Free Family History Library Classes & Webinars, September 2017

Photo copyright Allison Kimball; licensed under Creative 
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 
Unported License. Used with permission.

In addition to the Nordic Family History Conference from 11-15 September, 2017 (see this blog post), the Family History Library is offering 18 beginner and intermediate webinars and classes in the month of September 2017.

The Nordic Family History Conference classes require registration to attend. In order to attend any of the other classes, webinar attendees need to open the September 2017 Family History Library Class Calendar and click the link next to the class title at the scheduled date and time to attend the class online.

Below is September's schedule which includes the Nordic Family History Conference classes. All times are in MDT (Arizona is one hour earlier).

DATE / TIME			CLASS
Sat	2 Sep	1:00 pm	Investigación genealógica de Perú (Beginner)
Tue	5 Sep	10:00 am	Family Tree Next Step: Attaching Sources in Family Tree (Beginner)
Tue	5 Sep	11:00 am	Using Digital Libraries to Find Your German Ancestor (Intermediate)
Tue	5 Sep	1:00 pm	British Case Study (Beginner)
Wed	6 Sep	10:00 am	French Language Indexing (Intermediate) (1½ hours)
Wed	6 Sep	12:00 pm	Ask Your United States Research Question (Beginner)
Thur	7 Sep	11:00 am	Helpful Websites for Finding Your German Ancestor (Beginner)
Mon	11 Sep	9:00 am	2017 Is the Year of Nordic Records! Learn What’s Coming (Beginner)
Mon	11 Sep	10:15 am	The Who, What, Where, Why, and How of Nordic Records on FamilySearch (Beginner)
Mon	11 Sep	1:15 pm	Exploring European Feast-Day Calendars (Intermediate)
Mon	11 Sep	2:30 pm	Scandinavian-American Resources (Intermediate)
Tue	12 Sep	9:00 am	What’s New in the Swedish ArkivDigital (Intermediate)
Tue	12 Sep	10:15 am	Name Searchable Databases in Swedish ArkivDigital (Intermediate)
Tue	12 Sep	11:00 am	Submitting Names for Temple Ordinances (Intermediate)
Tue	12 Sep	1:15 pm	Swedish Naming Customs (Intermediate)
Tue	12 Sep	2:30 pm	Military Records in the Swedish ArkivDigital (Intermediate)
Wed	13 Sep	9:00 am	Probate Laws and Records for Swedish Genealogy (Intermediate)
Wed	13 Sep	10:15 am	Databases for Swedish Genealogy (Intermediate)
Wed	13 Sep	1:15 pm	Introduction to Icelandic Church and Census Records (Beginner)
Wed	13 Sep	2:30 pm	Finnish Immigration and Methodology: How to Tackle Finnish Challenges (Intermediate)
Thur	14 Sep	9:00 am	Norwegian Church Records (Beginner)
Thur	14 Sep	10:15 am	Norway: We’re Getting Married! Traditions and Records (Beginner)
Thur	14 Sep	1:15 pm	Lensrekneskapsbøker in Norway (Intermediate)
Thur	14 Sep	2:30 pm	Norwegian Migration and Immigration (Beginner)
Fri	15 Sep	9:00 am	Danish Estates (Intermediate)
Fri	15 Sep	10:30 am	Little Used Records on Arkivalieronline (Intermediate)
Fri	15 Sep	1:15 pm	Danish Tax Records (Beginner)
Fri	15 Sep	2:30 pm	Research in Copenhagen (Beginner)
Sat	16 Sep	1:00 pm	¿Qué, cuándo, y dónde? Los inicios de la investigación italiana (Intermediate)
Mon	18 Sep	10:00 am	Using the FamilySearch Catalog Effectively (Beginner)
Tue	19 Sep	11:00 am	Starting Family Tree: Research Help and Searching Records (Beginner)
Wed	20 Sep	10:00 am	Spanish Language Indexing (Intermediate) (1½ hours)
Thur	21 Sep	1:00 pm	Scots-Irish Research (Beginner)
Mon	25 Sep	10:00 am	Using the FamilySearch Catalog Effectively (Beginner)
Wed	27 Sep	10:00 am	Portuguese Language Indexing (Intermediate) (1½ hours)
Thur	28 Sep	11:00 am	Finding Original Records: The Real Game of Hide and Seek (Beginner)
Thur	28 Sep	1:00 am	Tracing Early LDS Church Convert Ancestry in England (Beginner)
Fri	29 Sep	1:00 pm	Your British/Irish Research Questions Answered (Beginner)

If you are unable to attend a class at the time scheduled, most sessions are recorded and can be viewed later online at your convenience. To access the recordings, visit the Family History Library Classes and Webinars webpage and scroll down to Past Webinars & Handouts section.

What's Happening at the FGS 2017 Conference?

By Guest Blogger Nicole Dyer

The Federation of Genealogical Societies is having their national conference this week. If you're not fortunate to be able to attend in person, you can follow along on Twitter! Don't have a Twitter account? You don't need one! Using the tag #FGS2017, you can search Twitter and only see "tweets" (short updates) from people attending the conference. Many people share tips or ideas that are shared by the speakers. They may tag another Twitter user by using their Twitter handle (username). The handle for FGS is @FGSgenealogy and our society's handle is @azpimagensoc.

So, if you want to follow along with tweets about the FGS conference this week, here's how: 

1. Go to Twitter.com
2. Click on the magnifying glass to search Twitter
3. Type #FGS2017 and click enter
4. Click "Latest" to see the most recent tweets about this subject
5. Scroll down to see what's happening at the conference!
6. If you decide to create a Twitter account, make sure you follow us at @azpimagensoc to get news and updates about our society.

Have fun!

3. Type #FGS2017 in the search box and click enter

4. Click "Latest" to see the most recent tweets about this subject

Update on Discontinuance of Microfilm

Photo by Logan Ingalls [CC BY 2.0]

Two months ago, we alerted you to the FamilySearch press release that they would discontinue distribution of microfilm (see Press Release: Microfilm Distribution to be Discontinued) and that the last day for ordering microfilm would be August 31, 2017.

Today, FamilySearch released the following update with helpful facts and tips to help patrons better navigate the transition from microfilm to digital:

QUICK FACTS AND TIPS

• Patrons can still order microfilms online until Thursday, September 7, 2017.
• After film ordering ends, if customers need access to a particular film yet to be digitized, they can express interest to have it added to the priority digitization list by contacting FamilySearch Support (Toll Free: 1-866-406-1830). 
• All of the microfilm rented by patrons in the past 5 years have now been digitized by FamilySearch—over 1.5 million microfilms (ca. 1.5 billion images).
• The remaining microfilms are being digitally scanned at a rate of 1,000 films per day and are projected to be complete by 2020.
• New digital images are available as they are scanned in the FamilySearch.org Catalog.
• Films currently on loan in family history centers and affiliate libraries are automatically granted extended loan status.
• Affiliate libraries now have access to nearly all of the restricted image collections as family history centers.
• Visitors to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will still be able to order needed microfilms to use during their research visits.

HOW TO FIND DIGITAL IMAGES ON FAMILYSEARCH
Digital image collections can be accessed today in 3 places on FamilySearch.org, all under Search.

• Catalog. Includes a description of all the microfilms and digital images in the FamilySearch collection. This is where all of FamilySearch's digitized microfilm and new digital images from its global camera operations are being published. A camera icon appears in the Catalog adjacent to a microfilm listing when it is available digitally.
• Records includes collections that have been indexed by name or published with additional waypoints to help browse the unindexed images.
• Books include digital copies of books from the Family History Library and other libraries, including many books that were previously copied to microfilm.

For additional help, see Finding Digital Images of Records on FamilySearch.org, or watch this how-to video “Where are the digitized records on FamilySearch?”

Centers have the option of returning the microfilm that is available online or otherwise not needed. The Tucson Family History Center on Langley does not intend to return any of the microfilm in its collection at this time.

For more information, visit the FamilySearch Newsroom article UPDATE: FamilySearch Digital Records Access Replacing Microfilm.

Family History Storytime

A new session of Family History Storytime is starting on Monday, September 11, 2017. These one-hour classes are designed for children ages 3 to 5 and their caregivers, but all ages are welcome. The six classes are full of fun stories and activities focused on getting the young ones interested in their own family history.

When?  Mondays, September 11-October 23 at 10am
Where?  Tucson Family History Center, 500 S. Langley Ave.

Schedule:
September 11 – My Family
September 18 – Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins
September 25 – Family Trees
October 2 – Heirlooms
October 9 – No Storytime (Columbus Day)
October 16 – Quilts
October 23 – Brave Ancestors

Walk-ins are welcome, but since there are crafts involved it helps to get an idea of how many children to expect. Visit the Tucson Family History Storytime website at http://familylocket.com/storytime/ to sign up so they can be prepared.

If you can't make it this time, the next session begins November 6 and ends December 11. Visit the Storytime website (link above) to register for this session.

They are also looking for volunteers to help lead some of the sessions. Lessons plans will be provided. Contact information for more details and to volunteer is on the website.

Extra! Extra! Workshop on Newspapers in September 2017!

Find Your Family in the News of the Day! Melanie Sturgeon, Ph.D, will be in Tucson on September 30 to teach us how to find our family in newspapers.

Melanie recently retired as the State Archivist and director of the Arizona State Archives and Records Management Branch of the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records where sh served for 16 years. She has a Ph.D. in history and is an avid family historian. She uses a variety of newspapers to help find missing ancestors, to learn more about them and to help her in her writing about 19th century prostitutes. As an archivist who works with government records, she is familiar with numerous primary sources that contain information about people. She has taught family and oral history workshops throughout the state of Arizona and has conducted over 100 oral history interviews ranging from family histories to interviews with the original residents of the first Sun City.

Registration is required and must be received no later than September 16, 2017. You may register online using a credit card or Paypal, or mail in your check or money order with the registration form by visiting our website here. Attendance is limited to 25 people, so act fast.

DATE:	Saturday, September 30, 2017
TIME:	9:30am – 12 noon
PLACE:	Banner-University Medical Center Rooms 2500 C&D (just off the cafeteria) 1501 N. Campbell Rd. Tucson, AZ
	Parking is free

Leverage Others’ Knowledge to Grow Your Own

By Ansonlobo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

A mistake that rookie, and even some experienced, genealogists make is to ignore reference material that comes from a geographic area outside of their research areas. They think that if none of their people came from [insert state here], how can anything coming from that state’s archives help them?

Someone recently sent me a link to the “History For All the People,” a blog for the State Archives of North Carolina. They are beginning a series of posts on deciphering the “Handwritten Records of Early America.” The first installment, “What Does That Say?”Series, Pt. I, says:

The following sections include a brief history of writing during this time period, characteristics of 17^th and 18^th century British-American handwriting, and some tips on deciphering the text found within these records.

There are examples of abbreviations used, like Heñ for Henry [an approximation restricted by the modern keyboard]. It explains about the thorn, often mistaken for the word “ye”:

• y^e is "the” 
• y^t is “that” 
• y^m is “them”

And it goes on to give more examples of old handwriting and a list of recommended reading to learn more.

Records written in colonial times is certainly not unique to North Carolina, or to any other state of the union. We should never discard information coming from areas outside our research areas. My advice to you is to click here to read the blog post and if it is relevant to you, bookmark it and sign up to receive their blog posts in your email so you won’t miss the next installment in that series.