We May Need a Little Space

I’m sure you already know how fluid spelling can be when doing genealogy research but sometimes we get in a rut and don’t realize how little changes in what we are searching for can make a big difference.

Those of you who attend the Waccamaw Neck Genealogy SIG will remember the day that our revered chairman was demonstrating how to search for his Isle of Man ancestors. One of our members was doing the typing and he was telling her the surname he wanted. Well, when you are used to doing the typing you know where the spaces go. The typist was not familiar with the surnames and did not know there wasn’t a space between some of the letters: so she put in a space and clicked “Search.”

Our chairman was stunned! There on the screen were ten of his long lost relatives; people he’d been hunting down for years. He was speechless and that’s saying something. We spent the rest of the session playing with variations in the surnames we’d all been hunting for in our own families. Sometimes we put spaces in: sometimes we took spaces out. The same theory applies to names with punctuation: take out the punctuation and the space, leave the space but take out the punctuation, leave the punctuation but take out the space, you get the picture.

Most genealogy search engines do a great job searching for variant spellings of names but sometimes they need a little space.

Top Two Internet Tips

I spend a lot of time searching on the Internet and I’m sure you do, too. So today I have two Internet browser hints. I cannot promise that they will work on a Mac but they work on the Safari Browser on my PC.

Is the print on the webpage you are on too small? I’m not talking about text that is always too small because that’s a different issue (screen resolution) but text that right now, on the page you are on, is just too small. Rather than squinting, looking for your reading glasses, or giving up...

On a PC hold down the “Ctrl” key and while it’s down press the “+” (the plus key) key and let go. See…… the page is bigger! If you continue to press the “+” key the text will continue to enlarge. The “Ctrl” key and “ - “ key (that’s the minus key) will reverse the process. On a Mac it’s the command key instead of the control (CTRL) key.

The other hint I want to share has to do with finding things on a web page once your computer insists that the item you are looking for is on the page but you don’t see it. I find it very frustrating to click on a search result only to be presented with a full page of text and no clue as to where the text is that I was looking for to begin with.

Yes, I know there are menu options for finding text in a page but it’s so much easier to just hit the “F3” key on the keyboard. The Safari browser on a Mac and other standard browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) will also work with the keyboard shortcut “CTRL+f” (command +f on a Mac.)

If you don’t have a Mac try the “F3” key first. It’s just faster. This shortcut will open a search bar underneath the browser’s toolbar area and let you type in the text you are searching for. It will often show you each occurrence with highlighting. Each subsequent press of the “F3” key will highlight and take you to each item it finds or you may need to page or scroll down the page. Each browser is little different so test yours first on a page like this blog and search for the word “blog” and see what your browser does. If no text is found, check your spelling. Some pages are not searchable but most are.

These 2 shortcuts can save you a lot of time and make research much more productive and less frustrating. Happy hunting.

Privatize Your Gedcom – How to share safely

Now that the Internet has created so many armchair genealogists; sharing your family tree on a website like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Mocavo.com, or many others, can improve your research and help others. It’s important, though, that you don’t share too much information inadvertently. Your family won’t appreciate it if they get a call from some consulate in Nigeria saying that they’d just won a lottery and only have to send $500 to collect on the prize.

So this is where privatizing your file when you export it comes into play. I use Family Tree Maker 2011 but the concept works in other programs, also. The idea is that you do not want to share private information or birth dates with the world for people that are still living. You want to prevent this information from becoming a gold mine for identity thieves.

When I was at the National Genealogical Society annual conference in Charleston, SC this year there were a lot of privacy discussions with presenters and software manufacturers. The Family Tree Maker software considers anyone without a death date in the past 100 years to be living. When you export the file for sharing on an online site, make sure you are privatizing the file. This will not change any of your information on your own computer: it only changes the information on the exported GEDCOM file (a standard type of export file for genealogy data) without media files: it just has the facts.

To do this in Family Tree Maker 2011 (and many prior versions):

            Go to the File menu

                        Select “export” 

Select “entire file” (some people prefer to select specific branches for export – starting with grandparents – for more privacy)

                        Chose “GEDCOM 5.5” for the file type

                         Check “Privatize” file
                         Uncheck “include private facts”
                         Uncheck “include private notes”

Now your file is ready for upload to the Internet.

You will want to edit it once it’s there, though. I change the names of living people to just say “living” instead of including their names at all.

So – that’s a brief discussion about privatizing your shared family trees. This way you can reap the benefits of shared trees while protecting the living relatives.

Remember, there could be someone out there with the solution to your brick wall, as well – happy searching.

A Brick Wall Strategy - Other People's Trees

I'm sure you've spent many, many hours researching your family history and carefully documenting and editing the data but still find yourself looking for the "missing link." Well, other researchers have the same problem. What if your work is what someone else needs to break through the brick wall in their research? Even better, what if someone else has the information you need?

This is where it gets interesting. Family Tree Maker in conjunction with Ancestry.com lets you merge information from other people's trees with your own tree. That's not what I think you should do until you have a high level of confidence in the other person's work.

What I am suggesting, though, is that you should take the time to review other people's trees that have the same surnames as your own tree. Look at the sources, look at the maiden names, check the number of children, see if the towns make sense. These online trees can lead you off into branches that may hold the information you've been hunting for.

These online trees are available at many websites including: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com, http://www.familysearch.org, http://www.mocavo.com, and many other websites. Once you see how useful these online trees are, please consider sharing your own tree online. Don't forget to "privatize" it first. More on that tomorrow.

Turning Over New Leaves with Family Tree Maker

Do you use Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker software? Have you been clicking on the leaves to see what hints are available on Ancestry.com. Well - I have a hint for you and it should not work this way but it does.

I have entered full names in my trees when I know the first, middle, and surnames. My trees were populated with full names and only a few leaves and I was frustrated by the lack of automatic leaves. I figured that Ancestry.com just had to have more information without my having to search manually. So ... and this is the part that doesn't make sense ... I removed the middle names from a bunch of people. I know, I know your brain is rebelling. I can hear you screaming NO, NO, I spent ages figuring that out! I'm not removing information. (We'll get to how to document the resolution in a moment.)

Once I removed the middle names and waited a bit; I had brand new hint leaves from Ancestry.com on those very people! Lots of new leaves. I thought it was Spring; there were so many leaves. Does this work all the time? No. Does putting a middle name in where there was none also produce the same result? Not that I've found but I've not had as much time to work with that scenario.

So - how do you document the middle name that you removed? In Family Tree Maker software, in the person tab, add the Also Known As (AKA) fact. This AKA fact will keep the information documented in your software and will be available as an option on reports. You may decide to put the middle name back into the person's name field at some point but the biggest lesson here is that search functions Ancestry.com aren't always working the way we expect them to. If you want your family trees to think it's Spring again, remove some middle names.

It's Just a Matter of Time

It's just a matter of time until your data file with all of your genealogy information in it blows up. I know, I just know, you have your important files backed up some place else - RIGHT???? I'm sure some of you are nodding yes and feeling pretty smug. I also imagine some of you are thinking that it's something you had not thought about, lately.


Well, here is the truth. Hard drives fail, computers break, laptops get stolen, viruses spread. I know you know these things but what may be more dangerous and much more likely is a program failure. I use Family Tree Maker 2011 software and have backed up my data daily for ages. It's also nice to know that the program itself does a back-up for you just in case you don't. 


Why do you care? Well . . . 
Software programs can have bugs that make them fail or malfunction. Computer hard drives can also malfunction. If this malfunction happens when you are saving or changing a lot of information - like global name or location changes - your data can be scrambled and become unusable. 


Think of your family history files as a sequence of 3x5 cards all neatly arranged in drawers. (it's much more complicated and powerful than that but stay with me) What would happen if you dropped that file drawer upside down on the floor? OK,OK, after the crying, gnashing of teeth, and possible unprintable expletives; you'd try to put it all back together and might even be successful.


If your computer data file gets scrambled, though, the computer would not be able to figure out what cards went with which people. That is why programs have a repair feature hidden somewhere in the menus to re-index the database. If the re-index/compact function does not fix the problems, then you have to use a back-up of your file. 


So, back-up your family history files on a daily basis and keep prior versions of these back-ups just in case your data file gets damaged and you need to restore the older file. 


Why do you need to keep older copies, also? Well - I hate to tell you this but .....
   sometimes the file damage has been around for awhile and the newest back-up file might be broken, too.


So - It's only a matter of time.
BACK-UP your data! Know where it is. Keep a copy away from the computer.


Happy researching

Google Earth is a Time Machine

I'm sure you've seen Google Earth professional used on the news. Anytime a broadcast "flies" to a destination and then zooms into a location on the earth - odds are - they are using Google Earth. That's really cool but what does it have to do with genealogy.


Well, Google Earth also has a gallery of special photo tours and events. This includes a timeline tour of London starting in 1953, tsunami mapping, shoreline changes, and much more.


Many of my ancestors spent much of their lives in Philadelphia, PA. With Google Earth I can see what their home looks like now (if they are still there.) I can also see what churches and schools are around their addresses. I was even able to locate local cemeteries. The church and cemetery records are wonderful sources for family documents.


Google Earth is a downloaded free piece of software that allows you to travel all over the world from your computer and with the timeline function, you can look at satellite views from prior years. That's cool, but that's not all.  


Have ancestors from New York City? I do. Google Earth has antique map overlays which overlay an old map over the current map. This way you can track street name changes and maybe finally find the neighborhood your great-great grandfather grew up in.


So, happy travels.