docs.google.com
Well, I started a new project today (as if I need another). Since our genealogy conference was cancelled last month, and I still have the door prizes that need to go to a deserving home, I decided to run a family history scavenger hunt. I figured it would be fun to introduce people to websites that they might not have used before and show them how they can use those sites for research. The initial sites will be ones that most people have used before, but as we get further into the month there will be more new sites and some international sites as well. I am hoping that the event will spread and more people will get involved as the month goes on.
Do you need an incentive to begin family history research? How about a daily scavenger hunt with prizes? For the next couple weeks, there will be posts with a series of questions to help you learn research skills. If you answer the questions correctly you will be entered in the drawing for a prize. The prize for June 1 is a 1-year subscription to BillionGraves. Read the document carefully, do the research and then enter your answers on the form. That's all it takes. Answers to today's post are due by 8:00 pm EST June 1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/10-DbjiSTDj-4pYcLWvjM57YmjTL-Qf5V/view?usp=sharing
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@Miles A Meyer Yep...when I saw what you were doing, I also thought....as if you need another project. 😆 However, I know you love this work, and this is a fabulous idea! Have you advertised this in other FamilySearch community groups? You just need to @mention a group to tag them. I can think of a few that would love this if you want me to help. Just let me know.
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Thanks @Heather R Jacobs. I have it posted to a couple local genealogy related Facebook groups (listed on the task sheet) and hope that others will share it out to a larger crowd. Each day I will post a new task for the scavenger hunt. Anyone who wants to share the links can.
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This is a great idea. Its a fantastic way for others to learn Family History Research techniques Thanks for sharing!!
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Too cool. So creative.
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So fun!😁 I love that you can do it virtually, in honor of a certain ancestral family or family line, is adaptable, can be done as a family or even on your own, and fun for all ages! Thanks for sharing!
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I am hoping more people will get involved. So far I have gone from 5 to 8 people participating each day. Each day there are prizes. The first 4 days are subscriptions to Billion Graves. Then I will give out subscriptions to HistoryGeo.com (historic maps site). I also have genealogy magazine subscriptions, podcast subscriptions, DNA kits and a bunch of other things.
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@Miles A Meyer
You're doing this for a wider audience than your ward, right? Do you have the links to what you are doing?
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Yes, it is open to anyone who wants to participate. It is actually being done as part of the annual genealogy conference that we had to cancel back in April. I am advertising it on my blog (https://milesgenealogy.blogspot.com/), my genealogy related Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/milesgenealogy/), our conference page (https://www.facebook.com/IRGConf/), the Stake Family History Center's Page on Facebook and our local genealogy society's Facebook page. Everyday there is a new challenge with a prize.
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How is the Scavenger Hunt going? I'm not on Facebook but am curious about the participation and feedback. I love this idea and want to do something like this for the youth!
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You don't have to be on Facebook to participate. I am also posting the daily events on my blog https://milesgenealogy.blogspot.com/. The answers are done on a Google Form so anyone can add their answers to it. I would like to see more people participating but each day I get a few more. Tonight I will be giving out a 3-month subscription to HistoryGeo.com, a mapping website. Tomorrow is a 1-month subscription to FindMyPast.com. I gave out the four annual subscriptions to BillionGraves Plus earlier in the week. Now I have to go through the other prizes to figure out what I have left.
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I did Thursday's and had a lot of fun! I looked at today's highlighted website but I need to find the time to do it. Honestly, it is fun and semi-easy, and @Miles A Meyer helps you through learning each site. What I love about today's website highlight is that it talks about some newspapers that I came across a couple of years ago and have found them to be such a treasure! I am excited to learn about some more resources! Miles has gone to a lot of work. This is a great family activity as well as doing it on your own. Thank you Miles for this! (I put your blogspot link along the side of the Family & Community—Connect & Inspire! groups site.
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This is wonderful! We're trying to come up with ideas for our youth as a stake to encourage family history. Last year we had Summer Day Camp and had 6 weeks of Fridays where we had activities and invited all the youth of he stake to come. We had a moderate turn out, but now with COVID need an alternative. Thank you for sharing!!!May use some of your ideas for a July challenge in our stake if OK with you! Thank you for sharing!
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Sure, feel free to steal the idea. I stole the idea from another researcher who did a 5-day challenge. It might be fun to find some really odd records and use those. I just randomly chose sites and then picked a set of questions based on whatever document popped up first. You can see the whole list of challenges at my website milesgenealogy.blogspot.com. I also have a 7-day Family History challenge that I posted to our Stake FHC monthly newsletter https://1drv.ms/b/s!Am0w7RkB299GsXXVh1A_JvjBme9Q?e=u6HU6B. The next thing I want to work on is a family history escape room.
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Thanks for this Miles! Is it okay for patrons not in your stake to use your links to post the answers etc using the links you provided? How do they know if their answers were correct? i presume the prizes only go to those in-your stake.
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This is a replacement for our regional genealogy conference so it isn't a Stake thing. Anyone can participate and is eligible for the prizes. Each night I send an email to all those that participated with the correct answers.
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Thanks Miles!
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HI Miles,
I would like to start this challenge in July. Will you be keeping this on your blog for a while? I'm planning to stay ahead of the participants to have the answers but would love to make sure I'm right. Can I access the answers also? Not being lazy just want to check! Debbie Hutchings
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I have added a link to the answers for each day on the blog at milesgenealogy.blogspot.com.
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Thank you! You really are quite amazing! Many years of experience must be behind these exercises! Nice to share!
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Hi again! So we are checking with our youth reps and youth consultants to see if they want to do this challenge on a stake basis. I think they will love it and learn! It is amazing as I'm going through the days myself now. Challenging but great! You've done an amazing job. So now if we do this we will set it up for like July 13th. If we can't figure how to do it by the 13th we could also cut it back to a 10 or 14 day challenge. So... I don't want the youth to be able to find the answers. I don't remember how I got to the google docs version of each page vs the blog, but there the answers aren't a click away. Also I will have to block the wonderful prizes part as we will probably be handing out candy bars to the winners each day or week (lighter on the budget!). So can you help with the logistics? I can also probably scavenge the stake for techie help as I don't know these answers and may need more help to set it up. Thank you!
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You can find the pdf files for each day posted in several locations on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/IRGConf/, https://www.facebook.com/milesgenealogy/, https://www.facebook.com/groups/159642411143167/. Also, the tasks are posted on my blog at https://milesgenealogy.blogspot.com/ but there is a link to the answers at the bottom of that page. I can work on cleaned up versions, remove the door prizes and mention of the genealogy conference, and just provide nice looking worksheets for each day. It wouldn't take me long to do that. Then I can provide a link for you to use from a new Google Doc folder.
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See my message below/ I can help you with the logistics and worksheets.
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Hi @Debbie Hutchings, I have finished editing the scavenger hunt sheets to remove the dates, links to the blog and Facebook pages, and the prizes. You can find the questions at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/100vOLV84SqEIghiijGaZLazZTY5rMCvQ?usp=sharing.
The answers can be found at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Cv8kQHvw5cbaXIqryC3mNN8gviJIc7XN?usp=sharing.
I hope these are helpful.
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@Miles A Meyer These are great! You certainly went to a lot of work. May I put them along the sidebar of the group?
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Yes, these are wonderful! I have all the ward TFH youth consultants and stake youth reps now previewing these and I hope they'll all take the challenge Getting their opinions on challenging all the youth of the stake. Your hunt is not easy, but for the youth it should be a great experience and challenge them. They can pick up websites so quickly! I have a request in for the youth to help volunteer (with adult supervision) the FHC once it is open and "safe". I tell the leadership that they don't have to be ace genealogists. They will be able to answer most questions by just looking at what the screen has to offer. They will probably not know where else to suggest to look, but if they've done this challenge they will know a lot more than most average researchers about what is possibly out there!!! So, thank you!!!
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Sure, feel free to pass them along.
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