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Does your ward have a ward newsletter? Can you put messages in the ward bulletin? Our ward allows us to put a "Family History Moment" in both. We are "pitching" our ward Temple and Family History Plan activities in these messages. The focus right now is everyone having a FamilySearch Account and have the Tree and Memories apps on their devices.
Here is this week's message as an example of what we post: Family History Moment: The new Child and Youth program that was introduced last Sunday is exciting. It is significant that the Church offers children from age 8 and up the opportunity to have an account at FamilySearch.org. In talking with members of the ward it is apparent that many of our children and youth do not have accounts. Please consider helping your children who are at least 8 years old get their own account. Just go to FamilySearch.org and click on Create an Account.
There is an outstanding children’s song about Family History entitled “Family History Is the Story of Me.” It was published in the Friend in June 2018. It is now included as a sing along video in the newly released Children’s materials discussed last week at Church. Here are two links:
Sheet Music and Words - https://bit.ly/2nsCykN
Sing Along Video - https://bit.ly/2nFIxCL
Consider incorporating this song into any Family History activities you do in your home.
We are in the process over the next couple of months to assign a Family History consultant to each family in the ward. They are to be your resource and help with anything to do with Family History. Don’t wait for us to contact you if you need help. Your consultants are: Lee and Donna L, Bob and Barbara Givens, Reiko E, David W, Lessli, and Kenny d. Feel free to call us if you need assistance.
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Not to mention, the songs already in the Children's Hymnal about Family History: I Have A Family Tree, Genealogy-I Am Doing It, I Love to See the Temple, The Hearts of the Children and Truth from Elijah. I have spoken on the children helping with indexing and how that brings the Spirit into the home as the Stake "Indexing" Director-yes, I know that calling isn't actually there anymore-and several families in our ward are doing that and helping with it. There are many activities that children can help with and the work is exciting when children are involved.
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Yes, our Ward does and it is sent via email to all the SISTERS in the Ward. I also do a Stake Newsletter that is posted on the Stake FHC Facebook page. I like the idea of a "Family History Moment"!! Great ideas all!
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What a great way to take initiative in your ward and inviting others to engage in the work! I'm going to pass this idea on to my own family history consultants and newsletter peeps!
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Yes, our ward has a newsletter and I have a corner that I put research tips in every month.
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Robert Givens, I just stole your Family History Moment and put it in the queue for our Sunday program and weekly bulletin. Apparently we can't upload word files or I would attach my last years' worth. I put a brief one in the Sunday program and usually expand or explain the idea for the emailed bulletin.
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I was writing just for the email bulletin and a couple of months ago my messages started showing up in the printed bulletin at Church. Someone must have decided they wanted to put it there too. Made my day for sure.
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Wonderful idea! I am interested in learning more about how your ward is assigning a family history consultant to each family in the ward. How many consultants does your ward have? How many families do they work with?
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Your newsletter is fabulous. Thank you. I would love to implement that in my ward - but unsure yet on how to do that. Would it come from the ward consultant's list of members with whom they are working? We do have a quarterly newsletter that comes from the stake T&FHC and goes to our ward consultants.
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@Cobus Ruby1 - In our ward the Bishop wanted a newsletter to be sent out. The Ward Clerk generates the email mailing list out of MIS. A called newsletter person assembles the newsletter and the Ward Clerk sends it out to all members with emails.
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We are starting with all the active members of the ward (about 100 households.) We have 8 consultants so that would be about 12 families per consultant. I started by assigning 4 families to each consultant to contact in September. I will add 4 more this month and 4 more in November so by the end of the year they have 12 families that they check up on.
This is not 12 families for each consultant to plan lessons for - it is a reporting of progress program. But we do tell the families we are assigned to that we are their resource for all things related to family history and can plan lessons, teach them things, etc. - what ever they want (the family) want. So far this is working pretty good.
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We have a monthly neighborhood newsletter and we have a column in it dedicated to family history work. It is called Roots and Branches. We have been submitting to this for over 2 years. Here is a sample:
Every month a report is posted to LDS.org showing the progress in our ward pertaining to family history. When a person prints a temple card from their FamilySearch file, or shares the name of an ancestor with the temple, that is added to the report. The report does not track how many cards/submissions each person does. Rather, it counts the ward members submitting. So far this year, 80 of our 299 members have submitted one name to the temple. Out of those 80, the same report shows that 52 members actually added an ancestor to his or her tree. The thrill of discovery; to find that missing child, spouse, sibling or parent and give them the opportunity to be freed from spirit prison and accept the gospel and be brought to Christ, is a soul-satisfying joy equal to any missionary experience. "How great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! .......how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" If you have not yet partaken of this joy or just need a little help, please let us know. Our class on Tuesday nights at 7 pm is open to all. Come. bring your laptop and your concern and we have people who will help you.
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@Carole McIntyre - Good job - I see your ward and mine are almost exactly at the same place. We are about the same size and have about the same number of submitters. This year our ward council wants us to focus on more people signing in and adding memories and indexing. Thankfully these are all things that can be tracked by the Family History Activity Report.
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Carole, I see that you mentioned a family history report. I am very new to my calling as the family history director for our ward and am just learning as I go. Could you instruct me as to where to find this report? I also love the idea of a ward newsletter that is emailed out to the members each month. I know our relief society emails a letter but I am now thinking I might ask if they would let me include a little segment about temple and family history in that also.
Great ideas! thank you so much for sharing!
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@mthompsonjardine1 mthompsonjardine1, the report I believe she's referring to is the monthly Family History Activity Report (FHAR). It's a marvelous tool for seeing the results of our efforts among our members. You say your calling is "family history director" in your ward. I'm hoping that's not the calling title they put in the computer for you. There is a limited number of people that have access to the FHAR (leadership), and they then use that in the planning with others in the ward (or stake level for stake planning and training). Some of us were very disappointed earlier this year when they reduced the number of people authorized to have direct access to that report, but I've since seen the wisdom. For example, as a FHC director, it's not my calling to oversee the progress of individual wards, or really even the stake, though my high councilor (who does have access) shares it with me because it does shed light on where we might concentrate more efforts, or where we've been making progress (in our stake and in my own ward there has been a significant increase in the usage of the "Memories" section of FamilySearch.
According to the access table, at the ward level the following are able to access the report: bishopric (including ex. sec. and clerk), EQ, RS, YM, YW, Sunday School, and Primary presidencies, and the ward temple and family history leader as well as ward mission leader. Ward T&FH consultants do not have direct access to it, though the ward T&FHL could certainly share it with them as needed and/or appropriate. I'm wondering if your "family history director" calling is actually ward temple and family history leader - if so, you're "in!"
How to directly access the report will have to be explained by someone else that has access here, since I can no longer see the location where I could download it previously. That's controlled by the access table (above). Your clerk or bishopric should be able to help you if you have access. If your calling was entered incorrectly by the clerk, however, you will not be able to see the report until it's corrected, since Salt Lake can't "see" you as having a calling that has been authorized access to the report. There are a couple of articles (slightly out of date but still useful) pertaining to the FHAR on FamilySearch, but this one particularly details each of the items shown on the report that comes out early each month for the previous month (all figures are YTD (Year-to-Date) on the report, so you can compare where you were in September of this year when compared to where you were in September of last year, and in some categories the year prior to that as well.
Carole is absolutely correct - that report is a major tool in understanding how we're doing as wards and stakes, yet it doesn't pose a personal threat to anyone because it only counts "heads" - no reporting of individual names or other identifying information - just numbers.
Hope that helps - Chris
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@mthompsonjardine1 mthompsonjardine1 - The Ward Temple and Family History Leader has access to the report (the Family History Activity Report.) It is found at churchofjesuschrist.org. You sign in and then go to Leader and Clerk Resources. If you have a qualifying calling assigned to you you will see a box that says Family History Activity Report and when you click on it you will be able to see it. The bishopric can see it (along with the EQ presidency and RS presidency and other ward leaders.) Anyone with access can share it with you if you don't have access.
Here is a link to an article in the Help Center that describes this report. Sign into FS before you click on this link:
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The Family History Activity Report is sent out once a month, usually the first week. It is accessible at LDS.org under Leader and Clerk resources and is restricted to members with certain callings. Your Bishop or Elders Quorum President have access and may share it with you. If you are a priesthood holder and have been designated as Temple and Family History Leader for your ward, you may also have access.
The report is very helpful since it measures the family history activity in the ward and is a great way to see progress, if any. It points out where the needs are and helps you set correct goals for the ward.
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Thankyou so much for your quick response. As far as I understand "FHC director" is what the bishop called and set me apart as. However I have not been able to find any specific information about that anywhere. I am the only "temple and family history person" in my ward at the moment and honestly thought I was being called as a consultant until the bishop said my name in church and sustained me as the FHC director instead of consultant and then handed me the keys to the FHC. Something I need to talk with him about I am thinking. Also still waiting on the clerk to put my new calling in the ward directory. It has been just a little over two weeks so I am sure they will take care of it but is on my growing list of questions. I can see how that report will be very useful in serving the ward. And if I am not able to have access to it then it would be a great conversation opener to talk with the bishop about. Thank you all for your help and I welcome any help and advice you can offer.
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@Robert Givens
I have enjoyed your input for some time. Very helpful. We had a family history youth activity last month. Our number of submitters now stands at 111 for the year. The youth only used Ordinances Ready, so they do not show up in "Added an ancestor to tree". That is the number we are more excited about.
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@mthompsonjardine1 mthompsonjardine1 , Yes that could be a great conversation starter with your bishop. First, if you are the only T&FH person in your ward, then the bishop, his counselors, the EQ presidency, and the Relief Society presidency all really [REALLY] need to watch the official Church Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction that was broadcast to all leaders in February (2019) in which Elder Renlund and other members of the Twelve very specifically explained the "new" temple and family history program and procedures. The video explains the leadership patterns to be used in most wards, and the alternate patterns that can be used with the stake president's approval only, if it's a very small unit. There are four "patterns" of leadership shown starting around the 10 minute point in the video, and Elder Renlund was very specific that not using the "Preferred Pattern" box 1 "requires" three things: a good reason, approval by the stake president, and confirmation by the Holy Ghost (per Elder Renlund). Wards should have a "Ward Temple and Family History Leader" as well as multiple "Ward Temple and Family History Consultants." Those are standardized callings in the table of callings that the clerk simply needs to "click" on to enter for a person called to a position. I'd strongly recommend you review Section 5.4 and all of its subsections in Handbook 2 (all members have access to it).
As for your calling, if the bishop truly wants you to only be the FHC director, the correct calling has to come from the stake. The calling is "Stake Temple and Family History Consultant - Family History Center." It has to be entered exactly that way in order for Salt Lake to "see" the calling and then assign experienced FamilySearch missionaries to contact you and set up a time to train you. It is excellent training! Just be aware that's a stake calling, not a ward calling, even if there is just your ward in the building with the FHC.
Whether he chooses to call you to a ward T&FH calling or not, if you're going to be over the FHC, then you need to be familiar with the Family History Center Operations Guide. It's a bit outdated (2015), but there's still much good information in it until we all get a much needed updated version. You should have access to LDS Mail because the FHC has its own email account. You also are responsible for sending in monthly reports. Those are critical in order for you to receive new computers when they're replaced approximately every 5 years. If Salt Lake doesn't get reports, they don't know you have any activity in the FHC, and you therefore don't get full replacement of your computers. When I took over ours last year, no one had been sending in reports for over 4 years. It just happened that we were due for replacement last fall, and they were planning to cut our center back from 6 to only 2 computers. We asked for an extension to show adequate usage, held a community/stake-wide Family History Discovery Day, got our internet connection upgraded, then held a "Grand Re-opening Open House" in February, along with other announcements about the FHC. Usage came up massively, and we just received six brand new computers. Without the reports we only would have gotten two.
Go to the Family History Center Resources page and you will find links to all of the above (Operations Guide, LDS Mail, monthly report, and a bunch of other goodies that will be wonderful for your calling). If that link doesn't work, the direct URL is:
There's much more, but the above is more than enough to chew on right now. The key is that assuming yours is an official FHC already established in the Church system, you need to be called by the stake using the correct calling (Stake Temple and Family History Consultant - Family History Center) so that you'll get access to everything you need for your calling. (The FHC director doesn't get access to the Family History Activity Report anymore.) That is a stake, not ward calling, so the bishop would need to coordinate with the stake president. But if it's just an unofficial local room set up in your ward building with computers and internet access, they you are not really a Family History Center. Again, the stake would be the key to sorting all that out and applying to Salt Lake to have an authorized FHC in your building. That's essential because there are so many more resources available in an official FHC that are simply unavailable to members, due to a special "portal" that FHCs connect through, such as premium web sites that are free in FHCs, and the restricted images in FamilySearch that cannot be viewed at home, but can only be seen in a FHC (or sometimes at a FamilySearch Affiliate Library - normally that's a public or university library that gains separate access - a whole 'nother topic for a whole 'nother discussion! 😁 ).
Best wishes - lots to chew on above (with your bishop).
By the way, the direct link to the official Church's Temple and Family History Leadership Training video is at:
I just noticed that I was unable to start the video for some reason. If they've changed the configuration and that happens to you as well, click one of the three options just below the main video "picture" and choose 360p, 720p, or 1080p resolution. They'll take a while to download, so you may want to start with the 360p (smaller) version just to save download time initially, but if you later choose the 1080p size, you'll have a nice big screen version you can show to others directly from a computer or copied to a DVD.
EDIT (added): Another resource you'll really appreciate is the Family History Center Services Portal at:
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Ditto to both of you. There is a wealth of information here, and you've both been very helpful. Thanks.
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