{"id":3952,"date":"2019-01-14T04:19:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T04:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/?p=3952"},"modified":"2019-01-17T20:53:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T20:53:26","slug":"the-family-history-guide-to-the-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/the-family-history-guide-to-the-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"The Family History Guide To The Rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of the reasons\u00a0I am so excited\u00a0about The Family History\u00a0Guide is that I remember the day in 2010 when I began working at a Family\u00a0Search Library. Although I had been doing my own family history\u00a0since the early 80s, I had no idea what\u00a0was available electronically\u00a0or in the stacks of books, periodicals, films, and microfiche in the library. I had no clue how I was going to be able to help other people\u00a0when I wasn’t very familiar with electronic family history\u00a0resources. I had been on FamilySearch and looked through\u00a0some things, but\u00a0the FamilySearch \/ Family Tree was not even in existence\u00a0back then. When we were called by a church\u00a0leader\u00a0to serve there, my\u00a0husband\u00a0had never\u00a0done any family history. We were shown a brief glimpse\u00a0of the home screen and just\u00a0started clicking on buttons.\u00a0 There was a binder with some helpful things in it, as I recall. There was also a list of people that were specialists in certain localities and languages, posted on a wall.<\/p>\n

We spent about the next five years\u00a0working in the library for 8 hours once a week and then I did 30 more hours at home trying to learn. I had a lot of help, and the more I learned the more I loved it.\u00a0 But it was a pretty tough, slow, uphill journey. It wasn’t easy and I wasn’t very efficient at first, It didn’t seem like a lot of fun sometimes either. But I kept trying and in the process, learning. It didn’t happen in a heartbeat either.\u00a0 Like most things when you have\u00a0worked very hard, and start to come to the top of the first hill, you can see how far you have come! It was gratifying to be able to be more confident in helping others as I learned for myself. I had so many questions in the beginning!\u00a0 Everything has gotten so much better.<\/p>\n

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We are so fortunate these days to have The Family\u00a0History Guide, where everything we learn is now easier, more efficient\u00a0and more\u00a0enjoyable. Yesterday I had\u00a0the wonderful\u00a0opportunity\u00a0of teaching two classes at a genealogy and family history\u00a0seminar\u00a0in Santa Clara, CA.\u00a0 I had an opportunity to share\u00a0how The Family History\u00a0Guide rescued me back in 2016.<\/p>\n

Preparing for the class seemed so overwhelming at first\u00a0because\u00a0so many good things kept coming to my mind.\u00a0 The Training <\/a>section is so wonderful in The Family History\u00a0Guide<\/a>.\u00a0 It helped me narrow it down to a reasonable\u00a0amount of information.\u00a0 Our son, a university professor, helped me focus by asking me what are three important things you want your audience to take away?\u00a0 I pondered that quite a lot.<\/p>\n

First\u00a0I wanted to\u00a0make this work easier, more efficient and, more enjoyable\u00a0for them<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0 I did that by showing them a glimpse of what is on the site for their\u00a0use from the Home page of the Family History Guide!<\/a>\u00a0 I stressed that they could go anywhere from the Homepage and the Site Map<\/a>!\u00a0 They\u00a0were\u00a0pretty wowed by the whole thing! Then I demonstrated how to use The Family History Guide. I was showing them more about Projects, Goals, and Choices, the Country Pages, the Online Tracker. We looked at how the website is organized\u00a0and full of hyperlinks to take them where they want to go.<\/p>\n

I touched on things that will hopefully be of great use to them based on a few simple questions\u00a0I asked at the beginning of the class. “How many of you have\u00a0been doing your\u00a0family history\u00a0for more than\u00a010 years.?” More than half in the audience raised their hands. “How many of you are new to family history?” 4 people raised\u00a0their hands.\u00a0 This was what I expected in a genealogy user group.\u00a0 The last question I asked them was, “How many of you are teaching someone about genealogy? About a third of those present were.\u00a0 That took just a few minutes to get the demographics of the two groups and helped me decided what to share\u00a0from the Family History Guide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The second thing I wanted them to take away was “You have to put your hands on it.”<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0If you want to play the piano, you can listen and watch others play all day but until YOU put your hands on it, you will never know how to play. It is exactly the same way with The Family History Guide. Don’t be one that just knows about The Family History Guide but doesn’t try it out. One step at a time you can learn everything you will need to be successful. Take advantage of the beautifully organized learning system that is yours for free.<\/p>\n

The third thing I wanted them to take away was the idea of becoming an independent learner.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong> With The Family History Guide, you can become an independent learner and trainer. You don’t need to be at another person’s elbow anymore to learn every little thing. Gaining knowledge,\u00a0efficiency, and independence\u00a0is very liberating and enjoyable. You may still enjoy working with your favorite mentor and you will also love sharing information back and forth with other family history\u00a0enthusiasts because that is one of the best things about being passionate about something. But it will be different and better. Enjoy the journey!\u00a0 If you love the Family History Guide and what it can do for you, please share it with others!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n