How to Do (or Teach Others to Do) Meaningful Family History in Less Than an Hour
Ben Baker – bakerb@familysearch.org
To view the presentation slides this handout accompanies, please go to:
https://www.slideshare.net/bakers84/meaningful-family-history-in-an-hour-presentation
Family History is often a complex pursuit that involves a great deal of experience and knowledge to do
well. New users especially find it difficult to do meaningful work in a short period, but it is possible to do
meaningful work in short periods of time and teach others to do the same.
First Make Sure to Understand the Basics
• FamilySearch is a division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints whose purpose is to
make family history resources available to the world for free and help its members find their families
and perform sacred ordinances for them in temples
• FamilySearch has access to billions of historical records on microfilm & original documents
• Many of these records have been digitized into images that can be viewed online
• Digitized images are indexed by volunteers to make searching and record hints possible
• Users can upload precious family photos, documents and other memories of their family
• FamilySearch has a collaborative family tree where all this information comes together to document
your family history
Two Critical Paradigms to Understand to Be Effective
Critical Paradigm #1 – The flow to arrive at an accurate and complete record in Family Tree has many
areas where your help is needed. These activities include:
• Find your relatives in indexed records and link them to persons in Family Tree. The easiest way to
do this is with Record Hints.
• Upload photos, stories and documents of your relatives and link them to persons in Family Tree
• Help index historical records
• Clean up data in Family Tree by resolving Research Suggestions and Data Problems
• If LDS, reserve temple ordinances for your family
Critical Paradigm #2 – Understand the “best ways”
• The best way to find people who need LDS temple work is to find people who are NOT in the tree
• The best way to find people not in the tree yet is to find them in a historical record with someone
who is already in the tree

Understand Basic Ways to View Information and Navigate in Family Tree
• Tree Views
o Landscape Pedigree – default view
o Portrait Pedigree – best view when there are lots of photos for beginners
o Fan Chart – shows an extra generation
o Descendancy View – great for looking down instead of up
• Person Card
o Provides basic information about a person
o Provides links to jump to Tree View or Person Detail Page
o Tip: Middle Click or Ctrl-Click on Windows and Command-Click on Mac will open a new tab
with the Tree/Person
• Person Detail Page
o Main area to view and edit details about a person
Seek to Achieve Regular Small Successes
• Look to resolve indicator icons on your relatives
o Data Problems
o Record Hints
o Research Suggestions
o LDS Ordinance Icons for LDS church members
• Add any memories you have
o Photos
o Documents
o Stories
o Audio
• Try to work from closest to more distant
o Start with closest direct ancestors
o Make sure children for direct ancestors are recorded and have indicator icons resolved
o Move to grandchildren and great-grandchildren of your direct ancestors
• For a change of pace
o Index a batch of historical records
o Try searching for additional records by starting with the Search Records links
Understand Some Time Saving Tools
• Use the Watch List to save time knowing what changes others are making on your relatives
• Use the History List to remember where you were working last
• Collaborate with others by using User to User Messaging and Sharing Temple Names with Family or
Friends

Use Partner Applications to Find Areas to Work More Easily
• Find a Record Research Assistant – https://www.findarecord.com
• Puzzilla – https://puzzilla.org/
• Kinpoint Classic – https://kinpoint.com/?mode=classic
Use the Consultant Planner If You Are Helping Others
• Access from https://familysearch.org/ask/planner
• Allows you to request to view others’ tree
• Doing this allows you to be more prepared for a visit and save your time and theirs
• Utilize materials from https://store.lds.org in your consulting
Sharpen your Saw by Utilizing Free Training
Help Center - https://familysearch.org/ask/#/
Temple and Family History Consultant Helps – https://www.lds.org/callings/temple-and-family-history
The Family History Guide – http://thefhguide.com/