Trainers
Home | Translation Tips Music Giving 2-Minute Demos Share quick and effective demos of The Family History Guide. From 2015 to the present, volunteers have given thousands of two-minute demonstrations of The Family History Guide at RootsTech International, the world's largest family history and genealogy event. Two frequent comments from those who see the website for the first time are, "This is amazing!" and "Why haven't I heard of this before?" Now you can give two-minute demos of The Family History Guide At Family History Fairs At genealogy or church meetings To friends, family, and associates To anyone who is curious about family history Just click any of the links below for 8 items to say and show in each two-minute demo. You may adapt the demo items for your needs, and you can give several demos in a row, depending on the interest level. See also the FAQs page for answers to common questions about The Family History Guide. (Note: Two minutes is an approximate time; your results may vary.) To create a single 2-Minute Demo that covers multiple aspects of The Family History Guide, select and use individual items within the links below. Click here for a Google Doc that contains all the talking points for the 2-Minute Demos. You can dowload and modify the document so long as you keep the copyright statement intact. Website Overview "This is the Homepage for The Family History Guide - it's www.thefhguide.com." Show the home page and mention the bold URL on the page. "The Family History Guide is free, with no advertising on the site. Here is their mission statement." Scroll down and read the mission statement on the page. "You can learn almost anything you want about FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, or Findmypast in the Learning Paths." Hover over Learning Paths in the top menu (or the menu at the left for tablets and phones). "For example, here's what you can learn about FamilySearch." Click FamilySearch in the Learning Paths menu to show all the Goals and Choices. "You can start with basic Family Tree skills, or skip to any you're interested in." Click Choice A in Goal 1 and then show the steps, article links, and Exercise. "The Countries menu helps you do research in many different countries around the world." Select a country from All Countries or the regions in the menu; then show a few Goals from the list at the top of the page. "The Activities menu has over 200 fun family history activities for everyone." Open the Family link in the Activities menu and scroll down to the Family History Fun Basket activity. "Here are other menus in The Family History Guide you can explore: Intro ... Trainers ... Youth ... Media ... Faiths ... and Tools." Hover over each menu as you name it. You can mention an item or two in each menu, but don't open the items unless requested. More Website Features "You can translate The Family History Guide into over 130 languages." On the Homepage, click the Select Language button and select Danish, for example. Then click the X in the Google Translate bar at the top to return to English. "Use the blue magnifying glass to search for anything within The Family History Guide website." Click the icon, type Adoption Records, press Enter, and click the first result. Then go back to the Homepage. "Each day, Monday through Friday, Today's Tip has a family history tip. The tips are collected on the Tip of the Day page." Click Today's Tip and then click the "See all tips" link at the bottom. "The Beginners link shows fewer menu options, which can help beginners focus on a smaller number of tasts." Click the Beginners link, hover over each menu at the top, and click Switch to Full Version in the Versions menu. "There is a short Overview video, a medium-length video, and a longer Intro video on the home page." Show where these video links are on the Homepage, but don't actually play the videos. "You can easily print selections from the website. You can remove an item from the print page or restore it." Click FamilySearch in the Learning Paths menu, and then click Choice A for Goal 1. Then click the Print icon in the header. When the print page appears, click a graphic to delete it, then click Undo (top) to restore it.. "The Vault is where you can find lots of additional article and video links on many topics." In the Tools menu click Vault. Then click an item at the top to go to the section with articles and videos. "The Online Tracker helps you keep track of what you've learned in The Family History Guide. This Help page gets you started setting up and using a free Online Tracker account." In the Tools menu click Online Tracker Help and scroll down slowly to the picture in Choice B. Country Pages "You can find countries to do research in by clicking a region in the Countries menu." Hover over the Regions in the Countries menu. Click British Isles and select Ireland. "Here are the Goals for the (Ireland) pages. We're in Goal 1: Research and Records, and here are the rest of the Goals ..." Hover over the Goals at the top of the page; then mention the titles of the other Goals as you move over them. "You can find some interesting and helpful articles and videos for your research." Scroll down the page in Goal 1 and click an article of interest. "There are QUIKLinks available that take you directly to record collection search screens." Open Goal 3 (Civil Registration) and scroll to the bottom. Then click "FS: Ireland Civil Registration, 1845-1913" as a search screen example.. "Another way to find countries is in the All Countries page." In the Countries menu, click All Countries and then open the Denmark link as an example. "If the country you want is not in the All Countries page, you can use the More link to find a lot of additional ones." Click the More link and then open the Aruba link as an example. "There are also research pages for Ethnic groups." In the Countries menu click Ethnic and open one of the selections. "The Countries Knowledgebase has lots of short tips on doing research in a lot of different countries." In the Countries menu click Countries KB and open a few links for a country. ) United States Pages "The United States page has six sections: Basic Records, Vital Records, Census, Immigration, Military, and Other Records." Move over each of the six sections, naming them as you go. "There are many resources to help you with finding locations for your U.S. ancestors." Open Goal A2 (Location, Geo) and scroll slowly through Choice A, until you reach Choice B. "You can learn about your vital records for your ancestors and how to find the records. There are also specific Goals for birth, marriage, death, and cemetery records." Open Goal B1 and scroll through Choice A and Choice B. Then move over Goals B2 - B6. "You can trace your ancestor in U.S. census records, from 1790 to 1950." Open Goal C2 and click the "---" button in the top area to close the Choices. Then open Choice A and mention the links for Census headings and Census Questions Asked. "To trace immigrant ancestors you can check passenger and naturalization records." Open Goal D2 and scroll through Choice A. Mention the Ellis Island resources and the QUIKLinks to record collections. "Just below the Statue of Liberty picture are links for each of the 50 states. For example, here is the basic Research page for California Goals." Click the California state page link, and then scroll through Choice A. "You can do research in any county in the U.S. For example, there are several websites with county information, just a click away." In the California page, scroll to the bottom and explain the legend for the county websites. Then open a sample one, such as "L" (Linkpendium) for Ventura County. "The Family History Guide has a helpful Knowledgebase for U.S. and general research." In the Learning Paths menu, click Knowledgebase and then open a topic at the top, such as Brick Walls. Then open one or more of the links to show the content bullets. Activities Pages "There are great family history activities in the Activities menu." In the Activities menu click Home. Then mention, but don't show, the two videos that are show the difference that family history activities make. "Let's take a look at activities for families." Open the For Families link (or choose Family in the Activities menu). Scroll down the page to show the first activity, and then move over the category links at the top of the page. "Here are activities for young adults and other individuals." Open the For Individuals link (or choose Individuals in the Activities menu). Scroll down the page to show the first activity, and then move over the category links at the top of the page. "Here are activities for youth, ages 12-18." Open the For Youth link (or choose Youth in the Activities menu). Scroll down the page to show the first activity, and then move over the category links at the top of the page. "Here are activities for kids, ages 8-12, or younger." Open the Kids Corner link (or choose Kids Corner in the Activities menu). Scroll down the page to show the first activity, and then move over the category links at the top of the page. "You can use the Activities Index to quickly find a family history activity to use." In the Activities menu click Activities Index. Then click an entry, such as Save Memories on Smartphones.. "There is also a Planning Sheet for activities. It's a Google Sheet you can download for free, to keep track of the activities you do." In the Activities menu click Planning Sheet and review each of the column headings.. "You can watch videos about family history activities on our YouTube Channel." In the Media menu click YouTube. Then select the Playlists tab and scroll down to Activities videos. Click View Playlist for a list of activities videos. For Trainers "You can train others in family history skills, right from The Family History Guide website. There are some helpful videos you can watch about the training tools available on the site." In the Trainers menu click Home and mention (but do not show) the videos in the About section. "Here are some ways you can present The Family History Guide website to others." In the Trainers menu click Presenting TFHG. Then in the About section, mention the three methods for presenting The Family History Guide. "Each Class Outline is a single slide with speaker notes that point you to places in The Family History Guide to teach a family history topic. It's like having a ready-made class that you can customize for your needs." In the Trainers menu click Class Outlines. Scroll down to show the Memories and Learning to Do Research sections. Open the "Research: Learn the Basics" slide and pull up on the slim line at the bottom to reveal the speaker notes. "There are hundreds of built-in Practice Exercises you can use as you teach about research in countries." In the Trainers menu click Practice Exercises. Open the Sample Exercise links to show how a Practice Exercise works. Then mention the spreadsheet link at the bottom for a way to find the exercises in The Family History Guide. "The Trainers Corner has some good resources for improving training skills." In the Trainers menu click Trainers Corner and scroll through Choices A and B.. "The Q&A Center is a spreadsheet with common questions and answers about many different topics in family history." In the Trainers menu click The Q&A Center and open any of the "View or download" links. Then click one of the tabs at the bottom (after About and Customize) to show the topics, questions, and links to answers in The Family History Guide. "The Show Me Slides" are a good way to show how to learn one of the major family history platforms, using a more visual approach." In the Trainers menu click Show Me Slides. Then open one of the slide decks and click through a few of the slides to see a topic being taught. "You can choose from a wide variety of quizzes to test knowledge about the Learning Path programs. The questions are multiple-choice, true-false, matching, and so forth." In the Trainers menu click Quizzes. Then scroll down through section B to see quiz examples.
From 2015 to the present, volunteers have given thousands of two-minute demonstrations of The Family History Guide at RootsTech International, the world's largest family history and genealogy event. Two frequent comments from those who see the website for the first time are, "This is amazing!" and "Why haven't I heard of this before?"
Now you can give two-minute demos of The Family History Guide
Just click any of the links below for 8 items to say and show in each two-minute demo. You may adapt the demo items for your needs, and you can give several demos in a row, depending on the interest level. See also the FAQs page for answers to common questions about The Family History Guide. (Note: Two minutes is an approximate time; your results may vary.)
To create a single 2-Minute Demo that covers multiple aspects of The Family History Guide, select and use individual items within the links below.
Click here for a Google Doc that contains all the talking points for the 2-Minute Demos. You can dowload and modify the document so long as you keep the copyright statement intact.
