What’s New in The Family History Guide Facebook Pages
As you are probably aware, we have two Facebook pages: one is for the Main page of The Family History Guide, and the other
is for the Trainers, Consultants, and Directors page. The latter is a closed Group, but anyone with an interest in family history training is welcome to join.
Below are some of the features we have instituted on these pages. To see them, make sure to follow The Family History Guide Facebook page and join the Trainers Group page.
Updates (Main page)
These are numbered (Update #120, etc.) and summarize the latest changes to The Family History Guide website. After an update is posted on the Main page, its contents are copied into the What’s New page of the website.
Wednesday Welcome (Trainers Group)
Each Wednesday we welcome the newest members of the Group. As of this post, there are over 780 members, with new ones joining each week.
Training Tips (Trainers Group)
Each Thursday we add a new training tip to the page. Recent tips include such topics as
- Four Roles for Family History Consultants
- Family History for Busy People
- A Setup for Mentoring
- The Library and the Librarian
- Slide Decks, Handouts, and The Family History Guide
Did You Know? (Main page)
These short “Did You Know?” posts on the main Facebook page come out each Tuesday. Here’s a recent sample about the Country Pages https://www.thefhguide.com/countries.html
“DID YOU KNOW … #10
Country Pages Q&A
Q1. Where can I find country pages in The Family History Guide for doing research?
A1: The most obvious place is to use the Countries menu. The “All Countries” entry at the top (https://www.thefhguide.com/
Q2: Does the Countries page list all the countries that The Family History Guide references?
A2: No, some of the countries are in “collector” pages, such as Eastern Europe Misc., So. America Misc., etc. Countries that don’t have enough Goals and Choices in The Family History Guide are listed in these collector pages. For example, So. America Misc. includes Goals (but not Projects) for Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Q3: What about other countries that aren’t listed in the Countries page or in collector pages?
A3: In some cases you can find QUIKLinks for these countries at the end of collector pages. For example, at the bottom of So. America Misc. you’ll see QUIKLinks to record collections for Bolivia and Paraguay, countries not included in the collector page. If a country has no page or QUIKLinks, it’s because there aren’t enough available records or research links for the country. This is the case in much of Africa and Asia, where record sources are scarce. As more information becomes available, we’ll add the country to The Family History Guide as appropriate.
Q4: Where else can I find country links in The Family History Guide?
A4: Two places in the Intro menu: Topics, and Site Map. These pages list country links alphabetically, which may be helpful if you’re not sure of which continent a country belongs to. Also, countries that are part of collector pages are listed individually in Topics and Site Map, for easy reference.”
Our Social Media Coordinator, Bonnie Mattson, had the following comments:
“I love the way these four questions simplify and clarify what can be found on the Country Pages of the Family History Guide. 
I hope you will too. If you have never checked out a Country Page, go to https://www.thefhguide.
Each Country page opens with a beautiful banner photo. Scroll down and see what resources you can access from the page. There is one page available for each Goal, accessed by the header links. You can also click the banner at the top to see the Wikipedia page for that locality as well. It’s just amazing! There is so much there, and it would even be a great way to plan a family history trip in advance. The sky is the limit with the Country pages on The Family History Guide!”
