Monday, August 31, 2009

Take Me to the Pilot

The FamilySearch Digital Pipeline One regular reader of my column writes,

Dear Ancestry Insider,

   I'm a regular reader of your column.

   A question that has been in my mind for a long time is - when will we see digitized images of the LDS [microfilm] records? I don't mean the excellent pilot site with its almost 250 sources. I mean the unindexed stuff that we now have to order and go to an LDS [family history] center to see. I know they're supposedly in the process of being digitized and that new records from the field are supposed to be in the digital format.

   Is there any time frame for when these records will start coming online? I assume they'll do them bit-by-bit, not wait the 10 years or so until they're all done.

   I'd love to start seeing these. Readability is better on a computer, and I'm not tied to the miniscule hours offered by the library (usually in the AM and I'm a late night person.)

   I rarely see updates on this and no one who seems to cover the LDS [microfilm] records talks about this. One of the very few areas in which the LDS does not do a good job is in letting us know when records are filmed (I was told "keep checking online. That's great for Tiny Town,, but doesn't work for large cities, too many entries to be able to tell what is new) and/or how the digital program is going.

  Thanks for reading this.

Bonz

Dear Bonz,

It goes without saying that New FamilySearch (NFS) is job one for FamilySearch. Fortunately, gathering and protecting copies of the world’s records has gone on unabated even while spare resources have been applied to the NFS rollout.

During this time, more has been going on behind the “excellent pilot site” than you have realized. Behind this unassuming web face are hundreds of FamilySearch personnel—not to mention indexers—going about the mammoth task of building and operating a high-capacity digital pipeline—a digital record factory, really—that can provide the very services you’re wondering about, and more:

  • Publish un-indexed, scanned images from FamilySearch’s microfilm collection, the “LDS records” that you mention.
  • Publish indexes with links to images on partner websites. This is part of the Records Access Program, which can greatly accelerate the publication of data once the FamilySearch digital pipeline is ready to operate at full capacity.
  • Quickly publish un-indexed images from the digital cameras that are replacing the microfilm cameras in the field.
  • Publish legacy vital record indexes previously published on CDs or on the legacy FamilySearch web site. Indexes were created using UDE, the predecessor to FamilySearch Indexing. Sometimes the legacy images used with UDE are also published.
  • Publish legacy vital record indexes never before published. Indexes were created using UDE.
  • Same, but with the legacy images used with UDE.
  • Publish legacy extracted records previously published as part of the IGI, sometimes with previously unpublished, legacy images.

and of course the scenario one usually thinks about,

  • Publish scanned images with indexes from FamilySearch Indexing.
FamilySearch uses Swivel Chair manual processes during pipeline construction
FamilySearch uses Swivel Chair manual
processes to bridge pipeline gaps
during pipeline construction.
Image Credit: chair clipart

Much is being accomplished behind the scenes in what could be called a Pipeline Pilot. Collections representing each of the scenarios above are being pushed through to Record Search, enabling developers and operators to learn by doing manually, to build replacement parts, and then to operate this marvel of engineering. The FamilySearch Operations team is fabulous, manually bridging gaps in the pilot pipeline. (See “Swivel Chairs” in this article.)

I believe the following are examples of the scenarios from above:

FamilySearch is still not informing anyone when new microfilm is added to their collection (if that is still happening). I was working on a project to do that prior to my job change last year, but haven’t pursued it since then.

Fortunately, they are very good at issuing press releases for new digital collections. I rarely pass these press releases on to you, however, so you’ll need to subscribe to another newsletter to see them. Watch for my recommendation in upcoming days.

Sincerely,

-- The Ancestry Insider

Tweeting Presentations Policy

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters, less the conference hashtag. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation. Some of these may be corrected for re-publication here on my blog, but not all. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

My policy for tweeting presentations is still evolving, but I will try to keep this article updated. Most of these principles apply to everything I do as the Ancestry Insider. The policy, as it stands:

  • It is my intent to be ethical and to obey, honor, and sustain the law.
  • If you feel I have infringed on your intellectual property (IP), please inform me and state your case. Include links to the content. Recite chapter and verse of the supporting law so that both of us can avoid unfortunate misunderstandings of the law. Only requests by the IP owner or authorized agent will be considered. If I feel your case has merit, I will remove the infringing material.
  • I see no legal difference between the original publication of the tweets and a later republication on my blog.
  • Where ambiguity exists in copyright law regarding the reduction to fixed form of audio-visual presentations, for ethical reasons I recognize the property rights of the presenter to be the same as if the law regarded the presentation’s audio and visual components to be in fixed form.
  • I will limit the number and length of exact quotes to comply with my interpretation of fair use.
  • I will typically use the rate throttle of the Twitter API as a fair-use compliance tool, but reserve the right to post directly on Twitter.com when posting short tweets or when the presenter’s speed is so fast that I can’t possibly include enough of the material to exceed fair use.
  • I claim copyright of my tweets as an original work. I give permission for republication only if  the following copyright notice is included along with a link to the original. Replace xx with the year I published the work:
    "Copyright 20xx, The Ancestry Insider. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission."
  • I intend no defamation or malice to presenters. If you feel my coverage of your presentation defames you, I encourage you to first read “Online Defamation Law” by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Note that presenters are limited-purpose public figures, so if I make a factual error without malice, it is not libel. Please contact me and I would be more than happy to correct factual errors. Opinions on matters outside verifiable facts are not libel and not subject to correction.

Usage guidelines:

  • Exact quotes from the presenter will be designated with double quotation marks "like so." I refers to the presenter and you refers to the audience.
  • 'Single quotes' show quotes of 3rd parties presented by the presenter.
  • (Parentheses indicate parenthetical information from the speaker.)
  • [Square brackets indicate my own editorial interjections. I refers to me, the Insider, you refers to you, my readers, and he or she refers to the presenter.]
  • Because of Twitter length limitations, generally the end of a tweet ends a sentence, quote, parenthetic thought, or editorial comment, whether or not the appropriate ending punctuation marks are present.
  • Exceptions are usually denoted by ellipsis (three dots) at the end of the tweet, at the beginning of the subsequent tweet, or by a leading lowercase letter on the subsequent tweet.
  • Other text is my interpretation of the presented information, typically reworded for brevity.
  • - A single dash at the beginning of a tweet or with a space on either side designates the beginning of a bullet point.
  • - - Two or more dashes separated by spaces designate additional sub-levels of bullet items.
  • When republished, each bullet point will start on a new line.

During the SLC Expo, I accidentally used parentheses for editorial information. I will correct these and other problems when I re-publish the Tweets here on the Insider.

I am still experimenting with point of view. Sometimes I have summarized using the presenter’s point of view, meaning I refers to the presenter and you refers to the audience. (If this were fiction and you referred to you, my good readers, then this would actually be second-person narrative. But I digress…) At other times I have used my point of view, in which case I refers to me, he or she or they refer to the presenter(s), and you ambiguously refers to the presenter’s audience or to my audience.

Friday, August 28, 2009

The Ancestry ‘Tweety’ Insider (#FHX09-SLC)

The Ancestry 'Tweety' Insider“Say, I taut I taw a puddy tat!”

With so many translators on the Internet—including Pig Latin—you’d think there would be one for Tweety Bird-speak.

Fortunately, there are plenty of web sites to assist Twitter users. Today would be a good day to try some out because the Salt Lake Family History Expo today and tomorrow is officially encouraging live coverage on Twitter.

Twitter allows the formation of ad-hoc communities through the use of the pound sign (#). (Actually, geeks don’t call it a pound sign. Like star and dot, geek-speak words for asterisk and period, the geek-speak word for the pound sign is hash. But I digress…) Each Twitter community picks a hash tag, which is nothing more than an identifying tag preceded by the hash symbol.

For example, Expo organizers have chosen #FHX09-SLC for this weekend’s conference. For the recent BYU conference, I proposed #byugen. I made the proposal on my blog and tweeted it with the hash tag #genealogy. A temporary community magically materialized around that tag, then dissipated when the tag disappeared from Twitter’s search results.

Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers recommends claiming a hash tag on the web site What the Hashtag. I’ve claimed the Salt Lake Expo tag using another site, TwapperKeeper.com, which also keeps an archive of the tweets.

Twitter Coverage of Conferences

I came across the site when I learned about Twitter coverage by attendees to the recent Society of American Archives (SAA)  2009 Conference. Tweeters used the hash tag #saa09. You can peruse archives of the Archives conference at http://twapperkeeper.com/saa09/ . TwapperKeeper.com is a pretty cool site because you can download a copy of all the tweets (nearly 3,000 of them) into a spreadsheet already sorted chronologically. I don’t know how long it keeps the tweets, but I know Twitter doesn’t keep them very long. A search for #byugen will no longer surface tweets made at the July conference.

(SAA has also posted videos of some sessions on their Facebook site. But again I digress…)

You may recall that some discussion followed our twittering of the BYU conference and the reposting of those tweets on our blogs. (See my article, “Insider Incites Intellectual Property Profundity” or others’ articles, here and here.) Overall, I think user response to coverage of the BYU conference was extremely positive. Here are some of the positive comments I received:

Your tweets were like a review of the speaker.  I especially enjoyed the Colletta one and I think he would be worth the time to hear in person. … I hope that the "profundity" of it all doesn't cause you to stop twittering conferences.  You are doing a service for people who aren't able to attend.  Thank you!
(Katherine)

I enjoyed the tweets from you and Mark Tucker enormously during the event. Thank you. (Sheri)

The Tweet comments are very insightful and are fun reading. (Jeff)

I've been reading your postings from the BYU Conference with great interest - I wasn't able to attend, and tweets can be great for a "straight to the bone" take on things. (Stephen)

I'm thrilled to be able to read your tweets of both the opening talk by Bro Groberg and especially of the classes you attended - especially with your enlightening comments on the material. It is the next best thing to being there in the first place. Thank you! I surely hope and look forward to seeing all of your classes in this way. We learn so very much from you all along the way and this is icing on the cake. I am grateful to you for your insights. (Mary)

Of course, I also got some real-time encouragement from other Twitterers during the event:

Thanks for the many useful tweets on #byugen keep them coming :-) (@Bwoolley)

@AncestryInsider Keep on typing! (@megansmolenyak)

Thanks for you honest account at #byugen Keep it up!!! (@morontina23)

Thanks, all of you, for your support. As a result of the discussion, I will change how I tweet a tweeny bit. You may not even discern the changes. I’ll reduce my new Twitter policy to writing in the coming days.

Follow Along

You don’t have to join Twitter to follow the Salt Lake City Family History Expo today and tomorrow (28 and 29 August 2009). Here’s several ways you can listen in:

There are good reasons to follow just one of the people twittering the conference. Of course, there’s the telephone party line problem of a dozen people all talking at once. And all of the above services start dropping tweets when there are more than about 60 or 70 an hour. But if you go right to the individual tweeter, you won’t miss a beat.

Follow just my tweets of the conference at @AncestryInsider. You’ll find links to the other official conference twits (uh…, twitterers) at http://www.fhexpos.com/events/upcoming.php?event_id=50#extra_notes . When following an individual, you’ll need to refresh the page when you have a moment and want to catch up.

Because this group will be so active during the conference, if you normally follow one or more of us, you may find your usual Twitter routine turned upside down by the increased traffic during the conference. Someone recommended another site, TwitterSnooze.com, which will allow you to temporarily un-follow someone. (I’m sorry that I can’t give proper credit for the suggestion. I neglected to record who it was.)

If you aren’t following Twitter real-time, coming back later and trying to read the reverse chronological layout can be down right annoying. Never fear. As with the BYU conference, I will be re-posting my coverage in the days following the conference, right here at The Ancestry Insider. No doubt the other official bloggers will be blogging away as well. Stay tuned…

Or, stay tuned in… to Twitter, that is.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Another Kind of GPS To Guide Your Research

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here.

Friday, 31 July 2009

Mark Tucker, "Navigating Research with the Genealogical Proof Standard."

This synopsis is incredibly lacking compared to what you can access at Mark’s web site, http://www.thinkgenealogy.com/map
His slides are posted on his blog: http://www.thinkgenealogy.com/map/ Go ahead and follow along!
Mark going through some history. He's to slide 6 (if you're following along).
Where do I start my research? What record to start with? He teaches boy scouts that knowing where you are prevents getting lost.
Implied GPS Step: Define research goals (slides 10-14). Illustrate the process with a case study: Worth Tucker's birth info.
Two important forms: Research Plan, Research Log.
GPS: Genealogical Proof Standard
Covering through slides 22, research plan.
Slide 32, picture of his sweetheart (which we all assume is his wife!).
GPS Step 1: Reasonably exhaustive search of reliable sources for pertinent info.
Genealogical Proof Standard Step 1
Source Provenance: The issue is, what are the better sources? Original source is better than derivative.
A derivative is better than the sources derived from it. Several sources of independent origin strengthens confidence.
Slide 39 introduces another important form. Research Analysis.
GPS Step 2: Collect a complete and accurate citation to each source of information that is used.
Genealogical Proof Standard Step 2
Recommends Mills' _Evidence Explained_. All the latest genealogy software supports templates matching this book.
Aside: EE is necessary because genealogists use a wide range of sources well beyond those in Chicago or Turabian.
Should there be one set of common citation guidelines? (slide 49)
GPS Step 3: Analyze the info to assess quality as evidence.
Genealogy Proof Standard Step 3
Slide 54: Sources can be original, derivative (goes into types of derivatives).
Genealogical Proof Standard: Source types
I have a suggestion for Mark for this slide: Image copies should be adjacent to Original since they are usually more reliable than handwritten copies.
Slide 55: Information can be primary or secondary.
Slide 56: Evidence can be direct, indirect, negative.
Sometimes derivatives can be treated as an original, such as photographic copies such as microfilm or digitized.
Primary information comes from those with first-hand knowledge. Review your sources, information, and evidence for types they are.
GPS Step 4: Resolve any conflicts/contradictions in the information.
Genealogical Proof Standard Step 4
See the excellent example of slide 79 showing conflicts in our case study of Worth Tucker's birth info.
GPS Step 5: We arrive at a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion
Genealogical Proof Standard Step 5
No conclusion is ever completely final.
One more suggestion for Mark: Include all the items from slide 83 in the case study example, slide 85.

OK, I have another last suggestion. For the Worth Tucker case study, showing an example conclusion may be appropriate as a teaching vehicle, but it’s worth mentioning, as Janet Hovorka did in her presentation on Tuesday, that genealogists aren’t forced to a conclusion like a judge in a trial. If sufficient evidence does not yet exist to come to a conclusion, don’t.

This will really be the final one; honest. Another point Mills makes in EE is that the written conclusion can be extremely simple when the evidence is direct, non-conflicting, and compelling. I think when such evidence arises from near-original sources and primary information, that no formal written conclusion is necessary. Of course, you still need proper citations.

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Colonial Fire Hose

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here.

Friday, 31 July 2009

Karen Clifford, "Electronic Sources & Colonial Research" (PLUS UPDATES)
I was visiting with some vendors and arrived late to the presentation. I inferred from Karen’s comments during the session that she realized her prepared presentation only covered New England, despite the session title and description. I think she might have filled out the presentation at the last moment with additional slides which causes her to present incredibly fast. It was like drinking from a fire hose! As a result, I’ve supplemented my tweets with additions from her syllabus plus my own thinking, both shown in italics.
To see the syllabus notes for an earlier version of this presentation, click here.
The research process for Internet resources is the same as normal sources.
1. Decide what you want to learn:
    - an individual identity
    - a complete name
    - the rest of the family
    - a date
    - a  location
    - a relationship (or cement a suspected relationship)
    - evidence
2. Select the websites most likely to have what you want to learn.
3. Search the sites.
4. Copy and paste text information to avoid errors. Save digital images of imaged records.
5. Create a source citation, including the website’s source for the information.
6. Evaluate the reliability of the source and the information for use as evidence. If warranted, make conclusions.
7. Note any needs or suggestions for future research.
8. Use an organized method to store your findings: your copies of the evidence, citations, any conclusions made, and written explanations of non-obvious reasoning.
Learn some background: history, geography, rulers.
http://www.newenglandancestors.org 
ProQuest at a library.
HeritageQuest at a library.
FamilySearch.org Historical books: click on Search Records > Historical Books.
Ancestry.com local and family histories. Search using the Stories and Publications tab of Old Search, or use the Card Catalog to locate books about the location.
To determine a location during a specific time period, try Wikipedia.
Colonials often came from Britain. See http://genuki.org.uk 
Why might a search not find who or what you’re looking for?
Phonetics, human errors, record condition, records lost,
onomastics studies evolution of name spelling based on pronunciation,
online spelling may not match the spelling you expect.
How do you establish complete identity? complete name (variants, aliases, nicknames), family members, event dates, location (as known at the time), customs of the day.
Some colonists went back to England and back to America because of English historical events.
Understand how names were recorded in 16/17th centuries. Abbreviations for John and Thomas look similar.
New England: Immigration was orderly and recorded. Records are available in England. Records better preserved. State lines changed.
Vitals kept at town level. Church records cataloged under state because itinerant preachers.
Utilize Town Records. Records are scattered throughout the little towns in a county. Check company records, such as Mayflower record
Some historic New England company records available in England, some on FHL microfilm, some @BYU.
Ask about family histories: how old was the author? how old were the informants? Personal information is more believable.
New England settlements established commonwealth of men of unquestioned common faith.
Historic background: LOC, Archives at Tufts, …
…, http://wiki.familysearch.org, Google the state archives, university archives and libraries, www.cyndislist.com.
There have been excellent presentations at this conference on colonial sources among ethnic groups: Huguenots, Irish, etc.
When stuck, use these approaches: 1. Locality, 2. Historical, 3. Timeline, 4. Associates.
New Eng towns elected Selectmen. Settlements small, self-sustaining agriculture.
Puritans - purify COE [Church of England]. Separatists - via Leyden, left COE. Huguenots - French Protestant settled in Boston, Salem, New Oxford.
Military records excellent. Many Indian wars in 1600s. Resulted in land grants. 1700s French/Indian wars. Devastated N.E. 1755-1763.
People settled and moved in groups. 1700 mail service in MA only.
Separate books for: town meetings, births, marriages, court, cattle, ... It takes time to figure out where the records ended up.
Establish timelines for your ancestors to distinguish among same-named people.
Waterways often established migration routes.
Mayflower Society 5-generation books (“Silver Books”) and
Mayflower Families in Progress (“Pink Books”).
The Great Migration books from NEHGS.
Colonial Time Lines:
www.historyplace.com
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/colonialamerica/Colonial_America.htm
(From the syllabus:)
www.historychannel.com – In my whirlwind look, I didn’t see where the colonial information was located. If you know, I’d be pleased if you would click on Comments and share it with everyone.
www.historyseek.com – According to the Internet Archive, this site has been dead since May 2004.
www.hyperhistory.com – Try this link.
www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html – While I’m not certain how Medieval History will help in colonial research, there are some tempting links for citing sources, modern history, and Jewish history.
That was a fire hose presentation. Couldn't capture more than a tenth of what she covered, but not certain anyone else did either.

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

There’s More Records Than the Census

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here.

Friday, 31 July 2009

Michael John Neill, "100 acres, 1 mortgage, and 3 sisters: An Ohio Case Study." http://www.rootdig.com
Missing Abraham Wickiser in 1840 census in Harlem Township, Delaware, Ohio. 1840 is a "tick-mark" census.
I'm in Michael John Neill case study. He suggests writing down your assumptions. When stuck in one set of records, go elsewhere.
He went to land records. Anytime index leads to deed, look pages before and pages after. Deeds were not recorded at time of purchase
Michael found the same piece of land recorded 3 times in quick sequence, giving him names of others, and assumption that event led
... to getting all these deeds recorded. He later finds it was someone's death. He had to reorder sells by sell date,not record date
He drew picture of the 100 acres, and its divisions. Some transfers not recorded. Mortgage may have defaulted.
Could do accurate metes and bounds analysis. But don't worry about 3 quarters of an acre discrepancies in 1800s land measurements.
Land analysis shows Abraham owned no land between 1839 and 1846, so he didn't show up as a head-of-household. He is a tick-mark in
... someone else's household. He probably didn't move out of the county and then back.
Analysis techniques: Write your assumptions and reasons, revisit them, question them. Get maps on variety of scales listing all
...geo and political features. Create a timeline, including ordering your documents. Create diagrams, drawing out what you can,
... because words don't always give you the "complete picture." Remember informants and records are not always consistent.
Be open minded and consider all possibilities.
Use Polya's 4 step process: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polya#P.C3.B3lya.27s_four_principles
1. Understand the problem. Learn about the records in the area, ethnic group, social class, occupation.
2. Devise a plan. Decide what you want to research. Aside on court houses: keep your cool and your wits about you, avoid court-day.
... clerk has more authority than the regular help.
3. Carry out the plan. TRACK WHAT YOU DO AS YOU DO IT. When you leave, you will have enough info to write follow up inquiries.
While "Genealogy is a game and whoever collects the most papers wins," no points awarded for duplicates. Logs are important.
4. Review/extend. Write up your research. Revisit your assumptions. Decide what follow-up needs to be done. Submit to a publication.
"Infant" used to mean hasn't arrived at the age of majority, 21 historically in some places.
Research log doesn't have to follow traditional format. He's used his to-do list with different check-marks indicating results.

 

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Monday, August 24, 2009

What’s New at Ancestry.com?

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

Suzanne Russo-Adams, "What's New at Ancestry 2.0" (2:57 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Not talking about what's new in the library version. [(I suppose many of the new features are not available in the Ancestry Library Edition.)] Showed one of their new commercials (that I still need to write about). (2:58 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Yesterday 2 new BIG features released. Talk more about them later.

New content:
Canadian Census now has 1851-1916 (complete) 32 million names. (2:59 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Also new content: Mass Sold & Sail of the Rev, 1810 census upgrade. See http://www.ancestry.com/sea... (3:01 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
To see what's new, login and look at box "What's happening at Ancestry.com." At bottom of that box has links to all new databases (DBs). (3:02 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
DBs are frequently updated when Ancestry.com can get access to more info.

Another place to go—it's free—is the Learning Center. (3:04 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
You can also sign up for newsletter.

Have you heard we've changed our name to Ancestry.com? (3:05 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
New commercials are not actors but actual subscribers. (3:10 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Navigation updates: Drop down menus, Quick Links (favorites/bookmarks).

Under Learning Center: blog, (3:12 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
... webinars (some on general research topics). Tomorrow talking about search. Most of audience is using New Search template. (3:16 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Plan to meld best features of old search into new and best features of new search into old. (Did I understand that correctly?) Auto-fill search template from tree. (3:17 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Lifespan Filtering removes search results outside lifespan + slop. Launched 29 April 2009. (3:18 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Place-filtering in Search will be launching some time in 2009. Launching search from tree gives person card at top of page. (3:20 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Showed new content viewer, one of the new features that launched yesterday. View both image and index at same time, with ability to correct name, birth year, birthplace. (3:22 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
New viewer allows entering comments about the record or about a person. Also see Source information for the record. (3:23 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. If you change the Last Name, will it get indexed?
A. Yes. It keeps the original value and adds your change to the index. (3:25 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Collapsible window pane to maximize image. (3:27 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Member Connect launched yesterday. Get notified about any new research activity about your ancestors on Ancestry.com. (3:30 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Ancestry Online Family Trees: since July 2006 10M+ trees, 1 billion people. (3:31 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Free trees allow full use of your own tree, but can't see others' tree or add records from Ancestry.com. Non-subscribers can (3:32 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
...see the Ancestry records that a subscriber attaches to a tree. Showed Shaky Leaves on her tree. Shaky Leaves suggest records that possibly reference someone in your tree. (3:34 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
New in trees: new look requires fewer clicks, Ancestry Places (beta links to maps) supports census wards from census. (3:37 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Member Connect in Family Trees.
On Ancestry browser toolbar, click “save” to save a link or text or image to your tree. (3:38 PM Jul 30th from web )
Attach photos and docs. No space limitations.
(3:39 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. Friend has tree on Ancestry.com and can't download it.
A. Member trees allow this. (3:27 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

After building your tree, publish a book for free. Digital scrapbooking tool, MyCanvas. (3:41 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Another new thing is Ancestry's Expert Connect. You can hire a researcher to help you: record pickups, local photo, ask question, (3:42 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
See http://bit.ly/GdgX2 (3:43 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Mechanism exists for rating researchers, filing complaints. The researchers are screened. (3:43 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Collaboration: 9.2 million unique visitors visit Ancestry.com websites each month.

World Archives Project: volunteer indexing. (3:45 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. Do you coordinate with FamilySearch?
A.
We are trying very hard to not duplicate projects being done on FamilySearch Indexing. (Indexing tool is very similar to FamilySearch Indexing.) (3:48 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. I'd like the ability to contact tree owner.
A. For the new private trees, you can send tree owner a message. (3:49 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Now doing Q and A. Many people leaving early. (3:50 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Record Search Futures

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

Bryce Roper, product manager, "Record Search" (1:52 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Like oil, getting access to records is not something we can all do. Bryce has quickly gone through the pipeline process. (1:53 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
See http://bit.ly/165ru7 (1:55 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
600 M names in 136 collections on Record Search pilot. In 2 weeks we are releasing Record Search 2.0 pilot. Looks a little different than current site. (1:57 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
It has been redesigned to become part of the FamilySearch Alpha. See http://labs.familysearch.org (1:58 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Looks like current site but with color and font changes. Some minor layout changes. (2:00 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
They want to improve capability of wildcard searching beyond current limitation of 3 chars needed prior to wildcard. (2:02 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Hover over a name in search result gives popup bubble. Click on name opens a slideout. Click on chevron to close the slideout. (2:04 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Click on Save to copy to hard drive. Can then be inserted into your genealogy program. Click on Print; they've improved format. (2:05 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Added new button: Share This Record gives option for Facebook or e-mail/message system. Produces a link in Facebook or in e-mail (2:07 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
...that someone can click. They've removed the link labeled "View Image." You must click on the thumbnail. (2:09 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Link to Collection Information will link directly to the FamilySearch Wiki. In the search results, the icon to the left of a result (2:12 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
... is available. Print image now includes options: Fit to page, rotate, smooth, invert. Will be adding record details and notes. (2:13 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
In the lists of collections: * indicates new collection in last 30 days, "No images" and "Browse images only" are self explanatory. (2:17 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Browse items are called waypoints. New version has longer lists, that is, more items are shown at a time. Image viewer comes up at bottom of page, waypoints still visible up (2:18 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
... above. Zoom control moves to thumbnail at lower-right. Showed icon with green arrows. Means the original image is on an affiliate site (2:20 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Clicking icon takes you to affiliate site. They can charge.
Q. Does the Church get any money for that?
A. No. (2:24 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. Weren't indexers supposed to get free access to the images?
A. Currently don't require login. In future when that option is available, (2:25 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
you will be able to see some records only if you sign in. Others only if you are member of the LDS Church. Others if you are an indexer. (2:27 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
These are called "roles."
Q. Will images be available for 1880?
A. Not certain about 1880, but in general, yes, if we can show images we will. (2:29 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
The recent 5 collections from Canada today are index only. When we have login, we will be able to show any registered user the image (2:30 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Some contracts specify "FamilySearch Member":
- LDS members,
- users who are at a FHC, and
- active indexers. (2:32 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. How long will it take to digitize the vault?
A. Don't know. 10 years give or take 10 years. (2:34 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. What about 1880 census entry where enumerator wrote wrong name? How do I correct it?
A. We call it "user annotation." Working on that. (2:36 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Q. Can we click on NARA icon at Footnote and get 1860 images?
A. [From a knowledgeable audience member:] After Footnote's exclusive runs out in about 3.5 years. (2:37 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
What's coming?
- Non-Flash version.
- Collection-specific search fields,
- exact match,
- global search,
- super collections, (2:38 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
- persistent URL for sharing links (current links _might_ break),
- better source citation,
- better image control,
- sign in,
- wildcards, (2:40 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
- link to NFS & other sites,
- 1 Billion+ names by end of year (quadruple current capacity).

Now taking questions. (2:41 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

What is FamilySearch Wiki?

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

Jim Greene, Product manager, FamilySearch Wiki "What Is It and How can I Help?" (10:01 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
What is a wiki? http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... Name comes from Hawaiian for "fast." (10:07 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Why a wiki?
- Make content easy to find,
- shorten publishing cycle,
- increase the number of authors,
- boost novice-expert communication (10:10 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Hopefully within the next couple of months, NFS [New FamilySearch] will come to all of Utah. (10:16 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Consolidated FamilySearch - Jim's term for the new www.familysearch.org coming that combines the pieces:
- NFS,
- Record Search,
- forums,
- wiki (10:19 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
- We are about ready to beta test one login for all the different pieces.
- Also consolidate Indexing,
- Find a FHC [family history center]. (10:20 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Wikipedia:
- 8th most-popular Website,
- written by community,
- 2,000 entries per day,
- errors corrected in 5 mins,
- 11 edits per article, (10:22 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
- 7.2 M articles,
- 7 M editors.
Did a test on Wikipedia article for FamilySearch. Put in spam. 5 min it was deleted. 11 min arbitrated. (10:23 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
What is in the Wiki? Research Outlines were migrated. Links added. (10:25 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
The goal of the Wiki is not to hold all the knowledge, but point to any knowledge already on the web. (10:26 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Significant content on:
- Scotland,
- England,
- Canada,
- Utah Vital Records.
- Also FH for beginners,
- Scotland counties,
- name variations. (10:30 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Simple improvements you can make:
- grammar and spelling,
- add headings,
- add info,
- submit a picture of a place,
- add links, (10:32 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
What have we learned? Content pages have grown from 3,000 in Jan 08 to over 15,000 today. Unique visitors: 252,286 in 2008, 342,000 already this year (10:34 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Social structure:
- Any user can edit anything - not being abused.
- Edit wars happen.
- Any user can undo changes.
- Anyone can watch page. (10:42 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Mechanisms:
- flag w/out editing,
- talk pages,
- 3-reverts goes to arbitration,
- only admins can permanently delete. (10:44 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Roles: admins, mediators, and arbitrators. (10:45 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
“Perfect comes too late.”
“We are smarter than me.” (10:48 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
What shouldn't I contribute?
- How to use FamilySearch products,
- data on specific people. (10:48 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
http://wiki.familysearch.org

Now taking questions. (10:51 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Happy 10th Birthday, FamilySearch.org

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

1st session. Steve Anderson, "Happy 10th Birthday, FamilySearch.org" (8:53 AM Jul 30th from web )
Asked background questions of audience. (8:56 AM Jul 30th from web )
1. What is FamilySearch? We've never tried to gather identity under one umbrella until a couple of years ago. (8:57 AM Jul 30th from web )
We've had various identities: Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) Granite Mountain Record Vault (GMRV) Family History Library (FHL) (8:58 AM Jul 30th from web )
Also family history centers (FHCs). And familysearch.org. Gather all under one face: FamilySearch. This is our public name. (9:00 AM Jul 30th from web )
Is new.familysearch.org the replacement for www.familysearch.org? No. It is only the tree and temple portion. See labs for preview (9:04 AM Jul 30th from web )
of the future replacement of www.familysearch.org. (9:05 AM Jul 30th from web )
2. Past to Present. familysearch.org launched in 1999. big deal, crashed the servers. Also in 1999: downloadable PAF, IGI. (9:06 AM Jul 30th from web )
Telling story about San Mateo, Florida family reunion, finding he was related to everyone in town. Felt connected. That is what PAF (9:09 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
BTW, Deseret News coverage of #byugen available at http://bit.ly/peJxS(9:13 AM Jul 30th from web)
...has done for millions. Over the years: PRF, Jewish Records, Index, Freedman Bank, Ellis Island, 1880/1881 censuses. (9:14 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Today: FamilySearch is the largest #genealogy organization in the world. 80 countries, 40,000 staff/volunteers, 4,600+ FHCs, records (9:15 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
records of billions of people, from over 100 countries, some preserve records that have since perished. Millions use fs every month. (9:16 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Swiss archivist told Steve that FamilySearch has more records of his people than he has. (9:17 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Traditional model of records needs to improve: Collect records > microfilm > preserve, extractors > share film and indexes (9:19 AM Jul 30th from web )
Problems: microfilm readers not available in most homes, not scalable, doesn't give global web access, (9:20 AM Jul 30th from web )
Fastest growing channel to access info is no longer computer, but cell phone. (9:21 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
New model: Access records > digitize > index online (100K volunteers) > post online > family tree > community collaboration > preserve (9:24 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
FamilySearch is a name that resonates. Example: at the Who Do You Think You Are conference he asked a guy: why are you here? The guy replied, I don't know. Steve eventually learned that the guy’s Aunt had died recently. He became curious about his family. (9:26 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Tells funny story about being stopped by airport security. The agents’ questioning quickly turned to genealogy once they learned who he worked for. (9:30 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Record Search Pilot hidden on http://www.familysearch.org under Search Records. 600 million names. (9:31 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Steve is doing an extensive demo of the Record Search Pilot. http://pilot.familysearch.orgHe’s also pushing the need for indexers. (9:38 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Search menu at familysearch.org also links to Historical Books. Books are scanned, OCRed, every word searchable PDF. Downloadable & printable. (9:40 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
FamilySearch Indexing milestone: 250 millionth name indexed. Ellis Island took 7 years. Now could be done in about a month. (9:42 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Click on Index Records menu at http://www.familysearch.org .
Click Library > Education for video training. (9:44 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Wrapping up. On to next session. (9:57 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BYU Conference Final Keynote: David Rencher

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Hats off to David Rencher. It’s rare that a keynote speaker at the BYU Conference submits a handout for the conference syllabus. I am extremely impressed with Rencher, who submitted a handout in time to be printed up with the syllabus.

It is not uncommon for BYU to post transcripts of keynotes presented by leaders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which they have done this year for Elder John H. Groberg. This page has a link to Elder Groberg’s talk, “Jesus is the Key.” There has been talk suggesting that Rencher’s slides might (underline might) also be posted, probably on the same page.

With no further ado, here’s the first tweets from the 3rd day of the conference.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

Alann F Packer, assistant executive director of FamilySearch Elder Alann F. Packer is attending the conference. Assistant Executive Director for the Church family history department. (7:42 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Packer is saying a few words before the keynote. He is often asked questions about when this or that is coming. Many answers have been given at this conference. (7:43 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

FamilySearch planning takes into account for 88 billion individuals who have already lived and billions more coming. That's why our planning and execution is taking so long. (7:45 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

(Photograph of Elder Alann F. Packer courtesy of the Deseret News.)
David E Rencer, FamilySearch Chief Genealogical Officer Turned time over to David Rencher, “FamilySearch Tackles the Information Explosion.” (Microphone not working.) From the book Groundswell:

Three trends—people’s desire to connect, new interactive technologies, and online economics—have created a new era. This is the fast-growing phenomenon we call the groundswell. Not only is it here; it’s evolving rapidly—creating an incredible challenge for corporate strategists.” (7:47 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )



(Photograph of David E. Rencher courtesy of FamilySearch.)
Product lifecycle: Envision, Plan, Design, Develop, Test, Release, Repeat.

FamilySearch Product Life Cycle 
Many FamilySearch products are nearing the ends of their lifecycles:
- PAF,
-
compact disc products,
- IGI,
- pedigree resource file (PRF),
- paper publications, (7:50 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
- microfilm,
- UDE [Universal Data Entry is the predecessor to FamilySearch Indexing].

Beginnings of lifecycles:
- book scanning,
- FamilySearch indexing,
- NFS [New FamilySearch],
- wiki,
- Record Search, ...

Jay Verkler observed artificial barriers in FH (7:52 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Visit http://labs.familysearch.org

PAF 5.2
- from 1997,
- free,
- millions of users,
- 3rd-party products.
Future options:
- NFS only,
- PAF/NFS (7:55 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
- affiliate/NFS. There are benefits to using both off- and online trees.

CD products stopped in 2002. Resources shifted to NFS.
In the syllabus, Rencher said the CD products will be discontinued when the present inventories are exhausted. “The data from these products will eventually be moved to FamilySearch.org and will be available for free,” he said. Some of the products—vital records from Mexico, Scandinavia, and Europe as well as the 1880 U.S. Census and the 1881 British Census—are already available on Record Search.

IGI replaced by Record Search and NFS. (7:57 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Rencher said, “ultimately, the relevant data in the IGI will be accessible to patrons through FamilySearch’s Record Search and the Family Tree feature. All genealogies shared through PRF will ultimately be searchable through the Family Tree feature.”
PRF still active and growing.

FHLC on CD
- pubbed in 2002.
- 279,762 titles added since then.
- Use the Internet version. (7:58 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
which “is updated every half hour, so it is the most efficient way to access the catalog information.”
Research Guidance migrating to wiki. Why? Paper pubs outdated before ink dried.

Paper publications are going away. Many “will not be reprinted when current supplies are exhausted. The information will be updated and moved into the FamilySearch Wiki.”

Microfilm at end of lifecycle. (8:00 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Only Kodak continues to supply film for making copies for FHCs. Price is going up.

Scottish Church Records CD: David Gardner & (8:02 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
volunteers indexed them [parish records of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian)] but Scots won't allow migration to web. “For the immediate future, Scottish Church Records will continue to only be available on the old DOS version of FamilySearch in the family history centers and the Family History Library. The records are also available for a fee on the website Scotland's People.”

Vietnam and Korean War Casualty Files - moving to Record Search. “There are plans to convert this data to the FamilySearch website. These files are lower priority than the vital record and census materials.”

(8:04 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
UDE phased out in coming months. FS Indexing replacing it.

NFS - think of it in terms of temple submissions. Created in tree form to (8:06 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
add identifying information-relationships. David gets no special treatment. His ancestors also have bad data he can't correct. (8:08 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )
Christening Before Birth Christening before birth.

Elder Monte J. Brough said: members [of the Church] spend too much time reorganizing info instead of learning new [because of what FamilySearch has provided to them.] (8:09 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

FamilySearch Wiki can capture tremendous knowledge of all of you. Example of town in Texas physically moved from Limestone county to Hill county. (8:11 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Standards Finder available on Labs.familysearch.org. Ireland has decided anglicized town names will return to Gaeilge/Gaelic.

Record Search Pilot. (8:13 AM Jul 30th from web )
I'm in charge of the order that FamilySearch is digitizing microfilms. Chocolate doughtnuts are accepted. Trying for entire collections. We're adding world (8:15 AM Jul 30th from web )
areas that dot coms are not addressing. IGI extractions were swiss cheese. RS we want complete record sets. Sometimes have (8:17 AM Jul 30th from web )
permission for images, sometimes just index.

FamilySearch Indexing: projected to hit 250M names a year. Easy to volunteer. Easy to index. (8:18 AM Jul 30th from web )
Batches are small.(8:19 AM Jul 30th from web)

Book scanning. Up to 40K+ books online. Scanning projects are underway at Family History Library, BYU, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Idaho, ACPL (Allen County Public Library), Houston Public Library(David's sister is a volunteer missionary working there), Mid-Continental Library in Independence, Missouri. “The technology…allows users to do an every word or name search.” Many of these books had no printed index (8:21 AM Jul 30th from web )
Supplement collections of ACPL with BYU.

Support: 3 levels. http://bit.ly/sEGra (8:23 AM Jul 30th from web )
Nice map of support offices. (8:24 AM Jul 30th from web )
Support utilizes community of 300,000 users worldwide. (8:26 AM Jul 30th from web )

Collaboration and Conclusion
Limited resources. We must be strategic. (8:27 AM Jul 30th from web )
1894 GSU founded.
1938 microfilming begins.
1963 film distribution to FHC.
1999 film to public libraries.
1999 FamilySearch.org (8:29 AM Jul 30th from web )
2006 Record Search pilot provides 1st images. (8:30 AM Jul 30th from web )
Many ways of doing genealogy isn't keeping up with the power of technology. (8:31 AM Jul 30th from web )
FamilySearch Strategic Direction:
Collaboration, data mining, data conclusions, user experience. (8:32 AM Jul 30th from web )
FamilySearch Strategic Direction
FamilySearch hasn't gone away. I hope you understand why products are ending lifecycle. (8:33 AM Jul 30th from web)

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Monday, August 17, 2009

FHL Desktop – a Goldmine

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Wednesday, 29 July 2009 (Screen shots as of 9 August 2009. Click screen shot to see larger image.)

FHL Patron DesktopLast session of the day. Gary Pack, "Family History Library Deskop: A Gold Mine of Data." (3:02 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )

Changes come often and always. 20-30 changes a week. (3:03 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )

Now have 450+ machines running the library patron desktop.
@rjseaver, didn't you write about this topic after your FHL visit? (3:04 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
FHL Subscription Websites Subscription websites change constantly. We pay so you won't have to. Ancestry.com, Accessible Archives, Footnote.com

Genline.com (Swedish), HeritageQuest, ... Explore. (3:06 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
FHL Databases on CD Databases at the FHL: 3,700 databases available. FHLC gives CD number. Previously checked out at window. Now go thru patron desktop, although the list is now so long, it is best to use the FHLC catalog.

FHLC has direct links in red. For example: Hudgins Cemetery: Livingston County, Missouri (3:12 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
FHL Links to FamilySearch Tools Links to New Tools from FamilySearch: online websites.
FHL Digitized Periodicals Links to online periodicals. Most of this stuff is only available at the library. (3:13 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
FHL Manage Your Records Manage your records: Links to PAF, GEDCOM, other tools. Check out GenSmarts on your GEDCOM. Irfan View. WinZip. Affiliates (new). (3:15 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
FHL Online Resources Online Resources: research help, FHL Favorites, with download instructions, ...
FHL Submit Your Records Submit Your Records: TempleReady is going away soon (3:18 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )

[You can see from the screen shot to the right that just since the BYU conference, TempleReady has been removed from the FHL Patron Desktop! New FamilySearch really is happening on the Wasatch Front!]
FHL Especially For Youth Especially for youth: Links for youth and kids, to various Internet resources. (3:22 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )

Q. If these are publicly available, why not make this page available over the family history center portal?

A. No resources to do so.
"The FHL is the step-child of the FH department and FHCs are the step-child of the FHL." Ouch. (3:23 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )

FHC directors could contact him for the list of links
[The ones I could identify for use outside the library are:

* Your Place in History
http://www.kakophone.com/kakorama/EN/index.php (youth 12-up)
http://dmarie.com/timecap/
http://www.ask.com/?o=12572&l=dir
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timeline/

* Your Genealogy
PAF – local installation
http://www.familysearch.org/
http://www.last-names.net/ (kids 3-11)
http://www.surnamedb.com/ (youth 12-up)
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp

* Fun and Games
Jigsaw Puzzle Lite - local installation
Coloring Pages from Kodak Easy Share - Local installation. Use Cartoon effect (kids)
http://www.puzzle-maker.com/CW/
Seven Day Calendar Grid
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/kids/kids.html
http://www.apcss.org/graphics/educate/match_the_country_and_their_flag.htm (youth)
http://www.mysterycasefiles.com/games.html (youth)

* Kids Online Games
http://www.americangirl.com/fun.html
http://linkasaurus.com/
http://www.nickjr.com/
http://www.hbofamily.com/
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/genres/15/hidden-object.html
http://coloringbookfun.com/
http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/
http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/
http://pbskids.org/
http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/index.html
http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm

* Youth Online Games
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/kings_queens/index.shtml
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi
http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=FF
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/our_america/index_flash.htm
http://americanhistory.si.edu/kids/springer/
http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/resources/whoami/whoami.html
http://www.dupinternational.org/jubilee/quiz.htm
Sudoku - local installation

* Making Memories
http://www.smilebox.com/ - local installation (kids)
Create a photo printable e-card – No longer available (kids)
Create Free E-Cards to email – No longer available (youth)
Create/Publish a Photo Book (kids)
Create/Publish a Photo Book – No longer available. See here instead. (youth)

FHL memo with family history requirements from Faith in God for Girls (kids)
Faith in God for Boys – alternative to FHL memo (kids)
Cub Scouts Family History Requirements - alternative to FHL memo (kids)
Young Women Personal Progress – alternative to FHL memo (youth)
Duty to God (Deacon) – alternative to FHL memo (youth)
Duty to God (Teacher) – alternative to FHL memo (youth)
Duty to God (Priest)  – alternative to FHL memo (youth)
Boy Scouts Genealogy Merit Badge – alternative to FHL memo (youth)

* Make a Family Tree Poster
http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/tiggermovie/familytree.html (Kids)
Education World Family Tree: Three Generations (Kids)
Education World Family Tree: Four Generations (Kids)
Misbach: Four Generations (Youth)
About Genealogy: Five Generations Tree
PAF – local installation (Youth)
Check out digital collage ideas and create your own on with Picasa – local installation (Youth)

* Write/Find Personal and Family Histories
Online Journals (Youth)
Family Interviews – alternative (youth)
Writing my Life Story
Create a Family Website (Kids)
Create a Family Website (Youth)
Publish Your Family Histories (Kids)
Publish Your Own Story (Youth)

See also, “Family History Activities for Youth” in the FamilySearch Wiki.]

FHL Learning Resources Learn links: extremely basic, flash drives, online learning aids. (3:24 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
Review: Subscription sites always changing. FindMyPast for English. We pay a lot for it. 1911 hot. Databases add to it every week. (3:27 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
FHL Trial Websites as of 9 August 2009Review the Trial Websites page each time you come to the library. It has subscription websites on loan to the FHL for evaluation and changes very frequently.

Most of Patron Desktop available on wireless for laptop users. (3:32 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
Remember: The world wide web is ALWAYS in beta! (3:35 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
Taking Q & A. (3:36 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
Q. Can’t you make a list of new stuff available?
A. We are
developing a page, What's New At the Library, that could be made available through FHC Portal. (3:38 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
Q. Can’t you make more of these links available outside the FHL?
A.
Ultimately would like everything at the library available anywhere in the world. (3:38 PM Jul 29th from TweetChat )
Q. FHL Favorites?
A.
The FHL favorites is now available through http://bit.ly/fxzNv  (3:42 PM Jul 29th from web )

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.