findourfamily.org
The number 1 question I get from people is how to find family names so I wrote a short e-book on the technique I use to find family names really fast. If any of you are interested or need help finding family names you can download it for free here. https://findourfamily.org/Gathering-the-Family-of-God-2/
Let me know if it helps! 
Comments
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I read that e-book of yours.
Then one strong word of warning, please do NOT use your technique on Finnish family names! At this moment, those names taken to temple which belong to person born before 1860, about 95 % are already done, so they are duplicates! So people who have Finnish ancestors really need to do proper research before they can take names to temple. In FSFT there might be a green temple icon, no possible (recognized by FSFT) duplicates and no data problems, but that does not mean that that person is ready for temple.
This is because almost every person born before 1860 and some areas even until 1880 have had their temple work done by extracting birth and baptizing records and some areas also marriage records were done by extraction. Those Extracted persons are in FSFT system as a child with his/her parents, no whole family. So if parents had like 10 children, those parent are 10 times in system, once with every child. Thus you need to do 20 merges to get that family whole! Because it is every so often hard to find those children (parents names have some variations or were miswritten), people just add those children to FSFT and then you get that green temple icon.
Then there are also those people who do not live any more in Finland and have Finnish ancestry and do not know about this extraction work done in 1960's-1980's and they just add people into tree. Or people who do not belong to church, add people to tree. This causes that when I do proper research, I sometimes send messages to those people who have reserved and printed cards that they can destroy them, because I have found the duplicate with ordinances already done.
I hope that this makes you and others to think a little bit while doing what you are doing. I am our Stake Temple and Family History Consultant, so I really know what I am talking.
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Thanks for the reminder!
I see problems like this show up all the time in several different nationalities. Some of those include Scandinavian, Polynesian and Slovakian. The information provided is just really messed up, or there simply isn't enough information yet to work with, and like you said you really need to be carful as you reserve names from these different nationalities. And in some cases avoid them until further information is uncovered. Im actually almost done writing a paper on how to work with these problems. I can share it when I'm done if you'd like.
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"If you can find them in Tree, you can do them." Not so! The following is official policy found in a document in the help center:
Who am I related to?
Policy
You are related to blood relatives and their spouses. For example, you are related to your father’s sister (your aunt) and to her husband (your uncle). However, you are not related to her husband’s extended family (parents, siblings, and so on.) You are related to the children of your aunt and uncle (your cousins).
It is clear from the above policy that we are not to do the work for the ancestry of the spouse of your aunt/uncle/cousin. Of course you can go to the parents of one of these spouses and check in Tree with View My Relationship. If it show a relationship for this parent of a spouse, then in that case the spouse has a blood relationship to you and you can do them. That being said you really shouldn't be stating if you can find them then you can do them - that is not the policy of FamilySearch.
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I understand your concern and the policy, but when you follow the pattern set forth in my book, you will be so far away from your your direct line ancestors that every person you click on has multiple connects to yourself, both blood and marriage relationships.
The farther you go back and the more "lost" you are, the more connections someone has to you. Granted they are distant, but they are still there.
But I do agree when you are close to your direct line you should be carful who you reserve, as it may be against church policy.
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For anyone reading this thread I just want to state an alternative view on submitting names. 1. Do as the Brethren have asked and only submit names you can verify are related to you or are the spouse of a relative. You may do blood lines, adopted lines and in some cases foster family lines but there should be a true relationship to you. 2. If reserving "green temple" names please do some checking - don't accept them on face value as being good to go. Look them over for reasonableness and click on the Find Similar People to see if you can identify a duplicate. If so merge the records.
In support of #2 above is the following article in the help center:
Accuracy of information submitted for temple ordinances
Policy
The Family History Department's purpose is to help members identify their ancestors, link them into families, and complete temple ordinances for them.
"Because of the sacred nature of this work, members should be diligent in assuring the accuracy of all information submitted [for ordinance work]" (letter dated 16 June 1995 and signed by the First Presidency for all Church members, Ensign, September 1995, 80).
Ensuring the accuracy of the information involves documenting and presenting the information used when submitting a name for ordinances. In many cases, the FamilySearch software assists in this process. However, some additional steps—such as evaluating possible duplicate records—may be required and should not be skipped.
@Isaac Taylor Boswell - To as you wish but the Brethren would prefer that you follow their guidelines. Everytime a fictitious or duplicate person is done in the temple someone else's work gets pushed back and they have to wait that much longer.
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Hi Isaac! I read your book. I didn't agree with everything you said, because I think research is really important and it's not part of your technique. When I find and study sources for a person, it helps me get to know them as a real person and not just a name on a card. I feel close to them when I find their photo or war draft card or the headstone of their baby who died. I do a lot of descendancy research and the research helps me feel connected to my "cousins" even though we're not directly related. I agree with you that you don't need to get bogged down on names with a lot of duplicates and errors. But maybe you could try to find at least one source for each person that you take to the temple! Family Search makes it so easy to find sources now, with Record Hints right on the profile page. It's just a suggestion. I did love several things about your book. I absolutely love your enthusiasm! I love how you are going to the temple frequently and you are taking others with you. I love how you follow the Spirit and how family history has taught you to recognize promptings. I love how you stress the blessings that our apostles and prophets have promised us. Thank you for sharing!
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I'm viewing your publication now. I second the enthusiasm part! I'm having a couple of folks approaching me for techniques to help them find more family names when they're filled with both-sides pioneers...
A couple comments/questions if I may:
You wrote: "I personally have 10,000s of names in my reserved list and if anything, I find more andmore every day, not less." Why? You couldn't possibly do them all, and it just keeps those names out of the hands of those who COULD do them via Ordinances Ready.
I have been spending a bit of time chasing squirrels, which lead to other families I'm not related to. I'm organizing, searching, de-duplicating, merging, correcting, etc. huge numbers of people, but not doing the ordinance work. I'm leaving that for other people to stumble into and do. (I have a few hundred names on my reservation list, with expiration dates coming up quickly, so there's no reason for me to grab more to go to the temple withi. In fact, I've been unreserving them and letting others do them.)
I respectfully disagree with the need for speed over accuracy. We take special care in the temple to accurately record the ordinances, but what good does that do if the ordinances are incorrect in binding families together, or if they're repeated for the same person? Or have to be re-done because an androgynously vague name was done with the wrong gender? And I've come across one person who similarly emphasized speed over accuracy, which I publicly resisted when asked by the stake presidency to assist in that effort, citing my reasons above. They thanked me and went on anyway. But that didn't last long, as they were doing descendency research using puzzilla to accomplish that, but.... their ancestral starting points many times weren't even in their families as someone had goofed in assembling the tree up to them.
This is a house of order... and it takes work to get things done correctly, and with the care that our ancestors are deserving of in learning more about them.
My wife has told me a number of times there's nothing in her tree to do, and I've twice said to her, "Pick a name in your tree. ANY name!" And each time, I've looked them over, and found mistakes in family organization, resulting in ordinances to be re-done. (And these are families with 12 kids apiece through a few generations, so it took some time to "blow it up" and "put it back together". One took about 2 weeks to detangle and put back together (I'm getting to where I can't do that a lot anymore - too many squirrels to chase, trying to correct the significant number of errors I'm finding. And yes, I attach sources. I just... have problems with being able to find errors quickly, or something nags at me, so I start pulling that thread and figure out what's going on. Is it the spirit? I don't know. But... mentally, I can focus on things like that. And we need MORE people who will help train others to take care to do things correctly, and to correct mistakes that are found.)
There have been a number of Jewish families that I've come across in thread pulling, and I'm NOT doing the temple work, but organizing those families and leaving them behind for others to find at a time when their hearts will seek out THEIR ancestors (I believe) will help them seek to learn more about them. Some have been quite difficult to dig through newspapers for.. and I don't know why I do this... but I'm driven to do so. And who knows... maybe they'll be in a position to do their temple work at that time, given that they have been promised the same blessings as well.
I find I am led to records (sometimes through (looking back) odd search terms that I wonder what led me to use them), often times finding that I have to do a substantial amount of work in one area before I'm led to another, which coincidentally, requires the knowledge gained in that prior area for me to be able to sort it all out. In a sense, I'm "knowing" our Father's children, so that I can understand how others that I'm led to later will make sense to me. If I had come to them first, I would have thrashed around in a lot of confusion trying to sort things out and burning out a lot of brain cells and getting frustrated.
I love your comment "Find your spiritual sweet spot!" That's true! And we all "do it differently", just as we are all different parts of the body of Christ, we all serve differently and in different ways.
It's thrilling to see how others do it, because it helps me to pass on different tools/techniques to others, where it may resonate more with them.
I like your technique of working in the 1800's (mid-1800's and later are easier to research), but I question the advice to go back to the 1700's and then back down 4-5 generations. That's 2X the possibility of finding incorrectly connected people because the records are sparse crossing over them going upwards, and then back downwards. YES, it opens up significantly more people in "farther" lines, but it needs careful research to get back to the 1700's on accurately researched lines and then carefully picking through records as you move forward into the future.
I know this is already way too long, but let me share a story with you.
It starts with a note from the temple... I had several hundred cards in the temple drawers (a no-no, I know, but I knew I couldn't do it all myself, and they were there because I had provided names for youth baptisms a few years ago). I received a note that told me that the initiatory work on one name had already been done.
At first, I "blamed" the temple workers for not accurately recording the ordinance the first time. But I realized that as a result of merges that happened between the time I reserved and printed the cards, and now, work already done by others was superceding what I had planned on doing.
So I started an "audit", going through each name I had printed out, attaching new sources that had shown up in the interim, and taking care of duplicates. And in my sample batch, I found 10% of them had work already done! I had saved 40 hours of endowment time alone in that small batch!
Alarmed, I pulled the rest of my cards, and found several more that were similarly already done, and each was due to merges being completed. I also discovered with the additional sources, that those "speedy" reservations overlooked a couple with names that could be interpreted as male or female... and they needed to be corrected.
(have to break this into another post... too long. Oh dear...)
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Continued...
I also discovered that some of the ones I had reserved (on this more intensive audit) turned out to be incorrectly attached people in the trees. And not just same-names in a small community. We're talking across states! Yes, names seemed similar, but I had trusted in the work of others and I was finding things being haphazardly done!
I quickly burned through the ones I could do quickly, but set aside those that had more complicated issues (and there were a number of them!) They took time to figure out! But I needed to get these names audited quickly.
I still have them mostly done.. and I took the refined batch back to the temple... and then realized something...
Expirations were coming up quickly. I couldn't do them all, and the work is accelerating where people take their ancestors names to the temple, leaving mine to not be done in the drawer.
So I have been unreserving them (not all, but most), leaving some for my wife and I to do (those that I have felt the closest to as I have learned the most about them.)
It's been a burden that has been lifted from my shoulders, knowing that these people I have found have other descendents who can take care of this work as well.
I have mixed feelings about "Ordinance Ready" in that it provides an "easy" way for people to get people's names to take to the temple, and it side-steps the getting to know them part (which I consider crucial for turning our hearts to them). I know this is the current direction, so I'll support it, but... you can see where I'm coming from. Perhaps there are not enough people out there who are willing to dig in, and so the temple work name gathering (at the click of a button) needs to be in place for them. But harder work is needed to find people, and even get rid of duplicates (which takes work!).
I started watching one of your videos in chapter 4, and I see you're looking for open ordinances and then reserving them. Those sources should be reviewed! They can have additional family members not currently known!
If you don't mind my sharing this tidbit. Chapter 5, you acknowledge a point I've made above regarding the inability to do all these ordinances. Your advice is to turn it over to the temple system for work.
Can I share something I learned recently?
Ordinance Ready will first pull from your own reservation list. Then it will look up and down a tree many generations, looking for ordinances to do, and then reserve them for you. If it can't find any in your tree, then it will pull them from the temple reserved pile... beginning with those that have been in there the longest.
Why do I share this with you?
I attended a funeral today, and talked with a high council member afterwards, and he expressed frustration that he was not finding names of ancestors to take. He said he was using Ordinance Ready, but the names being kicked out to him were temple names that were not related to him. He's trying to teach his kids to work on his ancestors, but the Ordinance Ready tool is not giving the same satisfaction for ancestors directly related to him.
I told him I'd work with him to use other techniques where he has to start working on finding names in his own family. Some are high level techniques. But as he and his children (two of which are family history consultants I work with), I'll graduate them into doing a little more digging for ancestors that aren't quite as easy.
As they have to work harder to learn about their ancestors, their hearts will turn, and those found names will be sweeter successes that will prompt them to find more.
I have a couple of names I've been working at solving for 3-4 decades... (in the 1700's) and I will tell you that is going to be some MASSIVE partying and joy on my part when I find the answers I'm looking for! I know their descendents pretty well! But I'm trying to push further back! And yes, I've been told by other descendents that they couldn't imagine a better deserving person to doing that work in the temple. (I *DO* hope I feel his presence there... but who knows... maybe he's not ready right now, hence the difficulty finding his records and those of his parents)
In the meantime, I do other work too...
You have some FANTASTIC points in chapter 6, of which I can testify of the truth of... particularly in my learning to be less judgemental, more loving, having more compassion for ancestors and those I seek out. I learn not to be so hard on myself.
I recently came across someone in my wife's line (again following "spiritual squirrels"). It led to an explosive court case in which a woman was accused of murdering her 3 day old baby. It was filled with lying and deceit as the mother attempted to cover up the birth of this baby, and in the course of trying to give it away for adoption, two agencies turned the baby down, and the baby died in an accidental smothering in the back seat of her car as she repeatedly tried to reach out to a childless couple she had met in the store in a neighboring town a few months earlier.
Grieving and panicking, she carried the baby in a suitcase for a few days, before leaving the baby under the stairs of a remote cabin she had been renting. (She had no tools to dig a hole to bury it).
The baby went unnamed for the entirety of this case. The mother had been trying to hide the baby from her employers, so she wouldn't get fired and not be able to care for her other three children. At some point, she blamed the father (this was an affair). The father admitted to the affair and being the father, but had nothing to do with the death of the baby.
It was a tragic mess, and so easy to judge so harshly....
And then it happened... I recognized the father's name from the dusty regions of the past... I checked... and it was true. This woman who had been related to my wife (and my wife didn't want this story tied to her family!) turned out to have had this affair with a member of my family (4-5 generations back).
Now, I was determined to find out the baby's name, and by digging through the newspaper accounts and official records, I was finally able to put the first and last names together. Church policy says that in these cases, the baby should be sealed to grandparents. I didn't know to whom I should do so... so for now, the baby shows only its parents.
What was a "sensational" (and yes, judgemental) story to follow turned into one of extreme compassion. The details were so rich in the courtroom testimony and newspaper reporting, and the woman so broken down after initially deceiving so many and longing to leave jail for her children... how could one not feel compassion? And seeing the suffering that went with poor choices.
I share that story with the hope that you'll understand the heart turning that comes from digging through the records, doing the hard work as well. Particularly as names get done within the confines of those within the church and their ancestors and descendents. As more names get their temple work completed, the work will continue for those who we can't touch under current policies.
As names are discovered in the familysearch tree, more outsiders will be drawn to finding their ancestors and families in the system.. Tied with DNA efforts, it will help connect individuals with broken homes, or who live as a product of infidelity or lack of chastity in the world to find their ancestors, and make their hearts whole. Their hearts will turn to their fathers and mothers. It will accelerate!
It will take work to stitch families together.
Sorry for the length...
Thank you for providing the book! There were some REAL GEMS in there!
I hope you'll consider taking the time to slow down and do the work accurately as well, much like it is done in the temple.
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Wow. I haven't read the book. I did read the thread. I would like to echo Justin Masters and several other people about the importance of the research. Many of Justin's exact experiences I've also had. It's my goal to write a computer program that takes the barcodes from a pile of ordinances, scans them, and tells you if the work is already done, if there are reprints, if they're actively being done, if the person's parents are already sealed. I did the same audit and it resulted in a huge spreadsheet to track my cards.
I went to the temple to do baptisms recently and noticed the temple only had 4 names (rather than 5) of non family names. The temple workers said sometimes they actually run out of names. That same day I shared many, many of my names with the temple. I do not want to hoard long lists of names. I certainly think 300 counts as a long list.
Best!
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@Justin Masters - "Thank you" more than those two words can say! While most won't do as much work, and most don't have the time or expertise to do it, yours is still an example of the true spirit of what we're all about here. Again, thank you!
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Hi Everyone, I haven't read the book either so this is a side comment on the discussion in this thread. Two more cents if you don't mind; I'm a ward and stake T&FC in Maryland. Last month I went to one day of the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in DC that FamilySearch cosponsored. There were presentations that day on several approaches to verifying data and striving to make sure that conclusions are valid. I want to learn all I can about this because I see trees put together all the time where it's impossible to answer, how do we know this? Or how do we know these people lived to age 8 and need all ordinances? I was gratified to hear validation in every class at the conference of what I've come to regard, with my small consulting experience, as a key genealogy principle: confirm conclusions through multiple sources or other means of evidence whenever possible.
I'm afraid that because of how we tend to speak and teach about urgency for temple work and finding names that we inadvertently encourage speed. As you've all said in other words, working faster doesn't answer urgency if it wastes precious effort on ordinances for people who didn't exist, never needed them, or already had them. Young people are especially susceptible to the "speed trap". For a recent YW activity in my ward to find names for an upcoming temple trip we scheduled weeks in advance so that consultants could prepare experiences for the YW and leaders and help dispel the expectation that finding names for baptism and properly qualifying them is a cold-start-30-minute deal.
Echoing those who've raised the sacredness of temple work, when an ordinance worker in DC I often thought of the sacredness of "temple time". Time consecrated by the workers, some of whom drove 6 hours round trip every week to serve, and of course by the patrons. Especially when a line of sisters waited for a turn in initiatory I'd think of the precious temple time they came offering for ordinances that went unfulfilled (drat those capacity limits). I feel strongly about taking time and care to verify the people's lives whose names we submit for ordinances.
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@DanaChou DanaChou As a recently released ordinance worker (called 25 years ago) and current FHC director (or whatever title they've given us now - if any 😁), I can only echo your comments, and say thank you! We recently hosted one ward's YM in the FHC one evening, and I asked their leaders if I could just have 2 minutes to talk with them before they started their "finding" activities for an upcoming temple trip. I asked them what they were there to do, and the answer came back, "Find names to take to the temple." I told them that was the wrong answer (with a smile, of course), and then talked to them about the inaccuracies that so frequently exist (including non-relatives at all!) in Ordinances Ready, as well as really ~knowing~ some details about the people for whom they're going to serve as proxy, so that it can be a very special experience. Their entire attitudes (and that of their leaders that came with them) changed, and it was an evening that went well beyond what they'd originally planned (and of course we stayed as long as they were there). "Taking a name to the temple" has become a phrase that almost makes me cringe inside. We go in place of a real person who may be there witnessing our work on their behalf. And when accepted, their joy is inexpressible in human verbal terms.
Early on in my membership (and early enthusiasm), I had a non-relative sealed to the family. It was many years later that I found the mistake. Some say, "Well, it will all be worked out on the other side," but it doesn't change the fact that my real ancestor perhaps watched in deep sadness as she was forgotten, and her ordinance work went undone, as she waited many more years for her work to finally be accomplished. We have a responsibility to very real people who are very much aware of what they need yet are dependent on us to provide. Someone once said, "If it ain't done right, it ain't done." 😉
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