How to Fish: Puzzilla.org training and Family History Research

Bill and I have been giving training on how to use puzzilla.org to do family history research and how to find and add cousins to our family tree in familysearch.org. He has been invited by several family history centers and groups to give presentations. We have given personal one-on-one training to family and friends. He is working hard to add additional features and useful tools to the program.

Most of my ancestors have been well researched and my pedigree lines go back many generations on all sides. By using the view on puzzilla.org I can now see all the descendants of ancestors that have already been found by others in family tree, and I can see where the research stopped. When I find a place or "hole" where someone does not have any children I go to their individual page within family search. Next I click on the search button on the right hand side of their page to go into the historical record data base, where all the indexed records are found. I search to find them in a birth, death, census or other record and look for their spouse or children so I can add them to my family tree. Using this process I have found hundreds of new cousins to add to my family tree. Some short videos on puzzilla.org main page easily demonstrates this process.

I like the analogy my husband uses about a father taking his son fishing. He does not take him to the supermarket to pick out a fish that was already caught by someone else. Instead, he takes him to the stream to catch a new fish in the wild. In the same way we search in the historical records to find someone who has not yet been found, and then we add them to the market, or family tree. (The bait is the person already in family tree.)

I am experiencing the phenomenon of moving from a scarcity of temple work to do for my ancestors, to now having such an abundance of names that I am asking family and friends for their help doing the temple work. Even after involving those I know to help me, I am left with much more work than we can possibly do. So I have been sharing the work with the temple. This means anyone attending the temple on any given day can be doing work for someone I have found. I feel that these people have waited long enough to have their blessings and I am excited to share the work.

I track the progress of my work on a spreadsheet. My husband calls it my workflow. I create columns for their Name, ID number, Temple work, Shared Work, Research, and Notes so I can keep track of my progress on each individual. I enter them on the spreadsheet in the order I discover them in my research. Information on one individual stays on one line and is condensed or coded so my mind can easily visually process the information. For instance, in the research column I use the symbol SS, to indicate that person does not have a spouse and I need to find a marriage record. Or I use the symbol SP to indicate they don't have parents.

Typically the names become grouped one family at a time, and I occasionally separate families using a colored line in the spreadsheet. This helps me visually identify families quickly, to follow or share with others. I also use different colors to highlight when my research or temple work is done, where I need to focus more attention, or names I have shared with different family members. This helps me see where I have been and where I need to go next.

Besides this I also have a program on my computer for my own pedigree and their descendants, in addition to the one on familysearch.org called family tree. This allows me to see the relationships I have to each of the people I found and enter other personal details that cannot be changed by someone else.

I hope this is helpful to someone.