EVERNOTE SHORTCUTS

Using Evernote? - here are some essential Evernote shortcuts that will help you do your work faster.

Happy ancestor hunting.

NEW EASIER TO READ RELATIONSHIP CHART

A different, easier to read relationship chart with explanation from Betty Eichhorn and Dick Eastman. Any comments on what you think about this chart?  Click HERE to view the chart along with a description of relationships.

Happy ancestor hunting.
 

Originally posted on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter:

GENCOM GEM TIP

When we are searching census records on Ancestry.com looking for our ancestors, they provide us with help.  When you are looking at the record page for a census record you have found, Ancestry provides some suggested records that can be helpful in finding additional records for this ancestor.  Below is a screen shot of the a record page with the suggested records outlined in red.

 

This is a screen shot of the 1940 census for my grandfather Ernest Richard (Tut) Colvin.  How does ancestry do this?

 

"Using the information from this record transcription, Ancestry searches for other records that may be related to the same person. The suggestions system also looks at people in trees to which this record has been saved to see if there are additional records saved to those people. These records are displayed here to aid you in finding other records that may help you in your research."

Happy ancestor hunting.

FIND A GRAVE Android App

In December Ancestry released a Find A Grave  mobile app for Android devices.  This app is free in the Google Play Store for users of Android devices.

The following is from the announcement by Ancestry on December 17:

Our Android Find A Grave users will also be able to edit their own bio and preferences, see and add to their virtual cemeteries, and find and fulfill photo requests from across the community. 
If you are not a Find A Grave user, but want to use this opportunity to become one, please join us! You can start with the mobile app or find us at Find A Grave. You don’t need to register to search the memorials, but we would love it if you would sign up and contribute.  For Ancestry members, this is a great way to give back to the community that has been filling hint queues with their dedicated documentation of cemeteries.

Find A Grave is by far the largest public grave database in the world and its success is because of contributors worldwide. You can request grave photos from around the globe, and help by volunteering to take photos for others at nearby cemeteries.
- See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/12/17/find-a-grave-android-mobile-app-release#sthash.0t25KnXE.dpuf

Our Android Find A Grave users will also be able to edit their own bio and preferences, see and add to their virtual cemeteries, and find and fulfill photo requests from across the community. 
If you are not a Find A Grave user, but want to use this opportunity to become one, please join us! You can start with the mobile app or find us at Find A Grave. You don’t need to register to search the memorials, but we would love it if you would sign up and contribute.  For Ancestry members, this is a great way to give back to the community that has been filling hint queues with their dedicated documentation of cemeteries.

Find A Grave is by far the largest public grave database in the world and its success is because of contributors worldwide. You can request grave photos from around the globe, and help by volunteering to take photos for others at nearby cemeteries.
- See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/12/17/find-a-grave-android-mobile-app-release#sthash.0t25KnXE.dpuf

Our Android Find A Grave users will also be able to edit their own bio and preferences, see and add to their virtual cemeteries, and find and fulfill photo requests from across the community. 
If you are not a Find A Grave user, but want to use this opportunity to become one, please join us! You can start with the mobile app or find us at Find A Grave. You don’t need to register to search the memorials, but we would love it if you would sign up and contribute.  For Ancestry members, this is a great way to give back to the community that has been filling hint queues with their dedicated documentation of cemeteries.

Find A Grave is by far the largest public grave database in the world and its success is because of contributors worldwide. You can request grave photos from around the globe, and help by volunteering to take photos for others at nearby cemeteries.
- See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/12/17/find-a-grave-android-mobile-app-release#sthash.0t25KnXE.dpuf

 
"Our Android Find A Grave users will also be able to edit their own bio and preferences, see and add to their virtual cemeteries, and find and fulfill photo requests from across the community."

"If you are not a Find A Grave user, but want to use this opportunity to become one, please join us! You can start with the mobile app or find us at Find A Grave. You don’t need to register to search the memorials, but we would love it if you would sign up and contribute.  For Ancestry members, this is a great way to give back to the community that has been filling hint queues with their dedicated documentation of cemeteries."


"Find A Grave is by far the largest public grave database in the world and its success is because of contributors worldwide. You can request grave photos from around the globe, and help by volunteering to take photos for others at nearby cemeteries."

I downloaded this app to my iPhone in December when it was first released and am very pleased with it.  It does not have all of the bells and whistles that the Find A Grave website has, but it is great for searching for ancestors and adding new information to the site while in the field.  The app can also be used for easy access to upload photos while away from your work area.  We needed this app this last summer when we were looking for Salem Cemetery and wandered over most of Claiborne parish before finding it.

The screenshots to the left are from my iPhone when I was trying it out to search for my father's grave site on Find A Grave.

GENCOM GEM TIP

Have you ever found a long web page that has your ancestor's name on it but you just do not feel like searching through hundreds may thousands of names to find the name you are looking for.  There is a special keyboard combination on your computer that can come to your rescue.  By holding down the "Control" key and clicking the "F" key the page will open up a search box.  By typing in the name or word/s you are looking for, the name or word/s, if found on the page will be highlighted.  If there is more than one occurrence of the word on the page you can scroll forward and backward for the other occurrences by using the up and down arrows in the box.  This option can not only be used on webpages but also in most Microsoft Office software products plus pdf files, and most other computer software programs.

Happy ancestor hunting.

WHEN TO CONDUCT MANUAL SEARCHES ON INDEXED RECORDS

SEARCHING INDEXED RECORDS
This summer I have spent a great deal of time indexing and arbitrating digitized records for FamilySearch.org.  This experience has taught me that when we are searching indexed records we need to remember that the indexing was done by another individual.  No matter how experienced and conscientious the indexer is there are still errors that are going to be made in interpreting the records.

If you are fairly certain that your ancestor is on a set of records for a certain location and time, you will need to search manually for the individual either line by line or page by page.  This is true whether the records are census records, obituaries, land deeds or any other type of record that has been indexed.  You may not only find your ancestor but other relatives as well.

Happy ancestor hunting.

 

WRITE YOUR EMAILS BACKWARDS

Another helpful blog from lifehacker.com for those of us who do not get the response from our emails that we want.

Happy ancestor hunting.

REMOVING AND AVOIDING UNWANTED PROGRAMS ON WINDOWS

From the lifehacker.com  a Blog on removing and avoiding programs that are installed on a new computer and ones that are downloaded along with a program you install.

Happy ancestor hunting

 

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED QUIRKY COINCIDENCES OR OCCURRENCES IN YOUR FAMILY TREE?

Last week John Prime spoke to our SAR group about experiencing serendipity while doing research for his newspaper articles.  At first, I did not understand exactly how serendipity applied to research but as he continued, I began to understand what he was talking about.

The official dictionary definition  or serendipity is: "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for; also :  an instance of this"

I began to research how this would apply to genealogy research and found the following definition from the Ancestry Ancestor - It is as though our ancestors want to be found. Uncanny coincidence. Olympian luck. Phenomenal fate. Tremendous intuition. Remarkable miracle. We call It, “Serendipity in Genealogy.”  Now, I like that much better!

I kind of think of genealogy serendipity as a fancy word for going off on what I call "rabbit trails" when doing our genealogy research and forgetting what we were searching for in the first place.

In the short youtube video below preeminent family historian Helen Leary, CG (Emeritus), FASG, FNGS, reflects on why people do genealogy and on the comforts that people find in researching their ancestors. In addition she touches on the unique experiences that researchers often encounter when researching their family tree -- those little touches of unexplained serendipity.

 Happy serendipity in your ancestor hunting.

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT PROTECTING YOUR COMPUTER!

This information from pcworld.com contains valuable and informative tips on keeping unwanted programs from being downloaded when you install software from the internet, especially free software.

The sources for free software have become very tricky in disguising what they are installing in addition to their program.  I had just read this article today before installing some free software on my son's computer, and was able to avoid installing four unwanted programs with knowledge from this article.  Take time to read this article - I can guarantee it will pay off in the future.

Happy ancestor hunting.

THE ANCESTRY INSIDER: FAMILYSEARCH SHAKY LEAF HINTS

The following is information from "The Ancestry Insider's Blog" about a new "Shaky Leaf" hints for FamilySearch Family Tree.  If you have a tree on the FS Family Tree you will see these hints when you are viewing your tree.

I do not have a tree on the FS Family Tree but am anxious to get to work on one to be able to take advantage of this new feature on FamilySearch.

Happy ancestor hunting.


The Ancestry Insider: FamilySearch Shaky Leaf Hints: Overshadowed by Ancestry.com ’s denial of service attack, last week FamilySearch quietly released its version of the Ancestry.com shaky lea...

US ENUMERATION DISTRICT MAPS ON FAMILYSEARCH.ORG

Michael John Neil's blog Genealogy Tip of the Day was about something that was interesting to me

On 20 June 2014 I posted on this blog that FamilySearch.org had added the record collection for United States Enumeration District Maps for the Twelfth through the Sixteenth US Censuses, 1900-1940.  I did not at that time look at the records, but after reading the Genealogy Tip of the Day I clicked on the link.  The records are not indexed, so I had to browse them, which turned out to not be so hard since the records are in alphabetical order by states and parishes.  After about ten minutes I had the 1940 enumeration district map for Lincoln parish on my screen.  This map included my hometown of Unionville and plainly showed all of the houses in this area.  It was quite a stroll down memory as I tried to remember who lived in which house.  I am planning on showing this to my brother and see if he remembers any of the family names that I do not remember.

Happy ancestor hunting.

NEW "ARKANSAS RESEARCH GUIDE" FROM ANCESTRY.COM

I have found the following Guide to be useful in searching for my Arkansas ancestors.

Ancestry.com has a new state guide, “Arkansas Research Guide: Family History Sources in the Natural State.”  The new state guide has an overview and timeline of Arkansas, along with resources to explore when searching for your Arkansas ancestors

Check out the guides for other states available in Ancestry's Learning Center under
Free State Research Guides.  They are adding new research guided all the time.

Happy ancestor hunting.

VARIANTS FOR SURNAMES AND GIVEN NAMES

The following link will give a list of the many variations of a surname or given name in your genealogy research.  This can help you by giving you additional names that you can use in your searches on the internet.

Happy ancestor hunting.

The NameThesaurus is a technology for finding
Surname and Forename variants

385 million variants identified for 5,929,000 Surnames

26 million variants identified for 1,246,000 Forenames

Gender identification for more than 220,000 Forenames

For a NameX demonstration please click here

The following is a partial list of the variations for the Surname Attaway.