THE FAMILY HISTORY GUIDE:
A MAJOR RESOURCE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY
©2018 by Donald R. Snow
This page was last updated 2018-10-08. Return to the
Utah Valley Technology and
Genealogy Group Home Page or
Don
Snow's Class Listings Page .
ABSTRACT: The Family History Guide is the free website http://thefhguide.com/ that is loaded with good and up-to-date information about family history. It is completely free and has lessons, tutorials, classes, projects, links, and detailed information about most aspects of family history. FamilySearch has announced that it is an approved training resource for them and there are links to it on FamilySearch. It was formed and is operated by volunteers who could use donations of time or money, but there is no requirement for either to use it. This class will discuss the website, what it contains, and how to use it. The notes for this class and related articles,
all with active Internet links, are on Don's website http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
.
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
- Instructor is Donald R. Snow of St. George and
Provo, Utah ( snowd@math.byu.edu
).
- These notes, with active Internet links and other
related articles, are posted on Don's website http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
.
- Tips: (1) To put an icon on your desktop
for the URL for these notes, or any webpage, just drag
the icon in front of the address in your browser to
your desktop. (2) To open a link while
keeping your place in the original page, hold down the
Control key while clicking the link so it opens in a
new tab.
- This class will discuss the free family history
educational website The Family History Guide, what it
contains, and how to use it.
WHAT IS THE FAMILY HISTORY GUIDE?
- The FH Guide is a free website at
http://thefhguide.com/
sponsored by The Family History Guide Association ,
a group of volunteers who can always use contributions of expertise or money, but neither
are required for anyone to use the website
- Languages: Note that you can select the language you want, e.g. English, Spanish, etc.
- It is free, even though its file
extension is .com, which usually signals a
commercial website; the first page says, "Your free
learning, research, training, and activities center for
family history."
- Contains a broad collection of introductory and advanced lessons, videos, projects, and training for family history and computer basics; includes genealogy research technizues, basics and advanced, for many countries of the world; also there is a
free newsletter to you keep up to date.
- Their philosophy -- teach you what you want to learn - hence, you can skip the parts you already know or are not interested in
HOME PAGE AND INTRODUCTORY VIDEOS
- Home page has a good 6-minute introductory video: Quick Tour
- FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) -- has the answers to many questions about the site and gives a short overview of it
- The Get Started icon (next to the Quick Tour icon) takes you to several questions asking what you want to do
- Links to more videos and articles further down on the home page
- 16-minute BYU video on YouTube by Ann Tanner about The FH Guide -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIvWRHRIvws&feature=youtu.be
- About (below the Tour and Get Started icons) -- takes you to a long page with lists of projects, lessons, and FAQs
- Use the SEARCH button, if you want information about a specific topic, e.g. there are over 700 articles on FamilySearch Family Tree on the site
- Across the top of the Home page are the following icons with pull-down menus, each with up to 10-15 links: Intro FamilySearch Ancestry MyHeritage FindMyPast Trainers Activities Blog/Social Faiths Countries Vault Tracker Misc
- Click on The Family History Guide icon (upper left corner) to go back to the Home page from any other page
EXAMPLES OF CONTENT AND LESSONS
- COMPUTER BASICS -- if you want a better understanding of how the computer works
- FAMILY HISTORY BASICS -- how to get started in genealogy, things to look for, what to do first, how to keep track of what you have found
- FAMILYSEARCH FAMILY TREE -- how to sign in and use FamilySearch Family Tree
- COUNTRIES AND ETHNIC -- QUIKLinks for states and countries with data from several sources
- ABOUT THE PROJECTS -- for FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FindMyPast
- PROJECT RESOURCES -- information and links to documents, videos, etc.
- DNA -- lessons and projects about DNA
- TRAINER RESOURCES -- helpful for self-training and for helping others, includes Tracker sheets to keep track of what a person is learning and what to do next
- MEDIA -- links and helps to videos and articles
- VAULT -- major collection of miscellaneous helpful items
- CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS -- special information for Church members doing family history
- MISC -- includes How to Contact them, What's New, Quotes, Videos in Spanish and other languages, and more
- WHAT'S NEW -- list of what's been added and when
- TOPICS -- alphabetical listings of topics discussed somewhere in The FH Guide
CONCLUSIONS
- This is a very helpful and extensive website to learn about family history and genealogy .
- Very helpful for trainers to answer questions and help other people learn
Return to Don's
Freeware Corner Page or Don's
Family History Class Notes Page .