“So I keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike.”

“How long have you been standing there Ishmael?” Turning back toward the calm seas, Ahab continues. “You see out there. Beyond the horizon is our query. You can almost see the light plumes of water. In just a few days time we will be upon them.”

Tonight we shall continue our instruction on tools of the trade. If your reading this before last weeks post please go back and read it. We will pick up were we left off.

Go ahead and login to new.familysearch.org. As you search through your family tree you will find a little icon. This means that “Temple work might need to be done.” What this means to you is that there is genealogy work that needs to be done. This is where you can start to find your first real work. So go find one.

Select one of the names and their info will show up at the bottom. Scroll down to the bottom and select the “possible duplicates”

If you see the list of possible duplicates we are going to have to merge them. If there isn’t then you should be able to move onto what ever the next step will be for you. So lets go ahead and merge a few records. Check each box that looks like a possible duplicate and press the “compare in more detail”.

On the left you will see your original record. On the right you will see the possible duplicate. Go ahead a look at the data. What your trying to figure out is how likely these are the same two people. Follow the steps at the bottom of the page. When your done you should have resolved the possible duplicate. After I merged them that little Icon stayed there.

Press that icon. Inside the next screen you see that there is work that is ready to be done. Ya me. I have found someone to goto the temple for. Even if you are not LDS this is important in finding duplicates and fixing them so stay tuned.

Pretty exciting hu? Well almost. On the left you will notice that those two people look pretty much the same. Those two are duplicates. I went ahead and merged them.

After merging her records. The Icon has now changed into the one that shows all the work is done. You have just helped clean up your family tree. Your first real genealogy work. Congrats. Next week will try to figure out where to go from here. (This is the extent of my knowledge of genealogy. So next week will be a fun discovery that both of us can go on.)