Originally posted by Robert Givens on: February 25, 2008, 10:52:24 PM

Your first visit to newFamilySearch can be daunting to say the least. Those of you who are younger will probably pick it up quickly. Those of us who are a little more mature might need a few visits to get a hang of it.

On your first visit please do take advantage of the introduction program they offer you. The web site also has a good data base of help articles.

When you go to Me and My Ancestors you should expect to NOT find much ancestry connected to you, if anything. Living people – even your parents if living – don’t show up for privacy sake. Trust me – the Carters are all in there, you just need to connect them in.

Do not, do not, do not add in a GEDCOM of all your data. This will just cause more duplications to clean up. Once you can tap into the family already in the nfs database, it will all be connected.

Your first job would be to add the names of your parents – if living, don’t even bother with their birth date. The name is all you need. If your grandparents are deceased and were members or have had temple work done for them – try adding them from the data base rather than adding them in as new people. Once they are connected the rest of the family going back should be there. If not try finding the next generation back until you get the family to come up.

If this information isn’t clear just email me or add a comment here.
Bob Givens