Tools for using family tree/Search

This page is designed to allow users to share helpful hints they use while working in Familysearch or Family tree.

Links to Family Tree training videos and lesson
If you click Get Help and then choose Learning Center you come to all the training videos, but then you have to search for Family Tree, Family Tree training, or Family Tree curriculum to get the videos. Here is a wiki site that lists all of these. It is easier to choose what you want to learn about.

familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Training_for_FamilySearch_Family_Tree The following includes a link to the training Family Search Family Tree missionaries use. It is maintained by one of those missionaries and is not an official church site.

broadcast.lds.org/elearning/fhd/Community/en/FamilyTreeCurriculum/index.html

This blog explains ways to correct common mistakes
https://familysearch.org/blog/en/common-mistakes-family-tree-data

An explanation of the one tag one person philosophy of the designers of Family Tree.
Many genealogists are used to creating one source for a record and then simply editing the page number and attaching it to individuals. Since one page might contain from five to one hundred people, many might have the same source. The designers of family tree have a different vision. They want each person and each record to be specifically linked to each other. This takes advantage of some of the powerful aspects of a computer. Here is an explanation in one designer's words.

1) The FamilySearch system is person centric. We expose links to images and to persons. There is no link exposed to a birth certificate. Each person on the birth certificate will have their own link and each person on the certificate should be linked individually to the correct person in the Family Tree. This is true for all records. If you find the head of household on a census record, you will see listed all of the people in that household that he has a relationship with. Their names will be links to their records in the census. Please do not link the head of household's record to every person he is related to. Linking a person in the record to a person in the tree is the method you use to tell the system that these two people are the same.

2) If you link the indexed source for a person record in a collection to the Family Tree you get the image (if there is one) and collection information for free. These are associated with the person records.

The following explains how to accomplish this.

1. From the person page, click on the Search Records button. Choose a record. If there is only one name indexed in that source proceed as normal. (Click on Attach to My Tree and attach the record to your ancestor.) There may also be a father, mother, spouse, or child or other relative indexed in blue on the page. Click on the blue link for one of those other people. Now the page will change to show the title of the source with their name in it. Now click on Attach to My Tree and attach this record to the individual. So attach the father to the father, mother to mother, child to child, etc. Note that records for spouses can be attached to the marriage record which is a layer deeper than the person page. Click on Edit Couple to find this layer.

Tips for organizing temple work
You can sort the temple list at the top of the page next to the legend is the "sort by date" and a drop down arrow that allows you to sort by name. Unfortunately it sorts by given name and not surname. But it is better than no sort at all. The other thing that is available is cntrl-F which will allow you to search for any name in the list. This can be useful if you are trying to find a single record.

Save a copy of your FOR's. Then put them in folders by who you sent them to. Then when you know the work is complete, you can delete the file.

Tree Connect
You can download this tool which allows sourcing from non-FS Internet sites, taking the information from books, Ancestry.com, the Pioneer Overland travel database, wikipedia, findagrave, and on and on. Visit the site below. Drag the applet to your bookmarks toolbar. When you find a site you want to connect, make sure FamilySearch is open and click the button. Tree Connect creates a Source template amd fills it in automatically. http://recordseek.com/

Research History
Create a google doc to use wherever you have access to a computer. Use this to record what you have done researching an ancestor. You can include: where you have looked, what failed to yield results, what you found, what other places you should search, or what you need to do. You could organize your document using those titles or by surname. In fact, you might want to create a seperate document for each surname. You could then go to source box, and create a folder possibly named tools. Use the create a source to link your google doc to the source box in that folder. If you wanted you could then attach a page with a surname to a family. Then others would know what you have already tried.

Links to other sites
Create another google doc that has links to sites you frequently use or that you don't have time to read now. Bookmarks would also do this. However google docs can be shared with other family members or even be made public to all users.

Uses for Sourcebox
Both of the above uses involve Google Doc's however if you are not familiar with Google Doc use many of the same things and more can be done by creating your own sources in your Sourcebox and using folders to organize the types of sources is great. (Note currently you are limited to 50 folders and there no sub-folders)

Research logs
You can use the notes section of a source similar to a google doc. I will advise however because of the open edit nature of sources attached to persons anyone could edit your notes so if you want to share the research log I would use an online document like a google doc or a blog. However for personal use just leaving it in your sourcebox unattached to someone is great. (Though discussions might be even better than sources for this use see below)

Recording Useful Links
In addtion you can create a folder and create sources for links to useful sites like findagrave.com, mocavo.com or createfan.com. By having these as source links in your sourcebox it acts like a favorites bar but the same favorites are on any computer you use as long as you are logged into Family Search and go to your sourcebox.

Saved Searches
Much like the useful links you can use the URL (web address line) of any search results you perform on most any search engine to perform the search over again at a later date without having to remember what parameters you used. Just copy the address line from the search results as the link and create a source for it. Store these sources in a folder for saved searches. You can even record your results in the notes field of the source each time you use it. This can be very useful for those searches that produce very few results so that you can repeat them every so often as new stuff is added all the time. You can even do that with searches here on FamilySearch. (Though some search results require you to login)

To Do Lists.
If you are having trouble remembering where you were or you find something you simply don't have time to complete you can create a source in your sourcebox and use the notes for to do items. Other uses of this same type are to record link to a microfilm description you may want to order. Or copy the link to a person who you may want to do some work on. (The history navigation works for this too but you might not remember who it was when you look at the list).

Clean Copies
Due to the open edit nature of sources that are created by users and even the notes fields on FamilySearch supplied sources it is probably good to make a copy of a source before you attach it to an ancestor because it is difficult to track when someone else may have made an edit to a source. Leave these clean copies unattached in a folder.

Master Sources
See note above if all names on a source record are indexed. If all names are not indexed on the source you should keep a "Master" source unattached. Store it in your source box and copy it editing it for the individual person and then attach it to only one person or if the source is for a couple to the couple relationship.

1001 uses
As you can see anything you can link to can be made into a source and the notes field can be very helpful for keeping track of the reasons for things.

Use of Discussions
Due to the open edit nature of sources I find that using discussions for things can have a better effect because only a data admin or the originator of a discussion can remove them from a person and only a data admin or the poster of comments can edit any information in the individual comments. FamilySearch has stated that discussions were not meant to be permanent records and were expected to be removed over time however until such useful tools as research logs and other less open edit features can be added I see them as a good place to hold items that help back up Sources, etc. Here are some suggestions of discussions that I like to put on my ancestors by default.

Help Us Find:
Post a description of the discussion as a place for people to talk about information or even physical items that are of interest about the ancestor but have to date cannot be located. Then use comments for the items you want to look for.

Research Log:
Post a description of the discussion as a way to record what search activities and results you've performed on this ancestor. Add a new comment about your search and results. Start by recording the results of a duplicates search.

Attached Source Notes:
Post a description of the discussion as a way to record notes about sources that can not be inadvertantly removed by others edits. Then [bracket] the source name in a comment and add your notes here often giving even more detailed description. This also serves as a buffer against someone detaching a source and an indicator to look for it in the change log.

Using Stories and Photos/Documents
Stories Using Stories for some of the features of research logs or even for recording personal interviews (either formal or memories) are also a great way to document an ancestor. Future enhancements of FamilySearch will allow these stories to become sources as well.

Photos/Documents

You can upload photos(or other images including documents) as further evidence of your ancestors. Future enhancements to these tools will allow you to separate photos from documents and create sources from them. You can even organize these images into albums and attach them to stories. If you have a document in a foreign language, you can upload a scanned copy as a photo. Then link the translation as a story.