Langford CME Church - Monroe NC and GA connections - Workshop Notes
On 19 Oct 2024, I joined a group from our church to help members of the Langford CME Church in Monroe NC to build out their family trees on FamilySearch. CME stands for Christian Methodist Episcopal and is related to the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church that emerged in the 1800's.
Here is a history of the CME Church founded in GA:
Bishop Lucius Henry Holsey (1845 to 1920) of Columbus GA was a key leader of the church. He has a biracial heritage. Here is a link to him on FamilySearch:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/KF5W-1H6
His record has many sources attached including Freedmen records in 1871 during Reconstruction. By looking at an image of Bishop Holsey's record I also found a record for Mary Warren Bass. Since Bass is my wife's maiden name and they came from GA, I wanted to see if I could find a connection. The Freedmen records are mainly focused on African-Americans but do also include other races and ethnicities.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/K4XX-WJH
Here is the Facebook page for the Langford CME Church:
https://m.facebook.com/LangfordChapelCME/
Here are my notes on the group experience that may be helpful if you want to host or participate in a similar event:
Patrick Smith and I were able to accomplish a lot. It helped that we both had pad computers and were using the tree app that is easier to learn than the full FamilySearch website. I had him do most of the entry so he could better learn.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GRWB-4SM
Users need to know that FamilySearch is unique in that there is one global database for people who are deceased. That is great for collaboration. It can also be frustrating when someone messes up part of your tree. I talked to Patrick about keeping a separate system for his data as he does on Ancestry. I mentioned that Ancestral Quest let’s you import data from FamilySearch. You can get it as a desktop system for about $35 as a onetime fee.
Does Ancestry let you import from FamilySearch?
I showed Patrick how changes I made for deceased souls on my PC were automatically visible on his PC, but info for the living were not. I showed him how to add someone to a watchlist and to send a message to me or other users tied to entries and changes made. I showed him how to use hints, attach sources, add, delete, merge, edit, etc.
As the church members build up their trees, they could use the app to see Relatives Near Me.
It would be good to see if FamilySearch has a way to see a relationship between two people other than one being yourself. For example when continuing to help Patrick or others, it would be good to be able to see if there are known relationships between him and others.
It is also good to show how FamilySearch can be used to look up historical people. I am adding examples and case studies to my blog. I plan to add ones I have used in presentations such as for Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Ralph Sampson, and others my brother played in basketball. Also Green Flake and other pioneers.
Consider discussing how we honor and do memorials for the deceased in our temples and how memories and stories can be posted in FamilySearch for how a family, church, or other group may honor and do memorials. Also show Find a Grave. Explain how there are controls to prevent temple work that is not approved by family and how we believe that temple work is not forced upon the deceased. Also that there are mansions in heaven for all even without accepting temple work.
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