Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

I hope you had a chance either last weekend or today to pass those family history flyers out during Sunday, or insert them in your sacrament program. We need to make sure we get the word out in our wards that we are available to help and teach family history to them and their families. We want them to know that we are available when they are having trouble preparing names for the temple. We don't have the formal classes we once had so we need to make sure we include family history in our conversations with our friends.

Are you familiar with this website? FamilySearch Community https://community.familysearch.org It is a great resource for members and for family history consultants. After you sign in, you will have two choices...

On the left side you have Browse - Ask - Answer. Find Answers and Post your Questions. Click on Support Questions and it will cover so many topics, all related to family history and FamilySearch. You can post questions and help answer some you might know. I would take the time to search and look around so when you do need it for a resource, you will be familiar with it.

On the right side of that first page is... Find - Create - Join. Join a group and collaborate with others.

I have used this one many times and there are great ideas and solutions. Click on Groups and you will be able to 'join groups of likeminded people where you can ask and answer questions, share resources, and receive the latest updates on topics that interest you.'

Again, take a look around and you can JOIN any of the groups that you see of interest for you and your personal research and there are many resources for our family history callings.

Once you join a group, you can click on Manage Notifications and have updates emailed to you so you follow topics without having to sign in each time. For example, there is a group called All Temple & Family History Consultants. Members share what works and what doesn't in their wards. They also ask questions and we have the opportunities to share our ideas. And with both sites, you can search the 'threads' of topics and see if your questions has already been asked and answered. Another group that I like to follow is called, FamilySearch Tips and Tricks

I hope you take the time to go over these resources. They are invaluable. The Church is providing so much for us.

Another thought regarding help. I just want to remind you that you can call Family History Support for your calling, mostly used for technical questions with FamilySearch but call 1-866-406-1830.

I will share additional insight in other posts. Keep in mind that I am still posting these emails to my blog for easy access in case you misplace these emails. http://linkingfamilies.blogspot.com/

Have a fabulous Memorial Day and hopeful we will some have warmer weather soon.

Enjoy,

Jill Holmes

Family History Handout for Your Ward

I will be working on a few emails/blog posts for you. There have been some great changes in family history over all.

First off, I have attached a handout we have used before. I have updated it slightly and need the wards to make copies and have them inserted in your sacrament programs. This is important to remind our members of the opportunities are out there to work with you consultants.

Also, with this email group, if your ward has had new consultants called or you think some of your leadership would benefit with these emails, please let them know to contact me. You have my email address.

I recently taught a Relief Society meeting for one of the wards and I went over with them the two FamilySearch apps, Family Tree and Memories. I had the sisters bring with them pictures of ancestors or stories to upload right there in class. The sisters had a great time and I ended with the most fun part, using the 'Relatives Around Me'. We found out we were all related and that was fun to compare our relation with each other. Sometimes that can be a game changer for many.

In my next email I want to discuss The Role of Coordinating Meetings. Check out the meetings from RootsTech 2019 about these meetings and then I will share overview of them. It is a new/updated way that we work with the leadership of our wards to further temple and family history work.

President Russell M. Nelson: “We can be inspired all day long about temple and family history experiences others have had. But we must do something to actually experience the joy ourselves.” He continued, “I invite you to prayerfully consider what kind of sacrifice—preferably a sacrifice of time—you can make [to] do more temple and family history work.”

I hope all is well with you all. Can't wait for summer to come.

Sis. Jill Holmes