The seminar will help genealogists of all skill levels learn how to:

• Fit family history research into your busy schedule.
• Perform more effective searches on the Internet.
• Do faster searches on the Internet.
• Retain the information you locate.
• Develop important skills to better use your time.
  

Beginning at 9 a.m., guests will hear from Van Celaya, Riverton FamilySearch Library missionary and keynote presenter, about how to effectively and accurately conduct searches on the Internet and save the located information. Following the keynote address this month, guests can select two hour-long classes (see below).

9:00-10:00 a.m.: Searching on the Internet—Van Celaya (keynote presenter)

10:10-11:10 a.m.: Home on the Range: U.S. Federal Land Records—by Beth Taylor

11:20 a.m.-12:20 p.m: The Bred, the Wed, and the Dead: U.S. Vital Records— by Beth Taylor

Registration is not required for this free seminar. The Riverton FamilySearch Library is located in the LDS Riverton Office Building at 3740 West Market Center Drive.

Contact Information:
Brad and Pat Jensen
Directors, Riverton FamilySearch Library
1-801-240-9625
bejensen@ldschurch.org
pjensen@familysearch.org

Find the complete update on the FamilySearch News and Press page.

The tremendous undertaking will make a billion records from over 100 million US newspaper obituaries readily searchable online. The newspapers are from all 50 states and cover the period 1730 to present. The completed online index will be fairly comprehensive, including 85% of U.S. deaths from the last decade alone. The death collection will easily become one of the most popular online genealogy databases ever, detailing names, dates, relationships, locations of the deceased, and multi-generational family members.

Family history information from obituaries are being indexed by volunteers and made searchable online.

Obituaries can solve family puzzles, tell stories, dispel myths, and provide tremendous help with family history research. A single obituary can include the names and relationships of dozens of family members. For example, Alice E. Cummings’ obituary (See above) sheds light on where she lived during her lifespan, her personal history, and it provides information connecting five generations of ancestors and descendants in her family tree—14 people in all.

Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch, explained that obituaries are extremely valuable because they tell the stories of our ancestors’ lives long after they are deceased. He invites online volunteers to help unlock the “treasure trove” of precious family information locked away in newspaper obituaries.

“Billions of records exist in US obituaries alone,” Brimhall said. “The average obituary contains the names of about ten family members of the deceased—parents, spouse, children, and other relatives. Some include much more. Making them easily searchable online creates an enormously important source for compiling our family histories. The number of people who will benefit from this joint initiative is incalculable.”

GenealogyBank has over 6,500 historical U.S. newspapers and growing, spanning over 280 years. The death notices in these publications go beyond names and dates. They can provide insightful first-hand accounts about an ancestor that simply are not available from censuses or vital records alone.

“Obituaries, unlike any other resource, have the ability to add incredible dimensions to an individual’s family history research. They contain a wealth of information including facts and details that help capture the legacy of those who have passed on,” said Dan V. Jones, GenealogyBank Vice President. “The unique life stories written, dates documented, and generations of family members mentioned are often only found within an obituary, which makes them such an invaluable resource. Obituaries have the unique power to both tell a story and enable individuals to learn more about their family relationships. GenealogyBank is proud and excited to partner with FamilySearch in bringing these obituaries to researchers all over the world.”

Volunteers Are Key

The success of the massive US obituary campaign will depend on online volunteers. The obituaries are fairly simple to read, since they are digital images of the typeset, printed originals, but require human judgment to sort through the rich, historic data and family relationships recorded about each person. Information about online volunteering is available at FamilySearch.org/indexing. A training video, indexing guide, detailed instructions, telephone and online support are available to help new volunteer indexers if needed.

FamilySearch.org volunteers have already indexed over one billion historic records online since 2006, including all of the available U.S. Censuses, 1790 to 1940. In 2012 volunteers rallied in a record-breaking effort to index the entire 1940 U.S. Census in just four months. Today, the US censuses, 1790 to 1940, are the most popular online databases for family history research. Indexed obituary collections can be searched online at FamilySearch.org and GenealogyBank.com.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About GenealogyBank

GenealogyBank.com is one of the largest exclusive collections of newspapers and historical documents for family history research. It provides information on millions of American families from 1630–today. Over 6,500 newspapers provide first-hand accounts of your ancestors’ lives that simply can’t be found in other genealogy resources: obituaries, birth and marriage notices, photographs, hometown news and more. Over 380,000 historical books and documents from 1749-1994 include military records, widow’s claims, orphan petitions, land grants, casualty lists, funeral sermons, biographies and much more. Discover the stories, names, dates, places and events that have shaped your family story at GenealogyBank.com.

She was the consummate Sicilian Italian grandma. In the most significant of all family instructions—how to make a house a home—she was truly gifted. Although she died when I was twelve years old, the influence of her charms during those years was left indelibly upon my mind into adulthood.

In the early years of my memory I can recall times at grandma’s old home in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The home was characteristic in style of the nice homes that lined North Street, a main boulevard in its day. My mother went back to college after having 5 children. I being the youngest and not in school yet, there were times I was left with Grandma Lena in the morning until my mother picked me up in the afternoon. I only recall Grandma Lena with white hair and cat eye glasses. She was usually adorned in a cotton dress or cotton blouse and polyester slacks—always immaculately clean and pressed—with one of those wonderful, now vintage aprons with large, deep pockets for holding every tool needed for any domestic challenge she’d face throughout her day.

Grandma Lean always had either fresh biscuits, biscotti (sesame seed cookies), pizelle, or some other wonderful culinary treat for us to snack throughout the day. She had an amazing ability to engage me in household chores that never seemed to be as loathsome when doing it with or for her. Even mundane shopping trips seemed more enticing with Grandma Lena.

The only time you could rest was during the afternoons when she snuggled up to an iron and ironing board in the old back room of her house to iron grandpa’s clothes and to watch her two favorite soap operas “As the World Turns” and “Days of Our Lives”. I can still hear the introductory music and narrative, “As sands of the hourglass…so are the days of our lives…” I think that was the time I passed out on her couch and would awake some time after a nap to the sounds of chirping birds or quarreling squirrels outside in her majestic oak or inviting pecan trees. Or maybe it was the inviting smells of a pasta dish emanating from the kitchen. The lady new how to cook!

They would later sell their home in Baton Rouge and build a house next door to us out in the country. That was a dream move for us grandkids—ready access to Grandma Lena basically 24/7. When mom would kick us 5 children out the house during the summer so she could get her work done, we’d hit up Grandma Lena next door. She was always on top of our antics, and wise beyond measure. She never fell party to enabling undesirable qualities in us or interfering with our parents’ parenting. She’d give us a treat, hear about our woes or dreams, and always give us wise counsel—like “Excuses are like armpits. Everyone has at least two, and they both stink.” My mother would later inherit that one as well! If you rubbed her wrong or were being thick skulled about something, she’d raise her hand as though she were going to swat you upside your head and say, “Chi testa capo tosta!” Which basically means, “Oh what a hard head!”

And if you wanted to visit with Grandma Lena, you usually had to work along side her at whatever task she was attending at the moment—a trait she passed on to my mother. She didn’t seem to have patience for belabored dramatizations, lounging or laziness. If you just wanted to “lolly gag” as she would put it (passing time chit chatting while not productively multitasking), she’d politely invite you to get to work by assisting her with the chore at hand while you were visiting or to get out the house with your lazy self. It was always work first, play second. And She was definitely the early-to-bed and early-to-rise type. Despite Grandma Lena’s hard-working demeanor, there was never a doubt that family was paramount important. She made holidays special and never missed a family special occasion. She was adept at balancing love, faith, kindness, neatness and discipline—essential attributes in every effective home.

For more information about adding your stories about your grandma to FamilySearch.org, visit FamilySearch.org/meetmygrandma.

David Rencher, FamilySearch’s chief genealogy officer, said, “The richness of the collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania cannot be overstated. It simply is the best collection of resources for studying the history and people of Pennsylvania—period. The vision to collect and preserve these historical documents for many decades gives HSP and FamilySearch a unique opportunity to increase the knowledge and awareness of this priceless historical gem.”

Founded in 1824 in Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is one of the oldest historical societies in the United States. It is home to some 600,000 printed items and more than 21 million historical manuscripts and graphical items. Its unparalleled collections encompass more than 350 years of America’s history—from the 17th-century to the contributions of its most recent immigrants.

The initiative will digitally preserve and publish online the society’s many genealogies and local histories, family trees, and related family documents and manuscripts that contribute to the understanding of many family histories. Collections of particular interest might be those of Pennsylvania’s founding families, including William Penn and others.

Some of the society’s holdings date back to before the Revolutionary War. The rare histories include family papers, cataloged photographs, genealogies, African-American collections such as a history of the Dutrieuille family and related families, a cookbook compiled by Ellen Emlen during the Civil War in 1865, Jewish resources, sources about daily lives in the history of the United States, and much more.

Dr. Page Talbott, the President and CEO of the historical society, said that it is a “delight to work with FamilySearch. The primary goal of the project is to broaden the audience of the society’s records and engage in an unprecedented effort to digitize and preserve important data. Users all over the world will have access to these records, and partnership with FamilySearch will continue to benefit interested individuals well into the future.” Dr. Talbott said that digitization of the society’s compiled family histories has already begun.

Volunteer FamilySearch representatives Jerrol and Margaret Syme are operating the onsite scanning center. The Symes are from Mapleton, Utah, a small town about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Jerrol Syme, a retired CEO of a medical institution, and his wife, Margaret, are excited about their assignment. They miss their children and grandchildren but are excited to help others find success in their family history work by being able to conveniently access the society’s rich collections online.

Lena was always feisty, and she let people know how she felt from an early age. Her five children knew that she meant what she said, and no one dared step out of line. She wasn’t very educated, and read and wrote poorly, but she was very careful to keep pictures in albums with the names of her children and grandchildren on them, so we have a record of all her “kiddies.”   She never went anywhere except to San Diego with her husband.

After the death of her husband, she met a former merchant marine who had never married, and he treasured her. He took her to Hawaii, and he was very patient with her lack of education. He took the time to help her read and write better.   After she was in her 70s and 80s she used a cane, but I don’t think she needed it. She would wave it at people if they got in her way. Even after her second husband died, she would travel with the people in the home where she was staying and carry that cane with her. No one dared cross her, even though she was only five feet tall and in her late 80s at this time.

My husband and I and her step-son and son (my husband’s father) went to a restaurant with her in San Diego. She was glad to see everyone, but she was mad that her sons hadn’t done something and let them know about it. In her late 90s she couldn’t get out of bed, but my husband and our children took turns writing so she got a letter every day. We also paid the nurses at her place to read them to her. When anyone would visit her, she would always point at our letters and pictures on the wall and say, “Look, all of my grand kiddies love me.” She thought all of her many descendants were writing to her. And we were happy to have her think so. She was amazing, having lived a hard life and loving everyone, not gently, but loving regardless.

For more information about adding your stories about your grandma to FamilySearch.org, visit FamilySearch.org/meetmygrandma.

Using U.S. Military Records will be presented by David Dilts, AG. Learn how to use U.S. Military Records to document the lives of your ancestors. Learn where to find military records, how to use them and what information can be found in these valuable historical records.

Please join David Dilts in an Adobe Connect Meeting on Saturday, October 11, 2014, 11:15 am to 12:15 pm Mountain Standard Time. For those who wish to attend in person, this class will be taught at 6:00 pm on the Main Floor Classroom of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Meeting Name:  David Dilts

Summary: Using United States Military Records

Invited By: David Dilts

When:  October 11, 2014 from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm

Time Zone:  (GMT-06:00) Mountain Time (US and Canada)

To join the meeting, visit: http://ldschurch1.adobeconnect.com/fhluscanada/

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If you have never attended an Adobe Connect meeting before:

Test your connection: http://ldschurch1.adobeconnect.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

Get a quick overview: http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html

David Dilts, AG^® is a Senior Research Specialist in U.S. and Canada Reference at the Family History Library. He has served in ICAPGen and the Utah Genealogical Association. Recent presentations include: National Genealogical Society, Federation of Genealogical Societies, Boston MA, BYU Computerized Genealogy, UGA, Fresno CA, San Jose CA, Mesa AZ, Grand Junction CO. Accredited in: LDS Records and German research.

Meet my grandma, Kameno Yube Takeda, an extraordinary woman living an ordinary life in Shimanto, Japan. She was born the sixth of seven children in a remote village on the island of Shikoku in southern Japan. When I say ‘remote’, I mean that in 1913, the year of her birth, there were no railroads connecting her village to the rest of Japan—in fact, there were no roads of any kind. People traveled by foot and only the richest townspeople owned bicycles. Most people on her island were either farmers or fishermen. Her father was a rice farmer, so though they were poor, they always had enough to eat.

Her marriage to my grandfather, Masaru Takeda, was an arranged one. Together they had five children and were married for over sixty years. She never knew a day without work. If she wasn’t laboring in the rice fields (quite literally—she nearly gave birth to my uncle Hiroki in a rice paddy), she was working at the sento, the traditional public bathhouse their family owned. Many nights she would stay until one in the morning, scrubbing the tiles of the bath and cleaning up after late night customers.

Grandma turned 101 this year and she’s still going strong. She’s tiny—my ten-year-old daughter was taller than her—and tips the scales at about 90 pounds, but her appetite would surprise you. At our family reunion dinner, she ate so much sushi, tempura, fish, crab, and fruit that my aunt had to remove her from the table and put her to bed. Once we brought her a pack of Lifesavers and she put the entire pack in her mouth all at once. She looked like a chipmunk, and said, “How tasty!” over and over. That funny story is a favorite of my children, who love to imagine their Japanese great-grandma stuffing her face with American Lifesavers.

My grandma sewed her own kimonos. She still wears fancy rings on her knobby fingers. She loves tending her flowers. She spends hours each day looking after the ones in pots outside her bedroom window. That is what I found her doing the last time I visited her, two years ago. I sat down beside her and said, “Hello, Grandma. It’s good to see you.” She looked at me, smiled and said, “Who are you?” I told her I was Ellen, her granddaughter from America come to visit. She said, “I’m so glad you are here.” “Me, too, Grandma. I’m so glad I am here, too.” An hour later after breakfast I went out to talk with her again. She looked at me, smiled, and asked, “Who are you?” We had this conversation several times a day. Her memory has gone, but each time she saw me, there was a sparkle in her eye and a warmth in her smile. She was genuinely happy to see me over and over again. It’s rather nice to have someone pleased to see you after an absence of only a few minutes.

I wish I could visit her more, but distance makes it difficult. I’ve only been to her village four times in my life. I know that really isn’t enough to get to know your grandma very well. After my mother came to America and married my father, my grandmother could never come visit us. She never even traveled away from her island of Shikoku, or far from the small village in which she was born. She lead a simple life of hard work, raising five children and putting food on the table. But sometimes that’s enough. Four visits really isn’t enough to make a lot of memories with my grandma, but it is enough to come to love her. And you would, too, if you could meet her.

For more information about adding your stories about your grandma to FamilySearch.org, visit FamilySearch.org/meetmygrandma.

She wasn’t a “soft” grandma. She wasn’t a hugger, didn’t pinch my cheeks, and didn’t say, “I love you.” But I knew she did because she showed me in many ways. She had been an elementary teacher so she knew lots of songs and projects. Alone, or with my cousins, we would buy packages of popsicle sticks and make things, like a big birdhouse. She, in spite of the rheumatoid arthritis from which she also suffered, would show us how to do cross stitching, and provided us with places to play, like her yard with its big tree house on stilts, furnished with a table and chairs, and a ladder we could pull up to be alone. The yard also had a fish pond, a porch swing, and beautiful flowers.   She always kept us supplied with treats, like Popsicles and a jar full of different candies.

While she was still driving her big maroon Cadillac, before going into her wheel chair and having to be driven, we went with her and my grandpa to Lagoon many times with my cousins, to plays, like an outdoor performance of Pinocchio, where we were sprinkled with pixie dust, and to my grandparents’ cabin at a reservoir.  That car was amazing with automatic windows, of all things, and had an 8-track player that played only, I thought, The Sound of Music. She always told us that we could do anything that we wanted and never to quit in spite of anything that came our way. Her advice has helped me get through my own trials.

Whenever I think about Grandma, I think of the songs, “I Have Confidence” and “Climb Every Mountain” and think of her courage and example.  I know that in spite of great adversity, we can all go forward with kindness and love.

For more information about adding your stories about your grandma to FamilySearch.org, visit FamilySearch.org/meetmygrandma.

This Grandma story was written and submitted by Ruby Milner Stevens’ granddaughter, Kristine Hanna Johnson.