West Bountiful Second Ward Syllabus for Ancestral Quest Class – 16 Weeks
Date: 03 March 2013
Week 1 - Introduction to the Class
1. (Materials Needed for Class): USB Flash Drive and/or bring your laptop; Latest release of AQ
2. Handouts: 1) Syllabus; 2) A Member’s Guide to Temple and Family History Work; 3)
http://www.rodneysparkman.org/Tips_for_SS_Class.htm
3. Objectives of this Class
a. Understand the Purpose of Family History Work
b. Learning How to Complete the Work for One of Your Ancestors
c. Entering the Information into Ancestral Quest 14.x (http://www.ancquest.com/index.htm)
d. Using the new Family Tree and its importance. https://familysearch.org/;
e. Visiting the Regional Family History Library in Bountiful and obtaining information
f. Going to the Temple and Doing the Work for at least one person that was researched.
4. Homework Assignment: Gather all the information you can about yourself, your parents, grandparents,
and great-grandparents for completing the pedigree chart and family group record.
Week 2 - Learning How to Complete the Work for One Ancestor
1. Review of Previous Week’s topics; Video: Saviors on Mount Zion; To Turn The Hearts
2. Handout: 1) The Research Process (The Church’s Cycle); 2) The Process for Completion of Ordinance
Work (The Church’s Cycle with Rod’s Adaptation; Affiliate program: https://familysearch.org/products
3. The Research Process – A process of discovery and personalization of your ancestry.
4. Church’s official web site: https://familysearch.org/; Obtaining your LDSADMIN account.
5. Homework Assignment: Review the information you gathered and decide what you want to use.
Week 3 – Getting Started with AQ
1. Review of Previous Week’s topics; Video: Begin Your Family History;
2. Handout: 1) How to Download AQ from the WWW; 2) Genealogical Source Overview & Checklist
3. Demonstration of loading AQ and the AQ Video Tutorial
4. Using the new Family Tree.
5. Homework Assignment: Download the latest release of AQ from the Internet.
Week 4 - The Invaluable F1 Key (Help!!!!) and Help Menu
1. Review Previous Week’s topics; Video: Follow the Spirit;
2. Handout: 1) Five Projects for Family History Month or Anytime;
3. Brief Introduction to the Ancestral Quest 14
4. The Help Menu
a. Current Topic; Help Topics; Keyboard
b. Getting Started Guide
c. Feedback and Frequently Asked Questions; Find a Family History Center; Check for Software Updates
5. Using the new Family Tree.
6. Homework Assignment: Go through the Tutorial and practice using the F1 key
Week 5 - The File Menu
1. Review of Previous Week’s topics; Video: Information Needed for Temple Work;
2. Handout: 1) Research Questions (KBYU);
3. File Menu
a. New, Open, Close, Save As
b. Import, Export, Properties, Backup, Restore, Check/Repair, Delete
c. Print Reports
4. Using the new Family Tree.
5. Homework Assignment: Import and Export your data to a USB Flash Drive
Date Printed: Tuesday, February 09, 2016 © 2013 Rodney Sparkman Jr.
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West Bountiful Second Ward Syllabus for Ancestral Quest Class – 16 Weeks
Date: 03 March 2013
Week 6 - The Edit Menu
1. Review of Previous Week’s topics; Video: Gathering Information from Home;
2. Handout: 1) Ancestors Timeline
3. Edit Menu
a. Individual, Notes, Multimedia; Unlink Individual, Delete Individual
b. Marriage, Parents, Parents’ Marriage; Order Spouses, Order Children
c. Source List, Repository List, Individual Event List, Marriage Event List
4. Homework Assignment: Study the handouts and add a picture of one of your own records in AQ.
Week 7 - The Add and View Menus
1. Review of Previous Week’s topics; Video: Using Family Group Sheets
2. .PDF/Handout: 1) User’s Guide for LDS Ordinance Information; 2) Genealogy Epitaph Collection pg. 4
3. Add Menu
a. Individual, Family, Spouse, Child, Father, Mother, Other Parents
4. View Menu
a. Family, Pedigree, Individual
b. Toolbar, Status Bar
5. Homework Assignment: Add an individual, a child, a family, a spouse, etc. to AQ.
Week 8 - The Search Menu
5. Review of Previous Week’s topics; Video: Intro to Public Records;
6. Handout: 1) Internet Tools for Locating Family History 2) Popular Internet Sites.
7. Search Menu
a. Individual List, Marriage List, Descendancy List, Find by RIN/MRIN, Advanced Focus Filter
b. Home Person
c. On FamilySearch Internet
8. Homework Assignment: Search the internet for one of your ancestors.
Week 9 - The Tools and FamilySearch Menus
9. Review of Previous Week’s topics; Public Records;
10. Tools Menu
d. Match/Merge, Merge Duplicate Sources and Citations
e. Global Search and Replace, Change Names to Mixed Case, Create Web Page, Notepad
f. Relationship Calculator, Date Calculator, Soundex Calculator
g. FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service, Resource File Viewer
h. Preferences
11. Homework Assignment: Modify the AQ preferences.
Week 10 – “Our Family Tree” Project
12. Handout: The Case for Moving to “Our Tree”; Video: Submitting Names to the Temple
13. http://broadcast.lds.org/eLearning/fhd/Community/en/FamilySearch/FamilyTree/Overview/FTD/multiscreen.html
Week 12 – 15 Q & A
14. Workshops on your own trees. Please bring your gedcom files and /or your laptops so that we may help each other
out.
Week 16 - Visiting the Regional Family History Library in Bountiful
15) Handouts: 1) Family History Hours of Operation Video: Blessings of Temple and Family History Work;
a) Purpose: To familiarize oneself with the resources at your disposal for completing the work for the dead.
b) Homework Assignment: Visit the Temple and complete the work for your ancestor(s) or give your cards to someone in
the ward/stake who can do the work for your ancestors. Please do not hand them out at the temple.
Date Printed: Tuesday, February 09, 2016 © 2013 Rodney Sparkman Jr.
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