Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Light the World ~ A Special Christmas Video. Share His Light Through Service


The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has produced an inspirational video that I'd like to share with you today. It's not even December yet, but I wanted to share this video before December because of the wonderful daily service event that begins on December 1st.



This is a truly beautiful way to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We can share His light with those around us through acts of service.

The following link has ideas for the 25 days of service leading up to Christmas Day.

Follow Our Savior Jesus Christ. In 25 Ways. Over 25 Days.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Monday, November 28, 2016

FamilySearch celebrates 10 years of indexing historic records

FamilySearch celebrates 10 years of indexing historic records

Unprecedented crowd-sourced initiative has made billions of records easily searchable online for free

https://us.vocuspr.com/Publish/3313993/vcsPRAsset_3313993_85793_3966a5db-e300-43fa-b96e-bd7892477b27_0.jpgSalt Lake City, Utah (28 November 2016), You go online to FamilySearch. You type an ancestor’s name. You instantly find your ancestor in any number of 5.5 billion historical records in the free online database. You are elated at how easy it was as you fill in another missing piece of your family tree puzzle. That successful experience was brought to you by a phenomenon called indexing. And most likely, you were the recipient of a free gift empowered by the efforts of many online indexing volunteers.

Next week (December 5th) is International Volunteer Day, and FamilySearch International is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its web-based, volunteer-driven, indexing initiative, which started in 2006. The migration from the previous CD-ROM-based format to the web has been nothing short of amazing, and the rest has been record-making history—literally. The indexing initiative is the largest undertaking of its kind and is unparalleled in its achievements.

As a thank you to indexers and the millions of people who have found family documents from their efforts, FamilySearch is sharing a collection of free downloadable “I HEART Families” images for use on social media, or as cell phone and computer wallpaper.

FamilySearch and its predecessors have been gathering and preserving the world’s historic records to assist people like me and you in making family history discoveries. It publishes millions of digital images of historic records from around the world on FamilySearch.org weekly. FamilySearch’s proprietary software, a lot of computing power, and the contributions of hundreds of thousands of volunteers and countless millions of donated hours make the genealogically rich names and information hidden on those historic records easily and freely searchable to millions of curiosity seekers online.

In 2006, the call went out for volunteers to help in this unprecedented, global cause, and the online community responded. In fact, in just 10 years, over 1.2 million volunteers worldwide have joined the cause and continue to donate much needed time and talent to help index the world’s historic genealogical records.

In the past 10 years, online volunteers have personally pored over 1.5 billion images of historic records from all over the world and made over 5 billion ancestral names conveniently searchable to me and you from any web-enabled device.

Who are these unsung heroes? “They are your next door neighbors and work colleagues who continue to respond to the call to make the world’s historic records freely searchable online for anyone interested in discovering the branches of their family trees,” said Collin Smith, a marketing manager for FamilySearch Indexing. “They hail from all over the world—200 countries to be exact and collectively, the volunteers speak and read 58 languages.”

Why do they do it? Their motivations vary according to Smith. Some are paying it forward because they personally have benefited from priceless searchable record collections online. Others like participating in something meaningful and historic that will make a big difference somehow. Ornella Lepore, a native of Naples, Italy, now living in the United States, helps index Italy’s records online—particularly those pertaining to her ancestral roots. “I can’t afford to travel to Italy as often or whenever I want to do my family history research,” said Lepore. “Having the historic records indexed online where my ancestors are from will help me in my research in the long run.” Not every historic collection from Italy she helps with will hold keys to her personal research, but she knows in time, some of them will. And that’s motivation enough for her.

The entire suite of US Censuses from 1790 to 1940 is most notable of the volunteers’ efforts. All of those records are now freely searchable online at FamilySearch.org. In 2010, the power of this online community was unleashed on the newly released 1940 US Census. They indexed the entire census—all 3.8 million pages of it—in just 4 months, giving access to 134 million names.

And so these volunteers continue to show up daily online, unsung and untold in the internet clouds, ages 12–95, picking historic projects of interest and making a difference for the next person online hoping to find an ancestor in the growing sea of historic records.

Learn more about volunteering online at FamilySearch Indexing. Find this release and additional supporting photos in the FamilySearch Media Room.
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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 4,921 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Follow Friday ~ Fab Finds for November 18, 2016


Hello wonderful readers! Fab Finds is back! Thank you for your patience while Fab Finds was on hiatus for a few months. I'm happy to tell you that we sold our home and escrow will be closing soon. Now we can enjoy the holidays and spend time with family while we wait for our new home to be completed, which should happen around the end of January 2017.

NOTE: Next week is Thanksgiving here in the United States. Therefore there will not be a Fab Finds post next Friday. Fab Finds will resume on December 2, 2016.

My Fab Finds for this week are (in no particular order)
  1. The value of the 30×30 challenge by Janine Adams, author of Organize Your Family History
  2. Family History at Thanksgiving! by Risa, author of RestlessRisa
  3. Easy DIY Ancestor Advent Calendar by Jen, author of Genealogy Jen
  4. Becoming an Accredited Genealogist: Levels 2 & 3 Study Group – Session 4, The Oral Review and Ethics Agreement by Diana Elder, author of The Family Locket Blog
  5. My Grandparents’ First U.S. Presidential Election by Katherine R. Willson, author of the Social Media Genealogy Blog
  6. Who Was the First President Your Ancestors Could Vote For? by Dawn Kogutkiewicz, author of Dawning Genealogy
  7. Norway: Three dates of death by Martin Roe Eidhammer, author of Norway Genealogy and then some
  8. Keep Sharing Small Bites! by Melissa Corn Finlay, author of The Finlay Family
  9. HAVE A LOYALIST OR TWO IN THE FAMILY? CHECK UELAC’S DATABASE AND GENEAGEM – REVISITING STEPHEN MORSE’S ONE-STEP WEBPAGES by Linda Stufflebean, author of Empty Branches on the Family Tree
  10. All caught up with this part of the We’re Related APP by Russ Worthington, author of A Worthington Weblog
  11. about a recipe card (free download) by Allison Kimball, author of simple inspiration
  12. Google’s new PhotoScan will Scan Your Photos and Automatically Remove Imperfections, No Scanner Needed by Dick Eastman, author of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
  13. DO YOU HAVE MAYFLOWER ANCESTORS? by David Taylor, author of The Family Nexus
  14. A 303-Year-Old Marriage Record Found for My 7th Great-Grandparents by Cathy Meder-Dempsey, author of Opening Doors in Brick Walls
  15. An Accident and a Friendship by Zola Troutman Noble, author of Rattling Old Bones: Writing a Family History

RootsTech Posts


"May I Introduce To You" Interviews on GeneaBloggers.com

New Blog Discoveries

In Case You Missed Them….My Contributions to the Blogosphere Since My Last Fab Finds Post

Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

Jana’s Place

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

When Did My Grandparents Vote In Their First U.S. Presidential Election?


Katherine R. Wilson's recent post titled My Grandparents’ First U.S. Presidential Election caused me to wonder about my own grandparents and when they may have been able to vote for a U.S. president for the first time in their lives too.

While doing research for this post, I found a helpful website called "270 TO WIN." The website includes a "Historical Presidential Elections" feature under the "Presidents" tab. You can see presidential election results from 1789 to 2012.

Arthur Harry Iverson
The first presidential election my paternal grandfather, Arthur Harry Iverson, would have been able to vote in was held in 1936. He was 25 years old at the time and was living in California. The candidates were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alfred M. Landon.

Ingrid Anna Gillberg
My maternal grandmother, Ingrid Anna Gillberg, would not have been old enough to vote in that election. Her first opportunity to vote in a U.S. presidential election would have been in 1940. At that time she would have been 27 years old and was living in California. The candidates were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Wendell L. Willkie.

Debs Warren Webster
My maternal grandfather, Debs Warren Webster, immigrated to the United States in 1952. He became a U.S. citizen in 1973, so his first chance to vote in a U.S. presidential election was in 1976. Debs would have been 63 years old at the time and was living in California. The candidates were Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford.

Willis Quillin
My maternal grandmother, Willis Quillin, (technically step-grandmother, but she is Grandma to me) immigrated in 1952 along with her husband Debs and their family. She also became a U.S. citizen in 1973. Therefore, her first opportunity to vote in a U.S. presidential election was in 1976. She was 56 years old at the time and was living in California. The candidates were Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford.

Did my grandparents actually vote in these U.S. presidential elections? I don't know. But these are the dates when they were first eligible to vote.

How about your grandparents? When was their first opportunity to vote in a U.S. presidential election?

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Friday, November 11, 2016

Veteran's Day Tribute ~ 2016


Happy Veterans Day!

I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the brave men and women who have served or who are currently serving in the military to preserve the freedoms we all enjoy. And thank you to their families for their sacrifice as well.

In last year's Veterans Day tribute post I listed the blog posts I've written about some of the military veterans in my family tree, whether or not the posts were actually about their military service. I've added a few more posts to my list this year. Those new posts have an asterisk next to them.

Revolutionary War
War of 1812
Civil War
Korean War

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved