Category: Technology

Genealogy At Heart Website Update

I’ve been writing a lot about technology lately.  I do love it but it certainly is a pain when it glitches!  Last year I created a free website using Sidengo called www.GenealogyAtHeart.com.  I linked my blog posts to it and featured genealogical special offers, photos of recent research trips I’d taken and information for clients who were interested in contacting me.  In July, I received an email from Sidengo that in less than 3 weeks my account was going to be closed unless I moved to a paid option.  I was leaving town for a two week research trip the next day, had a client deadline I had to finish before I left and was returning to my teaching job three days after the research trip ended so I felt rushed into making a decision.  Hubby thought I should just pay up to make my life easier but I didn’t want to do that as I thought it was poor customer service to pressure folks into paying.  During my evenings while I was on my research trip I searched for alternatives.  I settled on another company but wasn’t really happy with it – I was only able to get one page so the website was a long scroll AND I couldn’t link to my blog posts so I had to list them which was cumbersome for readers.

In September, the Association of Professional Genealogists had a webinar about WordPress. I had explored them in July but didn’t find the site intuitive enough for me to figure out how to quickly put together my webpages.  After watching the webinar I thought I’d give it another try and in just a few hours I had my webpages almost back to where it was from the beginning.  It’s officially live so I’ll continue to post my blogs on blogspot and then archive at genealogyatheart.com.  So, if you want to find an older post and you remember the month – you can look on blogger.  If you can’t remember when it was published but are looking for the topic – visit genealogyatheart.com where I’ve tagged and archived by area.

Saving Photos

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 5 Oct 2016.

I’ve been on a technology kick lately and here’s why – I did something incredibly dumb and I don’t want you to do it!

We have a nice older digital camera that we rarely use.  I rely on my phone for pictures of events and when I research as I prefer the document to be digitally available instead of having to lug the book to the copy machine, pay, and come home with yet another piece of paper that I have to then scan to save.

Yes, the camera phone has made my life better but I had taken so many pictures in the past two years that it stopped uploading about 45 photos ago.  Now I knew this because I kept getting a warning that I was out of space but it was one of those things I put off correcting.  I decided I wasn’t going to buy more space because I really needed to get into the habit of cleaning out the photos shortly after I’d taken them.

We were going to have an event at my primary job that involved taking lots and lots of photos over a short period of time.  Charged the camera and put in a new SD card but I wanted a backup in case the old camera failed.  I started going through the phone photos and hitting delete one by one.  I guess I got a little over enthusiastic (actually, I got distracted by a phone call on the land line) and must have hit something wrong as I deleted everything at once.  Oops!

I know what I lost and most are thankfully, somewhere else.  I lost a picture of my son petting an armadillo he had rescued out of our hot tub last summer.  The armadillo was making eye contact with him and looked like he was eternally grateful for being saved.  I texted the pic to my daughter who promptly replied son better wash his hands as to not get a disease.  So I have that picture in my texts.

I lost a picture of a peregrine falcon that landed on my fence during the hurricane but that’s okay, too, as he now lives in my hood so if I want, I can retake his photo.

What I’m upset about is birthday photos of my husband for the last two years.  I don’t post to Facebook and I wouldn’t have texted them because everyone who cared was here.  I know I was the only one taking photos so they’re gone for good.  Hubby could care less but I’m kicking myself for being a goof.

Hard way to learn my lesson but I think I won’t be repeating this mistake.

Adding Flexibility to the Genealogists Repetoire

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 7 July 2016

It’s a benefit to genealogists to be flexible.  This post will be short because of my necessity to be flexible today.

Yesterday evening son asked for a ride to the airport for a business trip he was taking today.  No problem!  Then I learned he needed to be there by 5 AM.  So I’m now operating on little sleep.  Coffee can be a genealogists best friend.  I’ll be back to the airport tonight late to pick him up.

I got home and thought I’d start the day with some light reading before I started on an article I plan on submitting to a journal so I opened my email.  Bad news!  Sidengo, which provided my website template, has changed their policy effective August 1st so if I stay with them I’m going to have to start paying.  That led me to find Canvas, which is free, that my webhost, Namecheap, can work with.  I just spent the last 3 hours between Namecheap and Canvas as there was some glitch with my transaction going through.  I then had to rebuild the website.  Got everything there EXCEPT I haven’t figured out yet how to link the blog posts from here to there.  Will work on that this afternoon.

I’ll be on the road again next week, first for some personal research in Pennsylvania and Maryland and then on to a conference in DC for my education job, then a little more research at NARA at the end of the trip so I really don’t have the time to spend on getting this website recreated.  I’m hoping you’ll be able to experience a seemless transfer!  The names the same – genealogyatheart.com

With my upcoming travel I will most likely have to post less frequently; again, it pays to be flexible as who knows what awesome discoveries awaits me in the next few weeks that I’ll just have to share.  So my need to be flexible impacts you, too. My apologies!  It’s great, though, to identify another way we’re all connected – Happy Hunting!

A FREE Research Assistant – Google Keep

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 18 May 2016.

Found a new tool that could help you immensely with your research notes, to do lists, and anything else you want to write and remember.  From Google, it’s entitled Keep and with just one click, you can save your work and be able to retrieve it from any online device.

Click on the left hand corner of the Keep page where there are three horizontal lines (the main menu bars).  This will open up the main menu where you can view your notes and reminders, once you create them.  Filing is easy, just click the “Create New Label.”

If you’d like to share what you created, click on “Settings” and make sure “Enable Sharing” is checked.

You access Keep through your Google account so if you have gmail or Google+ you already have a Google account. If you don’t have an account, the page should direct you to how to obtain one but I haven’t checked that out since I have an existing account.

Keep works on both IOS and Android so whatever is your preference, you can use this tool.  It does need Chrome so if you aren’t using that already, you may have to download it for Keep to work efficiently.  The Chrome download is supposed to also be available from the Keep page but again, I have it so I’m not able to verify that information.

So, how can you use this with your genealogy?  What I think is the best feature is that it is a blend of Evernote and Pinterest.  I can click the grey lightbulb on the panel to add text or a part of a webpage. I especially like that I am able to simultaneously update my research log that I’ll display on Keep; the display is viewable like Pinterest.  Another beneficial feature is that I can see everything on the same page at once which will make sorting for a timeline or rearranging when analyzing the records much easier.

I can then create a label for the whole group which will enable me to separate out various projects that I’m working on simultaneously.  This method also allows me to quickly access the information anywhere (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone) AND be able to retrieve everything about the project in an organized way. Want to see all your labels?  Simply click the main menu bars and it will list all the labels you have previously created.

The “Reminders” feature will also help you stay organized. Give it a try!

Genealogical Software and Identifying Family Relationships

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 6 Apr 2016.

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending an all day conference hosted by The Villages, Florida Genealogy Society for the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS).   I’m a member of NEHGS and I was interested in the topics, especially migration patterns .  Although I found all the workshops fairly basic I always take something away from any workshop I attend so I did get some new info to use when I revisit my tree AFTER I submit my portfolio.

I want to mention two points that I think were most interesting.  The first was during the workshop titled “Choosing a Genealogical Software Program” by Rhonda McClure.  I enjoyed Rhonda’s talk even though I’m not shopping for a new software program.  What was interesting to me was the number of attendees that couldn’t understand why someone would want to have their tree information on their own program.  Maybe I’m just old and remember the first genealogical software program I used which was on a cassette that was inserted into a TI-84 computer.  When we upgraded to Windows 3.0, I downloaded PAF from Familysearch.org and had to re-enter all of my tree info.  I didn’t have a lot, about 100 individuals, but it was time consuming and a duplication of efforts.

I moved to Family Tree Maker (FTM) because it was supposed to synch with Ancestry.com but as I’ve written in previous blogs, mine stopped synching and between the two organizations I could never get it working.  I then downloaded the Standard (Free) edition of Legacy in which to save my Ancestry.com Gedcom  and about once a month, I update Legacy by re-downloading the Gedcom.  I know Ancestry.com is in the works with synching with Roots Magic and maybe a resurrection of FTM.  I really would like a feature that synchs and I would go with that.  I do love the reports Legacy generates as I ended up purchasing the Deluxe version so I’d keep that, too.  The problem with not synching is one gets updated and the other doesn’t.  I have a lot of pdf’s and photos saved on Ancestry.com that’s not on Legacy so we’re back to time consuming and storage saving issues unless something is available to synch.

But back to why anyone would want to have their own software.  I live in Florida where we have many storms, often severe, which means that our power is off and therefore, no internet.  Even when there isn’t a storm we sometimes have no internet.  Like yesterday, with our wonderful new internet provider, Frontier, who can’t figure out how to provide the service we’re paying for (but that’s another story!)  With a backup generator I could still access my desktop, though it would be unlikely in severe weather that I would use a generator to do that.  I’d rather save the food in the fridge but I like options and if I would be so inclined, I could get to my information.  Although it’s also unlikely that Ancestry.com will cease to exist, one never knows.  Companies come and go.  I’m not trying to start a rumor – I think that is remote but in case, I want to have a backup.  I also like to have my tree available when I research away from home on my Kindle or laptop as in some facilities that I’ve visited, the wireless goes down when you’re in the stacks and it’s a problem.

The next interesting observation from the conference was how the Ancestry.com relationship feature doesn’t work.  I was surprised how many people rely on it.  Mine comes and goes and sometimes is so convoluted it’s hysterical. I’m not blaming Ancestry for that; it’s my twisted family tree where I relate to my husband back in the day.  It can’t figure out the connection and seems to take the long route.  I think I figured out why it does that.  Simply because of who I set at the home person.  If you’re having that problem just go to settings and change the home person to someone else and it may correct the problem.  If it doesn’t, then you’re going to have to figure out the relationship the old fashioned way.  I’d recommend bringing up the family tree view from the person you are trying to determine the relationship from and look and see where you recognize a common ancestor.

In a pinch you may find these links helpful:

Evernote…Ever so helpful

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 4 Feb 2016.

Back from my trip and I’m happy to report the first two generations of my Kinship Determination Project (KDP) is in draft form.  Do you use Evernote?  I use it on my Kindle to take notes at meetings but I’ve never used it while researching or for any of my other portfolio requirements.  Maybe because I do use it at my primary job I had little trouble working on the KDP using Evernote on my Kindle.  Who would have thought?!  So now I have another place to access the document.  I figure I can review it during down times where ever I might be.  It’s getting to be quite long at this point so I won’t be able to review all of it during say, a lunch break, but my latest plan is to look it over daily and then devote the weekends to moving forward.  My goal is to have the complete rough draft – all 3 generations – by the end of February and use spring break to seek out the few remaining records I’d like to find.  They may not exist but unless I seek them out in person I won’t know for sure. I wouldn’t be meeting the reasonably exhaustive search of the genealogical proof standard without knowing for sure!

I’m becoming so involved with the family I’m writing about I feel like I know them, even though I never met any of them and I’m not related to them.  I’m looking forward to traipsing around in their footsteps when spring arrives.  I would love to find a picture of generation 1 and 2.  I have one of the couple in generation 3 but to find the trifecta, that would be awesome!  I have a vision of what they looked like but who knows how accurate that can be.

Genealogy At Heart – A New Website

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 8 Dec 2015.

I’m heading out to the west coast for a conference but wanted to let you all to know I’ve developed a website to contain my blogs in one handy dandy spot – you can now access it at www.genealogyatheart.com. All blog posts will be listed under Family Stories/Genealogy Hints.

Genealogy is expensive so I will also post any special offers I discover there under the tab “Specials to Share.”

Besides genealogy, I love traveling, architecture and visiting historical sites so I’ll be posting some pics of places I recently visited so check out the tab “On the Road Again.” It may give you an idea of where you want to explore your family’s past.

If you’d like more information about an older posting or have suggestions/ideas for the future simply email me from the About Lori page.  I look forward to hearing from you!

If you are a Family Tree Maker user synching with Ancestry.com and just learned that Ancestry is discontinuing the agreement soon, you may be looking for a new software program.  I’m not making any money off this but here’s my advice – check out these GENEALOGY PROGRAMS .  Once you’ve decided which you’re going to use, go to Ancestry.com and click on Trees – Create and Manage Trees on the ribbon.  Then click on “Manage Tree.”  On the right hand side, click EXPORT TREE in the green box. It may take some time but when it’s ready, click the new green box DOWLOAD YOUR GEDCOM FILE.  You may have difficulty doing that as sometimes it doesn’t want to work.  If so, click “download tips” and alternative directions are given.

I saw the zillions of negative comments by FTM users on Ancestry’s blog and for the life of me, can’t understand why Ancestry didn’t give clear directions in the announcement on how to save your work as a gedcom.  I feel very badly for those unhappy people thinking that they have lost years of work when they haven’t.  The only thing they can’t do is have their work saved both on Ancestry and on their hard drive at the same time.  Personally, they need to be saving in another location, too, because, if their hard drive crashes and they can’t get on Ancestry, then they have a huge problem.  I use the free Dropbox.com cloud to also save my gedcom in Legacy.  That way, I can log on to DROPBOX anywhere and access my tree, in addition to using Ancestry if I’m not on my main computer.

Seriously, you should be exporting your tree at least once a month if you’re a heavy user as if something happens to Ancestry your citations are gone!  Notice I said citation and not records.  You cannot download all of your records when you download the gedcom.  You will be downloading the citation of what record was found but not the picture of the actual record.  For example:  You’ve saved the 1880 US Federal Census for your great grandpa to your Ancestry tree.  When you download the gedcom it will show that the census record was what you referenced, or cited, for the 1880 residence.  If you want the actual picture of the census page you will have to download it to your hard drive. That is time consuming but important.  I haven’t done that for most of my lines but plan on beginning that process soon.

Now, back to the download directions – Once you’ve exported you will have to import the saved file, called a gedcom, to whatever program you’ll be using.  I like Legacy because 1) the Standard version is free and that gave me a good idea if it was a program I could easily use and 2) their support is very good.  They are friendly on the phone and they have an email group that you can subscribe to for free that you can post queries to and the software engineers answer.  Amazing!  I never got that kind of response from Family Tree Maker and when the synch between Ancestry and FTM stopped working, I decided to move to something else.  Now I’m really glad I did!

I ended up purchasing the Deluxe Legacy version six months after downloading the free Standard version and the updates have all been free since then, too.  The program has a lot of bells and whistles I haven’t even begun to delve into but plan to do so when my Board of Certified Genealogy portfolio is done.  I also have made a New Year’s Resolution that I will stop saving records to my Ancestry tree and just save directly to Legacy.  It’s another adjustment but then I’ll have all the records (pictures) even if Ancestry becomes cost prohibitive or stops making some records available, which has already happened to me.

Hope this has helped!