Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Apps on Family Search










Don't you just love it when you find out something new at one of your favorite genealogy sites!?!
Yah, me too!

Recently I discovered a nifty link at the bottom of the FamilySearch home page...


See it there, circled in Red? It is an App Gallery that list a bunch of applications you can download to your computer or mobile devise that work with the FamilySearch site that lets you do all sorts of really cool stuff!

Most of the apps are free, but some cost money. They are arranged by these categories:

  • New & Noteworth - where the latest additions are highlighted
  • Charts - for displaying your family history 
  • Games - for fun activities for yourself and your family
  • Family Tree Management - to build & organize your family tree. 
  • LDS Access - for members of the Church of Latter Day Saints
  • Photos & Stories - places to find, preserve and share with family members
  • Research Assistance - use these to get help, receive tips or take your research in a new direction.
  • Search - discover more of your relatives by searching these
  • Specialty - to perform special tasks or notifications
  • Tree Analyzing - shows you where your family tree needs some work
The games are particularly intriguing because I think this is a wonderful gateway to getting other family members interested in and involved in their family history.

Geneopardy has a free trial. You sign in using your free FamilySearch account username and password.  Soon, you will need an account to view records, so if you don't already have an account, now is the time to sign up.

Obviously based on the popular Jeopardy game, you choose categories and earn points.


You have to agree to their terms of service. The next page asks you how many generations do you want to include and then it asks for the person ID number for the deceased person's family tree that you want to use. YES, it does require you to have built a family tree on their web site.



I entered the ID number for my Great Grandfather, William Tecumseh Sherman Johnson and tried a few of the questions. The questions require quite a bit of knowledge of the family, but I quickly racked up 1500 points.



The questions center on basic information on each person's life: when/where they were married, their lifespans, how disparate were the ages between spouses, etc. The possible answers are multiple choice. The one really off-the-wall question that came up was "Which ancestor was born during luminism.  ???? I had to look that one up!*

Choosing a relative closer to the current generations, should make the questions easier for everyone. But still I don't think anyone else in my family would get the answers.

I have had a lot of fun exploring this challenging app.

You should check out the app that most appeals to you.

* Wikipedia definition of luminism.


NEW TITLES!

The Medina Library just received three new books for the Franklin Sylvester Room:







Out of the Past Into the Future Brunswick United Methodist Church, Celebrating 200 Years of Service to God and Community 1817-2017
 by Mamie Grunau, Church Historian. It is a 170 page look at the people, pastors and buildings of the congregation. It will be a welcome addition to the sources on Brunswick history. (Not indexed.)




The next item is: Medina Profile: The Tebbit's Ice Cream Company and the Tebbit Family by the Medina County Historical Society. It is 8 pages of exactly what the title says. Much of the information will be familiar to many Medina Natives.











The last item is From an Old Album, Index and again was published by the Medina County Historical Society. While it is just an index, I am particularly interested in this work. From 1937 to 1941, the  Medina Gazette  newspaper had a feature called "From an Old Album" that printed photos from Medina jeweler and photographer, George F. High. During the run of the feature, 198 photos were printed. Anyone interested in the people and places of Medina County during this period, now you have a way of possibly finding a photo!


While the covers may not be impressive, the info. inside
is priceless!

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