Family History Resolutions Quarterly Report

At the beginning of the year I set six family history resolutions.

I'm delighted to report that two of those 6 goals are complete!

For goal #3 I was able to extend 5 or more of my direct ancestral lines, with the help of my parents.
The following are the end-point individuals--all German immigrant ancestors--that we extended from so far this year:

1. Johann Georg Grauling b.1789 - Bleichenbach, Hessen, Germany
2. Anna Dorothea Bernges b.1790 - Selters, Hessen, Germany
3. Christina Pabst b.1826 - Bobenhausen II, Hessen, Germany
4. Johann Conrad Schumann b.1808 -  Roßdorf, Hessen, Germany
5. Henry Lindemann b.1835 - near Ober Ramstadt, Hessen, Germany
6. Catherine Schuchmann b.1840 - Ober Ramstadt, Hessen, Germany

For goal #4 I was able to begin "living the dream" with an internship at FamilySearch. I'm doing what I love--helping people to have success in family history.

FamilySearch Linking Demo

Last month, at RootsTech 2012, FamilySearch demoed their new FamilySearch Linking software. This program allows volunteers to link the pre-FamilySearch-Indexing indices to digital images. FamilySearch has had volunteers indexing records since the 1960s or so, but only recently has come out with the ability to link the actual digital images to the records on their website. To clarify: the "linking" is automatic for anything that has been indexed since 2006 with the FamilySearch Indexing software, but image linking is now being done for the older indices. This linking software is expected to remain in pilot until the end of the year. I requested access from FamilySearch--which you can do as well by contacting support@familysearch.org.

Please watch this 5 minute demo of the new software and help spread the word. We will need a lot of volunteers to do all this work so that the images will show up on FamilySearch.org--and more people can find their ancestors for free.