Happy New Year

 

Well, another year is almost over. I like to reflect on my genealogy research from this past year and I must say, I didn’t do as well as I liked. However, it could have been worst. I started the year with no workable office. I purchased a new home in September of 2020 it took awhile before I was ready to do a refresh on the space.

The office space wasn’t set up for my needs. The previous home owner’s had a large kitchen counter top in an L-shape that appeared to be a good working surface, but without getting into too much detail, wasn’t mounted properly on the wall. The electric in the room needed to be updated, along with added a heat source since my home is located in Wisconsin and the small space heater that I had wasn’t working. The flooring was okay but didn’t extend all the way to the walls and thus I tore that up and laid new flooring. It had wonderful built in bookshelves that needed to be painted but the trim work was lacking. Therefore, after several months, of painting, laying floor, having my husband put trim work up, replacing an entrance door for more light, removing a poorly constructed storage space, updating the lighting, adding a Heat source with A/C, I was finally ready to move in.

Unpacking gave me a chance to sort and organize my piles of messes. I ended up buying a second office chair when the first one (pictured), just didn’t feel right. Buying office furniture was a little difficult during COVID, because everything had to be ordered. My desk came with a broken work surface and I waited a few more months for a replacement.

Therefore, I might not have done a lot of research; I did still manage to start a project with my sister-in-law on her mother’s maiden name line. A family member started a family tree about 20 years ago and she was given the task to update her branch and I talked her into doing all the branches.

Now I am looking towards my genealogy goals for next year, since I really didn’t set any for last year. I want to get back to many projects that have been sitting on the shelf. I also decided to start a “Bullet Journal” to keep me on track with not only my genealogy projects but the many other things that round out my life. Gardening, canning, crocheting, home improvements, golfing, exercise, TV watching, writing blog post so on.

Good luck with your Genealogy Research and Goals for 2022 and I will do my best to keep to all my Goals for 2022. See ya in the New Year. 

Look before you Leap!

 

I have found that on any topic in genealogy, you will find people with their own perspective. This is great because you can weigh the pros and cons of how they are doing something. Then decide on the best method for you!

Such as, I recently saw a Facebook post that asked about using ALL CAPS for surnames. Another post asked about how to input unknown names, whether first or last name.

My advice is to think about the pros and cons for you on how you are going to input your data into your genealogy software. Another thing, be consistent. Make some personal rules when it comes to your data.

On the subject for ALL CAPS for surnames, yes this was the standard when we only had paper forms. I still do this when using a paper form, because it is easier to see the surnames. However, before you just start keying in ALL CAPS, check out your software program, can it convert surnames to ALL CAPS when it generates reports? If so, then you may not want to do it while inputting your data. Reading ALL CAPS on a computer screen is much different than on paper.

However, I have heard of other ways people use ALL CAPS on surnames. For their direct line ancestors only. It makes it easier to see them in the list of index of individuals. Again, can your software handle this in a different way? My software program can color code all my direct ancestors and I can see that color in the list of index and thus I can see my direct ancestors. This comes in handy when the descendants of your direct ancestor have the same name as your direct ancestor. So you are not sure which John Smith is your direct ancestor.  However, if you like seeing your direct line ancestor in ALL CAPS on a descendant reports, then color coding might not help you. Thus you might need to put in ALL CAPS. However, are you going to be sharing your data in the future as a book and thus your direct line will be in ALL CAPS? While your direct line may not be the exact same line as say your distant cousin.

Some use ALL CAPS to show someone they haven’t proven, they put the entire name in as all CAPS and thus they know at a glance they need to do more work. Once they have cited some sources, they change the name. Again, my genealogy software program allows me to color code individuals and thus I could always flag them as RED or whatever color I choose. Some use all lowercase for the surname of women where they don’t know their maiden name and thus type in their married name as all lowercase.

This brings me to unknown names; I heard a funny story where someone typed in UKN for unknown names. Someone else came upon this tree and got excited because the surname was found and it appeared to be UKN. I use to put in parentheses the wife’s married name when I didn’t know the maiden name. Unfortunately, when I looked at the list of individuals, those unknown maiden names didn’t jump out at me.

A genealogy standard is to use five underscores, I personally use seven because when I print a report, it leaves just enough space for me to print a name or allow other’s to print a name, if they know it. I use the seven for all unknown first names and seven for all unknown last names. These unknown surnames will show up at the top of my list of individuals.

For inquiring minds, the software program I use is Family Tree Maker, however many packages offer similar features. So explore your existing program and see what it can do for you. As the saying goes, “Work smarter not harder”. What I love about software programs such as FTM, it offers features that allow me to customize it for how I want to record my data. My advice is to “Think before you leap”. Try a small experimental tree and turn on and off features, look at reports you might want, see if you can customize reports so you can get the data you want. 

Have fun researching!

 

Family Tree Maker People Workspace

I was reading an older edition of Genealogy Do-Over by Thomas MacEntee, check out his website at https://genealogybargains.com/genealogy-do-over-start-here/. Anyway, I was reading about preparing for research and do you have everything on your desk, notebook, pen, pencil, etc…

This got me thinking about my genealogy software package that I use, Family Tree Maker. Do you have their People workspace set up for you? Did you know you can customize the view?

The People workspace has four parts. The left part is the Index of people in your tree. The right part is the Editing Panel for individual person you are working on. The middle part has a top tree viewer and the bottom has a family group view, where your individual person could be one of the parents or one of the children.

Let’s start with the right part, the Editing Panel.

The default setup on new trees is as follows, with a place to input birth, death and marriage facts. I found that I like to enter a little more information without having to go into the Person tab, where additional facts can be viewed, entered and modified.

I found myself wanting more, such as burial facts along with a customize field that I created for entering Find a Grave memorial numbers. I also created a FamilySearch Individual ID, for when I am working using Family Search. Plus, I wanted divorce information below the marriage information. I also have a special DNA field that I did a previous blog about. Check out that blog here: https://simplygenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/04/tracking-my-dna-matches.html

I found that having to go to the Person tab was adding extra keystrokes and since these are fields I commonly use, I wanted them on my main People workspace. You of course can add whatever fields you find are common for you. At the bottom of the right section is a small “Customize View” button that you can click to add or remove fields on your Screen. This needs to be done for each tree you create individually.

The Middle part of the page has the Tree Viewer on top. You can change how many generations you want to view, by sliding the small scroll bar or clicking the + or – to add or remove generations. The lowest setting is two generations and the highest setting is five generations. The size of your screen might dictate how many you want to see. I leave it at max.

The lower view known as the Family Group View can be completely hidden to make the tree view bigger. You can also slide the view up or down to change the number of children your view has. Again, your screen size might dictate how big you want this lower section.  Please note, if you side this up too far, you will automatically reduce the number of generations in your tree view.

Another important feature of the family panel is the Blended families button. I come from a blended family, my mother’s first husband died and I am a product of the second family. I want to see all my siblings, I call them my siblings, not my half-siblings because I am the youngest and they have always been in my home when I was growing up. In the blended view, it will display a little man figure if the child is a descendant of the male and a little female figure if the child is a descendant of the female. Therefore, when I am viewing my parents, my six half-siblings only have a female figure and my two full sisters have both figures.

The left side is the index of individuals in your tree. You can modify this view so many ways. By default you see everyone by surname and then given name. On the top, you can add birthdate to this view, lifespan, hints and more. On bottom, you can filter your database to show only those you meet a certain criteria. Maybe only those living during a certain time frame, have military service, buried in a cemetery, etc.… Keep in mind, your database must have the data you want to filter. For example, I have used the filter to show me everyone who has a death date but no Find a Grave memorial number. Keep in mind that the Find a Grave field is something I created. I could had used a death date but no burial information.

I love experimenting with my view, so don’t be afraid to customize your Family Tree Maker to work for you. Refer to the FTM Companion Guide found through the Help Menu. Other helpful sites are https://ftmuser.blogspot.com/by Russ Worthington and on Facebook the group Family Tree Maker Users found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/FamilyTreeMakerUsers.

ThruLines on Ancestry

I have been working on my 5^th great grandmother Elizabeth Lighthall’s ThruLines connections. Below is an image of my connections and of the 23 connections, 4 of them are me and my siblings. I was wondering why my half-brother wasn’t showing and his son, since they have also tested and have trees. I see them listed under my mother.

I went to my brother results, which my nephew gave me permission to view. I see that my nephew attached him to a private tree as someone else. I am guessing, he is working on a genealogy project and I know things can get revealed when you do this. However, why is he still showing attached to me via my mother, could it be because my nephew is attached to the correct biological tree and he shows him as his father? Upon closer examination of my mother’s ThruLines, this is exactly what is showing. My DNA matches have a little blue and white dna icon.  My brother’s name doesn’t show this same icon. He shows as a DNA match in my matches, but because his tree doesn’t match mine, I don’t have a “Common Ancestors” hint.

I decided to check my Thrulines connections for Elizabeth’s daughter, Elizabeth Sponable and sure enough my Nephew appears. Elizabeth Sponable would be the last generation of ThruLines that my nephew has. So is this the reason why he doesn’t show up on my 5^th generation? If so, this is very disappointing, because as I get older, and younger generations are testing, this means that younger generations are dropping off my ThruLines. Trying to use logic from my programmer days, they must only generate the same number of generations for every ThruLines participate. This means, that you might have DNA matches that have trees, but since you are different generations and your common ancestor is beyond their ThruLines limitations, you won’t see them.

In spite of this limitation, ThruLines can still be a valuable tool. It has let me figure out exactly how some of my matches fit into my tree.  When I work on my ThruLines, I start at our common ancestor and work backwards down to the living, using records. Then I go back to the ThruLines and see if I can follow their path back to them. A lot of times, my lines do go down further than them. Thus, if these younger generation test and show up on my match list, and they have a tree with some of their ancestors, I might find them or their ancestors in my tree. ThruLines and “Common Ancestors” hints are directly related to each other. I haven’t checked all my “Common Ancestors” hints to see if they stopped at the 5^th generation of my ancestors. However, at first glance it appears to be they do.

Now I wonder what would happen, if I linked myself to my grandmother. Would it take my ancestor’s matches back two more generations? I might want to try this with my sister’s DNA which I manage and see what happens. I know matches and things don’t always update very fast, so I would lose using her matches while I try that logic out.

On a final note, testing my siblings has been beneficial. They match people beyond the second cousin stage that I don’t therefore their Thrulines bring up matches I might not have.

Ancestry adds more clicks to see source citations

 I usually go with the flow when Ancestry makes a change, however the latest that I found is really annoying me.

I personally love to print/save the transcribe page of a census record, when I have the Head of Household on the screen, their detailed information and then members of the household underneath as one line. Beneath this information, the source information will display.  Here is an example I did last month.

However, today when I went to do the exact same thing, the source is now hidden on a different tab. Thus when I go to print/save the page, only what I see on the screen is available and this is what save's or prints. Here is the example I found today.

If I want to save this as one "pdf", then I have to copy/snip the "detail" onto a Word document and then copy/snip the source after the first image on the same word document. Only then can I finally save as one "pdf". Or I could save two separate pdf's, where one is the detail and the other is the source. Or I could just not save the source page. I already have sourced the census information in my genealogy software program, but that is not the point. I like to print out these pages to share with family members. 

I just don't understand why Ancestry is hiding the source behind another tab which means users have to click another thing on the screen. I have been noticing Ancestry adding additional clicks to basic tasks and I am wondering if they are trying to slow down the users and reduce their speed and thus help the backend services to run better. Okay, as a programmer, I can understand that. As a user, I want my old print option back when the detail and source would be included in one document. 

I can't wait until I get one of those survey prompts so that I can give my opinion on this change. 

Don't ignore Unlinked Small Trees with your DNA Matches

I hear all the time that people will skip those DNA matches who have unlinked or small trees. Well, I found both with one of my matches. 

My match wasn't close, it was estimated at 4th to 6th Cousin with less than 1% shared DNA. However, it was on my Maternal Grandfather's side and thus I was determine to figure out as many matches as I could on that side of the family.

The tree had three people with very little facts, however I was determined.

I had two Christensen's in my tree a David and a William. My David was married to Ethel Mullenger and I recognized that name to be on my Paternal Grandfather's side. So I turned next to an Ancestry search, if Chester was born in 1928, I should find him in a 1930 US Census Record. I do an advance search and put Chester's name and birth year, along with his father "David" and mother "Ethel". 

I find the 1930 US Census for this family along with Chester's Find a Grave Index. Chester's Find A Grave only has brief burial information and no suggested links to his parents. So on the 1930 US Census page, I click on his mother and find a Find a Grave Index for her. Her index shows her parents and this confirms that this is my family. 

Ethel's Find A Grave has four of her children linked to her and those children are also on the 1930 US Census Record. 

I do a search on Newspapers.com for Chester's obituary and it doesn't list his parents, but does list his four sons and one of those son's names matches my DNA matche's name. 

The biggest bonus was Ethel's parent's Find a Grave page, because it listed the two children who died in infancy. I figured out based on the 1900's US Census that Ethel's mother, Sadie had two children that died before 1900. I love it when I can give Unknown children their facts. I have names, birth and death years, plus burial information. 

Moral of the story, as you probably guessed, don't leave any stone unturned, or in my case Don't Ignore Unlinked Small Trees with your DNA Matches. I am so busy on this branch of the family that I am adding so many names, between Find A Grave, Census Records and Obituaries that I will be busy for a couple of days. I am hoping that some of the women in this branch of the family will lead me to new surnames and help me determine other DNA matches and how we are related.

Oh, by the way, my match above is exactly my 4th Cousin and our Most Recent Common Ancestors are Peter Tyler (1798-1883) and Sarah Anderson. Plus the Mullenger line is where my 3rd Cousin Once Removed Donna Belle Mullenger is on, she is better known as Donna Reed. 

13 Genealogy Myths and Misconceptions

 In an email I received from FamilyTree magazine, it had an article titled “13Genealogy Myths and Misconceptions”.

The complete article can be found, by clicking on the link above.

Without reading the entire article, I just stopped and read the 13 Myths and thought if I have heard of any of these myths as pertains to my family.

Myth 1: Surnames were changed at Ellis Island – now none of my family actually claimed this, however my in-laws claimed that my married surname of Filipiak was changed. However, I find Filipiak’s still in Poland and don’t think this the story is correct.

Myth 2: It’s in print. It must be true! – WOW, I have heard this one. Especially from printed books from the late 1800’s, when genealogy seems to be booming and lots of lineage societies, such as the Daughter’s of the American Revolution was being formed. The first thing I learned in genealogy, is never trust someone else’s research unless you verify it yourself. Even some lineages in DAR have been flagged as errors, so anyone can make mistakes.

Myth 3: All the records you need about your family history are online. This one makes me smile and laugh. I use to volunteer at my local genealogical society library until I moved to another state. Many people came into the library thinking this. Many in the society also thought this. They would ask me why I visit courthouses and when I tell them, not everything is online, they look shocked.

Myth 4: This is most definitely my ancestor, according to the 423 online trees. I was helping a cousin once, trying to figure out who the spouse of one of our common relatives. She stated one person and someone who contacted her about this branch had stated another. I did a little digging and found 12 trees supporting the other person’s theory. No one had any sources listed, so I reached out to the 12 members. Surprising 11 replied back to me. 11 stated that they found it in someone else’s tree, I figured the 12^th person that didn’t reply was the person’s tree it was found on. My cousin could not remember where she got her information. My research pointed to the FamilySearch website, which had that relationship listed. No real sources either, besides an old tree that someone submitted to the Church years ago.

Myth 5: We descend from a Cherokee princess. First of all, there are no royal titles in the Native American tribes. My own half-siblings were told they descended from an Indian Princess. Well, there was Native American ancestor’s in their tree, and it was a female that married into their surname branch. She was a daughter of a war chief. Unfortunately, there could be more than one war chief. Native American Tribes are not ruled or run by just one person, but a group of men would discuss and come to an agreement of what to do. It is Europeans, who didn’t seem to understand this and would want one to represent the tribe.

Myth 6: The courthouse burned and the records are gone. My mother told me once, that her birth certificate burned in a courthouse fire and she had to get a duplicate created. I knew where she was born, and I knew that the courthouse didn’t have a fire. After she pass away, I went to the courthouse to look for your birth certificate and her parent’s marriage record. What happened was she was born two years before her parent’s marriage and her father (actually step-father) adopted her when she was 18 and preparing to attend college. So my mother lied, so that I would not go look up this information about her. She was a sly fox.

Myth 7: Same surname – must be relative. I have Booths in my family. My mother told me that her grandmother, Nell Booth was a cousin to John Wilkes Booth. She even claimed to have John’s famous ring. Well, not true. Even though I struggled researching Nell’s ancestry, John Wilkes Booth’s ancestry was easy to research and the timelines did not match my family.

Myth 8: hey look, it’s our family crest! My family never claimed to have a family crest, however I remembered someone came into the library looking for his family history. I use to live in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, it’s where they moved the London Bridge back in the late 1960’s. Anyway, there as a vendor down by the bridge that used to sell family crests. This guy stated that the vendor looked up his name and found the crest. I could not explain that crests were given to one person, not an entire family. That is got passed down from father to son. He was having none of it.

Myth 9: Three brothers came to America…. I even heard three siblings, four brothers, etc. The story is that they settled in different parts of the US or even different parts of the state. What research really has taught me is that families usually settle together. Sometimes, one will go to America, establish themselves and start sending for more family who will settle near the first one. People relied on their families. In rare occasions, one family member might strike off on his own and never be heard from again.

Myth 10: Hey the article is missing this one, I guess I better read the article to find out more.

Myth 11: Our Ancestors were much shorter than we are.  This could be true, but more likely, we inherit our height from our ancestors. We might find that we get a little taller, but the ceiling height of an ancestor’s home, might have more to do with building supplies, heating the space and other factors.

Myth 12: Our ancestors died young. I am not sure how far back we need to go to prove this, but I found many ancestors in the last 200 years who lived into their 80’s and even 90’s. I do know that many children didn’t survive childhood, but my ancestor’s seemed to live long lives.

Myth 13: Our ancestors were mostly illiterate. Many were illiterate and this is one of the reasons we find our surname spellings changing through the years. Those that could spell or those around them that could spell, would develop a spelling based on the sound or perhaps they ran across a spelling of the surname. Many were farmers who worked hard in the fields, had their children work with them, and perhaps they didn’t have time to learn to read. Lucky for us, that through the centuries, our ancestors saw the benefits of a good education. Looking back at the education system, shows how that even has changed.

Okay, found Myth 10: Source citations are just for professionals. When I was younger, I found out that one of my maternal aunts was doing genealogy research. We joined forces and started researching. I asked if we should be noting where we found this stuff. My aunt chuckled and stated “It’s not like we will ever be able to join DAR”. Joke was on her, I found an ancestor on my maternal side that I was able to join DAR. If my aunt had lived long enough, she would have been able to join too.

Anyway, read the article from Family Tree Magazine, even if you are seasoned researcher, you might learn something.  I found the article quite informative.

Good luck in your research and keep digging!