What’s good about FamilySearch

FamilySearch - some thoughts.

Over the years when I have tried to use FamilySearch I have been put off by the complexity and also by the thought that others can get in there and undo the work I am doing by linking people incorrectly or making other changes that don’t agree with my own research. I was confused which system to use as my main repository of family history information. Ancestry.com seemed great but years ago before church members had free accounts, it was rather expensive. I had Ancestral Quest on my laptop but data had to be copied from there to elsewhere to share it with others. I also inherited another application with lots of family history data from a friend. So now I had two programs on my laptop (Reunion and Ancestral Quest) and many options for web storage.

Then along came DNA testing and before I knew it I had a family tree in My Heritage and another one in Ancestry.com.

So here I had 3 online storage areas (never mind about all the others I could tap into) and 2 computer applications. Then came the question, what about my German relatives. Should I document everything in German as well? 

At home in MANY archive boxes I had mountains of material to vet, process and digitise. Photos, postcards, letters going back to the 1940’s, videos, slides not only my own but those created by my parents as well.

I remember talking with our friend Reiner that I was totally stuck and he warned me of Analysis Paralysis ... yep ... best term to describe the state I was in. It was so overwhelming I did not know where to start again so ... I didn’t . This way the problem doesn’t go away of course ... it just adds procrastination to the feelings of guilt.

Decision time came and I figured it was important to have FamilySearch as accurate and up to date as possible. As Ancestral Quest dovetails nicely with FamilySearch I figured I may as well start with those two and once I am satisfied with them I can then start attacking other areas and bring them in line as well. 

This has meant I have spent more time in FamilySearch than I did in the past and instead of getting annoyed with the issues I expected to find there, I became more and more happy with the product. Here are some plus points with FamilySearch.

1. It is free not only to church members but to anyone who wants to open an account. This means that when I put all my data up there, the rest of the family can see it without being church members and without having to  pay any account fees. 
2. It is going to be around for ever. When I am long gone my research will still be there and of use to others who want to know. Yes access is public and others can change things but in the long run everything will be fixed again either by people who are finally learning what is right and what is not or by others coming along to add to the global family tree.
3. As the church has agreements with other organisations (e.g. Ancestry.com) most of the data available elsewhere is also available in FamilySearch.
4. Over the years the church has helped capture on microfilm, state and church archive data that has now been digitised. These records have thus been preserved even when some of the originals may have been destroyed. 
5. Data on FamilySearch won’t grow obsolete when new tools come along. If I keep my own archives on disks or in the cloud, in time, the applications used to store this data will be replaced by newer technology and media. For things stored in FamilySearch I can be sure that the church will invest money and efforts to keep all data current and accessible. 
6. Any memories I add, if for deceased people, will be immediately visible to everyone who has an account with FamilySearch.
7. Personal memories which I would like my descendants to see can be made public now by linking them to a deceased individual or after my death once I have been marked as deceased they will all be readily available to anyone to read.
8. Any memories I add for me or my ancestors can be read but not changed or deleted by others, even after I have died. All copyright protection for my own memory contributions remains with me and stays in place for ever. 
9. My memories, my sources and any other attachments will remain and not be lost because I can’t afford the fees to keep accounts current. Other sites may preserve the trees of people who no longer have accounts, but any shoebox, memories, links to sources will no longer be available even should the person decided to start another account in the future. 

FamilySearch has evolved into a very powerful tool which can be readily accessed on the web but also on applications on phones and tablets. No matter where you are you can look at and amend your tree and your memories. Right now FamilySearch also has much more data available (all those microfilm and fiche which have been digitised) from Family History centres around the world. Copyright restrictions stop them from making these available outside of Family History Centres. So if you have had problems finding information on a particular ancestor, visit a Family History Centre run by the Church of Jesus Christ and you may be surprised at how much information is available. 

DNA Raw Data Files and what to do with them

Once you have received your DNA results be it in Ancestry.com or MyHeritage or others, you will be able to download to your space (cloud or computer disk) the data that was generated from your DNA. This is called RAW data and the resulting file is quite big.

This Raw Data can then be uploaded into various sites:

MyHeritage allow uploads of raw DNA data obtained via other sites.

MyHeritage Upload DNA data

Gedmatch is another DNA matching site. Click on the name to find out more about this free site.

PROMETHEASE is a site which provides a tool to analyse your DNA for medical and personality traits. The uploads cost 12.00 per Raw DNA data file. Click on the name to find out more information.

Unfortunately Ancestry don't currently have a facility to upload Raw Data which is why I feel it is best to start with them.

Here is a blog which gives a full list of other sites you can try to upload your raw DNA file.

Private vs public space on FamilySearch Family Tree

FamilySearch are encouraging people to add more items to a person via the Memories app or feature. This is to let others get to know the person better. We can add photos, documents, stories and even audio recordings or files.
Who can see all this stuff?
If you are adding it on the memories tab of a deceased ancestor, then this information is visible by anyone who visits that persons tree. Deceased people are part of the one global Family tree and hence  their information is public.
If you are adding it to your personal or private space of yourself or another living relative then this information is private and won’t appear in searches unless you tag a deceased relative in your memory item.
Once you pass on are are marked as deceased, all your memories become publicly viewable.

Edit Rights: Only the patron first submitting the memory has edit or deletion rights. Once that patron is deceased, the edit rights die with them. i.e. nobody in the future can edit or delete the memory from that patron's memory space.

So many FH Software choices out there! 

What will I use? Good Question. You have decided you want to start with a copy of your FamilyTree on your computer which will give you more control over your own data.

I personally upgraded my PAF records to Ancestral Quest quite a few years ago. I have already discussed Ancestral Quest in an earlier blog. It was actually the fore-runner of PAF so for PAF users it is quite easy to use. Some say it is too basic for them but so far I have not found any issues.

I have just found some notes in FamilySearch (albeit a bit dated) describing the various choices. There are hundreds more software choices but all I will describe are those that work seamlessly syncing between FamilySearch Family Tree and the computer based software. (i.e. non-web based software / applications that run on your PC or Laptop of Macbook).

1. Ancestral Quest has both windows and Mac versions. It has a basic version which is free but lacks some of the features of the Premium version. It's a once off fee and then you do pay for any major upgrades if you want to install them). Click here to find out what FamilySearch have to say. 
(Note - the Windows version works much the same).

2. RootsMagic is also available for Windows and Mac and works with FamilySearch. Click here to find out what FamilySearch have to say. 


3. Legacy currently only has a windows version and is considered the most popular Software. So if you are a Windows user this may be the one for you. Click here to find out what FamilySearch have to say. 

For those who are reading this and not interested in linking with FamilySearch, as I mentioned further up, there are literally hundreds of others to choose from. I believe Legacy are working on a Mac Version and Reunion (a Mac product) are working on linking with FamilySearch. Not sure when these become available.

Feel free to contact me with any questions and I will try to find the answers for you.

Ancestral Quest - how do I load my FamilySearch Tree?

In a previous post I explained how to download and install a copy of Ancestral Quest onto your computer. I suggested you start a new (empty) family tree and save it to a place you will find it again.

If until now you have kept all your details only in FamilySearch and you would now like to load your entire tree into Ancestral Quest then you have come to the right place to get the instructions.

1. First create an entry in your empty Ancestral Quest database for yourself. Name and birthdate will do - the rest you will copy later from FamilySearch. 
2. Click on Menu Item (top bar) and select FamilySearch
3. Select "Import Family Lines"
4. The FamilySearch sign-in screen will show - enter your FamilySearch account name and password
5. Click on the following boxes:

• Download my (your name) Ancestors (top button)
• Select the number of generations of your ancestors you wish to download
• Tick all those you want to include (e.g. families, spouses of children, LDS ordinances)
• I recommend that you also select to use Standardised Family Search place names 

6. Click on IMPORT

7. Answer the question if the database contains a record of you with YES (you created one in point 1 above).

8. Select OK to go to the selection screen in Ancestral Quest

9. It will highlight the RIN as 1 which is correct as you have only created 1 record. 

10. Click OK

11. Click Yes on the box "Are you sure you want to proceed". 

The import will now start (depending on the size of your tree can take quite a while) and on completion your Ancestral Quest database should be filled in with all the details except for your own. 

You can now bring your own record up-to-date by clicking on your name and selecting FAMILY  and under FAMILY SEARCH menu item select REVIEW/SYNC individual. This will open two windows. On the left is the information you typed into Ancestral Quest, on the right the information from Family Search. You can now select the boxes to the left of items you wish to move from Family Search (or from Ancestral Quest if you had already set up your full information and need to update it in FamilySearch).

Although there are many steps to follow this is actually quite straight forward and this entire exercise will only need to be done once. When all the data in your Family Search Database is copied to Ancestral Quest you can then decide for future changes, which one you wish to update first and then use the REVIEW/SYNC individual under the Family Search Menu item in Ancestral Quest to keep the two in sync 

These instruction are only meant to get your tree into Ancestral Quest from FamilySearch. If you have a copy of your entire family tree elsewhere (e.g. Ancestry.com) then you need to create a Gedcom file on the site that has your most uptodate data and simply import that Gedcom file into Ancestral Quest. After you have imported it you can then link yourself on your new Ancestral Quest Database to yourself in FamilySearch Family Tree and bit by bit sync each family manually. 

There are many YouTube videos and other help items to show you how to use Ancestral Quest together with FamilySearch. If you get stuck, check with google, or ask a question in FamilySearch or post a comment below and I can contact you. 

Hope you found this helpful. 

Brilliant Guide for Family History

Today I was looking into Genealogtraining materials and came across this incredible guide. Very detailed and there is an overview video giving a summary. This is one of the most comprehensive FamilyHistory learning tools I have ever seen. Posting it here in case you find it useful. I am sure every topic imaginable as pertains to Family History is covered. It does focus on 4 platforms:
FamilySearch
Ancestry
MyHeritgage
FindMyPast.

Here is the link to the guide

Here is an overview video well worth watching first

Something fishy about a 2 year Pregnancy?
One of our ancestors was born 2 years after the death of their father. Now at first one would assume a clerical error on either the birth certificate or the father’s death certificate. Except that oral history confirmed that in this case the person had a different biological father than their 10 sibling. We also had heard that the biological father was well off and left his illegitimate offspring some money and family stories had it that the money was subsequently spent by the partner of this person. So we have to assume that the mother registered the birth claiming her deceased husband as father. This individual was then brought up as part of the mother’s family and we have not seen recorded the name of the biological father.

In familysearch this now comes up with a permanent error. All we can do is record the known information as shown on the certificates and live with the error. I checked with the experts and they confirmed. Record the information available and live with the error. Won’t affect ordinances. If in future additional information becomes available it can then be fixed. So ... just have to get used to living with the error message that a child cannot possibly be born 2 years after the fathers death.

For other error situations and if they can or can’t be overwritten refer to

https://www.familysearch.org/ask/salesforce/viewArticle?urlname=Fixing-Data-Problems-in-Family-Tree&lang=en

Ancestral Quest - starting from scratch

So you have decided to get a copy (free or paid) of Ancestral Quest and now where do you start? Or how do you even go about starting. Here are some tips.

For those who may not know, Ancestral Quest is an application for your desktop/laptop windows or applemac computer. It will keep a copy of your own personal tree where-ever you tell it to store it. Either in a folder on your computer or on a folder in some cloud. Up to you although if you go cloud it may pay you to backup on your desktop.

It comes with both a free and a paid version. The free, basic, version does everything most people need with a few extras that you only get when you buy a copy. As it is easy to convert from free to paid I suggest start with a free version and then upgrade when / if the need arises.

1. Download a copy of Ancestral Quest and install it on your computer.

https://www.ancquest.com/index.htm

2. Once installed, run the application and create a new family file. You will need to decide on a name and a place where to store it.

3. Open the new file and import the gedcom file which you would have created either via another application you may have - such as PAV or via Ancestry or via FamilySearch - where ever you have been storing your family tree up until now. If it is a paper tree then skip this step and simply start adding your family to Ancestral Quest.

4. Whichever way you choose to go ... it is now important to make sure you keep this new tree in sync with the tree you store online, especially FamilySearch.

If the gedcom file you used to create your tree is quite a lot different to what you already have on FamilySearch then you will need to get them in sync. This is a slow process and has to done one family at a time. I will create another blog entry on how I sync across my trees.

Some people prefer RootsMagic. I personally like Ancestral Quest. If you are on an apple mac then Reunion is another option. Research I carried out between Rootsmagic and Ancestral Quest had Acenstral quest come slightly ahead. As this is mainly a blog about how I either helped others or myself to get unstuck I am starting with the tools I had to use to achieve this and no doubt will add other software options as I come across them.

Duplicates, Triplicates and so forth

I was recently asked how to load 18,000 records into FamilySearch. My first reaction was OH NO ... DON'T DO IT .. many of them probably already exist on there somewhere. Maybe all that is needed is to find the missing link that will connect them up with you.

However there is a way to load large collections onto FamilySearch without creating a total mess. FamilySearch will accept Gedcom files and not load them into FamilyTree. You can then search the Gedcom file and decide what to move into FamilyTree after you have thoroughly checked the system for duplicates.

In fact FamilySearch has a huge selection of Gedcom files many of which have been donated to the Church by genealogists over the years. Here is an excellent article with information all about Gedcom Files and FamilySearch:

All about Gedcom Files and FamilySearch

Where should my Family Tree live? 

Initially I figured with all the online cloud-based sites to store your genealogy why bother having a copy on your laptop or use some desktop application to collect your family history data. A friend told me that he would strongly recommend keeping your own copy on your own computer and a recent article I read confirmed this. So what are the reasons?

1. FamilySearch - Family Tree. 

A very comprehensive family tree is available here and it provides great hints when sources are digitised that match the names of your ancestors. As the church is very busy indexing and digitising the huge amount of data previously stored on films and microfiche, eventually many of the old records will be readily available online and can even be found using the hints provided.

However, FamilyTree is one giant global tree which is attempting to link together the entire known world. The data on there is public and can be modified by anyone who is a church member, the FamilySearch software and FamilySearch moderators. Not to fear, all changes are usually documented and at least the name of the person making the change is shown. So if you disagree with any change made you can contact the person and communicate until you are both happy that the correct information is stored. But ... the fact that the data can be changed means that it would be very useful for you to have your own copy that can only be changed by you.

Then there is another reason. As stated, the family tree is NOT your personal family tree. It may look like your tree in your browser but what you are seeing is a small section of the global tree, a window showing your data as it links to your directly. If you have thousands of records and want to quickly find one of your ancestors who may be an offspring of a direct ancestor or a distant cousin, search in FamilyTree may not make this all that easy for you. The result you get may need a lot of filtering until you find the person you are looking for. And if you are a bit vague as to what to filter then you might not find them at all. On your own personal tree in applications such as RootsMagic, Ancestral Quest, Legacy or others, there is usually a name list which allows you to quickly identify your person and then showing where on your own tree they live.

2. Ancestry.com

Sites such as Ancestry have free and paid subscriptions. When you have a paid subscription then you are able to attach sources and photos and all kinds of information to individuals in your tree or in your personal shoe box. The trees in Ancestry can be public or private but in any case only you can modify individuals. Hence you are more in control. However should your paid subscription lapse and you are not sure if you will renew, unfortunately all your stored data will disappear. You can still see your tree minus the attachments. Below is a more detailed article which explains it. Unfortunately gedcom files do not contain any attachments.

Stop Saving Records to your Ancestry Tree until you have read this

3. Other sites

I am sure similar conditions apply to other sites but best you check with the site you belong with and find out what happens should you decide to stop paying for the service.

Help - my place name has no standardised name or the standardised name is wrong.

This is another situation we can come across. There are so many places where people can have been born or married or died or buried or baptised or resided in that it is possible that your place name is not in the list of standard names or it is misspelled or simply incorrect.

Here is a link which allows you to give feedback to FamilySearch on what you think the problem is with your place name.

Recommending an addition or correction to standardized places

The link asks also for a latitude and longitude for the place and this you can find in google maps (probably many other places where you can find it). However below is how you do find it in google maps:

1. open up Google.com (or in my case it is Google.com.au) - best in a separate browser tab
2. Somewhere at the top right hand side of the screen you will find 9 dots. Click on those and select Maps
3. In the search bar at the top left hand side type in the town name and country and select it from the suggested names Google provides.
4. when Google takes you to the city you are looking for, place your curser in the middle of the area or very close to the name and hold the curser for a few seconds then release it.
5. You will now see a pin at the marked place and at the bottom of the map you will now see a small rectangular box which will show the town name, state (or region) and post code and underneath are 2 series of numbers. These are latitude and longitude. Holding with a right-click the curser over either allows you to copy and then paste in the appropriate box on your feedback page :) If that does not work then you might need to write it down and manually type in.

Good Luck

Standardising place names without those pesky error messages?

This post refers to FamilySearch and it's love for pushing us to use Standardised Place Names. If you don't use FamilySearch then this may not be of interest to you ... but ... despite it's little hiccups, FamilyTree in FamilySearch is still a GREAT research tool so google it and grab yourself a free account!

Back to Place Names. I had an issue with how to add things to the front of the "standard" place name without ending up clicking on OTHER and this incurring all those error messages (place name not standard). I my situation it was a street address from a Birth Certificate I wanted to put in as place of birth. So the solution was actually not that difficult despite not being intuitive:

1. You need to click on the place-name and then click on the edit button. This will open the edit box.
2. Now click on the current empty place name field or whatever place name is there already.
3. Go to the start of the field and type the details you wish to add e.g. Cemetery Name or as in my case Street Address.
4. Then add the city/town etc and as you start hitting standard names the drop down list will appear. DO NOT SELECT by clicking on them. However find the one that is closest to what you want and keep typing in the same box as the Street Address, adding the place name EXACTLY as it appears in the drop down list. Do not hit enter or save or anything at this stage. Once you have finished typing click on somewhere OUTSIDE the edit box and the system will accept your typed in name and not report it as an error.

More information is available at the following link.

adding standardise place names and dates

Where do I start?  Backwards with one Family Group Sheet at a time!

I figured the only way to start was to take at least one small step. I decided to synchronise to best of my ability Ancestral Quest and FamilySearch.

Ancestral Quest is a great tool especially for someone in my situation. It will connect with the following accounts (if you have them):

FamilySearch
Ancestry
MyHeritage and
FindMyPast

It is possible to synchronise entire families between Ancestral Quest and FamilyTree in FamilySearch. So I figured this was a place to start.

I selected my maiden name and went to the oldest ancestor I could find in Ancestral Quest. He was born in 1740 in a small German town near the dutch border. I displayed his entire family and printed out a Family Group Sheet showing all his children. Then I selected each of his children and printed out Family Group sheets for them and so worked my way backwards up the family tree. Or from right to left in my pedigree chart. This enabled me to "fix up" all the people on the way that were related to each other. Each family I synchronised with FamilyTree and after a while I had at least a few families that were identical in both places.

One completed this will mean that Ancestral Quest and FamilyTree in FamilySearch match perfectly and all gaps are filled in. On my way I look at all hints and have managed to find new ancestors.

This process will take me quite a long time. I am only part of the way through one branch of my father's line. Once that branch is "clean" I intend to check against Reunion and see if there is anything there I have missed out on. I will do this the same way, one family group sheet at a time.

As I continue there will be much to learn and each hurdle I overcome I will create a new post. Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your own method here for others to rea.

Analysis Paralysis!

Due to various reasons, including overload of work and more recently illness, I spent years thinking about how to get started unravelling the genealogical mess I found myself in. Visiting Germany last year I caught up with my best Genealogy buddy, Reiner(we have yet to discover how many centuries ago we were related) and apologetically confessed that I had not yet absorbed the mountain of genealogical data he had generously given me.  I told him I felt like I had fallen into a genealogical mess and total confusion. He told me to beware of ANALYSIS PARALYSIS.

Well that hit the nail on the head! It explained my situation. Just to do a stocktake, at that stage I had my own data stored in Ancestral Quest, some of it also in Family Tree (FamilySearch). I had a partial tree in Ancestry.com and I had a huge tree which Reiner had given me in Reunion. Due to his generous gift I had after many years of prompting finally bought an Apple Mac because Reunion was totally Apple. Some of my data in Ancestral Quest had also been captured in Reunion by Reiner over the years we had been friends. Reiner's mother was a born Terhaag and so was my great grandmother hence we both believe there is a link there somewhere. Reiner's family roots go back to Belgium, mine to the part of Germany close to Holland and Belgium so I am sure if we could go back far enough we would find the connection. Hence Reiner had incorporated all the data I had shared with him on my father's side also into the Reunion Tree.

... not to mention the boxes and boxes of paper files.

So why the Analysis Paralysis?

Well the Reunion Tree was the most complete set of data I had, just missed my mother's information and my husbands but it would not have been that difficult to add those to it. The bigger issue was that Reiner had heavily customised Reunion and created many tailor made fields and all field names were in German.

Do I then convert all my stuff over to Reunion and to German? Do I convert all of Reiner's to English as all of my siblings and their families speak English - being born and bred in Australia. This includes my husband and our sons and grandchildren and my husbands entire family. Yet I also have a large family back in Germany who could then understand it.

Or do I focus on Ancestral Quest and somehow move all relevant data from Reunion into Ancestral Quest and keep it in English and then maintain Reunion in German, Ancestral Quest in English?

Then there were the issues of how to keep all of this in line with what was on Ancestry.com and in FamlySearch. The longer I thought about it the more confused I became. When I heard the words Analysis Paralysis ... bingo ... that described me to a T ... everything was parked into the TOO HARD BASKED.

On top of that my husband and I decided to have our DNA tested and for this I created a tree in MyHeritage. Another one! The emails from Ancestry and MyHeritage kept piling in about all the matches and smart matches and hints that I felt like tearing out my hair.

On top of that we moved house so I had another good excuse to postpone the decision on how to proceed for another year and here we are ... no more procrastination. Time for action.

If you feel like you are in Analysis Paralysis then I will share with you how I started to get moving. I have a long way to go but I am finally on the way and the first few steps have been taken and will be described in the next post.  Happy reading!