Pinterest for family history

I stumbled across this post today about creating an ancestor timeline on Pinterest and it hit me. Pinterest a great place to save sources!

I know I should keep a research log, but it's so boring. A research log is basically taking notes while you're researching so that you can go back and figure out what you found out and where you found it. It makes total sense because as soon as you find one thing about someone it opens up all kinds of other possibilities. But it also kills momentum. You find something exciting and the first thing you have to do is write it down? Buzz kill. That's where Pinterest comes in. Pinning something never kills momentum.

It's like an online research log with links to what you've found. It only takes a second to hit the pin it button (you can add the pin it button to your browser here) and add a quick description and then you have a saved link back to the source you found. The description could be as simple as the ancestor's name or it could include more details.

You could have a board for each person, one board for all of your genealogy stuff, or - and this is what I'm going to do - a board for each great-grandparent and just put stuff for that whole family line all jumbled together in there. It could be private or public and you can send the whole board or individual pins to your other family members. You could even have a shared board so that you can collaborate with the other family genealogists whether they live 10 minutes away or in another country.

Several of the genealogy sites I use have a "save source" option, but I use more than one genealogy site and sometimes I just use Google. Pinterest is a great place to save records from a variety of sites.

Well, it's been nice chatting, but I think I'll get started.

Update: Sometimes genealogy pages don't have images to pin to Pinterest. Try looking for another extension for your browser to solve this problem. The one I found for Chrome is called "Pin my Screen" and it just takes a screen shot of the page for Pinterest to pin. Here's the link.

Why do members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints do baptisms for the dead?

First of all, these are vicarious baptisms we are talking about. There is no exhuming bodies involved. And secondly, when we do these baptisms and other ordinances we do so in hope that they will be accepted by the spirit of the person for whom they are performed. We do not think that we are forcing these people to be baptized. We are merely offering them the choice.

There is evidence for vicarious baptisms in the Bible. Paul speaks of it in 1 Corinthians 15. He uses the fact that vicarious baptisms were being performed to prove the resurrection. Verse 29 says, "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" Basically, he says, "What's the point of vicarious baptisms if there is no resurrection?" I agree. There would be no point. 

But why would we do such a thing? It all comes down to families.

Julie B. Beck said, "Without the family, there is no plan; there is no reason for mortal life." Teaching the Doctrine of the Family, Ensign, March 2011.

Heavenly Father has a plan for us and that plan centers on families. The whole point of us coming to earth is to live and learn in families to become like God and then ultimately live with our family again after we die. That's why the earth would be cursed if Elijah didn't turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers (Malachi 4:5-6). The earth would be utterly wasted if families could not be together in the eternities (D&C 138:48). 

In order for our families to be together with God we must make covenants and partake in ordinances. To enter the kingdom of heaven we have to be baptized (John 3:5). So in order for our families to be together with God, we must all be baptized.

There are several ordinances that we perform for the dead along with baptism. They are the same ordinances that members of the Church perform for themselves when they are alive. We only perform ordinances for the dead for people who did not have these ordinances when they were alive.

Most of the ordinances are individual, like baptism, but the last and most important ordinance seals families together for eternity. The sealing ordinance binds generations together and allows us to live with God as a family.

We do baptisms for the dead because we want to be with our ancestors after we die. We love them. We want them to be saved. We want to seal them to us so that we can be connected to them through God's power.

Family history work allows us to become connected to our ancestors through ordinances and through knowledge. You wouldn't think that finding a death record about someone would make you feel like you know them but it does! God could just reveal our entire genealogy to us if He wanted to, but I think working to find out more about our ancestors is important for us. It turns our hearts to them. 

10 things you do that are way harder than searching for records on Ancestry

1. Upload a picture onto Facebook.

2. Find a video someone told you about on Youtube.

3. Download songs onto ITunes and put them on an IPod or a CD.

4. Buy concert tickets.

5. Find something you want to buy on Craigslist or Kijiji.

6. Watch TV online.

7. Get your phone or your computer connected to Wifi.

8. Use a universal remote.

9. Vote for American Idol.

10. Add a new contact in your phone.

When was the last time you asked someone for help figuring out a website? Family history websites are meant to be easy to use. You navigate websites successfully every day. If you want help with family history it should be easy to find, but you probably don't need it as much as you think! You can do it. After a few days of figuring it out on your own you'll probably know things that the family history consultants don't know. 

Filling in the blanks in your family tree

The number one question at the youth family history night I attended was this: 

"How do I look for this person?"

This is a great question! And the answer is easy.

Search for records about the child of the person you're looking for. So if I wanted to fill in the Add Husband person in the above picture I would search for John Little. All I know about him is that he was born about 1820 in Ireland, was married to Mary McKeever, and had a child named John Little who was born in Ontario. 

Here are some of the types of records I would hope to find to help me identify his parents:

• A marriage record for John Little and Mary McKeever that lists their parents. I would expect this record to be from Ireland or maybe Canada.

• A death record for John Little that lists his parents.This record would probably be from Ontario because his son was born in Ontario and he likely stayed in the same place after having his children.

• A census record with John Little as the head of the family that has someone listed as father, mother, sister, or brother of the head of the family.This could be from Ireland or Canada. Even if I could find a sibling or a cousin for John Little I would be closer to finding his parents.

• An immigration record for John Little and Mary McKeever that lists where they lived in Ireland. Searching for his parents would be much easier if I didn't have to search a whole country. A city or a county would really help me.

Birth records for John Little are probably not going to help me much because there are lots of John Littles born in Ireland and I won't be able to tell which one is about my John Little. 

Although I would be hoping and praying for a record like the ones I have listed above, I would really just try to find out as much about John Little and his family that I could and hope it leads me somewhere. I hope it leads you somewhere!

Preparing for a youth family history night

My ward (in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) has a youth family history night coming up! The youth in my ward are planning on going to the Calgary temple about a month from now and they would like to take some of the names of their ancestors with them. (Why do Mormons perform vicarious baptisms?).

In order to baptize one of their ancestors, these youth will have to know the ancestor's name, approximate birth or death date, and a place where the ancestor lived. Ideally they will know more so that they can properly check that the ancestor has not already been baptized for the dead. Many of the youth in my ward will probably have trouble finding ancestors that have not already been baptized for the dead because their parents and grandparents and extended family will have already done it.

Asking the youth in my ward to find a name that they can take to the temple for baptism in a month's time is a tall order, but I believe it can be done (at least for some of them). However, since we don't have any time to waste, we need to make sure that everything runs smoothly when we meet with them. Here are some things that my ward leaders have done to prepare:

1. Make sure each youth has access to his/her LDS account. In order to submit names for the temple the youth will need to sign up for Family Search with their membership record number. They can get their number from the ward clerk. It's best if they do this at home to save time, but it's also not a bad idea to invite a ward clerk to the family history night so that he can look up numbers for any of the youth that come unprepared.

2. Each youth should bring four generations of family history information if they can. Family Search is a collaborative website, so the youth should be able to find many of their ancestors by collaborating with other people on Family Search (including their parents and other relatives). However, information for living people is private, so they need manually enter information on all of their living relatives and the first deceased ancestor for each line before they can access the information on their other deceased ancestors.

3. Train the youth leaders in advance. I think that the youth will be more excited about family history if they see that their leaders are also interested in it and know what they're doing. Also, one family history expert won't be able to help everyone at the same time. While we want to be careful to let the youth figure out a lot on their own, we don't want to leave them staring at their computer all night without any direction at all. And, since it's unlikely that the youth will be able to prepare a name for the temple in one night, the leaders need to be available to help after the family history night is over.

4. Try to get a computer for each youth. It's very difficult to learn how to do family history work abstractly. If the youth don't get to enter their own information and search for their own ancestors they are very unlikely to do it at home. That said, if there are siblings within the group, they could work together and, depending on the siblings, they might be more likely to continue at home together.

Our family history night is next week so I'll let you know how it goes!

The best thing since the internet

I haven't been to my local family history center in a while. I love the sense of community and help available there but they do not offer daycare and taking my kids there does not work for me. I love familysearch.org because you can access all sorts of records from home, but usually the pictures are not available and there's lots to be learned from the pictures.

For these reasons I am completely over the moon today because members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints can now access ancestry.com, findmypast.com, and myheritage.com FROM HOME (or anywhere really) FOR FREE. This is nuts. It's like the world is at my fingertips. These are excellent resources and are at least a $250/year value for me, personally. You can expect to hear more about these sites in the coming weeks because I will be taking full advantage of this opportunity.

Here is the link with your free access!!

I got the link from this genealogy blog. I haven't been able to find it anywhere else.

Searching for female ancestors

Women are the trickier sex when it comes to genealogy. It's the maiden name/married name change that always gets me. You never know which last name they're going to use and if they get married a couple of times it can be very confusing. Here's a few things to keep in mind when searching for women.

1. We almost always refer to women by their maiden name in a family history setting. Don't forget to search by married names too! Many women spend most of their life with their married name. In fact, always search both names if you know them. And try it a couple different ways. For example, in the last name field you could try searching "maiden married", "maiden", and "married". And then it's a good idea to go through some alternative spellings of both names if you can.

2. If you only have a married name for her, look at the other people listed in the house on census records. If there is anyone listed as head-of-household's in-law you might be able to get a possible maiden name that way. Some other types of records have witnesses listed that could lead you to a maiden name too.

3. Remember that women can change their name multiple times if they marry more than once. Her "maiden" name on the marriage certificate could be a married name from a previous marriage. Don't rule out records without looking closely at all the possibilities.

4. Searching other family members can often help if a woman has changed her name. For example, if you can find her on the 1881 census with her three children and then can't find her in 1891, search for the three children instead. If her husband died and she remarried the children may have kept their father's name. They may also have her listed on their marriage and death certificates and that can help you narrow down a place where you can start to look for her.

Also keep in mind that two women with the same name may not be the same person! I have one ancestor that married two different women named Anne. The only reason I know they are different people is because the census listed how many years they had been married. One year he'd been married to Anne for 20 years and ten years later he'd been married to a different Anne for only 3. Yikes, that must have been confusing!