October 9-13 Tuesday to Saturday

Tuesday October 9

We are back to our regular Tuesday schedule with Sister Tolman working at the Church Office Bldg and Elder Tolman working at the Library.  Today was a full day from 7:30am to 5pm at the missionary department for Sister Tolman.   The Griffiths are enjoying more time at the various sites around temple square.  We received Emilee’s limited use temple recommend so she can join Josh, Rachael and Robert at the Salt Lake Temple for baptisms on Wednesday.

It was not busy during the first hour of the day, so I did some indexing which I had not done for several days.  Since Sister Tolman worked the full day at the COB, I took my lunch and ate at the lunch room and them went to the credit union to deposit the rent check from our house in Tempe.

======================================
Added by Sister Tolman.

Tuesday I worked at the COB.  It was a slow day and there was only one interesting call.  It came in when everyone had left for the day.  I told the young man to call back in the afternoon on the following day and someone could help him.  He was calling from Nigeria and he had received his mission call to Ghana.  He said his bishop had helped him out and gotten him a white shirt and tie.  But that was all the bishop could do.  He said that his parents had died when he was young about 2 and so he had no one to help him.  All he wanted was a mom.  It was so sad it made me cry.
======================================

I helped a lot of different people today.  I only had two formal requests to help individuals.  The first was for a man who needed help with finding military records.  I helped him learn about using Fold3 which is a premium site that is free at the Family History libraries.  He and his wife are church members and live in Springville in Utah Valley.  I helped both several times throughout the day as they came and got me to help them with adding Memories.  I helped another man who had visited the library yesterday.  I could tell he was hesitant on some work he was doing so I sat down and helped him merge several records for one of his ancestors.

I helped a woman from Oregon (Arlene Wickham) who last visited the library 13 years ago.  She still had two cards that were used to pay for making copies.  I showed her the mobile apps for FamilyTree and Memories and helped her download these apps.  I did some training on using the Memories functions.  Below is her picture with her holding one of the old print cards.  

The last person that I helped was Ernest Perry.  He is a couple of years older than I am.  He had built a family tree on ancestry.com and wanted to do the same on FamilySearch.org.  The first step was to make sure that he could either read and email or receive a text on his phone.  He had his phone but could do neither. He wasn’t even able to make a phone call.  I tried texting his phone but got no response. The same thing happened when I called him.  I checked FamilyTree on my account and found his father’s grandparents and his mother’s grandparents.  We also added his father to the tree and finally were able to get his account set up by contacting account services.  He was able to contact his wife and she arrived at the library to pick him up.  It turns out that the phone number he gave me was his wife’s mobile number and she was wondering where the texts and phone call came from. In any case he went away happy with what we had done and plans to visit the library again tomorrow.

The Griffiths stopped by at the end of their day to get Emilee’s temple recommend and some names needing baptisms for Josh to complete.

Wednesday October 10

We took the parking pass back to the JSMB at around 8:30am so we got our exercise along with the walking we did when we went food shopping at Lucky's and Smiths. We also picked up some power steering fluid at Reilly’s Auto Parts as the car had been making the wining noise it makes what the fluid is low.

Sister Tolman had the spiritual thought for today’s prayer meeting.  She shared Chuck Worrell’s story about the drummer boy and the Revolutionary War when his ancestor was captured by the British and sent to the Caribbean.  He then became a drummer of the British but defected back to the colonists when they brought him back to be a British drummer boy.

I worked on indexing and adding memories including a picture group sheet for Orin Hatch and his children born to Elizabeth Melissa Perry.  All thirteen children married and had families.  The first child Orin Perry Hatch is my great grandfather

I helped Albert Alatorre from Bountiful.  He was just called as his Ward’s Lead Temple and Family History Consultant so I spent close to an hour showing him various resources.  I also shared my family history blog and asked me to email him the link.  When he first arrived, he said he wanted to learn about Indexing.  Once I found out what his situation was I changed to focus to help him with his ward calling.  He had just moved from California to Bountiful. 

I spent some time helping the couple from Springville that I helped yesterday.  The wife is doing a lot with adding stories and the husband is doing research on his family.  I showed him how to use the “To Do List” that shows on the FamiySearch home page when you first log in.  

I was able to help several individuals with some quick questions including downloading images to a flash drive, using the 1851 English Jurisdiction map,

Thursday October 11

We attended Payson Temple 10:00 am Endowment session with JoAnne and Craig.  They are about 70 miles south of our apartment.  We drove to their house and then they we went with them to the temple. We enjoyed lunch with them and returned home by about 4:15pm.  The Payson Temple reminds us of the Gilbert Temple.  

Getting lunch ready at JoAnne and Craig's home

Payson Utah Temple

Payson Utah Temple - Celestial Room

FamilyTree stopped working at about 5pm for anyone at the library with an account who is not a church member which affected most of those visiting the library.  I helped a woman with her account to try to figure out what was going on so we contacted support services and they documented the problem but were unable to identify a solution.  We logged on to my account and printed several family group sheets and a pedigree chart for her. We then went back to her account and uploaded some pictures to her Memories on FamilySearch. 

I discussed with the Young Elders what we can do to help individuals when we can’t build or view a tree under their account.  I worked with a young woman from a Young Single Adult Ward in the valley who is the Family History Leader for her ward.  I helped her see what she can do to help her ward members.  I shared my family history blog with her especially the part that describes what everyone can do.  I helped her look around her own tree and find stories about some of her ancestors demonstrating how we can “Discover, Gather and Connect” with our ancestors.

Friday October 12
====================================

Comment by Sister Tolman. Friday was a good day until we got into work and found that the problem with FamilyTree had not been fixed.  They had been working on it but still no success.  We continued to work with people in the old fashioned way and people were patient and understanding with us for which we were grateful.  Finally around 3:00 a man came down and talked to one of the non-members who had been working there for a couple of days and asked her if she could kind of be his Guinea pig.  She agreed and they took her log in information and tried a fix.  They came back a while later and it worked.  They finally fixed the problem almost 24 hours later. That evening I didn’t even leave the desk area since we only had three hours and I was floor supervisor one hour assistant floor supervisor and greeter the last hour.
=====================================

Family Tree finally started working properly at 4pm.  The problem was confined to the computers in the Family History Library only and worked elsewhere.  From 1 to 4pm, I worked with other missionaries discussing how we can help guests when they can’t access or build a tree on FamilySearch.org.  What really excites individuals is to learn more about their ancestors and find them on historical records such as census records, military records such as the WWI and WWII draft registration cards, immigration records, and birth, marriage and death records.  We can do all these things without building a tree on the computer.  In this case, we can hand write the information on a pedigree chart and help them be able to add this information when they get home.

I also helped Sister Blosser who is a church service missionary at the library and has been for over 10 years. She is the only church member in her family and has submitted thousands of names for temple work.  She has hit a brick wall on one area of her family.  I showed her several features on the FamilyTree app which can help her.  I also suggested some other things she could do besides her focus on research.  I showed her indexing which she hadn’t done since the application became web based.  She indexed a batch to get started again.  I shared training material I have developed and I gave her copies of several of these.

I helped a young couple in their late 20’s from Buffalo New York- names are James and Andrea.  At first Andrea didn’t want an account but decided to when I said that I could help them both at the same time to get started.  They both built their trees up to their grandparents and then we started using historical records to extend their trees and connect with ancestors already on the tree.  Both found ancestors who were already on the tree.  Andrea’s tree had some duplicates that I helped her resolve.  Both were able to build their family trees and find a lot of historical records and add even more family members.  Sister Tolman and I left for dinner and when we returned from dinner 45 minutes later they were still working on the computers.  They ended up spending about three hours at the library.  They were very excited and anxious to share with their family when they get home. 

Several days ago I received a picture of my Grandfather Jaren Thomas Tolman from Kathryn Perry who found this picture among her mother's memorabilia.  Kathryn's great grandfather was Orson Hutchinson who was my grandfather's missionary companion.  Here is the picture.  It is also posted on FamilySearch.org on his person page under memories.  Kathryn had contacted me as she had seen that I had posted information recently for my grandfather.

Saturday Oct 13

The library opens at 9am on Saturdays but we need to arrive by about 8:15am to help clean and have our devotional.  We are not normally busy from 9 to 10am so Sister Tolman went to the monthly swap meet at the apartment complex.  She picked up a book, a jigsaw puzzle and a knitted scarf to keep her warm in the colder weather which we are having right now.  We were short several missionaries today so we had to be flexible with our lunch.  Sister Tolman fixed us lunch to take to the library as we knew we probably wouldn’t have time to take the full hour break (we ended up taking a 30-minute break for lunch).  I was Floor Supervisor from 10-11am and Greeter for the last two hours so I didn’t have as much time to help others as I normally do but I did have some good experiences.  I do enjoy greeting guests when they arrive on our floor and also talking to people as they leave the library.

I helped a man. Luis Valentin, who is a truck driver based in Florida.  His family comes from Puerto Rico and moved to New York City.  He knew most about his father’s side of the family.  His father was born in 1926 in Puerto Rico along with a twin sister.  His grandmother died at their birth along with the twin sister.  We added as much to his tree as he could remember and installed the FamilyTree and Memories apps on his mobile phone as this is what he will use most.  We did some searching and finally found information about his grandfather. We found him on findagrave.com which also showed the headstone in a military cemetery on Long Island in New York.  As soon as he looked at the headstone he remembered going there as a child.  I think I detected a tear or two when he realized that we found information about his grandfather.  He plans to talk to his parents and a cousin when he gets back to Florida to learn more about his family and to get some picture to add to FamilyTree.

I helped another couple, Ray and Ann from Montana.  Ann said her cousin is a member of the church and probably has added a lot of her family to FamilyTree.  We focused on Ray and got his tree started.  He didn’t have too many details but we managed to get started with what he knew.  We found grandparents on the 1930 and 1940 census and found that the grandfather was born in Canada.  While we were doing this I had Ann look for her grandparents on both sides of the family on FamilyTree using my account.  We found them and I printed pedigree charts for both.  They had to leave before we could do more but had a good start and enjoyed what they found.

==============================================
Added by Sister Tolman

In the afternoon on Saturday I was introduced to two women.  One of them was there to watch and the other was there to open an account.  They were probably sisters because the one kept telling the other information to add to the tree.   As we added one thing to the tree it was someone that had already been added and it opened up and went back to the 1600’s.  She was so excited she wanted to stop and look at everything.  The other lady would say you can do that later let’s see what else we can find.  We were able to add some new information and again open up lines that went back.  It was like watching a kid in a candy shop or a toy shop where they couldn’t decide which toy to play with or which of the many pieces of candy to choose.  I finally had to leave for lunch and they just continued to search. They were still searching and reading when we got back from lunch 45 minutes later. This will keep her busy for a long time. 

During the day I helped a couple and two other people were helping his parents.  He didn’t want an account and just wanted to watch her, that is until he saw how it worked.  After that he wanted one too.  So now I was helping two people and this is really difficult.  She was able to contact her mother and start getting some of the information and getting it on her tree.  He got his account opened and then we had to talk to his parents and see what they had added and then get the ID number for each of the people that they had added.  This expanded his tree greatly and he was excited to see how far some of his things went.  She on the other hand just kept working at her tree and filling in things a little at a time.  They finally had to leave and catch a plane.  I know that they were not ready to go but they had to leave.

One thing that is interesting is that many people think that they will open this account and they will only be able to use it at the Family History Library.  They are very excited when they find out that they can use it anywhere they can use a computer on the internet.  The other thing that they don’t understand is why we do it for free and thank them for coming in.  We tell them we are grateful to them for coming in and adding more information to the tree.  We never know when what they add will be just the thing that has caused a brick wall in my tree and will help me out.  One young man stopped and said he couldn’t set up an account because he didn’t know if he could afford it.  He was excited when it found out it cost nothing. Helping people and watching them discover their families is really wonderful.

==============================

This was a long and busy day for both of us.  We finished the day by enjoying a meal at Crownburger which is just a couple of blocks from our apartment.