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Welcome to our Blog

 The Fresno California North Stake is located in the San Joaquin Valley of California half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  We have been decicated for many years to training our Family History Center staff and Ward Temple and Family History Consultants. This blog may evolve but it's initial purpose is to provide a place for us to publish links to the videos of our recorded classes and the PDF files of the PowerPoint slide decks for these presentation. Our presentation are housed at YouTube in our channel - Fresno North Stake Family History Center Trainings.  These are PowerPoint presentations and PDF documents of these slide decks are located here for your convenience. All work hosted here is created under the copyright of Robert Givens.  The material is free to be shared as long as credit for it's creation is retained.
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Working with Patrons and Preparing a Lesson (April 22, 2026)

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This topic is one of our beginner lessons: Working With Patrons and Preparing a Lesson.  We will stress the one-on-one teaching model and offer suggestions on how to best prepare to give a Discovery Lesson that will benefit your patron and meet their needs.  Two model lessons will be demonstrated - one a get to know your ancestor lesson and the other a research discovery experience.  This is a great lesson for anyone who is newly called or hasn't had much experience in actually teaching others about family history. Priesthood leaders can also benefit from seeing this presentation as it can guide them in helping consultants learn their craft. Link to Presentation Link to PDF of slides  
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What's New at FamilySearch 2026 (April 8, 2026)

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This class reviews FamilySearch's growth by the numbers, discuss New and Improved Services, explain Guardrails and Validation features and Tree Accuracy Tools, and, finally, introduces Manage Trees. This is a must view for any user of FamilySearch. Video Link:  https://youtu.be/u14XmG5dzrM PDF of the Slides
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Indexing Out, Get Involved In (March 25, 2026)

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This class provides a short history of indexing and explains why it was stopped, then introduces Get Involved and shows where to find it.  The bulk of the lesson will cover an introduction to the different activities that can be done in Get Involved.  Then it will show how to use the Get Involved app.  Finally we will demonstrate how your activity in Indexing and Get Involved has been tracked since 2006 - as found in My Contributions and Reports Beta (for LDS members with certain callings.) Link to the Recording Link to a PDF of the Slides  
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"What Do I Need to Know? (New Consultant Training #2) February 25, 2026

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This topic defines the main online sites and apps that consultants need to become familiar with, and, then more importantly, the locations of self-education materials to assist you in the learning process of how to use them.  This can be helpful for all of us as we often encounter situations we have no answer for or patrons come to us for answers that even we don't have.  So where can we find the answers?  This class will solve that issue for you. In addition the last part of the class will explore ways to get quick answers to your questions regarding the use of the FamilySearch web site or simple research help. Link to the class video Link to the PDF of the slide deck  
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Searching Records at FamilySearch With Success (February 11, 2026)

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"Searching Records at Family Search" is a great class for anyone who needs some help on how to find records at FamilySearch.  This class illustrates 6 different places and ways to search for those records you need to document your relatives.  A lot of a researcher's success at finding their family is determined by their understanding of where and how to search for those needed records. Stretch your understanding of this needed skill by viewing this class. It is essential to learn all these search engines if you want to access all the billions of records at FamilySearch. At the end of the presentation we even introduced a brand new search engine just released at FamilySearch. Link to the Recording Link to the PDF of the slide deck  
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Getting Grounded as a New Temple and Family History Consultant (New Consultant Lesson 1) January 28, 2026

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This class takes a look at all the different places FamilySearch has located materials to help new consultants know what their calling entails.  Because these materials are not all in one place and the materials vary in content from site to site it is important that we are aware of all the places to turn for authorized support and training. We will conclude with suggestions we have found helpful as we have worked with new consultant over the years.  This class focuses on what your calling as a Consultant entails - not on the skills you need to develop.  These skills will be addressed in future lessons.  This is an excellent class for new consultants, consultants who are asked to help train new consultants, and leaders responsible for helping consultants. Link to the video of the class Link to the PDF of the slides  
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How to Organize Your Ward for Temple and Family History Success (January 14, 2026)

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  The title of our first class in this new year is - "How to Organize Your Ward for Temple and Family History Success." Many of our wards are not fully set up to function in temple and family history work as described in the General Handbook.  This class provides them with direction and ideas to successfully organize this work of Gathering the Living and the Dead.  If your ward is one of these that needs to be jump-started, please share the link for this class with your ward leaders. Link to the class Link to the PDF of the slides   
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