The room was packed. The room monitor did a great job of ushering late comers to the few free seats. Anastasia Harman was presenting this session at the Salt Lake Family History Expo on 27 August 2010.

I must say she ignored very nicely the person who took a cell call in class. (He-lo-o!) I tell my classes that I don’t care if they leave their cell phones on as long as they let me answer their phone should it ring. I’ve only answered one call. But I digress…

Harman told attendees that to understand Ancestry.com search results, you should know ...

In the years since FamilySearch introduced www.familysearch.org, their offerings have splintered into a dozen mostly disconnected websites. I look forward to the time that FamilySearch combines all these offerings into one. In the meantime, like me you may appreciate a handy list of links. Bookmark this article or look for it at http://ancestry...blogspot.com .

FamilySearch Websites FamilySearch.org – The old, current, classic Family History Lesson Series* FamilySearch.org Beta – The once and future king Community Trees Contact FamilySearch Forums ...

As I explain in my charter, FamilySearch releases a lot of information to the public, but only in out of the way corners. That’s where I come in. I try to be in those corners. This past weekend one of those corners happened to be the Salt Lake Family History Expo.

(I told a coworker that attending Ron Tanner’s presentations is the only way a FamilySearch employee can find out what FamilySearch is working on. But I digress…)

Tanner was off his best game—but only a bit. “Two weddings in two weeks,” he explained. Between tales of Jelly ...

The background color of a blog website affects how clipart appears. Below, I show how clipart looks on four different backgrounds: white, black, light-brown, and FamilySearch blue.

On White

A white background is used on almost all free clipart. When clipart with a white background is used on a website with a different color background, a small white box appears around the clipart.

Transparent, For Light Backgrounds

Some clipart supports different color backgrounds by using a transparent background. However, most are designed for a light ...

Ever want to find a previous article on the Insider’s website? My website, like so many other blogs, provides three ways to find old articles.

1. Search

Type search words in the box at the upper left corner of the page.

                        

Of course, Google can be used. The Ancestry Insider provides a handy, integrated Google search. Look for it in the right sidebar, part way down the page.

Some of you may not know ...

If you’re at the Salt Lake Family History Expo this Friday and Saturday, come by and say hello.

If you come, be forewarned. The event web page has separate links to the Expo Agenda and the Expo Program. The two list different times and places for my presentation.

The Program is correct as far as I know. I am presenting on Saturday at 1:00pm in room 400. “Blog Your Way to Genealogical Success” is aimed at the super-beginner. You will walk out of the class able to create your own blog or website.

If you’ve already attended this ...

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your feedback last week on desktop tree managers and on magnifying images.

Dick Eastman wrote about another way to magnify images. Use the techniques in “Increase or Decrease Web Page Text Size” to magnify both text and image size.

Gratefully, -- The Insider

 

Website Facelift

Dear Ancestry Insider,

Woah, weird facelift. Liked the old one better. Very hard to read. Its like its on geriatric version or something.

-- Anonymous*

Dear Woah,

Problems in the design of the Insider ...

Dear Ancestry Insider,

I have done a lot with Beta, Pilot, nFS, Forums and Wiki. This Community Trees thing has generally puzzled me. I wish there were more blog posts and analysis of it online. I teach about family history, but I have avoided teaching about this because it seems too complex. For example, will it become part of the new version of FamilySearch.org? How? Will it be searchable under the Trees option on the homepage? That would make sense.

I can understand the usefulness of keeping source based trees separate from each other and from nFS because where the ...

In the years since FamilySearch introduced www.familysearch.org, their offerings have splintered into a dozen mostly disconnected websites. I look forward to the time that FamilySearch combines all these offerings into one. In the meantime, like me you may appreciate a handy list of links. Bookmark this article or look for it at http://ancestry...blogspot.com .

FamilySearch WebsitesFamilySearch.org – The old, current, classic Family History Lesson Series* FamilySearch.org Beta – The once and future king Community Trees Contact FamilySearch Forums ...

FamilySearch debuted a new look on its Wiki for its series of state research outlines. The wiki series replaces the printed outlines formerly available at the Family History Library and Family History Centers.

Spotlighting the hosting state of this year’s 2010 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, FamilySearch showed off the Tennessee outline. Comparisons between the old printed outline and the new Wiki page shows the dramatic increase in functionality.

The old, printed outline The new, Wiki page

 

“The pages ...

Dear Ancestry Insider,

I just have a question. The BYU family History books site used to have about 60,000 books digitized and searchable online. Now it has just 17,000. Were they removed or just moved to another web site? Was it a copyright problem?

-- Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I looked into this and found out that BYU ran out of server space. According to a spokesperson, they temporarily removed a large number of note card records of Philippine immigrant workers in Hawaii. Each card appeared as a separate book. The huge number of cards made it appear as ...

Several years ago the Ancestry Insider published a series of tips for FamilySearch Indexers. Here is a list, to make it easier to check out the entire series. Improvements in the indexing program outdate some of the illustrations, but the concepts are still relevant.

Lookup List 13 September 2007 Birth Year Quiz 19 September 2007 Birth Year Quiz Answer 27 September 2007 Keyboard Shortcuts 4 October 2007 Adjusting Highlights 24 May 2008 Hiding Columns 1 June 2008 Handwriting Help 5 June 2008 Account for all ...

At a press briefing held today, 13 August 2010, 2:00 pm MDT, FamilySearch made the following announcement:

New RootsTech Conference to Bring Technologists Face-to-face with Genealogists

SALT LAKE CITY­—Technologists and genealogists from around the world will gather at the first annual RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 10-12, 2011. The new conference, hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by leading genealogical organizations, aims to bring technologists and genealogists together to help deepen understanding of current technologies ...

Several years ago the Ancestry Insider published a series of tips for FamilySearch Indexers. Here is a list, to make it easier to check out the entire series. Improvements in the indexing program outdate some of the illustrations, but the concepts are still relevant.

Lookup List 13 September 2007 Birth Year Quiz 19 September 2007 Birth Year Quiz Answer 27 September 2007 Keyboard Shortcuts 4 October 2007 Adjusting Highlights 24 May 2008 Hiding Columns 1 June 2008 Handwriting Help 5 June 2008 ...

Records Indexed Annually 200 million – New goal for 2010. Each record must be keyed twice and revisited a third time when the first two are not the same.1 169 million – Original goal for 2010.1 118,140,160 – Records indexed this year as of 2 August 2010.2 117,094,600 – Records indexed this year as of 30 July 2010.1 100,795,360 – Records indexed this year as of July 2010.3 32.5 millions – Records indexed this year as of 11 March 2010.4 140 million – Records indexed in 2009.4 Total Records Indexed 356,081,200 – Total records ...