HANDCART-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: [HANDCART-L] FamilySearch
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 10:10:16 -0400

Hi guys!

So how many of you were glued to your computers all weekend and how many saw the
sun? My web account is on my office computer, so I was forced to do something
else over the weekend--a 9-hour shift as a worker at the DC temple and about 4
hours in the stake's Family History Center Monday morning (all to myself--I have
a key). Also visited some graves at Arlington National Cemetery on Sunday.
Don't mean to brag, but just wanted to point out that it's just about impossible
for a true "genie" to spend three days away from genealogy.

Finally, Family Search is back to normal--or maybe it's just that you westerners
don't get on your computers early enough to slow it down at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.
According to a report on the Today show last Tuesday morning, they had 30
million hits on the first day!

One tip I thought I'd pass along. These refers to the IGI and temple work. I
know many list members are not LDS, but the tip might be useful for everyone.

I found some names in the IGI that I had already submitted. I was chagrined,
because the other person had apparently used the 1900 census and didn't look up
any of the vital records (which are available on microfilm). As a result,
children were erroneously sealed to stepmothers, and the maiden name of the
mothers/stepmothers was not recorded. After noting the film number for some of
these records I used the "refine search" feature to search by surname and film
number. For example, I searched for "Nash" (putting the surname in the block
for ancestor without a given name) and film number 2078031. That got me seven
more names. Now I can go to the FHC and get ordinance dates and enter them into
my data base so I won't try to submit them down the road. I had already done
work for three of the names I found, but the rest of the names were on the
in-laws' side. Nevertheless, I might have submitted these other names down the
road when I completed work I've already submitted. Too bad we can't get
submitters' information from temple rolls. These names were from Massachusetts,
and the work was done at Provo (for the three records I had done and checked),
so they could have been submitted by anyone. Unfortunately, due to the lag
time, these duplications are bound to occur, since Temple Ready checks against
the latest IGI, which is now about 1 1/2 years behind. Keep in mind that if you
check and submit names, it might be a while before you can complete all the
work, adding another 6 months or more. If you have names you submitted earlier
than 1998 and haven't completed all the work yet, I'd check the IGI again. It
might save you some effort.

On the GOOD news side, I found a distant cousin had submitted descendants of our
common ancestor to Ancestral File. This was mostly work done by a second cousin
of our respective grandparents, who had traveled to Scotland and done meticulous
research on both sides of the Atlantic. I had been working on descendants of my
great-great-grandparents, which was only sketchy in AF. I contacted the
researcher, and we'll now try to complete missing information. I hadn't though
to check AF at the FHC lately, because I didn't know there was a third person
working on this family. The daughter of the original researcher hadn't
submitted all of her mother's work to AF and was working on other lines, so I
was surprised at the new submittal. Just goes to show, you have to check
periodically.

It is nice that you can simultaneously check a name in AF and the IGI at the web
site. However, it is somewhat frustrating that you can't easily check names by
date. For example, say I was looking for Walter Nash, born about 1890. At the
FHC, I'd put in the name and use the date 1885, just so I covered the five-year
range. The IGI would bring up search results from 1885 down, including those
with middle names and initials. At the web site, there doesn't seem to be a
pattern of search results if you put in a name without a date (neither
chronological nor with those without middle names or initials first, then
alphabetical). If you refine search with a birth year, you ONLY get that year.
If someone else has figured out a way to get around this, please let us know.

Just some thoughts to start of your week. Happy hunting!

Lynda

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