Is your Family Tree Maker tree well-trimmed?

Do you have a well-trimmed tree? What do I mean by this? Does your tree just have your relatives or do you have a lot of extra people?

My tree is a little of both and perhaps your tree is too. One thing I like to do is keep track of in-law spouses' parents. If my cousin is married, I want to know who their spouse’s parents are. Why? I have found that my tree, and perhaps yours is similar is like a spider web, where they connect in more than one spot. For example, there is a family who had 10 children, and about 6 of those children have married into my family on various branches. Some have married siblings of one branch, others have married their first cousins or even another branch that isn’t related to the sibling’s branch, and so on.

Therefore, I have changed the way I am keeping these people in my tree. As in the case of the Biel family who had six of their ten children marry into my family, I have that family’s parents and all twelve of their children in my tree. Those branches that connect back to the six children who married into my family is easier to identify because when looking at my tree, I can see the spouse’s parents are entered.

What about the spouse who doesn’t connect to anyone else in my tree? I have decided instead of entering them as additional people in my tree, I use the birth description to enter the following sentence “He/She is/was the son/daughter of father’s name and mother’s name (using the mother’s maiden name). Thus, is might read as follows: He was the son of John J Smith and Jane S Doe.

I am doing this to keep my tree a little better trimmed and visually pleasing, I can see that spouse doesn’t tie back into my tree on another branch, in the tree view above and by the birth description.  Plus, I have been generating books using Family Book Creator, and for the spouse, it will print that birth description as a separate sentence after listing their birth information.

When I enter a spouse, I always check the Index and see if I already that surname in my tree and I quickly check out who their parents are. If I find two siblings in my tree, then I add their parents into my tree and attach each existing child to the parent and clear out the birth description field. If as I am checking for who their parents are and nothing is filled in, then I do a quick search to see if I can figure out who their parents are and determine if they are related to each other.

What do you do to keep your tree well-trimmed?

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Family Tree Maker - Unknown Spouses

 I belong to the Facebook group, Family Tree Maker® Users where they offer a wonderful Guides section. 

Guide 14.08 How to Find All [unknown spouse} is very helpful for cleaning up your tree or just to give you a research project, finding the spouses of these people.

To find all the [unknown spouse]'s in your tree, you need to run the marriage report under the Publish feature of FTM. 

You will find the marriage report under the Relationship Reports category.

You will need to run it for "All Individuals" and you actually need to run it twice. Once with "Sort by wife" unchecked and again with "sort by wife" checked. The first report will be sorted by the husband's names and at the end of the report you will have extra wives listed with no corresponding male. The second report will be sorted by the wife's names and at the end of the report you will extra husband's listed with no corresponding female. 

NOTE: both reports will print the Husband's name in the first column and the wife's name in the second column.

When I ran these reports for my tree, I had fewer husbands with no wives and I decided to start there.

I searched for the person's name and I excepted to find a man who had children and no wife listed. However, I found a single male, with no wife and no apparent marriage fact. 

I decided to switch from the Tree view to the Person view and here I could clearly see there were "shared facts with [unknown spouse]. However, there wasn't any shared facts underneath this heading. 

My solution, I went back to the Tree view and added a spouse named "unknown spouse". 

Then I deleted this newly created spouse, by right clicking on the person and selecting "Delete Person". At the popup box, I press [YES] to delete this person from my tree.

I switched once more to the Person view and the shared facts heading was gone.

Of the 14 males on this list, only two actually had children and thus I had to repeat this process for a total of 12 times. Why this happened, I am perplexed. I do all my data entry in FTM, I don't merge records from Ancestry to my tree. I do sync from FTM to Ancestry. I have been using FTM since version 3 and perhaps during one of the many upgrades over the years, created this situation. It is anyone's guess.

I did find the same situation with my females list. However, not as many in my first dozen names, I only had three. I do have 53 names on my list, so this may take me a little time to get through.

Moral of the story, running these types of reports is a great way to keep our trees clean and from strange situations from creeping into them.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Happy New Year

 

To all the days here and after

May they be filled with fond memories,

happiness, and laughter.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 31

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 31– Think how far your family history research has come this year. What did you accomplish? How can you improve next year? Write down your research resolutions.

I first want to acknowledge that I managed to maintain this daily posting this past year. At times it was difficult when life throws you curve balls. Thus, I feel like this is great accomplishment.

Anyway, my major goal to publish a book on one of my 3^rd great grandparents hasn’t been accomplished yet, but I hope to have it done before summer, so that I can pick another ancestor to research. I did do a book for a cousin of my late sister-in-law. It was a wonderful project to learn some of the basics of my book generating software package.

Since I am writing this before Christmas, I am hoping to receive a gift that will aid in my slides project which is to scan the numerous slides I inherited from my father. My previous scanner required me to load a slide plate with three slides and then I could scan those three. The new scanner will let me just feed each slide into the scanner and it will save the slide. Therefore, take the slide out of the carousel, place it into the scanner and then back into the carousel.  I am hoping this process will be faster than the older one, especially since my fingers are not as nimble as they use to be. Plus, the scanner has a 7 inch viewing screen. Thus, I might have to order this for myself if I don’t receive it as a gift.

I also plan to work more on my DNA matches, now that I purchased Ancestry Pro Tools, I find that I am able to figure out more relationships for my matches. This aids in my book projects that I want to do, since, I want to figure out all the descendants of my immigrant ancestors.

I still have lots of paper and computer files to sort (as mentioned yesterday). I want to see which papers need to be inputted into my tree, those that need to be scan and if I can purge any of these items. I basically am trying to organize my files for the next generation, after I am gone. I don’t want them tossing papers because it is easier than figuring out what it is. I think I need to dedicate at least one day a week this upcoming year, otherwise, it will never get done!

As for my blogging, I plan to still do some. I participate in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks an Amy Johnson Crow project.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 30

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 30 – Out with the old, in with the new: Sort papers into Keep, Toss and Undecided piles. File the keepers, then delete duplicate computer files and unwanted messages.

This is a huge project for me. In fact, I will be giving this a bigger priority in the new year. I need to set aside one day a week in the coming year. It’s not a fun project, but a necessary project. It will give me a chance to revisit parts of my tree that I haven’t worked on in many years.

Don't forget those computer files. When I didn't have paid subscriptions, I use to access those websites during free weekends and saved files into "Working" folders on my computer. I also did scanning projects and placed them into the "Working" folder. I need to move them into one "Working" folder with subfolders for family branches.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 29

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 29 – Texas became the 28^th state today in 1845. Don’t be afraid to mess with Texas research using the records of the Texas General Land office www.glo.texas.gov and state library www.tsl.texas.gov.

I have found various collateral lines that have lived in Texas and thus this will be a great resource to check out.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – December 28

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 28 – Have a scrapbooking party: Warm up holiday leftovers and invite some friends to spend the day preserving precious memories.

This is a great idea; however, I think I will make some memory books via Shutterfly. I have some photos that I need to compile into some vacation memory books. A couple of years ago, I took a trip to Alaska and I never got around to creating a book because my computer died. I did get a new computer, but then I had issues and had to send in the computer for repairs, not just once but twice. It sort of took my enthusiasm with it. But now I am ready to create these books.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 27

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 27 – Before hitting the post-holiday road home, snap some pictures of your childhood neighborhood.

Christmas isn’t at my childhood home anymore. That home was sold in 1990 and both of my parents have passed away. My current home isn’t even my children’s childhood home. In fact, my children lived in two different homes, one in our current state and the other about 2000 miles away.

My childhood home

I do drive by my childhood home but things have changed so much. The same people no longer live in my childhood neighborhood and the color of the house has changed (for the better). Back to the color when we first moved there.

My former Wisconsin home

In my former Wisconsin home, my porch use to wrap around the house to the back deck. The current home owners added this large family room on the side, along with basement space. Someone also added some kind of wood burner, evident by the smokestack on the front of the house. 

My former Arizona home

We lived for 20 years in Arizona and the only home my youngest daughter really remembers. When my husband retired, we decided to move back to Wisconsin to be near family. Our home had a wonderful pool and hot tub, two things I do miss.

My current Wisconsin Home

We have lived here for only four years, however we have made many changes to make it our own.  So this will be where we will be celebrating Christmas hopefully for many years.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 26

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 26 – Kwanzaa starts today. Find out the story behind its traditions at nmaahc.si.edu/kwanzaa.

Created in 1966 by Maulana Ron Karenga, Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday that celebrates history, values, family, community and culture. I am always amazed that as a child I never heard of Kwanzaa. However, I am always interested in other people’s traditions and will definitely check out this page.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – December 25

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 25 – It’s a double holiday today – Christmas and the start of Hanukkah. Visit family members in person, virtually, or by phone.

Christmas Day in my house is our recovering day. When my children were little, we would play games. Now that they are adults, sometimes one or more of children will spend the day and we watch corny Christmas Movies, play games and eat leftovers.

My advice: Checkout the movie "Mixed Nuts" you won't be disappointed. 

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – December 24

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 24– Record a Christmas Eve or other family tradition in your blog or journal.

Back in 1992, my local newspaper ask people to submit their favorite Christmas story, my submission was published in the Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) on Wednesday, December 23, 1992 on page 13 as follows:

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – December 23

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 23 – Compare the five major historical newspaper websites www.familytreemagazine.com/records/newspapers/historical-newspaper-websites-compared

The five major sites listed in this article are: Fulton History, Genealogy Bank, Newspapers.com, NewspapersArchive, and Chronicling America. This is a premium article, thus you might not be able to view it.  

I mostly use Newspapers.com since I have a subscription. I do believe Fulton History and Chronicling America are free sites. I have tried Genealogy Bank; however, I find Newspapers.com has more newspapers for the areas of my research. Always check out their holdings before subscribing to any website. 

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 22

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 22 – Write in your research journal about the most extreme thing you’ve done while researching your roots. (Took a pillow to the library to nap in a carrel? Walked a cemetery in a blizzard?)

The only extreme thing I can remember is trying to get to a cemetery and finding a grave I was looking for before the storm I saw in the distance arrived. I did manage to beat the storm, but I had to drive home in a horrible rain storm.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 21

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 21 – Search online telephone directories such as www.whitepages.com for the surnames and places you’re researching – you might come up with a cousin.

When you do this, it will list relatives. Keep in mind, you won’t know their exact relationship, for example, my Brother-in-Law shows up on my name search. It also listed an address in a state I have never lived.

I like using tax records to see if a person still lives in the area that they say. For example, it gives my current address and my former addresses, and thus I can look up the tax records to see if someone is still at the address. Perhaps you want to reach out to them and send them a letter. The phone numbers they listed for me are no longer in service, thus I wouldn’t recommend calling someone out of the blue.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 20

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 20 – Select a few unidentified pictures and make copies to share with relatives at holiday gatherings.

You may want to bring some of the pictures that you have identified and see if your relatives come up with the same person. I was once given a family portrait from the late 1800’s/early 1900’s and was told it was my 3^rd great grandfather, his wife and children. However, I could not match up the individuals in my tree to the people in the picture. Later I found out from a distant cousin, that it was actually her 3^rd great grandparents, the sister and brother-in-law of my 3^rd great grandfather. Plus the individuals in the picture fit what I knew about them in my tree.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 19

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 19 – Update the list of surnames you’re researching and tuck it into your binder.

I like my list to include my direct line surnames. I used to have this information on the backside of my business card, but now I like using my Notes app on my phone to record this information. 

I usually always have my phone with me, but I might not have my research binder with me. I have run into people who have questions when I am out and about. 

However, the printed list is great when visiting courthouses, because some of them, won't allow your phone into the records room. They don't want you taking snapshots of certificates. Does your genealogy software package allow you to print such a custom report?

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – December 18

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 18 – Visit Evidence Explained www.evidenceexplained.com to get the latest tips on source citations.

Even though I might not do my source citations exactly properly in my own research. I do look to see what information I should be capturing in my sources. This comes in handy when I need to share my research with others, and I need proper source citations.

My advice: If you haven’t done any source citations, start today. Be consistent and double check to see if you can find that source again with the information in your source citations. 

When I first started, I didn’t record where I found stuff and it cost me lots of research time, because I had to go back and see where that information came from. This is very important when  you find conflicting information, because you need to evaluate the sources that your information came from and decide which source is more reliable.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 17

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 17 – Learn more about professional genealogy through its two major credentialing bodies: www.icapgen.org and www.bcgcertification.org

Even though I do not have any formal credentials, I have an upmost respect for those who go through the process. These people have demonstrated their competence in research, analysis, kinship determination and reporting skills. Each organization has its own exact requirements, but the skills do overlap. Even if you don’t plan on getting your credentials (like me), you can learn many skills that can help you in your research goals. Plus, you may feel more comfortable if you ever want to hire a professional.

My advice: Check out the book "Professional Genealogy - Preparation, Practice and Standards" by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

The Year Ahead – December 16

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 16 – Study a new-to-you US state using our research guides store.familytreemagazine.com/genealogy-research-state-guides or the FamilySearch Wiki

I subscribe to Family Tree Magazine and each issue comes with a state. Check out your local library and see if they have past issues that you could reference.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

The Year Ahead – December 15

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

December 15 – Get to know your Jewish ancestors with the resources at Avotaynu www.avotaynu.com.

When I visited this website, there is a notice that the editors and production team have retired after 37 years. Thus, don’t be surprise if you can access all the parts of this website.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!