Would you like to
learn about your ancestors? There is a genealogy website that is free to the public where you
can learn about your heritage. It’s absolutely free. No fees at all. How do you
get started?
Go to www.familysearch.org.
1. Create a username and password and any other
information about yourself.
2. Fill in the information about your parents and
grandparents next. Record your family back two to four generations and record
all their children.
3. You can upload photos,
documents, stories, and audios to the pages of your parents and ancestors in
the section labeled “Memories.” Preserve original photographs by scanning them
and uploading them to Memories. This
should be your number one priority. If you don’t record these memories,
they will be lost.
Remember one thing. Due to the privacy
policy, only information about deceased people will show. So if you upload a
bunch of photos and stories on your own page about yourself, it won’t be visible
to others until you pass on. This is the same for any of your living relatives.
Don’t get overwhelmed with too
many projects! As you gradually become confident, you can set more goals such
as researching your family’s history. Work on “Memories” first and make that
your number one priority.
What is Genealogy?
“Genealogy is the study of a family’s origins and history
and is often referred to as a family history. The first known use was in
the 14th century to display a pedigree of royal, aristocratic, or clerical
blood lines as a means of gaining and commanding respect. Some family
trees, like that of Confucius, have been found to list 80 generations dating
back 2,500 years.
“Initially
passed down by word of mouth the family genealogy was later depicted in the
form of stylish paintings and documents. It has currently gained
international interest as access to more and more on-line records has resulted
in significant advances in its documentation and display capabilities. As
it was in the times of an ancient king’s genealogy which showed his
relationship to the gods, today’s family histories continue to be a form of
storytelling to preserve the past for future generations. In today’s
climate, the more accurately one can document the past the more likely it will
survive through the ages. Today’s genealogy can take the form of simply
collecting and preserving family information, all the way up to adding
information to the world tree.”
--FamilySearch
There are free online classes at
FamilySearch:
To see
what classes are taught each day online, click on the “Class Schedule.”
Classes
are taught daily at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. On Thursdays, there may also be a
class at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Below the Class Schedule is “Join Class.” When you click on that link
during a class, you can listen and join in the conversation because it will be
live. The teacher can answer any questions you have.
The two classes I teach each month are: Writing Your Biography twice a month and
Publishing Your Biography twice a month.
Below is my schedule for July.
July 9 at 10:00 - Writing Your Biography
July 16 at 10:00 - Publishing Your Biography
July 20 at 1:00 - Writing Your Biography
July 27 at 1:00 - Publishing Your Biography
