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
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
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
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
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
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.
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.
Friday, March 23, 2018
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
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.
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
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
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.
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!
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!
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Why this blog.
Over the years I have done some hunting for Ancestors and more recently have started again in earnest. The world of genaealogy has changed so much that it feels like starting from scratch. I find myself with several repositories of family trees and an incredible amount of paper archives collected for that elusive “when the times comes” to document it all. Well the time has come and the mind boggles where to start.
As there are so many blogs already helping people to begin their research or on how to use various tools now available, I decided to approach this blog rather differently.
Every time I get stuck - which could be quite often - I will post here how I dug myself out of the mess (hopefully) or dug a bigger hole. If others find it useful then that’s great and if they have better ideas on how to solve a problem then better still.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints shortened to LDS and more commonly nicknamed The Mormon church. This gives me a number of advantages as we have incredible resources available to us. As these resources are freely available also to non church members, I hope my discoveries will help others.
I was born in Germany and my family and I migrated to Australia when I was 11. Lucky for me, I still speak the German language which is useful when all your ancestors lived and died in Germany. I also help my husband whose ancestry is English, Scottish and Irish as well as several generations Australian. As I have recently been called to serve in the Family History Centre of our church, I am going to have to be a fast learner to help others who visit the centre and members of my ward.
I share all this so as to explain the direction my research might take me and to encourage anyone finding and reading this blog, to hang in there as in the future, there may be something that is relevant.
Thank you for visiting. Some posts are already in my head and will be added and published during the next few days. There are many ways to dig and research. My way may not be the best way and it is definitely not the ONLY way but it has helped me along the way and I hope others will find these posts useful.
Over the years I have done some hunting for Ancestors and more recently have started again in earnest. The world of genaealogy has changed so much that it feels like starting from scratch. I find myself with several repositories of family trees and an incredible amount of paper archives collected for that elusive “when the times comes” to document it all. Well the time has come and the mind boggles where to start.
As there are so many blogs already helping people to begin their research or on how to use various tools now available, I decided to approach this blog rather differently.
Every time I get stuck - which could be quite often - I will post here how I dug myself out of the mess (hopefully) or dug a bigger hole. If others find it useful then that’s great and if they have better ideas on how to solve a problem then better still.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints shortened to LDS and more commonly nicknamed The Mormon church. This gives me a number of advantages as we have incredible resources available to us. As these resources are freely available also to non church members, I hope my discoveries will help others.
I was born in Germany and my family and I migrated to Australia when I was 11. Lucky for me, I still speak the German language which is useful when all your ancestors lived and died in Germany. I also help my husband whose ancestry is English, Scottish and Irish as well as several generations Australian. As I have recently been called to serve in the Family History Centre of our church, I am going to have to be a fast learner to help others who visit the centre and members of my ward.
I share all this so as to explain the direction my research might take me and to encourage anyone finding and reading this blog, to hang in there as in the future, there may be something that is relevant.
Thank you for visiting. Some posts are already in my head and will be added and published during the next few days. There are many ways to dig and research. My way may not be the best way and it is definitely not the ONLY way but it has helped me along the way and I hope others will find these posts useful.
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