yes - BILLION) images on FamilySearch that have not yet been indexed? So, how do you find these records? Under Search choose Images or visit directly with https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/. You can see how quickly images are being added to the FamilySearch database. In the search field, look for records from Vero Beach, Indian River, Florida. Select the first record set (it should say Journal, 45 images). This is the NewsBank collection of obituaries from the Vero Beach Press Journal.

Questions

1. Select image #1. Who’s obituary is this?
2. Select image #16. What cemetery was this person buried in?
3. Select image #27. What was the occupation of this person?
4. Select image #34. What company did this person work for?
5. Select image #36. What city was this person born in? 

Bonus Points (Optional)

• Go back out to the results page and go to the set of images with 304 images. This should be for the year 1999. Go to image 304. What is the claim to fame for this person?

Hints

These records are not indexed and the record types may vary so you might have to explore many different sets when you research your own area.

Action

Answers will be submitted using a Google Form (https://forms.gle/Gm274RwaG4hgwMxj7).  All answers received before 8:00 pm EST on June 10 will be considered for today’s prize which is a 1-year subscription to Internet Genealogy Magazine.

Answers

What’s New In FamilySearch 2019-2020

Did you know that FamilySearch International, formerly known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2019 and that the FamilySearch website is now 20 years old? It seems like just yesterday (1999) when FamilySearch.org first opened its website to fanfare and a rush of users and then promptly crashed due to the unexpected stampede of enthusiastic genealogists. During all those years, FamilySearch has been an innovator and leader in the genealogy world, transforming the way we do family history research while providing access to billions of records.

So, what happened in 2019? First of all, the number of registered users for the FamilySearch website grew by over 2 million from 11.8 million in 2018, to 13.9 million in 2019. Those users contributed 72 million new individuals and 262.5 million sources to the Family Tree. In addition to that, the users contributed more than 8.75 million photos, stories, documents, and recordings from their own collections to the Memories in Family Tree. FamilySearch also did its part by adding more than 123 million name-searchable records and another 832.5 million new record images to their collection. All of these sources and records help to build and prove the relationships between people and contribute to “The Story of You”, the theme for RootsTech 2020, through encouraging people to discover who they are by bridging the gap between the past and future.  

Beyond just adding records, FamilySearch also provided some upgrades and improvements to their website. One of these additions was the long awaited ability to edit indexed names for some records. This allowed the users to correct indexing errors as well as errors in original documents by editing the names. Future improvements in editing, expected in 2020, will allow for dates and places to be editable.

There were also some additions to the ways families are presented in the Family Tree. Now, same sex marriages can be added as well as indicating “no marriage” and “no children” events between couples. These will help reduce the number of notifications and research tips users receive.

We are all grateful for the work done by others, whether that be indexers or fellow researchers, to help build our family trees. Now, we are able to express our thanks. When viewing the indexed information for a record you will see a box in the lower left indicating that the record was indexed by a volunteer. You can then click on “Thank the volunteer” and send them a short message. Also, occasionally, you may see a popup which informs you of the top contributors in your family line and provides a way to thank them for their work.

Another new feature is the ability to see how you are related to a contributor. Many times we get messages from other users asking how we are related to the family. Now they can just click on the contributors name and see that connection, if the contributor has their relationship indicator turned on. This can be found in your user profile, just click the box to turn it on.

Also, new advancements in computer learning are pushing the boundaries of technology. BYU Linking Labs is working on several huge projects. One is the Community Reconstitution Project. This project works to reconstitute communities (groups of people, populations of towns or counties, etc.) by pulling names from record sets. Another is the Census Tree Project. They presented this project at RootsTech 2019. The project links the 188 million people that lived in the US between 1900 and 1940 across the census records. In my opinion, the most amazing project they are working on currently is the Automated Indexing Project. This project provides the technology necessary to automatically index records, including handwritten records. They recently completed indexing the 122 million people in the 1930 US Census and are also working on the 1940 US Census and Ohio death records. Volunteers can help teach the AI computers by using the app located at bit.ly/rll-index. 

These are just a few of the many updates in FamilySearch during 2019 but what can we expect in 2020? Well, we should see improvements in the merging features. Some of us have already seen this improvements as it was tested with random users last fall. There will be new ways for us to manage and share our Memories. We will be able to better track our contributions to the Family Tree, and there will be an increase in our ability to find new records. The Explore Images tool will open up new digitized records within days of the records being collected. 2020 will be another groundbreaking year in family history research at FamilySearch.

To read more details about these improvements visit the following pages:

FamilySearch 2019 Genealogy Highlights

FamilySearch Updates Enhance Your Experience

See How You Are elated to Other Users - FamilySearch Update

What to Expect from FamilySearch in 2020

What's Coming to FamilySearch in 2020

BYU Linking Labs Projects

BYU RLL Hints App

BYU Record Linking Labs Facebook Page

RootsTech London 2019 - Day 3 - October 26, 2019

Day three of RootsTech London is over and everyone is getting ready to head home but it was a great three days of genealogy. Yesterday I spent my day attending German classes. Today I attended FamilySearch classes.

The first class I attended was FamilySearch's Helpful Hidden Tools by Darris Williams. He discussed some of the things many of us might overlook while using FamilySearch. One of the things he talked about was the map of England Jurisdictions in 1851. This map shows county, parish, civil registration, diocese and many other boundaries of England at that time. This map can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/mapp. This is a great tool for those who are researching English ancestors. He also pointed out that there are many genealogies on FamilySearch including the IGI which can provide important hints. They are also beginning to add Affiliate Library pages to the FamilySearch Wiki. If you know of an affiliate library let them know that they can build their own page. Instructions can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/FamilySearch_Wiki:WikiProject_Creating_an_Affiliate_Library_Page. Did you know that there are now over 97,000 pages in the Wiki? Those pages are important resources that can help you discover how to research an area or topic. Then there is the Guided Research page which steps you through the process of your research. You go from page to page by selecting the appropriate response and at the end you should have a list of potential sites that will help you do the specific research. The Guided Research page begins at https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Guided_Research_for_Online_Records. These are some great new tools that we should all try.

My wife and her 12th cousin, Donny Osmond

After that class we went to the main auditorium to watch Donny Osmond discuss his family history and perform a few of his hits. The women went wild! He is an incredible performer and his stories were inspiring.

The second presentation I attended was What is FamilySearch? by David Rencher. David provided some good information on the history of FamilySearch, from its beginnings as the Genealogical Society of Utah back in 1894 to the international presence of FamilySearch today. They started indexing in 1927, microfilming records in 1938, and opened the Granite Mountain Vault in 1963. In 1998, they began using digital cameras to record new records, with over 300 cameras in the field. In 2004 they began digitizing more than 2.4 million microfilm rolls and in 2007 they put the first digital collections online. The first version of FamilySearch was released online in 1999 and the current iteration was released in 2013. So what can we now find online at FamilySearch? They now have over 7.4 billion searchable names and over 3.1 billion images, along with over 423,000 digital books.

The third class that I attended was Use an Ancestor's FAN Club to Get Past Brick Walls by Drew Smith, one of the Genealogy Guys. He provided several examples of how expanding your research to the Family, Associates and Neighbors (FAN) can increase your chances for success in researching elusive ancestors.

My wife and I talking to Dan Debenham

We also spent some time in the Expo Hall today. We were able to talk to Dan Debenham from BYU TV's Relative Race. We had a great conversation about the production of Relative Race.

The final event of the night was a fireside with Elder Bednar and his wife talking about family history.

Overall, this was another successful RootsTech prepared by FamilySearch. I am looking forward to the 10th anniversary of RootsTech Salt Lake in 2020.

RootsTech 2019 - Saturday - 2 March

Last Day of RootsTech

Well, RootsTech 2019 is now over. It was a great week and the crews did a wonderful job of keeping everything running. Since I was speaking today I decided to take it easy on the classes and try to get a few things done before I left.

Today I attended a joint class by FamilySearch and The Family History Guide called Discover, Gather and Connect Your Family Together. This presentation focused on activities we can do with our families and others to encourage family history. It has been found that children with a knowledge of their family history have greater self confidence, self worth, sense of identity and belonging, and can handle stress better. As they learn about their ancestors they gain a better understanding of their world and the trials and celebrations that have come before them.

Elder Bradley D. Foster said "We want everyone to have that discovery experience, because that is what changes their hearts."

So, how do we get our families excited about family history? FamilySearch and The Family History Guide have provided a variety of activity videos to help us. FamilySearch's activities can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/discovery. The list of activities on The Family History Guide can be found at https://www.thefhguide.com/act-index.html. These activities are designed to be age appropriate and suited to any size family, from the individual up to multiple generations. Families can do simple activities such as recording their ancestor's recipes at https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/recipes. Or they can take on more complex projects such as recreating a part of an ancestor's life (https://www.thefhguide.com/blog/creating-ancestor-connections-fun-ideas-from-the-family-history-guide-childrens-activities-section). Check out the activities pages and see which ones are designed for your family.

I also attended the BYU Family History lunch. The presenter talked about the Family History program at BYU and some of the innovative projects the students are working on. These projects included the Tree Sweeper and Virtual Family Tree. Information about their projects can be found at https://fhtl.byu.edu. They also discussed the Family History degree program and the conferences and webinars they produce.

Tear down of RootsTech 2019

My talk on the Tour of Online European Archives went well. I had good attendance considering the location of the classroom and it being the last class session of the conference. The audience had lots of questions about their favorite archives and seemed to be genuinely interested in the topic.

Now the crews are taking down the conference and getting ready for the next event. We will all have to wait another year for RootsTech 2020 which will be held on February 26-29. I hope to see my friends, both new and old, there next year.

RootsTech 2019 - Thursday - 28 February

Are these your ancestors?

Hi there, day two of RootsTech is now over. It was another busy day and I am going on only 4 hours sleep (time change problem). So, what happened today? I spent more time in the Expo Hall today talking to vendors and seeing what new things were available. I also ran into these guys in the picture. I wonder if they are related to me?

My first class was New FamilySearch Record Innovations. This class discussed how records will be changing over the coming years. One thing they discussed was indexing. Last year there were 260 million records indexed by 327,696 indexers. In 2019, researchers will be able to thank the indexers for the records they worked on. Each indexed record will be linked to the indexers and arbitrator that worked on that record and there will be a Thank You button which the researcher can click to send a message to the indexers and arbitrator. This will probably be released sometime around July/August. Also, later this year, indexers will be able to take advantage of automatic name and place lookups. Names and place names will automatically be filled in as the indexer types the information for the record. This is currently in final testing. Additionally, there will be new ways to volunteer so that more indexers will be available to handle the increased number of digitized records. If you remember from my post yesterday, we are currently 40 years behind in indexing and each year enough new records are digitized to add another decade to the backlog. That means by the end of 2020 we will have a 60 year backlog of digitized images needing to be indexed. Another new item is that users will be able to edit records in the record details screen of the search results. This will start with being able to correct errors in names but will eventually expand to include places and other fields.

And what about all those unindexed records? There are currently 3.65 billion images available on FamilySearch. 1.36 billion of those images are browse only while 915.4 million of them are in the Family History Catalog. Only about 20% of the total number of images are indexed and that percentage is decreasing every year as new records are added. Currently it takes an average of 249 days for an image to go from digitization to being published on the FamilySearch website. Soon that time lag will be decreased to only 24 hours. Imagine that the images are scanned one day and available online the next day.

Explore Historical Images beta site

FamilySearch is now beta testing the Explore Historical Images function. This page allows you to search by place, date, event or film number and will provide a list of images not yet searchable or browseable through the regular FamilySearch website. As an example, I took the screenshot of the results for Auglaize County, Ohio. There ended up being 93 record sets for this area that are not yet available on FamilySearch but I can see them here and search through the tens of thousands of new images.

Additionally, FamilySearch again reiterated their work with computer aided indexing. The computers aren't as accurate as human indexers but they can more quickly index large numbers of typed records. The example of the GenealogyBank Obituary Collection only taking 3 weeks to provide 50 million indexed records was discussed and they also announced plans to add another 38 million more records very soon.

Ancestry Labs beta projects

The General Session featured Ancestry.com and some of their big news. Ancestry announced that they currently have more than 15 million people in their DNA network and they announced the release of DNA ThruLines in beta this week. This is another way to look at your DNA results and see connections between people. They also announced MyTreeTags which allows users to tag information to highlight details or tag for future research. These products can be accessed at https://www.ancestry.com/beta. Ancestry also announced several new expansion areas including 12 new state vital record collections, expanded US immigration/naturalization collections, expanded US WW II draft card collection, the world's largest obituary collection (newspapers.com), global expansion by adding more records for Denmark, France, Finland, Mexico and Norway, and 94 new African American DNA Communities.

Patricia Heaton, from Everybody Loves Raymond, finished off the General Session by talking about her family and the stories around them.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

I attended the Ancestry sponsored lunch where Henry Louis Gates, Jr. spoke about a short film project called Railroad Ties. Railroad Ties was based on the story of the underground railroad and more specifically the escape of Mary Weems from slavery. The story revolved around 6 strangers and how genealogy research was able to connect them all to this event. If you want to see the story you can go to https://www.ancestry.com/cs/railroadties.

I thought Henry Louis Gates, Jr. made some very profound statements during this discussion.  He said "One of the biggest misconceptions today is the idea of racial purity." The average African American is 25% European. He himself is 50% European based on his DNA. Even European Americans are mixed ethnicity, having portions of their DNA represented in several different countries. He also said "We are all united in our amnesia of our ancestors." At one time he thought the lack of knowledge of ones ancestors was specific to African Americans. He believed that they didn't know about their ancestors because of the impact of slavery but after researching the genealogies of various people for his TV shows, he realized that we all have a lack of knowledge that basically begins with our great grandparents lives. We have very little concept of who our ancestors were beginning only 3 generations ago. He believes that "Genealogy can revolutionize how we teach American and World History." If we realized how our ancestors were involved in history or affected by it, we would have a greater appreciation for the history that we study in schools.

As always, there was so much to learn today that I can't provide everything in just one blog. If you want to see some of the talks that were given this week, you can visit the RootsTech YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/FamilySearch/videos. I hope this information is helpful to you. Now, it is time for me to get some sleep because tomorrow is another packed day.  Goodnight!

RootsTech 2019 - Wednesday - 27 February

Crowds gathering for the first day of RootsTech 2019

Wow! Day one done at RootsTech 2019. Another great day of genealogy and networking down and the crews and volunteers have been doing a wonderful job keeping everything going. So, what did I learn today and how will it affect your genealogy research in the future?

First of all, I attended the Access and Preservation sessions this morning. These sessions were developed to help archivists learn more about what various archives are doing to make their records more available and useful to the public. David Carmichael, archivist for Pennsylvania, commented that archivists know what they do but many don't know why they do it. They need to talk more with the users to see how the materials they have in their archives are being used and hear the stories those records provide, not just know that they have so many linear feet of records on a particular subject. Mr. Carmichael also discussed the different problems they experience with storing digital records versus the physical records. Many archives have records that are several hundred years old but often have difficulty maintaining digital records in a usable format over the period of a few decades. Back in the 1980's his archive scanned many of their collections in a digital format developed by IBM but that format is no longer supported. Luckily they had maintained their physical collections and could scan them in a more modern format. Now they store their records in PDF-A format which is an archival pdf format and should last for the foreseeable future. Another problem they have today is that many modern records have never had a physical presence. These records, such as e-mails and digital photography, have only been digital. Several positive features of digital archives is that they can be monetized and there are companies that are producing digital records for the marketplace at a rapid pace. Additionally, digital records allow cooperative efforts and virtual communities to develop. Groups of people can get involved by providing and indexing collections that might not have been available otherwise.

Joe Price of the BYU Linking Lab discussed several projects his students are working on. One project is working with computer AI to learn handwriting recognition. The billions of digital records that are currently available can be compared with what humans have indexed so the computers can begin to learn to recognize the handwriting patterns. Another project is using these large record databases to begin statistical analysis of communities or groups of people for scientific studies. This moves the records that we think of as genealogy records into a new realm of users which may provide us more insight into their lives. For example, they are taking the 1850-1940 census information and the computers are linking them together into a census tree to follow people and their migration patterns. This analysis can follow individual families across the range of census records and also link them to other records such as school yearbooks and directories to gather more information. They are now linking records from the major genealogy databases to build the stories of individuals. This helps to find people who are not yet in FamilySearch's Family Tree through Tree Extending Hints. One example of this is a webpage called the Social Networks and Archival Context (http://snaccooperative.org).

The third talk in the Archives and Preservation series was from Kris Rcepzynski, archivist for Michigan. He talked about the seekingmichigan.org website and how their partnership with FamilySearch has provided increased access to various Michigan records. This website is undergoing a major facelift and will re-emerge later this year as michiganology.org. They are currently working on putting up county probate records as well as county naturalization records. They currently have naturalization records for 70 out of the 83 Michigan counties online.

During lunch I attended the FamilySearch talk. They discussed the three major problems they are experiencing.
1) My country's records are not a priority. - Priorities are being set by the number of requests they have gotten for various records. Some areas have very few requests and are therefore lower on the priority list.
2) There is a backlog for indexing records. - The current backlog is 40 years. By the end of 2019 the backlog will be 50 years and by the end of 2020 it will be 60 years. This is due to the large number of new records that are being digitized. We either need to find a way to increase the number of indexers from the 300,000 we currently have or find a new way to index records.
3) We aren't getting records fast enough to avoid loss. - Every year more records are lost due to various reasons. There just aren't enough crews out there indexing these at risk documents to avoid losing some.

So, what is FamilySearch doing to address these problems? Imagine is everyone, from individuals to public archives, had the ability to upload any documents they have and those records could be processed, indexed and published all within 24 hours. That would provide unlimited record access and allow communities to work together to preserve their own sets of records. This is happening in several test areas now. Another advancement is the ability of computers to perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of not just typed documents but also handwritten ones. Last year in a test of the computer's abilities they were able to OCR 50 million obituaries in only 3 weeks. This is now the GenealogyBank Obituary Collection we find on FamilySearch. They were able to use the Amazon servers to perform this task in record time. Now FamilySearch users are able to go in and fix indexing errors from this test. They are also working on a new image search process where the computer will estimate where a record should be in an unindexed collection of digital images based on the information you put in the search process. This will save countless hours of searching image after image trying to find your ancestor. Once you find the proper record you can attach it to the person as a source and index it right there.

Martin Luther King III speaking live at RootsTech

In other news, tonight Elder David A. Bednar announced a $2 million contribution to the International African American Museum. This money will be used to construct the Center for Family History which will be part of the museum in Charleston, South Carolina. The Church and FamilySearch have been major partners in the development of this museum and will continue to support its mission of providing a source of education about the period of slavery and life after slavery. Martin Luther King III also spoke about the importance of everyone, but especially African Americans, being able to discover their roots.

Devon Noel Lee interviewing me at RootsTech

FindMyPast announced several big items. One is that the Catholic records from the Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia and Liverpool Diocese are now available on their site. They also discussed their acquisition of RootsFinder and their partnership with Living DNA. These partnerships, along with their exclusive rights to the digital UK 1951 Census collection make it one of the best sites for researching your English and Irish ancestors.

What else happened? Well, I was interviewed by Devon Noel Lee for her Family History Fanatics YouTube channel. We discussed doing research in the European archives. I also manned a table with several of my fellow members of the Second Life Virtual Genealogical Society. We were talking about the benefits of becoming a member of SLVGS to people who came by. All in all, it was a very productive day and I learned some new things about the genealogy world. But now it is time to get ready for some sleep so I can do this all again tomorrow. Good night all.

SLVGS crew manning a table at RootsTech

A New Year - A New Commitment?

It's the start of another year and we all will be making our New Year's Resolutions at midnight tonight. But before I make new resolutions, I want to look back on those that I made at the beginning of 2018 and see how I did. In 2018, I resolved to do a better job blogging. Well, I managed to write 13 posts last year - equal to what I wrote in 2017. Another resolution I made was to increase my genealogy speaking opportunities. 2018 was a great year for speaking, I managed to present at almost 30 events during the year, covering most of the east coast of Florida from West Palm Beach to Amelia Island. Other resolutions that I made related to my health. I resolved to make a better effort of exercising and eating right. During 2018 I lost a total of 40 pounds and now weigh the same I did back in college when I was an athlete on the University's crew team. My running has improved as well as my endurance. Not bad for a 50-year old (wow, when did that happen?).

So, what do I resolve to do in 2019? Mainly keep doing more of what I did in 2018. I already have nearly 20 events scheduled in 2019, including a talk at RootsTech 2019 in Salt Lake City. I have been joking that my talk is the last hour of the last day in the last room at the end of the hallway, but at least I am speaking. I also want to write more in my blog(s) but there are so many other things going on. I will continue to plan and promote our local Indian River Genealogy Conference, speak at a variety of events, and maintain an active social media presence where I have provided information to many people helping them to do their research. So, maybe I will convert more of my talks to blog posts or use the information from the social media posts to provide more details on specific resources. - We'll just have to see what happens.

Have you thought about your resolutions? Or maybe you have decided you don't want to make specific plans for the new year. Even if you aren't into resolutions, the list below may give you some ideas on how to fit in more genealogy time or help others with their research.

1) FamilySearch - Take 15 minutes each day to connect a new source to your tree or if you have more time, search through unindexed digital images for your ancestors and connect the records to the individuals.

2) FamilyTree app - Have you downloaded the FamilyTree app on your phone or tablet? The app lets you work on your research anytime you have a free couple minutes. Maybe you have to wait in a doctor's office or pick the kids up from school. Use those minutes to add records to your tree or add more relatives.

3) Memories app - Do you have a box of old photos (or maybe recent photos) of deceased ancestors? Why not use the Memories app to copy the pictures and attach them to individuals in your FamilySearch family tree? It doesn't take very much time to copy a handful of pictures and you can tag them later when you have more time.

4) Billion Graves app - Do you live near a cemetery? Are you looking for an excuse to get outside and enjoy a nice walk? The Billion Graves app allows you to take photos of headstones and geo-references them so they can be mapped on the Billion Graves website. Once you take the photos they are uploaded to the site and others can transcribe them. If you aren't able to get out, you can help transcribe the images that others have collected.

5) Findagrave app - Findagrave.com also has an app that will upload the photos you take in a cemetery.

6) Index records - FamilySearch has hundreds of thousands of images that need to be indexed so others can find them through the search process. Once the records are indexed and reviewed, they become available to search and also provide hints for records on FamilySearch. It usually takes less than 30 minutes to complete a batch of images. Some images take much less time. There are many other indexing projects going on beside those at FamilySearch, so find one and participate. The more records that are made available, the more research we can successfully do.

7) Help plan a conference - Oh boy, that is a big task. I have initiated two different conferences over the last 10 years. These take months of planning but they also allow you to get to know others with your interest better. Both of the conferences I started required cooperation between the Family History Center and our local genealogical societies. One conference is now in its 9th year while the other is preparing for its 3rd conference. We have about 250 people attend each of these events. You don't have to start that big. You can start small with a church group or other organization and see how it goes. I have planning materials available that I can send out to anyone who is interested. This is a great way to get more people interested in our addiction.

So what are you planning on doing in 2019?

RootsTech 2018 - Day 2

Thursday at RootsTech found me focusing on FamilySearch and MyHeritage programs. Each one of them was presenting upcoming improvements and advancements that are planned for this year.

FamilySearch is focusing on connecting with your family through ways to share experiences and stories on their website. When people were asked what information they intend to share about themselves for future generations many answered with things such as birth certificates and other vital records. However, when asked what they wish their ancestors had shared they talked about stories and experiences. So FamilySearch is working on ways to encourage people to share those stories.

The FamilySearch Family Tree is growing rapidly. Currently FamilySearch has over 1.18 billion individuals included in their tree.  They are adding about 3.8 million new individuals each month. Of those 1.18 billion individuals, 915 million have at least one source attached to them and 5 million new sources are being attached each month. That means that there are now 1.28 billion attached sources in the Family Tree. FamilySearch's record collections are also increasing rapidly. They currently have 6.2 billion searchable records and 1.25 billion historical images, with 271 million new indexed records being added during 2017. Users are also adding their own records with 24 million items currently in the Memories section.

Some additional items were added to the user interface of FamilySearch during 2017. These include items such as additional generations being added to the Recommended Tasks section. These recommended tasks now suggest tasks for 7 generations back and 2 generations forward from the user. The indexing now has migrated to a fully web based interface. FamilyTree Lite was released and is now available in 15 languages. The upload restrictions in Memories have been loosened somewhat for living people with tags of living people only being visible to the contributor, but the images are still publicly viewable. Users can now import images from their social media accounts and from Google Drive Photos. Deleted memories remain in the basket for 120 days so you can retrieve them if they are accidentally deleted. And the Map My Ancestors function now allows you to see the places of origin for multiple generations of your ancestors.

During 2017, FamilySearch stopped sending out microfilm. This has allowed FamilySearch to focus on acquisition of new records. They have prioritized the acquisition of important and endangered records. Once the records are digitized by field teams they are sent to FamilySearch for review and are posted within 24 hours of having been received.

In 2018, FamilySearch is expecting to release some major improvements. One improvement is related to the unindexed records. The program will make an estimate of the location on a given set of images where your search results are most likely to occur. This is based on certain search parameters, such as range of years or alphabetical order of names. Also, they are working on improved performance. Under a new initiative they have already reduced the size of pages from 300 MB to 800 K. This means that pages should load substantially faster. They are also working on releasing the shared projects and areas so multiple family members can work on living individuals together. Other items will make it easier to work in the mobile environment. For example, the pages will be scalable from mobile to large screen formats and you will be able to open multiple windows in the mobile environment.

So, what is coming up for MyHeritage? Well, they announced today the release of DNA Quest. DNA Quest is designed to aid adoptees in finding their birth families. MyHeritage will donate 15,000 DNA kits across the US. Adoptees interested in participating in this project have until April 30 to register at www.dnaquest.org. If selected, individuals should receive their kits sometime by the later part of May. The program will provide research assistance as well as emotional support for participants. These DNA kits will be added to the 1.25 million kits that MyHeritage currently has in their database and searched for relationships.

MyHeritage also announced a major addition for LDS members. They have released the beta version of Tree Sync with FamilySearch. This will make it easier to sync your family data across the two platforms.

This week, MyHeritage will add an additional 300 million new records to their data set. These new records include the 1939 UK Register including 33 million records, 2 million Canadian obituaries, and 280 million records from over 253,000 US Yearbooks published between 1890 and 1979.

Coming soon, MyHeritage will change their tree view to allow for it to be viewed in a pedigree format and will make maiden names more prominent. They are also working on ways to integrate genealogy and genetics more closely. MyHeritage is also working on a project they call "The Big Tree" which combines all records and data on MyHeritage into a related database with over 10 billion nodes. This "Big Tree" will be recalculated daily to keep it current with new data and changes made in their system. This will help them to develop their "Theory of Family Relativity". This theory will take all of the data available (records, trees, DNA, etc.) and produce the most logical relationship path between individuals. It will use all the data on MyHeritage, Geni and FamilySearch to calculate how they are related.

On Friday, we will see the release of the One-to-Many Chromosome Browser on MyHeritage. This browser will allow users to compare up to 7 individual DNA sets with their own DNA. It will illustrate common DNA segments between these individuals.

Many of the new items on MyHeritage relate to their DNA analysis. A recent survey indicated that 78% of Germans were not aware of personal DNA tests and only 9% knew about MyHeritage. Only 3% were aware of Ancestry.com. Based on this survey, MyHeritage has taken steps to improve education about DNA within the European countries in the hope that many more will be willing to provide samples and hopefully connect to their American relatives.

There are many changes and new advancements coming to the users of these sites over the next year. My hope is that these will all advance the practice of genealogy and introduce more people to their relatives.

Central Florida Family History Conference - 2017 - Morning Session

Well, I finally did it. I managed to fit the Central Florida Family History Conference into my schedule and went this year. It was their 21st annual conference, but the first time I have attended. In the past, I was teaching at the University on Saturdays and couldn't just tell the students they had the day off. Now that we have moved and I am no longer teaching, it felt like a good time to go. So, I decided to provide some info for all my Family History Consultants and followers on what I learned at this conference.

The Keynote speaker was Crista Cowan - "The Barefoot Genealogist". For those who don't follow her, she works for Ancestry and produces educational videos for the Ancestry YouTube Channel. Her Keynote talk was about Ancestry and some of it's resources. She discussed her history with the company including her days as a representative travelling between the US and London trying to get contracts for records, her time in the indexing program, and now her time in the DNA and education arenas where she helps do research for several of the genealogy television shows. Currently, Ancestry has over 22 billion records and is adding about 2 million records each day. Most of the indexing is contracted out but some is completed by indexing projects. The biggest aid in adding new records to Ancestry is the advancement of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which allows computers to index typed pages such as newspapers and directories. These OCR records are being added at an ever increasing rate as the accuracy of the technology has advanced. She also discussed the ProGenealogists program at Ancestry.  This is a small group of about 100 professional genealogists who can be contracted to help you break down your brick walls.

Jim Greene, from FamilySearch, was the first talk that I attended. His presentation was on What's New and What's Coming with FamilySearch. I always try to attend these types of talks so I can get ready for where FamilySearch is going in the next year or two. So, for the What's New part, Jim talked about the record collections that were added in 2016. The rate of use of FamilySearch continues to increase and during 2016 the users were adding 2.7 million new individuals each month. The largest connected tree has over a billion names and then there are many smaller bushes, as he calls them. These smaller bushes are those trees which haven't yet connected to the larger tree. Users are attaching 8 million sources each month. I'm sure I am a big part of those sources being attached because that is basically all that I do now. I just run up and down my tree making sure as many sources are connected as possible and adding new people based on those sources. The total number of individuals that are connected to trees on FamilySearch is now over 1.14 billion with 733 million sources attached. Another thing that happened was the decommissioning of new.familysearch.org (nFS). If you have been using FamilySearch for many years you probably remember this transitional program that eventually was replaced by the current FamilySearch interface. There were several issues with nFS that needed to be worked out in development, such as Individuals of Unusual Size (IOUS) who could not be merged due to capacity issues. For those techies out there, the transition from nFS, which was an Oracle system, to the current FamilySearch, a Casandra system, is a major leap in computing power. Another thing that was added is the "View My Relationship" function. I use this all the time to make sure I haven't strolled too far off my family tree (which I do way too often). I just wish they had the relationship spelled out so you know if you were working on a 3rd cousin 4 times removed instead of having to figure it out from the tree they show you. Don't get me wrong, I really like the tree that pops up, I just want the relationship added at the bottom, or somewhere. Another advancement is FamilySearch Lite. FamilySearch Lite is built for low bandwidth access. This is great for areas where broadband doesn't exist or for those with limited data plans on their phones. For example, the opening screen once you log in to FamilySearch is normally about 3 MB in size. With FamilySearch Lite, that same page is about 30 K. That is a huge difference. Jim also talked about the Relatives Around Me function on the FamilySearch App. This function shows you everyone within a 50 foot radius of you who has the app activated and then shows you how you are related (if you are). There were a few people in the audience with the app so we all turned it on to see what we found. The person behind me found that he was related to 3 of them. Of course, I was related to no one, as usual.

So, what is coming for FamilySearch in 2018? They are working on improving the Private portion of FamilySearch. The private area is a secure database, not connected to the public portion, where all the data on living people are housed. Currently, you can only attach one source to a living person. That will change so you can fully source and add memories to living people. This allows you to tell their story while they are still living. Once they die, they are transferred to the public data set with all their sources and memories attached. Also, you will be able to share private data with those you invite, such as family members, so they can work on the living lines together. This will allow for Group Messaging, Shared Memories, Shared To-Do List, and a Group Activity Feed, so you can coordinate your research with family members. All this private information will remain protected on the secure server to protect people's privacy. Another advancement will be the notifications if someone changes information you added. With these notifications you will know when any information that you have contributed has been changed. This is different than the Watch List that lets you know if anything on a person you are watching is changed, whether you contributed it or not.

The last speaker I attended during the morning session was Crista Cowan. Her presentation was titled Using Your Ancestry DNA Results to Make New Family Discoveries. I have been using Ancestry DNA for a couple years now and figured I might be able to learn something from the professional on this. Her introduction on Ancestry DNA started with sorting the data by the most recent so you can track who has been added since the last time you were online. You can find this at the top of the DNA Match page under the title text where it says "Sort by: Relationship/Date". She also mentioned how to add notes to the information (look for the small piece of paper icon on the person's individual page). These were great hints on how to keep track of what is in your DNA Matches. Also, clicking on the small dark circle with the i in it after the person's relationship provides you the DNA match information. That information can be translated by using some of the DANA relationship tables online, such as the ones on Blaine Bettinger's blog. Your list of DNA Matches is sorted by the size of the matching DNA, the number of matched centiMorgans. So, those at the top of each relationship section are your highest matches and those toward the bottom are less closely related. Crista mentioned that she has a good collection of YouTube videos on the AncestryDNA channel. Another great tip she provided was the Shared Matches screen which shows the matches that are connected to you and the person you are looking at. This can help you determine if the matches are on your maternal or paternal line if you have additional close family DNA results. For example, I have both my parents tested and my wife has her mother tested. If any of our parents show up as shared matches we know the side of the family they are connected to.

Well, I don't want to overwhelm everyone so I will stop here and continue with the afternoon session in my next post. Hope you enjoy this post and have learned something.

FamilySearch Indexing - Zoning Pilot Project

Ok, I know what you are thinking - Why can't he write on a regular basis like all the other bloggers? The answer is - I don't know. I love to write but I seem to only be able to do it when I get inspired, and then sometimes when I am inspired I don't have the time to focus. So, a few weeks ago I was waiting for my wife in a parking lot, listening to NPR. The program that was on was from The Millennial Podcast titled Nothing to Lose. That show talked about how the host began her podcast and the challenges she faced trying to find her inspiration. It inspired me to think about writing again (that was over a month ago). I had some great ideas but then just never was able to allocate the time to seriously sit down and write. I thought about writing down my ideas, I had many, but that just passed by without being pursued. So, this week when I had a few free hours, I sat down and started a new pilot indexing project for FamilySearch called Zoning. This was a fun project where volunteers view newspaper pages and block out stories with marriage, birth and death information. In the first day I completed over 670 zones in newspapers from Raleigh, North Carolina. I decided that this would be a good story to provide since this such a new project.

So, let's discuss a bit about indexing to start with. Anyone can volunteer to index the records that have already been digitized. To learn more about indexing visit the FamilySearch Indexing webpage. The indexing projects are moving ahead and more records are being made searchable each month. With the success of the indexing program and the addition of more digitized images online there has been a decrease in the need for microfilms to be sent out. Additionally, the cost of copying microfilms has increased substantially over the years. Many of you have probably read that the Family History Library will stop sending out microfilm records at the end of this week (September 7, 2017). The reason they are ending the microfilm rental process is that many of the films are now available online and they believe almost all of them should be available over the next three years, around 2020. Just to point out the major accomplishments achieved already in digitizing microfilm records, think about the following:

• Almost all of the microfilms rented by patrons in the past 5 years have now been digitized.
• Over 1.5 million microfilms (1.5 billion images) are now available online.
• Microfilms are being digitized at the rate of 1,000 rolls per day.
• Images that have not been indexed are available in the FamilySearch Catalog.

So, why is Zoning important? Zoning serves as the first step in indexing newspaper records. The zoners highlight the regions of each newspaper page that contain marriage, birth and death information that will be useful in our family history research. There are sets of key words that the zoners look for such as adoption, birthday, anniversary, divorce, engagement, estate, obituary, probate, etc.

If you are interested in signing up for the Zoning pilot project click here. Once your request has been approved and you are signed up you can begin zoning.

FamilySearch Zoning Pilot Project - initial view

Each batch consists of five newspaper pages that may or may not contain important information. As you read the page, looking for the key words, you begin to note which articles are subject to zoning. Currently the only events that are being zoned are those that contain birth, marriage or death information. 

Page after it has been Zoned for marriage information

The page above has several articles pertaining to marriage events such as engagements, anniversaries, announcements and marriages. Marriage information is highlighted in orange and the areas in blue are stories that are stitched together over several columns.

Page after it has been Zoned for death information

The page above has several articles pertaining to deaths. These stories are highlighted in green. Also, if you look at the side bar there is a page with a large red X on it. That indicates that there are no stories with birth, marriage, or death information. The large black circles indicate that those pages have been zoned.

Once you have zoned all the pages you can submit them and go on to zone more batches. This project is important for future indexing in that it provides the articles which will be added to the newspaper records.

I know some people have been having trouble indexing records, either because of the difficulty reading them or because of other reasons. This Zoning pilot project is an easy way for those who are having trouble contributing to the Indexing project to provide new records to the FamilySearch records.

RootsTech 2017 - Day 3

RootsTech has been great so far and today was no different (except the weather turned rainy and cold).

The General Session this morning started with Ben Bennet from FindMyPast talking about their new collections. In 2016, FindMyPast released the beginning of the US Marriage Record Collection. Their goal is to provide more than 100  million marriage records with over 450 million indexed names. That would be the largest collection of US marriage records for any site available today. Currently, they have over 70 million records available for search and expect the remainder to be released in the next couple months. Additionally, FindMyPast has acquired Twile. Twile is a tool that allows you to visualize your family history timeline. Twile recently came out with a family infographic using your data from FamilySearch.

My Family Infographic from Twile

What else does FindMyPast have in store for 2017? During the FindMyPast lunch they announced one of the most important releases in 2017 will be their partnership with the Catholic Church for the release of the Catholic Heritage Archive. The Catholic records for Ireland (7.6 million records) were released first with Scotland and the UK following soon. The US Catholic records will be released by archdiocese. The first US archdiocese, Philadelphia was released today. Several others, including Baltimore, New York, and Cincinnati will be released later this year. I am looking forward to the Cincinnati release since it will hopefully have many of my Ohio ancestors.

LeVar Burton, Geordi LeForge from Star Trek TNG, gave a very emotional talk to open the conference today. He emphasized the importance of having good role models as we grow up. He talked about his mother and how she, as a single mother raising children, worked to better herself by being the first person in her family to get a college degree and by working several jobs to make sure they had what they needed to succeed. LeVar also discussed his role in Roots and how the mini-series changed the way we see ourselves. At the end of his presentation, FamilySearch presented him with his family history and talked about some of the significant finds they discovered. LeVar was deeply touched by the stories they presented and there wasn't a dry eye in the convention center.

I also attended a question and answer session with the senior executives from FamilySearch where we learned about the direction FamilySearch is headed. I asked them if they were considering being able to include DNA results in their system. They said that was something they were investigating. Another thing that they mentioned was that they were taking a conservative approach to privacy issues and that their stance on this was beyond what the other companies had as policies. Some records are not being released because of the potential for privacy issues and they are looking at ways to handle living people in the system, to make it more useful without exposing private information to the world. Their customer support continues to be one of the best in the world with over 2,000 support missionaries handling over 1 million requests during 2016.

FamilySearch is concentrating on increasing their records availability. They are prioritizing their content acquisition to include high risk and vitally important records but have the ability to loan out smaller capture kits to groups so they can digitize their own collections. FamilySearch is focusing on developing partnerships to assist them in records acquisitions and are looking at some nontraditional partners to help develop some areas like their recipe collection. So, how quickly are the records being digitized? Well, about 50% of the vault records are now complete. They expect the remaining records to be complete in only a couple years and as new digitizing technology becomes available they will be able to increase the speed at which they release records. They are working on better OCR and AI technology so that computers will be able to index more records. Using these improved technologies they were able to index 26 million obituaries last year without the need for indexers. This allows the indexers to focus on more difficult records. Additionally, they are working on new partnerships with newspapers to include their collections.

The FamilySearch user base is expanding from the predominantly English speaking regions to more Latin American users but the hinting is still focused on English records. They also have seen a 40% increase in the use by youth, including Primary age children (under 12 years old).

All of these advancements will provide new resources for us to research our family histories and learn more about each and every one of our ancestors.

And, to finish off the day, MyHeritage had their After Party. This is a great opportunity for us to network and discuss various things. And just in case you thought genealogists were boring old ladies, that would be wrong. One of the most popular activities at the party was the karaoke stage. The music ranged from 80's rock to rap. Everyone had a great time.

They announced the dates for RootsTech 2018 as February 28 - March 3. That is a little later than usual and will probably require some other local conferences to rearrange their schedules but I don't plan on missing it.

One more day of RootsTech 2017 left and then I can head home and get some sleep.