Edgewood New Mexico Family History Center/2022 Class Recaps

How to Navigate RootsTech (February 23rd)
Marjorie Kraus spoke to a group of eighteen attendees including eight participating via Zoom about RootsTech 2022, an online conference hosted by FamilySearch that is a collection of over 1000 presentations/sessions about genealogy-related topics, all available online and on demand.

After a quick overview, Kraus demonstrated an interesting feature where you can find out if anyone related to you is registered. What a great way to possibly find more branches on your family tree. She also pointed out that there were over 165,000 people registered for RootsTech from all over the world. She also said that while you are browsing what is available, you can add interesting classes to a Playlist so you can go back later and watch them. This is especially nice since there are always three years' worth of RootsTech classes available, and it is easy to lose track if you don't have a playlist. To see presentations from previous years of RootsTech, do an Internet search on "2021 RootsTech" and "2020 RootsTech".

If I Had Known: Wrong Assumptions About Your Family History (March 23rd)
FHC Director Craig Noorlander spoke to a group of twelve attendees including six virtual participants about wrong assumptions that people have about family history. The two most common wrong assumptions are


 * 1) “I’ve located all my ancestors and have no more work to do,” and
 * 2) “Why do we need the FHC? I can do everything on my home computer.”

Noorlander demonstrated many things that can be added to existing ancestors such as adding events to an individual’s timeline and searching through newspaper articles on newspapers.com (available for free only at the FHC). In the course of searching through these sources, clues to more ancestors will inevitably show up, so one’s family tree is always sprouting new leaves. A class handout showing all of the premium family history websites that can be accessed for free only at the FHC is posted on the FHC website.

Using Censuses to Your Advantage (April 27th)
Fred Turner presented an interesting class on U.S. Censuses to a group of ten attendees including five participating via Zoom.

An important point about censuses is that each one had different questions, so it is important to look at every census to get all the possible information about a family. Before the 1800 census, there was no standard format—only a list of fields. Beginning with the 1800 census, Turner recommended that you print out the blank forms for every census which you can get from www.archives.gov. This will let you see the different questions that were asked as well as help you keep track of what a particular column is if you have scrolled down the page too far to see the column headings. He gave an overview of how the questions have changed over the years. For example, censuses from around the time of the Civil War had questions about slaves owned. From 1790 to 1840, only the name of the head of household was listed. In 1850, names of all people present were recorded. By 1880 the family’s physical address was listed. Regarding the 1890 census, www.census.gov states “Most of the 1890 census’ population schedules were badly damaged by a fire in the Commerce Department Building in January 1921.” In 1940, two random individuals per page were asked a lot of supplementary questions. Also, there used to be separate schedules for veterans with an incredible amount of information on them.

Some general tips: look at the person completing the census, known as the enumerator, because they could be a relative; enumerators originally from Britain labeled all people in school as scholars without differentiating college students from primary or secondary school students; some people from Britain “barred” the letter “T,” causing transcribers to record it is an “F.”

Turner also demonstrated how to add census records to an individual on FamilySearch. You select the individual, then click on “Search.” This pulls up all the resources available for that individual. Then you click on the census record you want and click “Attach.” Other methods for doing this as well as more details about the class will be on a handout that will be posted to the FHC website.

How to Use Google to Your Advantage in Your Family History (May 25th)
On Wednesday, May 25th, Tamne Robinson from the Tijeras Ward presented an interesting class on how to use Google to our advantage in family history searches. There were in-person attendees as well as some participating via Zoom.

Robinson jumped right into an example. She was helping someone who was trying to find more information on a woman. They had a photograph of her with her first husband, and their names were on the back. They also knew the woman’s maiden name and that she may have died in Utah. After much fruitless searching in FamilySearch, Robinson tried searching her husband and found lots of information. In the husband’s obituary, his first wife’s name was listed with a different first name and her new married name. They searched on this name and still could find nothing. Then Melva Jenkins thought that the woman was young enough to have died recently, so now they tried a Google search with the woman’s latest name along with “obituary Utah”. BINGO, they found her obituary which listed her parents with the name that matched her maiden name and some of her children’s last names that matched her first husband’s name. It turns out that after she was divorced, she stopped going by her middle name and switched to her first name. So Robinson suggests switching first and middle names in searches if you are having trouble locating someone.

The rest of the class included examples of different ways to use Google, including how to place quotes and parentheses around words and the use of “OR” and “AND” to selectively search. Her [[Media:EdgewoodFHC Handout Google.pdf|handout]] includes articles that explain in detail how to do this along with many other helpful tips. Robinson also pointed out that there are other Google classifications to search. We are probably used to just searching All, but to narrow your search, try searching under Images, Books, News, Videos, and Maps. Books include any book that has been uploaded. For example, Books include phone directories, and the book The Appraisal Journal lists appraisals of estates and can lead to a will. Maps may include property records. You can also click on Tools, and under Any time you can select a different time range. You can also set up a Google Alert where you will be emailed anytime something is uploaded that meets your parameters.

Robinson also mentioned that she is currently digitizing the Hanlon-Harris cemetery records which will be a significant addition to searches for us East Mountain folks.

Following Your Ancestors Through U.S. Military Records: An Introduction (June 8th)
Bill Barrett presented the first of two classes this month on using military records in genealogy. He also provided extensive handouts of all his slides with commentary which are on the Classes webpage. Be sure to check out these handouts for lots of colorful examples and useful information.

Barrett explained how military records are useful for genealogy. Most of us will have at least one ancestor who served in the military, and several types of military records will have an abundance of information. For example, pension records include the application for a pension which often includes narratives of events during service, marriage certificates, birth records, death certificates, pages from family Bibles, family letters, depositions of witnesses, affidavits, discharge, and other supporting papers.

For more information on using military records, Barrett recommended the Family History Guide website: www.thefhguide.com. He considers this website the best-in-class learning resource for family history in general, but to learn more about military records, follow these steps: From the homepage, select Countries, then United States, and finally ''E. Military 1. Records''.

Newsreels are another source of information, but not always joyful. Barrett told a story about his first cousin who served during World War II. During an amphibious assault at Salerno, his cousin was injured on the beach with what was probably a broken ankle. The event was filmed and featured in one of the many popular newsreels that were shown in movie theaters prior to the main feature. Imagine his mother’s surprise when up on the big screen she suddenly saw her own son lying on a cot on the beach—even before she had been notified that he had been injured!

Fold3: Military and Other Records for Genealogical Research (June 22nd)
Bill Barrett began this class by explaining the unusual term Fold 3: “Traditionally, the third fold in some flag-folding ceremonies honors and remembers veterans for their sacrifice in defending their country and promoting peace in the world.” The Fold3 website was acquired by Ancestry and has a major focus on U.S. military records. Non-military records include Native American records, African-American records, city directories, Social Security Death Index (free), passport applications (1795-1905), and many other types of records. This is a premium website that is free at the Family History Center.

One thing that was popular with the audience was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall feature. Fold3 lets you search by name or zoom in on the wall itself to a name. Selecting a name brings up the person’s military records including when and where they served and how they were killed. Below is a screen shot from the class illustrating this feature.

Barrett explained why Fold3 is such a useful site. “Several websites have good access to military records. FamilySearch and Ancestry, for example, are very good. However, Fold3, with its major focus on military records is, in my opinion, the best single source for military records. The search engine used to be a little difficult to use, but recent improvements make the search feature easy and powerful. You can also browse by war or conflict. A major feature is that you can set up a memorial to honor your veteran ancestor. And many documents and records are exclusively on Fold3. In my own experience, I have found records on Fold3 that I had not found on any other website.”

Make FamilySearch Research Wiki Your Best Friend (July 27th)
Marjorie Kraus presented a fascinating class on July 27th on making the FamilySearch Research Wiki your best friend. There were twelve attendees including three on Zoom.

Kraus began by saying that the FamilySearch Research Wiki is often overlooked as a tool in family history research, noting that people even roll their eyes when she mentions it. To convince us of its usefulness, she first listed the following four common research obstacles:


 * being unaware of what records are available
 * being unaware of how to access records
 * missing records or data
 * limitations on coverage of collections.

Kraus then asserted that the FamilySearch Research Wiki can be your “secret weapon” to help you tackle these obstacles.

To get to the FamilySearch research wiki, go to the FamilySearch website and look for Search on the top menu bar. (If you don’t see it, try selecting Try new homepage features at the top right of the window.) Under the Search menu, click on Research Wiki at the bottom of the list.

The opening screen shows a map of the world labeled by continent. Clicking on a continent brings up a list of countries where you can continue clicking into smaller geographical units such as states or counties. Kraus clicked on Ireland for her example and, instead of selecting a specific county, clicked on Ireland at the top of the list.

The Ireland page listed all the records available including birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records. It also listed some general country and county information. There were also links to guides on how to get started with research, how to find various types of records, and lists of research tools that were available outside the Wiki. Websites followed by ($) cost money to access, although they may be free at your local Family History Center. She switched to other country pages to illustrate the different types of information available specific to that location. Some had general history sections and links to relevant wars and military records. She also clicked the Online Genealogy Records button that listed all the types of records available online by dates.

If you can’t figure out how to access what you’re looking for, Kraus suggested using the Search box. For example, type in “Mayflower” to get a wealth of information on that topic. If you want to start over, click Wiki Home in the left menu bar. You can also click on the Ask the Community button to get help from others or to help others that may have questions you can answer.

Kraus then talked about the problem of missing records. She told a story about her brother who was searching some records and found two pages missing that would have had the information he was looking for. He discovered that when the books were originally scanned, those two pages had been stuck together and subsequently not scanned. He was able to go to the archives and recover those pages. For missing records in general, the Research Wiki pages have entries that alert you if records are missing due to fires, water damage, or even deliberate destruction so you won’t waste time looking for records that don’t exist. You can even get a list of all counties that experienced record losses. She singled out Texas as having a dearth of death records for unknown reasons. For example, in the Coverage Table to the right (graphic coming soon), notice the low to nonexistent deaths in many counties between 1903–1973.

Kraus offered up the following additional bits of information:


 * Be aware that land boundaries can change over time. If you can’t find records in one county, search all the adjoining counties.
 * Look in census records for marriage, death, and birth records.
 * Look into gazetteers for information. These were originally geographical indexes but can vary with the types of information they contain. They were sometimes the forerunners of newspapers that may contain notices of births, marriages, and deaths.

This presentation really opened my eyes about the genealogical records that are available online. One audience member who was new to family history said that she often brings up her Family Tree and just sits in front of the screen not knowing what to do next. She was now fired up after learning about the FamilySearch Research Wiki. To quote Kraus, “It’s amazing! You don’t know what you’re missing!”