community.familysearch.org
The Focus and Vision of the "Surname Specific Family History Research Group"
Over the past months, to over a year, I have been working with various Surname based Groups here in the FamilySearch (FS) community. Starting with the Yancey Surname Group - which has been the largest surname group in the community for some time.
This was an exciting and fun project for me to show how a group could be created that really benefited those in the community researching a given surname.
I continue to support various surname based groups in the community. BUT it also became very apparent to me over time that just creating a surname group - doesn't , in and of itself, BRING people to those newly created surnames groups - so if we created a surname group every time anyone asked - it would eventually end up with a multitude of surname groups
that may have 2-5 people on them (if even that) - and yet still requiring an admin for the overhead/administration of that group.
The ratio of effort to benefit - just wasn't "cutting it". And so I came up with a new vision of a SINGLE - surname focused group - that uniquely and specially designed using "outside of the box thinking" - that I felt could meet the needs of MANY/MOST surname based researchers - without wasting the efforts of having to create a distinct surname group for each surname.
The Surname Specific Family History Group is a result of that "new vision" - and not in and of itself - but coupled with special and unique tools and services that all working together can provide an end result that probably never would have been accomplished with
people working dis-jointly in distinct surname groups here in the community.
Also note this is a very much - "multi-faceted approach" to Surname Research - from a collection of very general surname resources, to pre-built queries to various
online resources that can then be easily tweaked to meet individual needs running against various on line databases - as well as facilities which people can ask very specific information about very specific families and research needs. The combination of all these tools and resources in aggregate is meant to be an on going, work in progress
that is continually evolving, changing and transforming to meet the needs of a changing user base - while at the same time - allowing information to be recorded and stored for generations to come on a given surname topic. And doing all of this with a network of common pages/utilities that all act together as a single portal - so people don't have to go looking all over the Internet - but can come to one single entry point for much of their surname research.
Nothing in this vision - is meant to distract or take away from the benefits of the FS community and FS in general. On the contrary - the intent is to connect people, create conversations, develop synergies and reduce duplication of research and allow for people's research to be preserved for generations to come. On the contrary I would hope that this vision will bring more people to the community and more people creating conversations and providing feedback and more people connecting with each other.
Here are a few of the resources that all together make up this model that I discuss
1) The Community Group: Surname Specific Family Research
A place where people can ask specific questions about specific surnames/families and be sure to get some sort of response and feedback
(though obviously we cant do everyone's research for them - more is the point that we try to point people at resources that maybe they don't know about that would be helpful to them)
2) The FamilySearch Community Surname Listing
http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/ISRR/FS_SURNAMES.HTM
where people can learn who is interested in what surnames.
3) The Index to Surname Resources And Researchers
http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/ISRR_surnames.htm
a collection of over 10,000 pages and over one million links to specific surname/families.
4) The ability to navigate between families that have similar spellings or origins
5) Access to the Family Bible Index
http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/family_bible_index.htm
- probably the largest Family Bible Index in the world
and built on the same architecture as the ISRR.
as well as the Needlework Sampler database
http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/sampler.htm
6) Periodic supplemental listings/databases/resources
such as the 10,000 surname variant spelling listing
for the Domesday Book surname listing of early surnames of Britain.
7) Links to data and learning resources across the Internet
including videos and training material on surname research.
In under two weeks we have jumped to membership of nearly 120 researchers and we continue to grow
Your feedback is appreciated - we have already made various adjustments based on feedback from others.
But also we ask that you would focus more on the POTENTIAL here - rather than ONLY what you may see in the way of current flaws, bugs, or quirks that reflect how quickly we brought this all together. (though I do appreciate being notified of things that are broke and need fixing)
Look forward to seeing you
here is the link of the group if you get this by email.
click on the "join group" option in the upper right if it interests you.
@How to Use FamilySearch Community
@Yancey/Yancy Family Genealogy
@Family History Research
@General Questions
@Community.familysearch.org Feedback
@Australian Genealogy
@British Isles Family History Research
@Canada ~ Events & Research
@Southern States Family History Research
@New England
@Utah Family History Research
@J Binkhurst
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Wow!
Thank you for all your hard work and with your thinking outside the box.. It's great to see people really putting their all into research. I hope people take advantage of your input.
RD
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yes loved that "outside the box" make a larger box!
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I know one thing I want to learn all I can with genealogy research, to go past those dead ends I have. I just discovered your link today, and my desire is search and research mine and others family trees . like someone said to help others in their family tree, dead ends and all the more I learn the better I can help others. so I want to expand what I know.
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Good for you! And let us know if there is any help you need. The people in this group are very knowledgeable and eager to solve problems.
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Hoffmann was spelled with two N's
Stohlmann is spelled with two N's
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I would like to communicate with SylviaGardner2 because Our great great grandfather was Julius Hoffmann and he and his wife Sophia Kemmerich were married by Pastor Stohlmann in New York City in June 1859. She must be a cousin in order to be interested in the same two family names. We are in the midst of documenting Julius Hoffmann and Sophia Kemmerich family tree. I can be reached directly at george.d.dill@gmail.com. I do not know how to reach her through Family Search.
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This is a great explanation of the charter of Family Search and why it is different than Ancestry.
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sylvia_gardner@windstream.net
My parents were Arthur A. Stohlmann and Helen Mogul Stohlmann
My grand parents were Louise Hoffmann Stohlmann and Richard C. Stohlmann
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