It has definitely been a gradual process and something that I have almost tried to push aside! Thoughts like these seemed to creep in more often than not:
Genealogy work is for the older generation // I've got plenty of other things I'd rather be doing // I have no idea how to even get started!! // Working with older people can be so frustrating!
But the more I thought about it, and after realizing that many of my favorite conference talks revolved around this very topic, I began to challenge my thoughts and do something about it! It has been a wonderful experience already so if you are interested in getting to know your ancestors, keep on reading :)
Simply follow the steps (everything should be pretty self-explanatory)
+ Once your account has been created and you are on the home page, you should see something like this:
Click on the tab that says family tree.
+ The work that has been done on your direct family line should show up. However, if you are married, and your spouse's info does not show up, you will need to merge your line with theirs. This is done by entering in the information of a family member of theirs that has already passed away. If your husband/wife has an account as well (they should!) sign into their account and write down the ID number of a member of their family who has passed away most recently. Then, sign back into your account and enter their info here:
+ Once you've got at least one deceased family member entered in, it should automatically populate the rest of your spouses line.
**This is the step that we got a little confused on...if you have any questions, send them my way!**
+ Now comes the fun part :) Visit createfan.com here (sign in with the same login you used for familysearch) and download/print off your fan chart!
(I found out about this website from my bff Jenny, and it is awesome!!)
+ From that chart, identify the empty spaces and work to fill them!
...
Like I said earlier, this is something that I have been thinking/praying/studying about for a long time. In my study, I've come across some excellent talks given in General Conference over the last few years. If you need a little added help catching the "spirit of elijah" click on the links below :) i highly recommend the first three, if not all!
the spirit of elijah // elder russell m. nelson
families under covenant // president henry b. eyring
families under covenant // president henry b. eyring
PS. Today in sacrament meeting they read this letter from the First Presidency...pretty awesome if you ask me!
PPS. Because this is something that I'm so excited about, I'm sure I'll be posting more of my journey as I go. I'd love to hear if you found this at all interesting/helpful/informative/boring/dull/etc :) And seriously, if you have any questions at all, I'm here!
Thanks, Jess! As always, you're an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteYay! Thanks for posting this! My grandma gave me a big book of family history that she wants me to go through and make sure is all in the system. I started on it before school started but haven't done much since then. I've had really strong feelings about it though as well and feel like our generation really needs to jump into it and take the reigns. Once this semester is over (excuses excuses!) I really want to get back into it so thanks for posting your experience and how you started. I'll be referring back to this soon! :) Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I'm so sorry about your cute Halloween party, I totally missed the part about the date changing. On Saturday I jumped on to make sure what time it was at and realized you had changed it to Thursday and we had missed it (we would have anyway because of school but still I wish I could've really rsvp'd....). Bummer! I was so hoping to see you! Anyway, we'll have to get together another time I guess :) I miss you girl!
Jessie! Thank you so much for posting this! I have been feeling like I need to start doing this since General Conference but it is so intimidating and I had no idea how to get started! So this will be so helpful to me and I'm excited to start! I would love to keep reading about your journey and learning from you!
ReplyDeleteI'm so lame...I've worked at the biggest genealogy company for 3.5 years and have hardly taken advantage of the resources I've had available. That said, if you want a copy of the software program I work on ( Family Tree Maker), I can get you one and show you how to use it. It's pretty cool and you can print off all sorts of different charts like that fan one. Just let me know...that's what I travel around doing for my job is going to the geneology conferences and teaching people how to use it.
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