Successfully Navigating Family Search

Transcription

1 Successfully Navigating Family Search 1. Family Tree 2. Memories 3. Search Menu 1. FAMILY TREE After logging into FamilySearch, select Family Tree. The five options, towards the top of the page, within Family Tree are: TREE Use this to re-center your pedigree or fan chart on any person in the FamilySearch database. The drop down menu from TREE allows you to pick from a list of the last people you have examined. PERSON Use this to move quickly to any person s DETAILS page. The drop down menu from PERSON allows you to pick from a list of the last people you have examined. FIND Use this to find any person in the database. Either a Full Name search or an ID search is provided. WATCH LIST Use this to examine those people you have selected to watch from the DETAILS page. You can un-watch them from this list as well. You can also examine the most recent modifications. WHAT S NEW Keep up with the changes! 1.1 Pedigree, Fan Chart, Descendancy or Portrait Charts There are four (4) views for your pedigree: Portrait Landscape Fan Chart Descendancy Printing the Pedigree or Fan Chart Using the printer icon on the pedigree or fan chart views, you can print your charts. You can expand, contract the view, grow your tree, or move around as shown below. Move around by holding down the left mouse button and moving the image. You can expand or contract the image by using the icon. You can expand your tree by clicking on the icon on the end of each tree. 1.2 SUMMARY Card Selecting a person in the pedigree (or fan chart) you get the SUMMARY card view. This provides summary information on a person. TREE: Re-center your pedigree or fan chart on that person. PERSON: Go to that PERSON s page DETAILS tab for that person. 1 of 7

2 NAME: Navigate to the PERSON s page DETAILS tab for that person by selecting the blue name. SOURCES: View the sources area of the PERSON s page DETAILS tab for that person. DISCUSSIONS: View the discussions area of the PERSON s page DETAILS tab for that person. MEMORIES: View the MEMORIES tab in that PERSON s page showing those photos, documents, and stories currently linked to that ancestor. 1.3 PERSON s page On the PERSON s page, two (2) tabs are provided: The default Details tab and the Memories tab. These are selectable links that bring you to those views. Most editing is done from the Details page of your ancestor Key Information (PERSON s ) At the top, next to an ancestor s picture is some key information you will most likely be using often in your editing, sourcing, and creation of memories (i.e., photos, stories, and documents). The name, birth, and death information can be edited in the Vital Information area described below. The PID, or Personal ID, (KWZJ-PK3) cannot be edited View Tree & Watch/Unwatch (PERSON s ) The View Tree link returns to the tree and puts the person you were viewing at the center of either the pedigree chart or fan chart (whichever you were at the last time you viewed the chart view). The Watch/Unwatch function allows you to either enable or disable the watch function on an ancestor. This can be important as FamilyTree is a world-wide service and others can change the data of that ancestor as well as you. You may want to know when changes occur and what changed. If you have your Settings correctly applied to notify you every week of any changes (if any) via you will get an of those changes. You can also state that you don t want changes that you have made to be included in the list that appears Quick link to Memories (PERSON s ) Just below the tagged photo and the name, birth, death and ID information, are quick links to the Memories tab (i.e., photos, stories, and documents) Life Sketch (PERSON s ) This area allows the user to create a short life sketch on the ancestor. Up to 10,000 characters can be entered. This is not meant for a long story. Anyone can edit or delete this life sketch if you don t want someone to change it, it may be better to create a story in the Memories area which cannot be deleted Vital Information (and tagging) (PERSON s ) 2 of 7

3 You can edit this information, but you cannot delete the name, gender, or death information. It s recommended that you tag each of these fields (as applicable) with the sources attached. This should discourage others from modifying vital information that is proven in the source information Other Information (PERSON s ) In this section, add information that can shed light on the person including alternate names found in census and other records, residence information, occupation data, etc. All of this data can be edited or deleted by others. Give reasons why you added this information to minimize the chances others will delete it Family Members (PERSON s ) This area allows you to view, create, and edit family relationships. The current individual and their spouse or spouses (if any) Family members of each family unit (i.e., individual and spouse) if any Edit family relationships Add spouses Add children into a family unit See parent relationships Sources (PERSON s ) This area allows you to: View sources you have attached to this individual Edit sources you have attached to this individual Remove sources you have attached to this individual Create new sources to this individual Attach sources already available in your source box to this individual Discussions (PERSON s ) This area allows you to create discussions that only you can create, edit or delete. Others can comment on them but not delete them. The exception is that anyone can edit Legacy Disputes. This is a useful area in which one may create discussions to remind yourself or others of efforts you have done or will do to research this particular individual Notes (PERSON s ) Notes allow short notes to yourself and others on research or other issues. From the FamilySearch.org BLOG: Notes are free-form, narrative information that simply does not fit anywhere else on a person s record. Up to 10,000 characters can be entered per note. These can be edited and deleted by anyone. So if you want to keep the note, it s better to use discussions. You might notice some notes moved over from new.familysearch.org look at these and delete those that are not applicable anymore. 3 of 7

4 Print (PERSON s ) Using the functions within the PRINT box on the DETAILS page, one may: Print a pedigree chart Print family group sheets with or without source data Print a fan chart When you select any of the choices above, another tab is opened and a PDF file is opened with your desired chart. You can save the chart to your flash drive or print it Research Help (PERSON s ) By selecting Search Records from the Details page, FamilySearch opens another internet tab and starts a search records effort automatically. FamilySearch fills out some of the pertinent information so we don t have to making the process more efficient and more accurate. You will still have to change the maiden name to a married name to get all of the results for a woman Latest Changes (PERSON s ) Latest changes provide a history of changes made to that particular individual, and who made that change Tools (PERSON s ) This area allows you to: Search for possible duplicates. A lot of times you will have to do a manual search to find duplicates, make note of both ID numbers and then do a MERGE by ID. Report abuse: You can use this if you find offensive or abusive language or content, or information that can harm or embarrass living relatives, or links to external Web pages with inappropriate content or solicitations for business or research services. Delete a person: Normally you will see Delete Person Unavailable. FamilySearch has made deletion open only to the user that added a particular person to the tree and if that person has no other contributors Memories Tab (PERSON s ) Memories will display all photos, stories, documents and audio for that person. When selected, Photos, Documents, Stories and Audio shown as currently attached for the individual you are displaying in the DETAILS page. You can Add new photos, documents, and audio to this individual from your flash drive or computer. Attach photos, documents, stories and audio already uploaded into the gallery area but not yet attached to this individual. Create new stories for this individual. 1.4 Tree By using TREE, you have three options as shown below. Click on the upside down triangle. 4 of 7

5 Go to: enter a PID. Go directly to you. Or pick anyone on the list of previously viewed people. 1.5 Person Using PERSON you can go quickly to any person s DETAILS page by: Entering their ID. Going to your DETAILS page. Select anyone on the list of the last 50 searched. 1.6 Find You can search for ancestors in the database by using FIND. Find by full name or Find by ID. 1.7 Lists Use the LISTS function to see who you have tagged for watch. Watching means you will get an notification if changes occur (provided your Settings are correct). You can also un-watch from this view. 1.8 What s New Use this to keep up with the changes in FamilySearch/Family Tree. The content changes depending upon new releases of features within FamilySearch.org. 1.9 Family Booklet The My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together booklet is an engaging way to capture and preserve your family story. FamilySearch will help you record family information, including adding photos, names, dates and precious family stories. 2 MEMORIES Overview: Gives you a description of the memories section. Gallery: is a place where all of the photos, stories, documents, and audio recordings that you add to FamilySearch are collected. People: See your ancestors that have photos or stories attached to them even those by other people. Find: Allows you to find photos, documents, and stories FamilySearch wide. 3 SEARCH Search provides the user the capability to find source data. Without source data your facts can be just myths. RECORDS: This is the primary search area for on-line records within FamilySearch. This searches for online records, indexed with and without images, and non-indexed images only. FAMILY TREE: This is just another way to get to Family Tree. 5 of 7

6 GENEALOGIES: Search for genealogies that originated on Ancestral File, the Pedigree Resource File, and other user submittals. Valuable for starting points not necessarily for source data. CATALOG: Use the catalog to search for all records on FamilySearch including on-line and non on-line records. Non on-line records include books, maps, films, periodicals, etc., at the Family History Library Salt Lake City, in the vault and those in cooperative institutions. BOOKS: Search here for on-line digitized books. Most are in PDF (searchable) format. WIKI: A place to get genealogical research information or to learn where to find a record. It is a wealth of information on family history work. The following link is for a list of online webinars from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Family_History_Library#Classes_and_Online_Webinars TIPS FOR SEARCHING RECORDS IN FAMILY SEARCH Search by First Names and Last Names: 1. Enter the name of only one person in the First Names field. 2. Try adding or omitting middle names. 3. Try nicknames. 4. Try spelling the name as it is spelling in the old country and in the new one. 5. Leave the First names or the Last names fields blank. 6. Try searching by Relationships. 7. When searching for a woman, search with her maiden name to find records that were created before her marriage; use her married name to find records created after marriage. 8. Try your search with just her first name and the names of her spouse and her parents. 9. Try using wildcards. Enter * to replace multiple consecutive characters. Enter? to replace a single character. Search by Life Events: 1. Try your search with different or all life events (birth, marriage, death). 2. In the place field try searching for a more or less specific place. For example, if you did not find information by searching by town, try the county or state, or try entering just the country name. 3. In the year fields, increase or decrease the year range. Fill in both From and To ranges, or the program will populate both with the same year. 4. Use a Residence Place to find records that identify where a person was living. 5. Use Any Place if you know a date and place for an event other than birth, death, and residence. 6 of 7

7 6. You can include multiple life events in your search, but do this only when you are looking for a specific type of record that contains all of the life events. Search by Relationships: 1. Try the search with different types of relationships (spouse or Parents). 2. When entering the name of the mother or wife, try searching by the woman s married name and maiden name. If you do not know the maiden name, leave the last name field blank. 3. A search by Parents may pull up a list of possible siblings. 4. Try searching by spouse only. Tips for Search Results: Click Search to view results. The information that you entered for your search is listed at the top of the search results screen, along with the number of matching records. The records that match your search most closely are near the top of the list. Scan your search results for records of interest to you. Collections that have a camera icon include images. Collections without a camera have only the indexed records. If you do not see the records that you want, you can refine or filter your search results. How to Apply Filters to Your Search Results in Historical Records: You can filter your results to reduce the number of records and refine your search. By applying filters, you can focus the results on exactly what you want to find. The filters are located on the left side of the list of search results below the Refine Your Search menu. Tip: Entering less information will increase the likelihood that filters will return the records you are interested in. This information is from handouts created by Jeanine Vander Bruggen, St. George Family History Library, St. George Utah, United States. 7 of 7