Family History Library Begins Construction of New Discovery Center

 Family History Library Begins Construction of New Discovery Center

Salt Lake City, Utah (October 10, 2016)--The popular Family History Library in downtown Salt Lake City has begun construction on its new Family History Discovery Center. When complete, the main floor attraction will create family history experiences for patrons of all ages. The project is on a fast track to be completed in February 2017. Admission will be free to the public.

"We have been excited for quite some time to start construction on the new discovery center," said Tamra Stansfield, manager of the Family History Library. "Our guests, particularly those who are completely new to family history, will be able to enjoy fun, personal discoveries through interactive technological experiences with their family's history."

Stansfield said the new center will make the library another unique and exciting destination for locals, families, and youth groups, as well as for tourists of all ages visiting Utah or Temple Square from around the world.

The Family History Library is the flagship facility in a network of over 4,900 family history centers worldwide managed by FamilySearch International, a nonprofit subsidiary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The fun, engaging activities designed for the discovery center are part of an organizational effort to introduce more people to the many fun facets of personal and family discovery.

FamilySearch is learning that if individuals and families have fun, personalized, quick successes and experiences with their family’s history, they will continue to be more involved at different levels throughout their lives. It also deepens appreciation for family connections across multiple generations.

The new discovery center will create a fun environment for families to discuss their family history together in inviting, unexpected ways. Youth particularly will enjoy the life-size touch-screen computer monitors for some of the interactive stations. In addition, there will be an enclosed space for parents with smaller children that will allow them to explore their family history while also being able to observe their children play.

A fun green-screen feature will let guests choose from a variety of themed backgrounds to create a lasting photo memory of their visit to the discovery center.

The new transformations are designed to offer unique interactive and immersive discovery experiences for visitors of all ages while still offering the vast collections and expertise the library is known for among family history enthusiasts and researchers.

When the new discovery center opens, "We expect to find the next generation of dedicated family historians at play in our library," said Stansfield.

Many of the interactive features in the new discovery center will use a patron's family history in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree to create custom learning experiences at a variety of stations. Stansfield suggests individuals and families take the time now during construction to create a free account at FamilySearch.org from home and begin building their family tree, adding favorite family stories and photos together. A developed family tree will enhance their experience when the discovery center opens in 2017.

The Family History Library's staff and other typical services and historic record collections will continue to be accessible during the construction of the discovery center.

The prototype discovery center currently located in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City will be closed to the public once the new center is opened in 2017 but will continue to operate as a FamilySearch development lab, where future experiences can be created and tested. A smaller discovery center was opened earlier this year in Seattle, Washington.

If you would like to follow the new center's construction progress, a time-lapse camera link is available online here.

Find this news release and more artist's renderings of the new discovery center online here.

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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.

Fab Finds on Hiatus

Just a quick post to let you know that my weekly Fab Finds posts will be on hiatus until further notice.

In a previous post I shared the news that we bought a new house and are in the process of selling our current home. I am happy to tell you that we have received an offer on our current home and it is now in escrow!

Escrow closes a month from today and our new home is scheduled to be completed at the end of January 2017, which means we will be moving twice. We will be moving into our temporary rental home by the end of October.

As you can imagine, we have a lot going on around here including packing for our move. Hopefully things will settle down a bit once we move into our rental home and then I will be able to get back to my usual blogging schedule.

Thank you for your patience!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Little Family Tree, A Genealogy App for Children, Now FREE to Download

Little Family Tree, A Genealogy App for Children, Now FREE to Download

Herriman, Utah, October 1, 2016

Yellow Fork Technologies LLC has just released a major update to their app, Little Family Tree, making it FREE to download through the mobile app stores. Little Family Tree is an app that teaches children about their family history through interactive games and activities with information obtained from an online family tree.

Today's children intuitively understand how to use touch devices such as smartphones and tablets. Little Family Tree brings a child's personal family history to them through this learning medium and shares it in a way that is accessible to them. An adult logs into an online family tree account, such as FamilySearch, and the app synchronizes the data while children play. There is no need to manually upload or enter family history data into the app and any changes made or photos added to the online tree will synchronize with the app. The app is read-only and does not change the data on the online tree.

Playing Little Family Tree teaches children to: identify family members by name, relationship, and picture, understand who and where they come from, and recognize and navigate a family tree, all in a fun and engaging way. Most importantly, they will feel a connection to their ancestors as they learn about them.

Little Family Tree is available for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets and may be downloaded directly from the app stores. The FREE version includes five games; five additional games are available in the premium version for $3.99 in the U.S., priced accordingly in other regions. More information, videos, and tutorials can be found on the website at http://www.littlefamilytree.com.

About Yellow Fork Technologies LLC:

Little Family Tree is the inaugural product of Yellow Fork Technologies, LLC, of Utah. Yellow Fork Technologies, LLC was founded in 2015 with the key mission to make family history more accessible and engaging through technology. http://www.yellowforktech.com

Twile Integrates with FamilySearch

DONCASTER, UK and SALT LAKE CITY, UT (September 28, 2016)—Twile and FamilySearch International have announced the launch of a new feature that will let FamilySearch.org users generate a family history timeline and share their research with other family members online. The timeline is designed to make research and discoveries more engaging for the broader family—especially younger generations—and to encourage collaboration.

Connecting securely to FamilySearch.org, Twile imports a user’s tree and automatically adds events, such as births and marriages, to a personal, interactive timeline of their family history. Users can then browse the timeline, add photos, and share it privately with other family members.

By presenting a family tree as a timeline, Twile makes it easier for the non-genealogists in a family to explore their ancestry through events, stories, and pictures. It also encourages collaboration by letting them add missing details, their own life events, and recent photos.

UK-based Twile won two awards in the Innovator Showdown at RootsTech 2016, including the People’s Choice award. In response to customer requests, Twile immediately started development on its FamilySearch integration.

Paul Brooks, Twile CEO, said, “The FamilySearch import has been our most requested feature, especially following our success at RootsTech. We have a passionate community of FamilySearch users who have waited patiently while we built it, and we’re so happy that it’s now ready for them.”

Currently, the integration imports FamilySearch’s Family Tree data into Twile. Soon, Twile will be adding support for FamilySearch’s memories and photos plus an automatic synchronisation that will keep the Twile timeline up to date as FamilySearch records change.

“FamilySearch is always looking for fun, engaging experiences that help our patrons make new personal discoveries and family connections. Twile’s rich, custom timeline of key family history events does exactly that!” said Steve Rockwood, FamilySearch CEO.

To utilize the new feature, FamilySearch users will need to register for Twile at www.twile.com. The basic service is free and lets users add up to 10 events and photos per month, while a Twile Premium account allows subscribers to add unlimited events and photos for $49.99 per year.
Link to or easily share this release online at media.familysearch.org. 

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About FamilySearch

FamilySearch is the largest genealogy organization in the world and 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 for free at FamilySearch.org or through more than 4,921 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About Twile

Twile is a UK-based interactive timeline of your family’s past, present, and future. The timeline consists of photos and milestones—such as births, marriages and deaths—that tell the story of your family from your earliest known ancestor right through to today. Family historians can import their family tree from FamilySearch and then add more recent events from their own life before inviting their family members to explore and contribute.

While the Twile website is aimed primarily at family historians, it is also designed to encourage the rest of the family to add their own content, including the younger generations. Since its beginnings, Twile has been backed by Creative England, a number of UK angel investors and Findmypast, with whom they partnered in February 2016. Twile was the winner of two innovation awards at RootsTech 2016, including People’s Choice.

More Joyful Times ~ Adding Another New Daughter-in-Law's Name to My Genealogy Database

It has been such a wonderful and eventful year for our family. We added a beautiful daughter-in-law to our family in June when our third-oldest son married his sweet bride in Provo, Utah.

Earlier this month we added another beautiful daughter-in-law to our family. Our youngest son and his lovely bride were married on September 3rd in Fresno, California.

Our son and his sweet fiance (now wife) were married in the Fresno California Temple. They were sealed for time and all eternity. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that marriages performed in the holy temple can last throughout the eternities and not end at death.

Their wedding day was absolutely gorgeous.

Gwen Hawkins, owner of Gwen Hawkins Photography, did an amazing job. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the photos from our son and daughter-in-law's special day.

I have now added our sweet new daughter-in-law's name to my Legacy Family Tree database. Such happy times for our family!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved