One cool feature of the annual RootsTech conference is highlighting the newest technologies
and innovations in the genealogy industry. One innovative project that I think
is little known is the BYU Record-Linking Lab and
the various projects you and I can participate in to give back to the free FamilySearch platform.
If you're an experienced genealogist who wants to serve others,
check out the available volunteer opportunities and see if you can lend a hand.
Howdy! Welcome to Family History Fanatics. If you're new here my name is Devon Noel
Lee and I love helping people find meaning and connections through their family trees.
Visit the BYU Linking Lab website the link will be in the description box.
Click on the "Volunteer" menu option and you'll see
a number of great projects you can participate in.
Remember, these may change by the time you visit the website.
Perhaps you want to do a surname research. Click on the "RLL Customized Record Hints."
Using the on-screen prompts, key in a surname and a location.
I'm going to key in "Zumstein" and then start typing Ontario.
Although we do not see the options for where my ancestors live,
I can choose other counties such as this one Hamilton and Wentworth.
Click "Search."
Now the map zooms in and shows various pins in the county I selected.
Click on any of the pins and the Linking Lab will take us to the Source Linker on FamilySearch.
Now, please be careful and fully review these
hints before saving them to the FamilySearch family tree.
And please leave a reason why you're attaching these records to the One World Family Tree.
So in this case, we have the 1911 Census record for a Claude A McBride.
It's attached to some people. And what we're going to do is,
we're going to actually go try to look at the record.
And we find that Claude McBride is a lodger in that household of the Verts family.
At this time, I don't feel there's enough information for me to dive into Claude and
decide if this pertains to him. That's okay!
I can just close it out and then go choose another pin for perhaps Edwards.
Now this is an England and Wales Census. And it looks like it could match Thomas Edwards,
Elizabeth Edwards, and Eleanor. But let's look at the details.
So, we have Cardinghamshire 1871 in that location. There isn't enough for Thomas and Elizabeth,
but I can go and evaluate the profile. And in this case there was a birth record
from Wales in that location to establish the link between Eleanor and her parents.
So it is entirely possible that this is a relevant record.
Even though we need to be very careful with this direct link to the Source Linker page,
this could be a fun way to do surname research when your genealogy research is a little stalled.
Another fun project is the Reverse Indexing Tool.
After clicking this option, you will view some tips on how to use this tool.
So you're supposed to be looking for the word 'good.'
Does this look like the word good? Does this look like the word good?
So far, all of these look like good except this one right here.
So we can go ahead and click on that and this will be marked as incorrect.
Now one thing I do find a little frustrating is, unlike the Get Involved app, where you have the:
Yes- that's correct No - let me fix it.
There is also an unsure- I don't know. Let somebody else figure that out.
There really isn't that in this Reverse Indexing Search.
So that's the only kind of drawback with this. But it is kind of fun.
So. once you've made your selection you click 'Submit.'
And then "are you sure you want to submit this batch?"
Go ahead and click 'Submit.'
And I would recommend that you don't use the "I'm always sure option."
So click 'Submit.' And then it will give
you more possibilities that match the keyword.
One of the other things that I wish this tool has was the ability to double click
into the image and to see the word in context.
I remember trying to do this for the word 'not' and sometimes the word looked like 'nor.'
But it could very well be 'not' without a cross 't' or a cross 't that looked like an 'r'.
And without being able to zoom in to see the word in context, it was hard for me to make decisions.
So this is a fun tool, so go ahead and give it a try.
I'm really looking forward to more Optical Handwriting
Recognition tools coming in the near future.
We can participate in teaching algorithms how to read handwriting.
So even though I did share some things that make this tool a little bit frustrating,
it still is pretty awesome. And if it's helping Optical
Handwriting Recognition I'm all for it.
Before we continue, if I've given you value during this video,
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and leave a comment.
The last one I want to highlight is the Volunteer Opportunities Document.
After you click on this, you can see the projects the
Record Linking Lab is working on and what they've finished doing.
Now, in each of these projects you will see links. You might see a training video,
which I highly recommend you watch. Yes, you can see they will give you some
insights on how to actually do the projects and some tips and tricks.
You see we have it organized by state. And then there is information about the project.
What you can expect to do as well as a Google Sheet to get started with the project.
Anyone can edit this project. And in this case the 1880
Census Super Connector Families project, I'm actually going to pop down to New Mexico.
That's where I live at this time. And open that up.
Now, in this form, I actually added some filters.
I just highlighted the columns. I went up to data,
and then it would say, "Create Filter." At this time, it says, 'Remove Filter.'
I'm going to go back and click 'Create Filter' and that makes it so that you can do a number
of different things. You can sort by county. You can sort by surname, which is kind of fun.
I'm going to scroll down here to the surname Lovato or Lavato
See there's a Lovato and there's a Lobato
Snd San Ildefonso is a Pueblo just outside of where we live.
And I drive through when I go to Santa Fe. So I'm going to go ahead and click this one.
And once again, we're coming to the Source Linker page.
Now what this project does is, it looks for families in the 1880
census with four or more children. And then it's also looking for the
census record but doesn't have any everyone connected to the FamilySearch family tree.
And by give giving you the recommendations, what's happening is FamilySearch is trying
to help build out the family tree using census records that have multiple relatives.
And then if you can find a census that matches to someone in the family tree or you can add it
to the family tree if it doesn't show up, then you can add those extra people. And
then try to see if you can get them into the 1900 and the 1910 census.
So it's a kind of interesting project to do a little bit of genealogy Random Acts of Kindness.
Right now, you can see that someone has decided that this did belong to the Josefa Telles.
And therefore it looks like it could be about Bernardo, who's from 1832- 1825.
The age is a little bit off. That is a possibility.
We would have to see what sources are connected here to see whether this would be accurate or not.
There is a Dolores. There's a Ramon,
Pascula, Juanita- which might
be this one right there. The ages are a little bit off so that's probably why FamilySearch is
suggesting that this is an additional child. And then there's the Jose who's in 1873.
Now, this is the 1880s census. So why some of these other
children aren't in there? It's a question to explore.
I will advise that you always go and look at the actual image to see what details you can.
There might be some clues that can help you figure it out even further.
As well as go to the profiles and check out the sources to see-
Does this fit? Does this make sense?
What other notes are taking place? If you do decide that this image
belongs to this family, then you can go through and do the comparison.
And then add a reason statement. I did see some training videos
where people were just rapidly adding these things without adding those reason statements.
You need to not be that way! Add a reason statement.
Why do you think this makes sense? Because somebody later
may came on and say, "Ah! that's not right!" And they can see what your thought process is.
But again, the cool part of this project is you might be able to
add new names to the world family tree. Which can be exciting and may help newbie
genealogists find their family members when they log into FamilySearch for the first time.
It is fun it is worth checking out. I do think the Record Linking Lab
is something that we should all try to support because it can further genealogy
innovation from the academic level. And so go ahead and check it out.
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