Time flies! Especially if you're really busy. This past year I have neglected posting to this blog, but hope to remedy that. On April 1, 2016, that's April Fools' Day, I began serving as a Church Service Missionary at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. It's been a whirlwind of helping others while I learn a whole lot more about researching family history.

It's been so much fun, It's almost been embarrassing. Since I'm from New Jersey, I always keep my eye out for my home state. I've had many a conversation with fellow Jerseyans. A New Jersey accent always gets laughs and sometimes we greet beginners with the comment that there are our next victims. More laughs.

This week is a milestone of sorts. 50 some years ago when I graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University, I began a career in journalism. This wasn't necessarily the best decision I could've made, but that's what happened. I started out by working with a series of regional daily newspapers as a reporter. Then an opportunity of becoming the editor of a weekly newspaper.

When you write something and turn it into the editor your worries are over. If there's anything wrong with the copy he'll fix it. But when you're the editor,  you do you turn to then? Typists are usually good spellers and  bailed me out many a time when I misspelled something. And then there was Nancy who could write better than I. When she read my paper. I would get an after the fact editorial evaluation.

While there, I also had an opportunity to write several articles for a magazine. It was an interesting experience in writing. I learned a lot.

So this week, I had an article accepted for publication by the Explorer and online newsletter for The Family History Guide. The Family History Guide is the official training program for FamilySearch. The title, Remembering Memories, talks about the link between memories and remembering them long enough to writing stories. We look forward to seeing the next issue coming out July 1.

I've sung in the Tabernacle

Hi!

What would be your reaction if of all the stakes in the world, your stake was the only one to hold its Stake Conference in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.  You would probably say WOW!
How would you react if you were in the choir for stake conference? And sang in the same seats as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. A double WOW!

CHOIR DIRECTOR WITH ME IN TABERNACLE

One of the early decisions I faced on arrival in Utah was whether I should move my church records. The choice was to leave them in the Princeton 2nd, Ward, move them to Rick's ward, or to a missionary branch that meets in the Joseph Smith Building. I chose the latter.
It was a good choice. Besides singing in the Tabernacle, speakers at sacrament meetings have included Elder Dalen H Oaks  and a member of the first Quorum of the 70. Most of the priesthood are High Priests and many have served as Bishops, and  stake, mission, and temple presidents, and area authorities.

Hi!

It's been a  while since my first post.

In March, Rick and I and my cat Pugs drove West to Saratoga Springs, Utah where I now live. We towed a trailer which was a foot wider than my Subaru Forester and when fully packed with storage boxes, furniture,  bicycles and other baggage was higher and longer than the car. Thankfully, we arrived safely.

On April 1 (April Fools Day) I began serving in the "Family and Church History Headquarters Mission" in Salt Lake City.  It is both the largest and smallest mission in the Church. The largest because it has about 1,200 missionaries and the smallest because it covers only 3 city blocks.

Basic training started with lectures and one-on-one training. At the end of basic training, we were assigned to the US/Canada zone in the Family History Library. On arrival at the Library, we were given an inch-thick training manual. This was my challenge for the next two months. The training both formal and on-the-job was fantastic. In exchange, I get to help others and have time to work on the Thorne Family History.

If you have an opportunity, sign on to FamilySearch, Family Tree and check out the Thorne family. It starts with William Thorne arriving in America about 1635/36 from England and ending with the most recent arrival, Paislee Rae Thorne. She arrived June 22, 2016, the daughter of David and Chelsee Thorne. Check out the memories - photos, documents, and stories. Some are really cool.

FAMILY HISTORY CONFERENCES

Hi!

I'm learning more about Family History. In July and early August I attended both the BYU Family History Conference and the Foundation of  Eastern European Family History Studies conference. The BYU conference covered a bunch of general topics while the FEEFHS was directed toward Eastern Europe. Slovenia is included in that category and the conference helped define what I need to do to extend Nancy's family history.

We are making decisions on the software to use for both the Thorne and Siftar family history. At this time I am using Family Search, Family Tree and RootsMagic as the primary family history programs. In addition, I am using Ancestry, Find My Past, and other LDS partners for research. ResearchTies will be used for planning research and maintaining research logs. Evernote is my choice for recording memories.

Family History is entering the 21st century. About 45 years ago when I was teaching a Sunday School class on Family History, we kept sending family group sheets and pedigree sheets to Salt Lake and I complained about never getting anything back. Now, we need a life preserver to keep us on top of the flood of information available.

Pete

The snow blizzard started Friday evening January 22. By the time it ended on Sunday the farm had about 20" of he white stuff and drifts up to 3' deep. Some areas got about 2.5' of snow and drifts up to 5'.ith drifts up to 5'.

ROOTS TECH IS OVER

Hi!

WOW - What an experience! It's hard to believe anything could surpass RootsTech 2014, but 2015 was way over the top. James Tanner commented in his blog:

#RootsTech 2015 has apparently rea; hed an entirely new level of energy and participation. Compared to previous years, the numbers of participants, exhibitors and activities have so far surpassed previous conferences to put the entire event into a new category of genealogy conference: the mega-conference. Granted, compared to other popular conferences, the numbers may not seem to be very impressive, but given the increase for this one conference, genealogy is moving into the big conference arena.

WHY DO TODAY WHAT YOU CAN PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW?

OR

WHY PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY?

WHICH IS YOU?

When I was  about 7-8, my father rented a cottage at Monmouth Beach. It came with a row boat and with it I discovered CRABBING. At low tide, I would stand in the bow of the boat with a crab net on a 10-foot  pole. The crabs would lay on top of the sea weed taking in some sun. At low tide I could see them. So I poled along in the shallow bay and scooped up crabs by the bushel.  It only worked at low tide.

I joined the church about 45 years ago. My first calling was 2nd counselor in the Sunday School. Soon I was teaching a Sunday School course in Family History. We carefully filled in  paper family group and pedigree sheets for our 4-generation project and sent copies to SLC. Upon occasion, I did a different kind of crabbing - Complaining that we sent all this paper to SLC, but never got anything back.

The tide has turned, SLC is now sending back information. A LOT OF INFORMATION. So much that you need a life preserver to avoid drowning. It is time to start crabbing to catch  members of our families who need the saving ordinances available in  the Temple.

I’ve heard people crab that doing family history was to hard, or took too much time. Well that has changed, the tide is out and the crabbing is easy. The problem is that most people don’t know the tide is out.

At RootsTech 2014, Familysearch announced it was partnering with Ancestry, Find My Past, My Heritage and Find A Grave. As a result, all of you can use these programs FREE. More than 13,000 persons registered last year and the sessions were videoed and made available to stakes. This resulted in more than 1,000 local family history fairs. Also, a new  certified app. named Puzilla app was unveiled.

At Rootstech 2015 more than 21,000 persons registered and the new Family Discovery Center in the Joseph Smith building was opened and another is under construction in Seattle,  Washington and one in the Museum of American History in Philadelphia was announced. Also, 19 new web apps joined Puzilla, 15 new windows programs, 2 new MAC (only) applications, and 11 mobile apps. were added as certified applications. By the way, look out for a new format for Familysearch Family Tree this month.

In our activities that week, I visited the BYU Family History Library and talked to  James Tanner who is a great person to know if you want to set up a blog for your family. The Church Family History Library in SLC was also visited and there were told about  the Riverton, UT Family History Center which has some cool tools online for training. They can be downloaded.

Family History work has never  been easier.The tools for the harvest are in place. Now, it is our job to help people learn to use them. For those those involved in family history, it is time to become family history missionaries. The normal paradigm is for missionaries to reach out while those in family history wait to be asked. This needs to change.

I would like to make a few thoughts for you to consider.

1.     Make family history consultants into family history missionaries.

2.     Teach our Full-time missionaries to be family history missionaries.

3.     Call all of our youth as family history consultants/missionaries.

4.     Host an indexing olympics.

5.     Complete family history passport challenge.

6.     Hold a scan a thon.

7.     Involve Primary, YM/YW, RS & Priesthood.

8.     Uae Primary sharing time to tell family stories (record them).

9.     Have a 2-week training program to introduce members to the new tools.

10.  As more family history missionaries learn the tools, they need to  reach out and involve all members.

11.  As  more members become competent, we need reach out to the public.

12.  Run a family history fair.

13.  Apply for a mini family history center. A cart, projector & 6 laptops with family history center software. And perhaps, a Lexmark printer, copier, scanner to scan in directly into Familysearch.

14.  Check out: Puzzilla.org, Rootsmapper.com, Billion Graves.com and Findarecord.com. Make sure you enter via FamilySearch.org/products or through the site menu at the bottom of th page. You will have to sign in again to Family Search so the program can access your file.

MISCELANEOUS

●       Be ready for success……. Plan for great things.

●       Family Search, Family Tree updates are released 3X a day.

●       The norm response time for social media is about 60 minutes.

●       The only constant is change.

●       Have the courage to change the things you can.

●       I could use a little help here.

●       Keep it interesting and engaging.

●       Who? Volunteers>Members>Visitors>Curious Public.

●       Celebrate families across generations.

●       Create a museum of ME.

When Google searching, use filters.           

Welcome

Hi!

This blog has been opened to provide a forum for family and friends to contribute information and stories about our family. This includes all  related families. We welcome all text, email, photo and audio input. Send it to thornept@gmail.com.

It is my hope that all will contribute. Evenually, we hope to publish the best of all that we receive.

Peter F Thorne