Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Genealogy Research through I Ching

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Dear genea-philes -- it's Saturday Night -- time for more Genealogy Fun !!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  The writer of the Nuts from the Family Tree blog wrote about her question for the I Ching ( Book of Changes) guru in Cluless No More.  I thoguht that this might be a fun thing to do on Saturday night.

2)  Go to http://IChingOnline.net and ask a question relating to your genealogy research.  You can "throw the coins virtually" or "throw the coins by hand."  You have to click the "throw" button six times, then click on "Read."

3)  Report the question you asked and the answer you received, in the form of the Cast Hexagram (which explains the situation you are now in, or what has gone before), to your readers.  

4)  Does the answer make any sense to you?  How do you interpret the answer?

4)  Write your own blog post about this, or post a comment on Facebook or Google Plus, or write a comment on this blog post.

Here's mine:

My question was:  Will I ever find the parents of William Knapp?

My Cast Hexagram:


The Cast Hexagram I received was number 30 - Igniting.  There are two parts to this Cast Hexagram.  The first is:

Fire sparks more Flames:
The Superior Person holds an inner Fire that ignites passion in every heart it touches, until all the world is enlightened and aflame.

With so searing a flame, success will not be denied you.
Take care to be as peaceful and nurturing as the cow in the meadow; you are strong enough to be gentle.

The second is the situation analysis:

A Promethean flame is delivering light and heat to the situation at hand.
This radiance will cause such an alchemical transformation of circumstances that the changes will seem magical, miraculous.
Yet they are only shifts of perspective and attitude that bring clarity.
The passions kindled by this fire must be harnessed and used judiciously, or they threaten to consume your hopes and dreams.


Hmmm.  That's scary - my passions threaten to consume my hopes and dreams.  Does that mean I should halt my research on this person in order to continue with my hopes and dreams?  Of what - long life, good health, finding Thomas Newton's parents? 

The home page directions say to go to the Trigram Symbols tab on the I Ching results page, click on "Custom Search" and the site will do a Google search on your question.  Here's my result:


The second and fourth ads say "We Found William Knapp."  That wasn't the question.  The question was "Will I ever find the parents of William Knapp?"  I know where William Knapp is. The search results found many mentions of William Knapp in the online genealogy world, and many in the current world.  None of them answer my question.  Dumb game?  Or a dumb question? Maybe I didn't play it right.

Maybe you'll have better luck.

Surname Saturday - WOOD (England > Massachusetts)

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It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 267, who is Susannah WOOD (1724-????), one of my 6th-great-grandparents. [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]

My ancestral line back through five generations of WOOD  families is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)

16. Isaac Seaver (1823-1901)
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith (1827-1884)

32. Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825)
33. Abigail Gates (1797-1869)

66. Nathan Gates (1767-1830)
67. Abigail Knowlton (1774-1855)

132. Simon Gates (1739-1803)
133. Susannah Reed (1745-1833)

 266.  Nathan Reed, born 03 January 1719 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 03 September 1795 in Washington, Sullivan, New Hampshire, United States.  He was the son of 532. Ebenezer Reed and 533. Huldah Blodgett.  He married  09 February 1742 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.
 267.  Susannah Wood, born 06 March 1724 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; 


Children of Nathan Reed and Susannah Wood are: Nathan Reed (1744-????); Susannah Reed (1745-1833).

534.  Josiah Wood, born 31 August 1687 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 04 January 1753 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 1710 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
 535.  Ruth Walker, born 04 December 1692 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died March 1752 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 1070. John Walker and 1071. Ruth Kendall.

Children of Josiah Wood and Ruth Walker are: Josiah Wood (1711-1730); John Wood (1713-1752); Joseph Wood (1715-????); Edward Wood (1718-????); Ruth Wood (1720-1744_; Solomon Wood (1722-1790);  Susannah Wood (1724-????); Mary Wood (1726-1775_; Phebe Wood (1729-????).

 

1068.  Josiah Wood, born 10 October 1658 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 09 March 1741 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.    He married 13 December 1686 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
 1069.  Abigail Bacon, born 05 March 1667 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 06 December 1743 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2138. Michael Bacon and 2139. Sarah Richardson.

Children of Josiah Wood and Abigail Bacon are: Josiah Wood (1689-1753); Lydia Wood (1689-????); Abigail Wood (1691-1739); Samuel Wood (1693-1745); Joseph Wood (1696-1713); Solomon Wood (1699-1699); Ruth Wood (1701-1736).


 2136.  Josiah Wood, born about 1629 in probably Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England; died 24 September 1691 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 28 October 1657 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.
 2137.  Lydia Bacon, born about 1637 in probably Winston, Suffolk, England; died 25 November 1712 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 4274. Michael Bacon and 4275. Mary.

Children of Josiah Wood and Lydia Bacon are:  Josiah Wood (1658-1741); Lydia Wood (1659-1659); Lydia Wood (1662-1681); Samuel Wood (1671-1711); Joseph Wood (1674-1725);  Ruth Wood (1676-1676).


 4272.  Edward Wood, born before 29 October 1598 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England; died 27 November 1642 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 8544. Lewis Wood and 8545. Margaret Holmes.  He married 02 February 1620 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England.
 4273.  Ruth Lee, born about 1605 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England; died 29 August 1642 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Edward Wood and Ruth Lee are: Elizabeth Wood (1620-1688); Ann Wood (1623-????); Obadiah Wood (1625-1694); Josiah Wood (1629-1691); Thomas Wood (1633-1687); Ruth Wood (1636-1697); Tabitha Wood (1641-1642).

Friday, August 19, 2011

FGS 2011 Conference - my Thursday, 8 September Selections

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The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) 2011 Conference, "Pathways to the Heartland," is September 7 to 10 in Springfield, Illinois. I'm looking forward to attending and being an Official Blogger.

The program schedule is at http://fgs.org/2011conference/program/index.php. I decided that I'd better think about the presentations I want to attend. Here's my list for Thursday, 8 September:

*  8:30 a.m.:  T-200: Opening Session and Keynote Address, with David S. Ferriero

*  11 a.m.: T-206: The Jones Jinx: Tracing Common Surnames, with Thomas Jones

*  2 p.m.: T-218: Reasons for not Serving in the Civil War, with Craig Scott

*  3:30 p.m.:  T-225: Online Member Trees: Ancestry's Powerful Tool Keeps Getting Better!, with
Ancestry.com

*  5 p.m.:  T-231: Pioneer Women on the Midwestern Frontier, with Laura Prescott

The Exhibit Hall Grand Opening is on Thursday at 10 a.m.
I'm sure that I'll wander through it several times talking to vendors, providers and friends.

Leo Severt Leland would be 100 Years Old today

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Leo Severt Leland was born 19 August 1911 in Gardiner, Montana, the son of Severt Oliver and Amelia Anna (Brocke) Leland.  He married Edna May Schaffner (1913-1979) on 11 September 1937 in San Francisco, California.  Lee died 10 June 2002 in San Jose, California.

Lee and Edna (Schaffner) Leland had two children, Linda and Paul.  Linda is married to Randall Seaver, and they have two daughters.  Lee was my father-in-law, and was a fine man who loved, enjoyed and helped his family throughout his life.

When I thought about this post, I realized that I don't have a detailed life story for Lee, nor an obituary. I'll have to ask Paul and Linda to write one.

His family and friends knew Lee as "Papa Lee" and Edna as "Mama Lee."  He and Edna bought a new home in the late 1930s at 1726 47th Avenue in the Sunset District of San Francisco, only two blocks from the Ocean Beach.  During World War II, he served as an Air Raid Warden for his neighborhood.  Lee worked at gasoline stations in San Francisco, and as a Standard Oil Company manager,  throughout his life.  The house on 47th Avenue remained in his possession until his death. 

The photo below is from 1977, on the occasion of his granddaughter's birthday:


Lee is, of course, holding the cake, Edna is holding her granddaughter Tami, his daughter Linda is on the left and Lee's granddaughter Lori is in front eating cake off her fingers.

I  first met Lee in late 1969 when Linda and I were dating, and then engaged to be married.  He and Edna were wonderful hosts in their home, and threw a great after-wedding party in their "basement" after we were married, where I met many of the extended Leland, Schaffner and McKnew families.  Linda and I visited San Francisco several times each year, and Lee and Edna visited Chula Vista occasionally.  After Edna died, Lee lived in his home until the late 1990s when he was moved to a San Jose assisted living facility.  He lived with Paul several times as he recovered from surgeries and falls.  We celebrated Lee's 80th and 85th birthdays with family and friends in San Jose, and his 90th with just close family in 2001.  There was a celebration of his life at a San Jose restaurant with family and friends after his death, with many stories and appreciation for his life and example. 

Lee's ancestor list features Norwegian and German ancestry.  Here are five generations:

Generation 1

1. Leo Severt Leland: born 19 August 1911 in Gardiner, Park, Montana, United States; died 10 June 2002 in San Jose, Santa Clara, California, United States.

Generation 2

2. Severt Oliver Leland: born 2 August 1878 in London, Dane, Wisconsin, United States; married 12 February 1904 in Helena, Lewis and Clark, Montana, United States; died 2 November 1940 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States.
3. Amelia Anna Brocke: born 1 November 1884 in Kendrick, Latah, Idaho, United States; died 30 July 1975 in Redwood City, San Mateo, California, United States.

Generation 3

4. Torger Sjursen Leland: born 26 March 1850 in Mølster, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; married 30 May 1876 in Deerfield, Dane, Wisconsin, United States; died 18 March 1933 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States.
5. Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig: born 16 May 1853 in Øvretun, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died 26 October 1911 in Madison, Dane, Wisconsin, United States.
6. Nicholas Brocke: born January 1855 in Michigan, United States; married 24 April 1877 in Cedar, Nebraska, United States; died 14 December 1938 in Lewiston, Nez Perce, Idaho, United States.
7. Anna Grieser: born 17 November 1859 in Saint Louis, St. Louis (city), Missouri, United States; died 19 March 1936 in Kendrick, Latah, Idaho, United States.

Generation 4

8. Sjur Torgersen: born 19 August 1804 in Tungeteigens, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; married 21 June 1850 in Vinje, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; died 29 March 1889 in Deerfield, Dane, Wisconsin, United States.
9. Brita Olsdatter: born 4 October 1818 in Midtun, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; died 3 September 1895 in Deerfield, Dane, Wisconsin, United States.
10. Elling Erikson Natvig: born 12 October 1820 in Eskestrand, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; married 19 November 1845 in Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died before 1900 in Cottage Grove, Dane, Wisconsin, United States.
11. Anna Ellingsdtr: born 18 July 1812 in Vatlestad, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died after 1900 in Cottage Grove, Dane, Wisconsin, United States.
12. John Brocke: born about 1825 in Germany; married before 1853; died 13 February 1891 in probably Vermilion, Clay, South Dakota, United States.
13. Christina Webber: born September 1831 in Germany; died after 1900 in Vermillion, Clay, South Dakota, United States.
14. Ignatius Grieser: born 30 January 1835 in Buhl, Baden-Wuerttemburg, Germany; married 1 May 1858 in Saint Louis, St. Louis (city), Missouri, United States; died before 15 June 1879 in Genesee, Latah, Idaho, United States.
15. Catharina Gute: born 19 September 1840 in Bavaria, Germany; died 16 November 1920 in Genesee, Latah, Idaho, United States.

Generation 5

16. Torgeir Olsen: born 19 June 1753 in Rørbakken, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; married 7 May 1796 in Voss, Hordaland, Norway; died 28 February 1827 in Gjelle, Voss, Hordaland, Norway.
17. Anna Sjursdtr: born 28 June 1772 in Grovu, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; died 16 August 1826 in Gjelle, Voss, Hordaland, Norway.
18. Olav Olavsen: born 2 January 1794 in Midtun, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; married 12 July 1818 in Vinje, Voss, Hordaland, Norway; died 6 May 1871 in Midtun, Voss, Hordaland, Norway.
19. Ingeborg Botolfsdtr: born 15 January 1792 in Bystølen, Voss, Hordaland Norway; died 19 November 1872 in Midtun, Voss, Hordaland, Norway.
20. Erik Hanssen: born 17 October 1779 in Eskestrand, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; married 27 October 1807 in Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died 7 April 1822 in Eskestrand, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.
21. Kristi Ellingsdtr: born 14 June 1781 in Flatland, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died 28 August 1851 in Kjørnes, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.
22. Elling Olssen: born about 1779 in Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; married 6 November 1804 in Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died 11 February 1833 in Vatlestad, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.
23. Brita Rasmusdtr: born 23 August 1783 in Vatlestad, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway; died in probably Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.
28. Franz Xaver Griesser: born about 1794 in Buhl, Baden-Wuerttemburg, Germany; married 17 April 1820 in Buhl, Baden-Wuerttemburg, Germany.
29. Maria Anna Weissenberger: born 1799 in Buhl, Baden-Wuerttemburg, Germany; died 27 March 1863 in Buhl, Baden-Wuerttemburg, Germany.

Follow Friday - Weekend Genealogy Fun

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Here are my recommendations for Genealogy Fun this weekend:

1) Listen to Geneabloggers Radio tonight (Friday night, 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT, 8 p.m. MT and 7 p.m. PT) hosted by Thomas MacEntee. This week's topic is  "Oh Give Me a Home – Genealogy and the Homestead Act." The special guests are:

*   Blake Bell of the Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Nebraska
Gail Blankenau a genealogist and land records expert
Amy Lauters of the Beyond Little House blog discussing Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family’s history with the Homestead Act.

2) Listen to the FGS Radio - My Society show on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 noon MT, 11 a.m. PT) hosted by Drew Smith this week. The topic is "Working With and Inspiring Volunteers." The special guests are:

*  Roger Moffat of the Western Michigan Genealogical Society.
*  Donna Moughty is our FGS 2011 Conference Speaker of the Week about upcoming presentations at the conference in Springfield, Illinois this September.

3) Check out the recent Webinars on:
"Newspapers for Genealogists: Using GenealogyBank.com to document every day of your ancestors' lives" with Tom Kemp.
"Google+ the Next Big Thing" with Paul Allen, Dan Lynch and Mark Olson (free until 25 August from Legacy Family Tree).
* "Organizng for Success" with Karen Clifford (available free indefinitely from Legacy Family Tree)
* "The Power of DNA in Unlocking Family Relationships," with Ugo Perugo (available indefinitely from Legacy Family Tree)
* "Leveraging the Power of "We": a Watershed Event in Discovering Where to Find Your Ancestors (Research Wiki, Research Courses, and FamilySearch Forums)," with Michael Ritchey (available from Legacy Family Tree).
* RootsMagic Webinars (all free) available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/
* National Genealogical Society (NGS) Videos (free to view) at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/videos_online

4) Respond to my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, posted on www.geneamusings.com soon after 12 noon Pacific time (that's 1900 GMT for those who understand time zones).

5) Go to a local genealogical society program, or go to a library or repository with genealogical resources. I'm going to the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meeting on Saturday morning to participate in the Cloud Computing SIG and to hear Hal Horrocks presentation on Rootsweb message boards and mailing lists.

6) Do you still have material in your "genealogy piles" that needs to be added to your genealogy software program? I collected 127 pages three weeks ago at Carlsbad Library, and have been slowly adding that to my database. 

7) Spend time with your family doing fun things.  We have my daughter and two granddaughters coming on Saturday for the weekend.  Lots of "making family history" here!

Whatever you decide, please tell us about your genealogy endeavors on a social network or in a blog post. You never know when your experiences may stimulate or encourage others to do useful genealogy work.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Dear Randy: How can I sync my files with my brother?

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I received an email this week from a reader who asked:

"I have Family Tree Maker 2011. My brother also has FTM.  We were trying to figure out how we might be able to sync our information with each other.  I have the program on a laptop and desktop.  I’d like to be able to update one or the other that I’ve entered new information in.  My brother called Ancestry, but they didn’t know of a program that would do that. 

"I’m wondering if you know what the best way to sync my laptop and desktop and/or share information between two trees without getting a lot of duplicate information."

My response:

You want a method to synchronize the same information between at least three computers - your desktop, your laptop, and your brother's computer. 

Most researchers keep a "master copy" on one system and then copy their file to a second computer using an external hard drive or a USB drive.  I add content to my database only on my desktop computer (unless I'm on the road), and then use the USB drive to copy it to the laptop every once in awhile. 

For your brother to share files with you, you could send him a CDROM or a USB drive every one in awhile.  Or you could use a service like Dropbox to transfer files.  Look at Dick Eastman's articles on Dropbox.  They offer 2 gigabytes of space for free.  There are webinars available about using Dropbox to synchronize files.

That works great for your syncing between your desktop and laptop computers - any time you're on the Internet it sync the files in the special folders.  I don't use Dropbox yet.

Any time either you or your brother changed the file, it could sync to Dropbox and you could have the other "pick it up" through a link to the file at Dropbox. 

I'm not sure if this would work, but it's worth looking into:  If your brother and you had one common Dropbox account, then any time you, or he, changed the file, then the file on the other computer would be changed.  In theory, that works as long as you keep the same file name.  One problem may be that if both of you change the same file at the same time, Dropbox may get confused.

Another site that has 5 gigabytes of free storage is SugarSync.  I'm using SugarSync now to sync some of my files (presentations and databases) between my desktop and laptop computers.  

Obviously, this works with other file types, like photographs, documents, spreadsheets, etc.
If my readers know more about this task, please comment with your observations and recommendations.

Footnote.com has a new name - Fold3 - and a new look!

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The press release today from Ancestry.,com proclaimed a new name for Footnote.com - Fold3.  The reason for the name change is to (from the www.Fold3.com site):

"...refocus our efforts on gathering the best online collection of military records and stories we wanted a name that would reflect military history and honor."

What does Fold3 mean?

"Traditionally, the third fold in a flag-folding ceremony honors and remembers veterans for their sacrifice in defending their country and promoting peace in the world."

So what does Fold3 look like?  Pretty much like what Footnote.com looked like yesterday, but with a new name and a little different presentation:

1)  The home page:


The page above looks somewhat different, aside from the name change.  The tabs across the top menu are "Home," "search," "Records," "Memorials" and "Spotlights."

The counter in the right hand column notes:

*  74,820,288 record images
*  99,292,381 memorial pages (the old "Footnote pages")

The "Records" tab has a dropdown list with  "List All Records," "Browse Records," and "Member Discoveries."  The "Memorials" tab has a drop-down list with "Search Memorial Pages,"  "Create a Memorial Page," "Popular Memorial Pages," "Viet Nam Wall," and "USS Arizona Memorial."

2)  At the top of the home page, there is an "About the change" link that leads to the Fold3 HQ Blog titled Footnote is now Fold3:


3) I usually browse specific collections to find historical records on footnote - I've found that I get too many matches when I do a keyword or person search. I clicked on the "Records" tab and "Browse Records" link to see:


I expanded the list above to see if anything was missing. The seven Military Record collections are listed in the left-hand column, and all other records are listed either in the "All Titles" or "Other Records" section. I chose "Other Records" and selected "American Milestone documents".

4)  I then chose "Newspapers" and went looking for "California" and saw the list of newspapers available:


5)  From the "Other Records" list, I chose "City Directories" and drilled down to "City Directories" and chose the District of Columbia, which has directories on Fold3 from 1822 to 1921.


6)  I clicked on the "Memorials" tab on the main menu, and searched for the Footnote Page I created for my second great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) some time ago:


It looks to me that everything that was on www.Footnote.com is still on www.Fold3.com, which is good.

Why would Ancestry.com change the brand name of a respected and semi-successful historical documents website?  Are more changes coming? 

More Help from Nick - Grieser records in Bühl

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As I noted in With Lots of Help from My Friends - the Grieser Birth Record, geneablogger Nick Gombash found the birth record of my wife's second great-grandfather, Ignatius Grieser, in Bühl in what is now Baden-Württemburg in Germany.  Knowing the birthplace, from Ignatius Grieser's marriage record, led Nick to find an online database with images from the Landsarchiv Baden-Wurttemburg database:

Bestand L 10: Badische Standesbücher (Geburts-, Ehe- und Sterbeeinträge) Waldshut, Waldshut-Tiengen WT; Amtsgericht. 
L 10 Nr. 5669: Buhl, Klettgau WT; Katholischwe Gemeide: Geburtenbuch 1810-1866
In English (using Google Translate):

Stock L 10: Badische able books (birth, marriage and death records); Waldshut, Waldshut WT; District Court

No. 10 L 5669
Buhl, Klettgau WT; Catholic parish: register of births 1810-1866 Buhl, Klettgau WT.
Here is the record from image 128 for the birth of Ignatius Griesser on 30 January 1835 in Bühl to Xaver Greisser and Anna Weissenberger:


I struggle to recognize any letter on this record, but I'm trying.  Nick thinks that the father's first name is Xaver.  That is also the first name of the clerk that wrote the record, and most of the other records in this particular ledger. 

Not satisfied with providing only this record the the basic information about the birth of Ignatius Griesser, Nick went the next step and found the marriage of Xaver Griesser and Anna Weissenberger 0n 17 April 1820 in Bühl in a marriage record on the same site:


Here is Nick's comment on my earlier post:

"Hey Randy.. the name is definitely Xaver. I found the marriage record for Xaver Griesser and Anna Weissenberger. (http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/plink/?f=5-497527) category L 10 Nr. 5671. When you navigate to the images, it's image 19 (Bild 19). It will come up as page 11 and their entry is number 3 (left side of the page).

"The year for these marriages is 1820. The date is in the first line of the paragraph: "siebenzehnsten Aprill"; April 17th. The groom is the 25 year old Xaver Griesser, son of Xaver Griesser and Katharina Keller. What's odd, is that I can't find the bride's name in the paragraph at all. There is no underlined bride's name like in the other marriages on these two pages. Her name is clearly written on the side though "und Anna Weissenberger".. and Anna Weissenberger. Strange.

"Stay on that page and look at the last marriage on the right page. The marriage date is "zehnsten Heumonat"; July 10th. The groom is Joh. (Johann) Z..? (middle name definitely begins with Z) Griesser. He is 21 years old and the son of Franz Griesser and Katharina Hofmayer. The bride is Monika Griesser. She is 24 years old and the daughter of Xaver Griesser and Katharina Keller.  Monika is a sister to Xaver! :)

"Also.. there's a Dörflinger marriage below the Xaver Griesser marriage. I wonder where Elyse's family is from? :)"

In the process of helping me, Nick may have found some of Elyse Doerflinger's relatives too!  How cool is that? 

Feeling like I should do something to add to this database, I decided to search the Births backward from 1835 hoping to find siblings of Ignatius Grieser.  I found one, Johan ?????? Griesser born in 1829 to Xaver and Anna, but could not read the date.  I proudly told Nick about that in email, and he came back an hour later with this list:

*  Anna Griesser on 25 Jul 1822 (Bild 68, entry 6)
*  Franz Xaver Griesser on 9 May 1823 (Bild 72, entry 13)
*  Kaspar Griesser on 5 January 1826  (Bild 81, entry 1)
*  Anna Maria Griesser on 5 March 1827  (Bild 86, entry 53)
*  Johan Baptist Griesser on 18 November 1829  (Bild 96, entry 3)

I suspect that I missed one or two entries for siblings of Ignatius between 1829 and 1835, and there may be others after 1835. 

I sure wish that Herr Zimmermann had better handwriting and that I could read the German script with the facility that Nick demonstrates! 

 It's likely that some of these siblings came with Ignatius, or joined him, in America and are in the St. Louis marriage records and/or the 1860 and later census records. More things to find!

My thanks, again, to Nick Gombash for his genea-heroic efforts to find my wife's ancestors.  I get by with lots of help from my friends!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ancestry.com and the 1940 U.S. Census

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While I was away (they plan this, I think!) this morning, Ancestry.com announced that 1940 U.S. CENSUS TO BE FREE ON ANCESTRY.COM.

In the fine print:

*  It will be available starting in mid-April 2012 in the United States. 

*  Free to access the index and images through the end of calendar year 2013.

*  There are 3.8 million images with 130 million records in the 1940 census.  (I'm assuming 130 names with entries in 45 columns).

See NARA is Looking for a Host and Search Engine for the 1940 U.S. Census and 1940 U.S. Census RFI Q&A for background information on the National Archives effort to image and index the 1940 United States census records.

Some questions:

*  Has Ancestry.com won the contract to freely host the census page images and index the census? 

*  If they haven't, then who has?  Or will? 

*  I thought the NARA requirement was to host the images and provide the index free of charge.  I don't recall any cutoff date.

*  I thought the NARA requirement was to have the index completed by 2 April 2011 when the 1940 census is supposed to be available.

*  If an organization other than Ancestry.com does win the NARA contract, how will Ancestry.com index and link to images the census starting by mid-April?

*  How long will it take Ancestry.com (and perhaps other providers) to complete the indexing and linking of the 1940 census?  Will it be completed by the end of 2013?

*  Will the indexes on Ancestry.com, and any other providers, be as detailed as the 1930 census is on Ancestry.com?  There are 45 fields on the form.

*  The press release notes that "...will be made free to search, browse, and explore in the United States..."  Does that mean that it won't be free outside of the United States?

Just wondering!  It's an interesting time to be a genealogy blogger, eh?

The Geni.com Changes Genea-Blog Compendium

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There has been a wealth of user feelings expressed about Geni.com's changes to their Free and Pro accounts.  I've been trying to capture them, so that readers can try to understand what happened and how the changes affect users.

Here is the current list of genealogy blogs addressing the Geni.com changes (in approximate order of first writing):

1) The Geni Blog:

Geni Pro Just Got a Whole Lot Better (11 August 2011, over 500 comments)
A Message From Geni’s CEO (17 August 2011, comments open)

2) Modern Software Experience (Tamura Jones):

*  Geni Changes (13 August 2011)
Geni Stats Down (23 August 2011)
3)  Genea-Musings (Randy Seaver):

"Geni Pro Just got a Whole Lot Better." But what about Geni Free? (15 August 2011)

4)  DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog (DearMYRTLE):

Geni.com didn't ask my opinion (15 August 2011)
Official Response from Geni.com (17 August 2011)

5)  Genealogy Insider (Diane Haddad):

Geni Draws Fire For New User Permissions (15 August 2011)

6)  Little Bytes of Life (Elizabeth O'Neal):

*    Dear Geni: It's Not Me, It's You (15 August 2011)
Geni: On the Fence (17 August 2011)

7)  The We Tree Genealogy Blog (Amy Coffin):

*   Where Keggers and Social Genealogy Intersect (16 August 2011)
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (17 August 2011)

 8)  Geneabloggers (Thomas MacEntee):

*    Geni: Stuck on Stupid  (16 August 2011)
Was I Too Rough on Geni? (17 August 2011)

9)  Ancestors Live Here (Leslie Ann):

*    Geni. - OH NO YOU DIDN'T! (16 August 2011)

10)  Scottish GENES (Chris Paton):

*   Anger at Geni.com (17 August 2011)

11) Genealogy by Ginger's Blog (Finger R. Smith):

Geni.com - It's not Just Me After all (17 August 2011)

12)  Clue Wagon (Kerry Scott):

In Which I Say “Geni” And “Crap,” But Not In The Way You Think (17 August 2011)

13)  Are My Roots Showing? (Jenny Lanctot):

You could've at least taken me to dinner first ... (17 August 2011)

14)  Karen About Genealogy (Karen Packard Rhodes):

The Geni Flap has Old Roots (18 August 2011)

Many of these posts have additional comments by readers, some of them are lengthy and full of information.

If you wrote a post about Geni.com changes, and it's not listed above, please contact me in comments or email (rjseaver@cox.net).

Last updated: 18 August 2011, 11:30 p.m.

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 20 August Features Hal Horrocks

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The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month (except December) from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. See the map page for directions.

The next meeting will be held on Saturday, 20 August 2011 from 9:00 am to noon. Here are the details:

9:00 - No user groups this month; SIG: Cloud Computing

10:00 - Break, refreshments

10:15 - Announcements, followed by the program:

Using RootsWeb Message Boards & Mailing Lists
by Hal Horrocks

The presentation looks at the importance of using Rootsweb to get your family history questions answered. Mr. Horrocks goes through the process of finding the right message boards and mailing lists, posting questions and answering queries. There are many examples given in the presentation that will make it easy for a participant to jump right in and start posting questions. Mr. Horrocks is currently Vice-President of the Orange County California Genealogical Society (OCCGS) in charge of programs. He also teaches an Intermediate/Advanced class on the first Saturday of each month for OCCGS.

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road, turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website http://irps.ucsd.edu/about/how-to-find-us.htm for driving directions and a map.

I'm looking forward to attending this meeting. 

WikiTree Traffic Jumps 30% - Why? What Will it mean?

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I received this press release this morning from Elyse Doerflinger of WikiTree:

-------------------------------

August 17, 2011: In the past week, traffic to WikiTree.com’s worldwide family tree has jumped by more than 30%. This translates into more than 2,000 additional visitors to our worldwide family tree every day.

More visitors means more ancestor matches. WikiTree user Jacky Gamble reported this new find: “I was so excited to get a message from a woman this morning …. I have had little luck researching this particular branch of my family tree, and she has been able to provide me with names, dates, locations and documents I have not been able to locate on my own.”

Tami Osmer Glatz, as WikiTree’s “Cousin Connector,” helps to facilitate these matches. She's constantly on the look-out for potential ancestor matches that users might not have found yet. It's up to the Profile Managers to decide whether and how the merge should be completed, but Tami is available to help provide guidance on good genealogical methods for resolving conflicting information.

With the new surge in traffic, Tami actually found a new cousin of her own. “I'm so excited! This weekend a new match appeared for one of my own very elusive ancestors, who had abandoned his family and disappeared in the mid 1800s. I've connected with one of his descendants through his next family, and she was as surprised to hear from me as I was to find her.”

About WikiTree: WikiTree's mission is to create a single worldwide family tree with which we can all freely connect our private family histories. We aim to strike the perfect balance between collaboration and privacy so that families can share personal information, photos, and memories, while at the same time growing a valuable genealogical resource with distant cousins and strangers. WikiTree is entirely free for everyone. There are no premium memberships. Privacy settings and access to profiles are managed by contributors. The service is supported by modest ads on public pages. Join our rapidly growing community at http://www.WikiTree.com/

----------------------------------

Some observers have theorized that this increase is because of the Geni.com restrictions on free accounts.  That may very well be. 

With the increase in traffic will come more GEDCOM uploads to the WikiTree database, which will mean more work for Tami Glatz, the Cousin Connector, and more matches with existing profiles on the WikiTree.

I like WikiTree because it is a true wiki, has customizable privacy controls, has an excellent graphics interface, offers some useful charts and widgets, and has excellent technical support.  And FREE.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 166: Betty in the Chicken Coop

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I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be Wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from the Seaver/Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the
1988-2002 time period:

This photograph is of my mother, Betty Carringer, taken in about 1922, and is in the Pentecost album.  She is sitting on a board or slab, and holding one chicken, while three others are strutting and pecking around her.  The chicken on the right is out of focus - I think that is because of having to scan the photo album without removing the pictures. 

I posted another photo of Betty with the chickens in Family Photographs - Post 62: Betty and the Chickens two years ago.  These two photos were probably taken at the same time, and they sent this one off to cousin Bessie (Auble) Pentecost and saved the other one.

The photo was probably taken by Betty's father, Lyle Carringer, in the back yard of their home at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

With Lots of Help from My Friends - the Grieser Birth Record

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One of the biggest benefits of blogging about genealogy, and having a significant readership, is that readers have much more knowledge and experience in different record types than I do.  I appeal to them once in awhile to help me out, and they always seem to come through.

That was the case this afternoon.  I posted Need Help with German (?) Location asking for help finding where the town of Bühl was in Germany. It was in the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1858 when Ignatius Grieser's marriage record was recorded, which is now Baden-Wuerttemburg.  Several readers commented on the blog post, Nick Gombash commented on Facebook and Taco Goulooze commented on Google Plus.  What does that say about using social media to full advantage?  I really appreciate all the help.

Nick Gombash, who writes Nick Gombash's Genealogy Blog, took some time to try to find other records for the Grieser family in Germany.  He posted on Facebook:

"http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/plink/?f=5-497525 When you follow the link, click on "Archivalieneinheit einsehen" under the category L 10 Nr. 5669. Navigate to image 128 (Bild 128), entry number 4. Birth of an Ignatius Griesser in 1835. The village is Bühl, part of the town Klettgau, within district Waldshut, in Baden.  The town is full of this Griesser family.. they're on every page!"

I clicked on the link and saw:


It's in German, of course.  I quickly installed Google Translate and it translated much of the text and buttons into English for me:


I had to do that for each page.  I finally found the right links to click, and saw:



There were  350 digitized pages in the dropdown menu.  Nick had told me to check out page 128, so I selected that from the dropdown menu:



The image for the page is at the bottom of the screen above.  There is a Zoom dropdown list in the menu line, so I clicked on 100% and saw:


Page 128 has the image of the start of the 1835 birth records in Bühl.  The record for the birth of Ignatius Griesser is the fourth item on the page.  Nick was able to translate some of it for me.  He thinks it says that Ignatius Griesser was born on 30 January 1835 at 5 o'clock in the afternoon to ????? Griesser and Anna Weissenberger (?).  The German script is difficult to read.  Nick is still working on the first name of the father of Ignatius.  It is also the first name of the clerk (Mr. Zimmermann?) that recorded many of the entries in this book in the time period, so there are many examples to look at for clues.  

How did Nick accomplish this?  How did he find this particular record?  Did he start in about 1830 and work his way through the book?  Or did he start in about 1840 and work backwards in time?  I don't know, but he found it in less than one hour after I posted my blog post.  Is there an index available online?  I don't think so.  I hope he tells us about the search to find it.

I've enjoyed finding the record online, then trying to figure out what the names are.  I used the German script table on the Smoot Family Association website - http://www.smoot-family.us/germanhand/ - to try to decipher the father's name. 

Thank you so much to Nick Gombash for geneablogger research far above the hoped-for level.  Genea-Musings readers and Geneabloggers are really the best! 

My wife wondered what I did all afternoon, since I did none of the chores she had planned for me to perform.  I told her at dinner that Nick Gombash had found the birth record of one of her second great-grandfathers.  The conversation went like this:

"Who?" she asked. 

"Ignatius Grieser" I said. 

"She: Who?" 

Me: "Your father's mother's grandfather." 

She:  "That's nice.  Who's Nick?  Do you know him?" 

Me: "He's a geneablogger friend that I've never met.  We owe him big-time." 

She:  "Great.  Where does he live? When can we go?"

Me:  "I don't know.  Sometime."

Need Help with German (?) Location

...
I know how smart and experienced my Genea-Musings readers are, so I'm quite sure that someone can figure out what this record says:


This is from the Ancestry.com collection of:

"St. Louis, Missouri Marriage Records, 1804-1876," online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), St. Louis Records, 1860, page 516 (penned), image 218; citing original data from: St. Louis Genealogical Society. St. Louis Marriage Index, 1804-76. St. Louis, MO, USA: St. Louis Genealogical Society, 1999.

My transcription of this entry is:

State of Missouri)  Joined by F.A.H. Schneider Justice (?) in the Bonds of Matrimony 
County of St. Louis) this first day of May 1858 Mr. Ignatz Griser of the City of St. Louis
Missouri late of ????? Grand Duchy of ????? and Miss Catherine Gute of the same place
late of Rhenish Bavaria  Certified J.A.H. Schneider Justice of the Peace
Filed & Recorded May 10 1862  A.C. Bemondy Recorder

I cannot read the two places mentioned for Ignatz Griser - are they Brihl, Brile, Buhl, Bule, Baihl, Baile, or some other combination.  The two look like "Brihl" and "Baile" to me. 

I know very little about the historical German states, and a Google search and Wikipedia search turned up no likely candidates.

This couple are two of my wife's great-great-grandparents.

What say you, smart Genea-Musings reader? 

I found an interesting anomaly while searching for this record.  I found it be searching in Ancestry Member Trees for Ignatius Grieser, and came upon this source in a member tree:



The database that this was obtained from is the "Missouri Marriages, 1805-2002" collection.  I clicked on the link on that page to show the image, and the page with the record appeared.  When I look in the Ancestry.com Card Catalog and search for "Missouri Marriages" this database does not appear, as shown below:


What happened?  Did the previous database get broken up into several other databases, by county?  If so, the links to the specific page must have been changed. 

Answers to my AncestorSplit Questions

...
After my post FamilySearch Affiliates Update - and Ancestor Split program yesterday, I received an email from Dovy Paukstys, the Chief Technology Officer at Real Time Collaboration, Inc. that answered my questions about the Ancestor Split program.

Here are my questions and Dovy's answers:

Q:  Will Ancestor Split only be available to use with FamilyInsight, or will there be versions that work from within other software programs, like RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Legacy, etc.? If so, which ones, and when will they be available? If not, it seems to me that FamilyInsight will quickly become the "gotta-have-it" genealogy program for researchers who want to use the New FamilySearch Family Tree online tree.

A:  Currently it's only a premium feature of SharingTime or a part of FamilyInsight. We already feel that FamilyInsight is the "gotta-have-it" programmer for researches who want to use New FamilySearch.  We doubt we will implement it in the other genealogy programs.

Q: Will Ancestor Split be the only product on the market that will perform this task?  Do I have to have a Sharing Time subscription in order to use Ancestor Split in FamilyInsight?

A:  It is a stand-along product when you order a SharingTime premium account. It's a perk of subscribing to SharingTime. We're not sure if it will be the only, but it was a bit of doing to develop. I'm going to give props to Ohana Software and John Vilburn for development of this product. They did this before Ohana Software was a part of the Real-Time Collaboration team.

Q:  Once persons are split by one researcher, what's to keep another researcher from merging them again? Perhaps this is when the "Discussion" feature in New FamilySearch will be used - hopefully, before the split so that there is not a merge battle between researchers.

A:  The same problem exists that someone can re-merge, but the difficulty of resolving it is now mitigated.
 
Dovy also offered these additional comments:

*  Outside of FamilyInsight (like you can download at SharingTime.com) it is a stand-alone product. You do have to have a premium membership to SharingTime. Once your account has been verified the application interacts with New FamilySearch directly. It works quite well and we've actually given it to FamilySearch as a free support tool. That's what their support staff is now using for split tasks. 
*  AncestorSplit just makes it easy. Say you have an ancestor that has been merged 50 times. We make it easy for you to separate out the parts you agree with and make a new person. It's really that simple.
  
Thank you to Dovy for the rapid response with answers and comments of my questions. 
I look forward to using Ancestor Split when I am using the New FamilySearch Family Tree and find that I need to disconnect persons from the rest of the tree. 

Tuesday's Tip - Use Old Fulton NY Post Cards for New York Newspapers

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Today's Tuesday's Tip is:  Use the Old Fulton NY Post Cards website (ww.FultonHistory.com/Fulton.html) to search for articles in New York newspapers.

If you have New York ancestors, or genealogy research targets, in the 19th and 20th centuries (actually 1795 to 2007), you may find interesting newspaper articles about them in the Old Fulton NY Post Cards newspaper collection.


The image above shows my search results in the left-hand panel, and the Fulton jukebox in the right-hand panel.  When you select an item in the search results, the image appears in the right-hand panel.

The list of newspapers, and the date range, included in this collection can be found by clicking on the "FAQ Help Index" button in the upper right of the screen, then clicking the link for the list.  The FAQ Help Index page also explains how best to search the site.

There are over 16 million newspaper pages digitized and OCR indexed on this site.  I have had wonderful success searching for Seaver family history items on this website.  Newspaper reports of births, marriages, deaths, accidents, employment, etc. have been found to add to my genealogy database. 

The Search box is fairly simple.  The user can:

*  Put search terms in the search fields, including Boolean terms.
*  Select "all of the words," "any of the words," "the exact phrase" and "Boolean" for the search terms from a dropdown menu
*  Check boxes for "Fuzzy searching," "Phonic searching," "WordNet synonyms," "WordNet related words," and "User-defined synonyms."
*  Select sort type by "hits," "date," "name" or "size"
*  Add file creation date to search for recently added data.

I found no way to limit matches to a certain date range.

Searches sometimes take quite a while to show up in the left-hand panel, so be patient.  500 matches appear at one time in the left-hand panel.

Here is how a match looks on the screen:


The user can zoom in or out, print the page, or save the PDF file (each page is a PDF) by using the "float-over" icons near the bottom of the image in the right-hand panel. 

While the OCR indexing of some of the pages is imperfect, it is a lot better than having to read microfilm of the newspaper "cold" at a local New York library.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Google Plus Webinar is Available

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Today's Legacy Family Tree webinar on Google Plus - titled "Google + - The Next Big Thing" is now available to view, for FREE, on this site:

http://www.millenniacorp.com/_videos/webin​ars/2011-08-15-googlep/2011-08-15-googlep.html



The guests on this webinar were:

*  Paul Allen of FamilyLink.com, who spoke about the website Google Plus (https://plus.google.com) - how it started, how it's grown, etc.

*  Dan Lynch (author of the book Google Your Family Tree), who spoke about and demonstrated how to use Google Plus.

*  Mark Olsen of FamilyLink.com, who spoke on and demonstrated how to participate in a Google Hangout - a video chat room.

My name came up on Dan Lynch's screen, showing one of my G+ Stream posts along with Dan's:


My Chula Vista Genealogical Society colleague, Susi Pentico, has been very active with Mark on Google Hangouts, and is shown below in a screen capture:


Noted genealogy blogger, Lorine McGinnis Schulze, was on the Google Hangout also, here's a screen shot of Lorine:


I thought that this webinar was very well done.  Paul's and Dan's presentation was in the traditional webinar form - slides with a voice over.  Mark's was done live with actual participants on the Hangout shown, while Mark spoke over them - that was risky from a technical standpoint, but it worked really well. 

If you have two hours, go check out this webinar at http://www.millenniacorp.com/_videos/webin​ars/2011-08-15-googlep/2011-08-15-googlep.html.  It will be available for free until at least August 25th.  You can purchase a CD of the webinar for $9.95 from the Legacy Family Tree Store here.

"Geni Pro Just got a Whole Lot Better." But what about Geni Free?

...
The Geni Blog posted Geni Pro Just Got a Whole Lot Better on 11 August, and it has generated over 400 comments already.  Most of the comments complain about the restrictions of the Free account side of www.Geni.com.  The blog post notes that:

"With this release, there are a few changes to the way search works as well. All users will continue to be able to find their close relatives, profiles they added, and profiles they follow. A Pro subscription is now required to searching through the 110+ million profiles on Geni to find new relatives to add to your tree.  Please note:
  • View and edit permissions have not changed. You can continue to view your close relatives and the entire historical tree, and you can continue to edit your closer relatives and profiles that you’ve added.
  • All users can continue to build a family tree of their close relatives for free, and invite their relatives to view and contribute to that tree.
  • Pros do not have any additional privileges on private profiles.
The Geni blog post provides some questions and answers about this change in the Geni free and Pro subscriptions.  Several Geni team members have responded to some of the user comments.  The overall tenor of the comments is hostile.  The issues seem to be:

*  Free users cannot add profiles further back than third great-grandfather
*  Free users cannot add fifth cousins or earlier to their tree
*  Free users cannot search for profiles of persons on the Geni.com tree.
*  Free users had no warning of a change, and are frustrated by it

I'm sure I've missed some issues in trying to summarizing this.

Geni.com has Terms and Conditions that subscribers signed up to (did they read them?), and seemingly can make any policy changes they wish to about access for Free and Pro accounts. 

It may be that Geni.com relents a bit on their changes for Free accounts.  One of the curators noted in a blog post comment:

"Hello fellow Geni users. I'm one of the volunteer curators on Geni, and I just want you to know that we're discussing all this amongst curators as well. We're just users like everyone else, and we haven't been 'elected' to represent the user community, but we're bringing all the issues together and I think we'll be able to be quite representative of what's on everyone's mind.

"The fact that we're seeing this uproar shows that we all enjoy Geni and that we care about its future.
The curator group that is actively collecting everyone's input should be in a position to communicate the user perspective to Geni as of this Monday. Stay tuned!"


Now, did the Pro account actually "get better?"  Some commenters disagree.  Here's one comment:

"I can see this was done to bring in more money, but in the long run this is going to hurt you. Pro users will no longer be able to entice their relatives to join and free users will no longer be attracted to join. Much of the content has been built by free users. We have suddenly lost this free benefit. As free users leave and less free users join, Pro users will then start to leave and the website will start to die. As a marketing director you should know this George. The community has been angered, and unless you do something fast to rectify it, Geni.com will die."

and:

"I hope you are listening to these comments. I am a pro user, but I absolutely do not see this as an improvement. The ability to work with members of my family who are not pro users (and never will be) is a huge benefit for pro users that you have just removed. If these restrictions had been in place when I started, I would most likely never have become a pro user.  Accept that you made a mistake and fix the errors. Then start communicating better as some of the other comments mention."

Read the whole thing if you have time.

For myself, I added about 1,000 persons to Geni.com several years ago via a GEDCOM upload.  They were my ancestral families back eight generations.  I want to add more generations soon, so that I can figure out cousin relationships to celebrities.  However, Geni no longer has a GEDCOM upload feature. 

I received a gratis one-year Pro account from Geni.com at the SCGS Jamboree as part of the Geneabloggers gift bag, which I greatly appreciate.  The AncestorSync program has potential to help me add content to the tree, but it is still in development and beta testing. So I'm waiting for AncestorSync to work flawlessly by interfacing with my RootsMagic tree and the Geni tree.  When it does, I will use AncestorSync to add content to my Geni tree.

Other genealogy bloggers commenting on the Geni.com blog post include:

*  Tamura Jones on Modern Software Experience:  Geni Changes
*  DearMYRTLE on DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog:  Geni.com didn't ask my opinion
*  Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog:  Geni Draws Fire For New User Permissions
*  Elizabeth O'Neal on Little Bytes of LifeDear Geni: It's Not Me, It's You
*  Amy Coffin on The We Tree Genealogy Blog: Where Keggers and Social Genealogy Intersect
*  Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog:  Geni: Stuck on Stupid
*  Leslie Ann on the Ancestors Live Here blog:  Geni. - OH NO YOU DIDN'T!
*  Chris Paton on the Scottish GENES blog:  Anger at Geni.com
*  Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog: Was I Too Rough on Geni?
*  Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog:  Geni: On the Fence
*  DearMYRTLE on DearMYRTLE's Genealogy BlogOfficial Response from Geni.com
*  Ginger Smith on the Genealogy by Ginger's Blog:  Geni.com - It's not Just Me After all

*  who else? 

If you have written a blog post on the Geni.com changes, please let me know. 

Last updated: 3 p.m. 17 August

If you have a complaint or helpful comment about these Geni.com changes, please make a comment on the blog post.  Commenting on my blog post won't help much, I think.

I think there are some lessons here for all online tree providers:

*  If it isn't broke, don't break it. 
*  Sense your customer base before a major change to access and permissions
*  Users will always balk at restrictions to the previous standard
*  Users will always appreciate expansions that provide them more access and capabilities.

I had one GeniWikiTree (www.wikitree.com) and WeRelate (www.werelate.org).  They are different, but the fit the requirements of my colleague, and free to use.