FAMILYSEARCH AND OTHER HELPS
©2008 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
This page was last updated 2008-03-17.
Return to the Hyde
Park Family History Centre Home Page or the Events
Page or the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's
Class Listings Page .
WELCOME AND WHAT THIS CLASS IS ALL ABOUT
- Instructors are Elder and Sister Donald R. and Diane
M. Snow of the England London Mission, Hyde Park Family History Centre (snowd@math.byu.edu, dms34@juno.com)
- These notes with active Internet links are posted on the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group website http://uvtagg.org under Class
Outlines , Don's
Listings , and are linked on the Hyde Park Family History
Centre website http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
under Events
. Many other class notes for family history are linked on
both sites also.
- This class is to learn about the the helps available on
http://www.familysearch.org
including the Glossary, Research Publications (Research
Helps and Outlines), Research Guidance, and Using the Family History Library Catalog, plus a few other
genealogy helps.
- Being a good genealogist involves a knowledge of history,
geography, sociology, travel, and many other subjects
- No one can know it all, so
the secret of being a good genealogist is not knowing the answers,
but knowing where to find the answers.
GLOSSARY
- To go to the Glossary on FamilySearch directly click
here or, alternatively,
- For the tutorial Helps With Using the Glossary click
here
- The Glossary gives a list of genealogy and legal
terms and their definitions
- Click on the first letter to jump to that part of the word
list, or
- Type in the first few letters of the word in the search
box and click Find or press Enter
- Click on the word and read the definition
- Example: Find the definition of the word "codicil".
- Type in the letters "cod" and click Find or
press Enter
- It's the top word in that list - read the definition
- Glossary contains foreign genealogy terms, also
RESEARCH OUTLINES
- The Family History Library has written very helpful and
detailed research outlines
- For most of the countries of the western world and all of
the states of the United States and provinces of Canada.
- Format is the same for all of them -- see any one of
them, e.g. England
Research Outline
- Categories are the same as in the Family History Library
Catalog including things like census records, civil registration,
church records, military records, etc..
- To find them go to http://www.familysearch.org/
, Search
, then Research
Helps , then sort by Document Type, and Research Outlines
- If there is a number at the right, it is in printed form
and can be ordered by that number.
- If there is no number at the right, it is only online and
not in printed form.
- Most are in two versions -- the html version (the one you
see online) and a pdf version (portable document format)
- Can save off either version
- html version -- click File/Save As/Web Page Only, and
tell it where to save it
- pdf version -- click on PDF and download
- The pdf version looks and prints out exactly like the
printed version
- Can keep these on your computer and/or print the pages you
want
- html files are read with a browser, e.g. Mozilla Firefox
or Microsoft Internet Explorer
- pdf files are read with free programs like Adobe
Reader (free) and they are every-word searchable, so you
can find information in them very easily
- Useful to help patrons with questions in a Family
History Centre
RESEARCH HELPS
- Click on Search
, then Research
Helps
- Note that the default sorting here of the Research Helps
is by Place
- To sort differently, click on one of the other sorts,
i.e. by Title, by Subject, or by Document Type.
- Click on Sort by Type and note the document types
- Forms -- blank forms such as charts and census headings
- Letter Writing Guides -- how to write genealogy letters
in various languages
- Maps -- maps to download and information on books and
films containing them
- Reference Documents -- historical background, handbooks,
"how to" articles
- Research Outlines -- all the Research Outlines discussed
above
- Resource Guides -- many 4-page research guides and others
- Step-by-Step Guides -- guides to various genealogy
searches and tasks - not available in printed form - can download
the pdf and print it yourself
- Word Lists -- lists of various genealogy words in
different languages
- As with the Research Outlines those with a number at the
right can be purchased in hard copy, but the pdf version is exactly
the same and you can print the parts you want without buying the
entire item
- Note: some research helps are not in the list yet, e.g. go
to the Home page of FamilySearch.org
and click on Jewish
Family History for some new information and helps
- Useful to help patrons with questions in a Family
History Centre
RESEARCH GUIDANCE
- Click on Search
, then Research
Guidance
- Select the location where your ancestor was, e.g. a
country in the world, e.g. England, or a state in the USA
- Note the events shown: Birth, Marriage, Death -- and year
ranges for each of them
- Click on the year range for one of the event, e.g.
Marriage, 1837-Present
- The list shown is the Search Strategy of records to look
in for a marriage in that time period
- Clicking on any of these record types gives information
about that record, where to find it and how to search it.
- These were written by professional genealogists and are
the way they would approach the problem of finding the record for
that event.
- Some procedures can now be done more simply via the
Internet, e.g. http://freebmd.org.uk/
for marriages in England from 1837 to about 1920 (so
far)
- Useful to help patrons with questions in a Family
History Centre
HELPS FOR USING THE FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY CATALOG
OTHER HELPS
AND LINKS
CONCLUSIONS
- The key to being a good genealogist is knowing where to
find the answers, not necessarily knowing all the answers.
- When you have a few minutes, go through some of these
helps.
ASSIGNMENT
- Find the Research Outline for a country or state in which
one of your ancestors lived and note the organization of the file.
The categories are the same as in the FHLC.
- Find a step-by-step guide to solving some genealogy
research question for one of your ancestors.
- Find a map of a country one of your ancestors came from by
using the Map helps.
- Take a look at two of the other sites listed above.
Return to the Hyde
Park Family History Centre Home Page or the Events
Page or the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's
Class Listings Page .