One of the great benefits of serving a shift at a Family History Center is learning from our fellow consultants. A few weeks ago, one of the consultants on our shift introduced us to a feature on BYU Record Linking Lab.  

“The mission of the BYU Record Linking Lab is to develop tools that link families and individuals across records and combines the efforts of FamilySearch, BYU students, and academic researchers. We are currently developing tools to auto-index hand-written forms (such as census records), extract genealogical information from books, and link collections with sparse data (such as lists of school alumni or those who died in World War I).”

They have several projects they work on to assist with family history. The one that Karen introduced us to is: Geo Hint Record Search, Customized Family History Hints. When you go to this website (https://fhss-priceweb.byu.edu/) you will see a screen like this:

Once you have entered a surname and place, you will see a screen with green “pins” indicating an individual with that last name and possible record hints to attach.

I look for “view my relationship” and work on the ones I find that have a relationship. It has been a great source of additional information for my family tree.

Sharing your new discoveries with fellow consultants is a great way to expand our knowledge and resources for doing Family History. Thank you for sharing!

-Janet Helland, Patron and Consultant Services, Granite Family History Center