Friday, August 26, 2011

Kennekuk Ward FH Class Notes



Class One - Turning Hearts

How to search on Google

1.   Use a tilde or ~ before  your search item and with words like genealogy or birth or death
      ie Emma Scholl ~genealogy
2.  Put "quotes" around search terms so Google will look for those words in that order
      ie  "Emma Scholl" and "Scholl, Emma"
3.  Use OR
      ie "Emma Scholl" OR "Mrs. Scholl"
4.  Use a * if you don't know part of a name or phrase
      ie  "Emma * Scholl"
5.  Use AROUND(8) when looking for two terms in proximity
      ie   "Emma Scholl" AROUND(10) "George Scholl"
6.  Use the NEAR logical operator
      ie  "Emma Scholl" NEAR "Eden, Utah"
7.  Use two periods between dates to include all intervening dates
      ie "Emma Scholl" NEAR "1887..1968"
8.  When looking for photos use the specific term "faces" in the Google menu
9.  Get photos of important places from Google's street view.  You can also move the "little
     man" icon to blue dots on the map to get photos near your place of   interest
10  When interested in searching a single site do the following:
      ie "Emma Scholl" site: Ancestry
11. Use Google's scanned newspapers by going to http//news.google.com/newspapers
12.  Type in the name of a town and the word cemetery to view all local cemeteries in a given
       area, ie  Morgan Utah Cemetery
13.  Use:  translate.google.com to translate words, phrases or entire web sites
14.  Use historypin.com to locate old photos of the locality you are interested in
15   Upload a photo to the little camera on Google images to find similar photos
16.  Use "support.google.com/websearch" for more logical operators and how to use them


1940 census categories










Class Two - Keeping Track of Your Family History


Here are some ways to stay organized and keep your family history in order:

1.  Family Search






2.  Ancestry



3.  Roots Magic



4.  iFamily (apple)



5.  Word document

Quote:  Sir Conan Doyle in the Adventure of Beryl Coronet "When you eleminate the impossible, whatever you have left, no matter how improbable must be the truth."




Class Three - Gathering FH Info


Where are the best places to find family history work?


a.  The very best place to find family history is in your home or the homes of your relatives.
     Contact them via email when you find their email address on FamilySearch or
     FindAGrave or through other relatives.  
b.  Ancestry now gives prompts to help with your research and Ancestry is excellent    
     with census information and city directories (Ancestry if free in Family History Centers
c.  Find-A-Grave for grave markers, histories and photographs
d.  Utah Death Certificate Index 1904 – 1960 for free death certificates  
e.  FamilySearch 1940 census, or FamilySearch (go to search and then go to All Public
     Collections to view collections of digitized collections)
f.  Do a Google search with your relatives name in quotes and the name of where they were born 


Class Four - Find your family in newspapers for free


Newspapers
1.  http://guides.library.upenn.edu/historicalnewspapersonline to find newspapers in your state  
2.  Google Search using News/archives/free
3.  Utah Digital Newspapers for a newspapers in Utah
4.  Access Newspapers which is found in the Portal of all Family History Centers and the Family History library
5.  Chronicling America - http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/

Class Five - Photographs 


What is the purpose of digitizing photographs?
1.    Keep photos safe
Once you have digitized your family history, you can make multiple copies - or pass on multiple links - and ensure that all family members have their own copy
2.    Share records with others
The whole idea behind digitization is to make it easier to share things, preserve things and make copies of things that belong to somebody else.
3.    Make websites, picture books, and/or puzzles
4.    Keep track of thousands of photographs
5.    Preserve videos of family members telling their stories

How do I digitize my photographs?
1.    Buy a scanner and scan documents, photographs and newspaper articles using 600 dpi and the TIFF format.  A tiff file is the full size file which is useful in printing the photograph.  This file will not degrade over time like a jpg
The safest course is to scan everything at a minimum 300dpi. And for originals smaller the 4x6, scan at 600dpi. Negatives and slides: scan at 1200 or 2400 dpi (it's going to be a bit slow at that resolution though)

TIFF is a format for saving images. Unlike the more common JPEG format, TIFFs do not degrade each time they are resaved. A JPEG file is smaller for a reason — it gets rid of subtle distinctions. TIFFs can be easily converted to JPEGs if needed for a particular purpose (such as displaying on the Web)

2.    If you are digitizing lots of photographs and need to do so quickly, just shoot photographs or documents with a digital camera.

How do I keep my photographs organized?
1.    When you scan a document or photos make sure to name the file with the year first and the name of who you have scanned second.  A key word can also be added to the photograph so you can retrieve the photograph by all the names of the people in the photograph.

2.    Label and add key words to all photograph and then make smart albums so you can quickly retrieve photographs by name and date.

3.    When you are adding today's photographs use the same procedure.  Add the date, who is in the photograph and any key words that fit with the photograph.  Always put the date first.


Class Six - Videos
  
How can videos further your FH work? 

Here are some ways you can use a video camera to further your family history:

1.  Interview the oldest member of your family
2.  Interview a family member who has done something interesting
3.  Video tape a funeral (you can do an audio tape of the service)
4.  Video tape a grave marker so others can easily find it.
5.  Video tape a grandchild doing something interesting
6.  Make a slideshow of an ancestors life, or a relative's life
7.  Video tape someone talking about a family photograph




Interviews: example
1991 JHG Tells Stories from Kent Gardiner on Vimeo.
documentary format:
Robert and Margaret from Kent Gardiner on Vimeo.