Saturday, May 9, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Favorite Photo of Your Mother

It's Saturday Night, 
time for more Genealogy Fun!!


For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:


1)  This is Mother's Day weekend, so please go through the photographs you have of your mother and share your absolute favorite photograph of her.  Just one.  Oh, tell us why it's your favorite, and tell us something about your mother, too.


2)  Share your photograph and story in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or on social media (e.g., Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, etc.).

Here's mine:



This photograph was taken on 29 August 1976 in San Diego on the University of San Diego campus.  This was the occasion of the wedding of my youngest brother, Scott (in the middle above).  

On this day, my mother, Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver, at age 57, looked radiant, elegant, and basked in the glow of having successfully nurtured her three rambunctious boys to the joys of wedded bliss, while keeping my father happy.  They had two granddaughters, with another on the way.  They would now finally have a truly empty nest.  I hope that she was thinking about the memories of her childhood, marriage, motherhood and education, and more.  

The next year was both sad and happy - we lost her father, Lyle Lawrence Carringer, on 5 November 1976, and her mother, Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer on 19 June 1977.  Another granddaughter was born in October 1976.  She and my father still lived in their home on 30th Street, but they would move to her parents home on Point Loma in 1978, and another granddaughter would be born in 1978.  

Life happens, and I think that this family photo is my favorite photograph of my mother. 

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Surname Saturday - WOODCOCK (England to colonial Massachusetts)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  


I am in the 8th great-grandmothers and I'm up to Ancestor #1113 who is  Mary WOODCOCK  (1653-1703) 
[Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 8th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through two generations in this WOODCOCK family line 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)

34. Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840)
35. Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1869)


68.  Aaron Smith (1765-1841)
69.  Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850)

138.  Amos Plimpton (1735-1808)
139.  Mary Guild (1735-1800)

278.  Nathianiel Guild (1712-1796)
279.  Mary Boyden (1708-1776)

556.  Nathianiel Guild (1679-1774)
557.  Mehitable Hartshorn (1683-1771)

1112.  Samuel Guild, born 07 November 1647 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 01 January 1729/30 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 2224. John Guild and 2225. Elizabeth Crooke.  He married 29 November 1676 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
1113.  Mary Woodcock, born 09 March 1652/53 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died before 1703 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  

Children of Samuel Guild and Mary Woodcock are:
*  Samuel Guild (1677-1750), married 1701 Sarah Jartshorn (1679-1750).
*  Nathaniel Guild (1679-1774), married 1708 Mehitable Hartshorn (1683-1771)
*  Mary Guild (1681-1768), married 1714 John Fuller (1684-????)
*  John Guild (1683-1684).
*  Deborah Guild (1685-1773), married 1707 Jonathan Fairbanks (1677-1735).
*  John Guild (1687-1767), married 1714 Abigail Robinson (1695-1793).
*  Israel Guild (1690-1766), married 1715 Sarah George (1695-1732).
*  Ebenezer Guild (1692-1774), married 1714 Abigail Daggett (1696-1798).
*  Joseph Guild (1694-1751), married 1723 Abigail Fisher (1692-1732).
*  Elizabeth Guild (1697-????), married 1723 Jacob Stanley (1683-1747).

2226.  John Woodcock, born before 12 January 1605/06 in Symondsbury, Dorset, England; died 20 October 1701 in Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 4452. John Woodcocke and 4453. Elenore.  He married before 1646 in Massachusetts, United States.
2227.  Sarah Curtis, born before 05 August 1627 in Nazeing, Essex, England; died 29 November 1676 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 4454. William Curtis and 4455. Sarah Eliot.

Children of John Woodcock and Sarah Curtis are:
*  Sarah Woodcock (1646-????), married Thomas Estabrook (1649-1713).
*  John Woodcock (1649-1718), married (1) 1673 Sarah Smith (1654-1676); (2) 1682 Sarah Judson (1651-1718).
*  Israel Woodcock (1652-1719), married 1682 Elizabeth Getchell (1662-1763).
*  Mary Woodcock (1653-1703), married 1676 Samuel Guild (1647-1730).
*  Thomas Woodcock (1657-1707), married Mary (????-1747).
*  Jonathan Woodcock (1658-1736), married 1698 Mercy Williams (1669-1737).
*  Nathaniel Woodcock (1660-1676).
*  Deborah Woodcock (1663-1718), married 1683 Benjamin Onion (1659-1718).

Information about the John Woodcock family was obtained from:

*  Burton W. Spear, The Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630, Volume 26, New Ancestral Discoveries- Part 2 (Toledo, Ohio : the author, 1997).


*  John Leighton Woodcock, John Woodcock of Rehoboth, Mass. 1647 and Some of His Descendants (Chicago, Ill. : W.B. Conkey Company, 1913). 

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/surname-saturday-woodcock-england-to.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.



Friday, May 8, 2015

Genealogy and Ancestry on Twitter - You Can't Make Some of This Up!

I put "genealogy" and "ancestry" in the Twitter search field and found these (and many more tweets - lotsa spam now) posted in the last hour or two.  Who are these people?










Hmmm.  Twitter's not like it used to be!

I don't use it much any more.  Do you?

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/genealogy-and-ancestry-on-twitter-you.html


Merge Problems with RootsMagic 7 Interfacing With FamilySearch Family Tree

As I and others (James Tanner on Genealogy's Star, especially!) have noted, users of the FamilySearch Family Tree eventually get back in time far enough that Merges of duplicate profiles are not allowed to proceed.

I use RootsMagic 7 routinely to match a family or two in my database with profiles already in the FamilySearch Family Tree.  I do this in order to find information that might be useful to me, especially if the information is supported by a source, or to enrich the profiles in FamilySearch Family Tree with my own research - relationships, events, sources, notes, etc.

I worked in the Samuel Hubbard (1687-1753) and Sarah Clark (1681-1720) family today, matching them, their parents and their children to profiles in the Family Tree.  Here is the "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen on the "Share data" for Samuel Hubbard in RootsMagic after I matched him with Samuel Hubbard (LH22-VTL) in the Family Tree:


I need to match his parents (Jonathan Hubbard and Hannah Rice) and some of his children.  However, there are two sets of parents shown for Samuel Hubbard - they have the same names and birth years, so they are probably duplicate entries in Family Tree.

I usually select a parent from FamilySearch to match with my RootsMagic person because that works best.  But which one?  I looked at the Family Tree profiles and saw that the first one had more information than the second one, so I picked that one - Jonathan Hubbard (LVG1-CYS).

I clicked on the check box on the FamilySearch side for Jonathan Hubbard (LH22-VTL).  Here is the screen to match the Jonathan from Family Tree to my RootsMagic Jonathan:


On the screen above, I picked the action to "Match with RootsMagic..." and clicked on "OK."  I did the same thing with Jonathan Hubbard's wife Hannah Rice (MKSV-KGH).  The lines for Jonathan and Hannah turned green (the information in Family Tree agrees with my RootsMagic data).  I also matched their children in FamilySearch Family Tree with my RootsMagic children (and their lines turned green also).

I want to now match the second Jonathan Hubbard (KN6Z-YPL) to my RootsMagic Jonathan Hubbard.  I clicked on the check box for this Jonathan, and saw the Fact comparison:


Again, I clicked on the "Match with RootsMagic ..." action and clicked "OK."

A question box "Merge the records on FamilySearch?" opened:


Since I previously matched the first Jonathan Hubbard (LH22-VTL) to my RootsMagic person, I need to Merge the second Jonathan Hubbard (KN6Z-YPL) with the first Jonathan (LH22-VTL) so that they become one profile on FamilySearch.

When I clicked on "Merge records," the screen below appeared:


The FamilySearch Merge failed - the message says:

"Unable to Merge Persons.
There are too many previous merges."

This is a fairly common result for New England persons who lived in the 17th century.  The problem occurs when there are many duplicate profiles and many merges have been performed or tried, and the FamilySearch Family Tree cannot deal with the merge request.

Note that I did all of this from within RootsMagic.  I would get the same result if I tried to merge the duplicate profiles from within the FamilySearch Family Tree.

At this point, I usually stop and go to another ancestral family and match persons, add information to the Family Tree profiles, and move on.

My hope is that FamilySearch will solve the problems with these duplicate profiles.  My task, as I see it, is to not confuse the Family Tree system any more than it already is.  I can add data to the tree for families that are not tangled up and perhaps help other researchers while FamilySearch tries to straighten out the mess.

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 71: #86 John Hill (1765-1825)

Amy Johnson Crow suggested a weekly blog theme of "52 Ancestors" in her blog post Challenge:  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks on the No Story Too Small blog.  I am extending this theme in 2015 to 104 Ancestors in 104 Weeks. Here is my ancestor biography for week #71:

John Hill (1765-1825) is #86 on my Ahnentafel list, my 4th great-grandfather, married in 1788 to Ann Warren (1764-????).




I am descended through:

*  their daughter #43 Rebecca Hill (1790-1862), who married #42 John Rich (1791-1868) in 1815..  

*  their daughter, #21 Hannah Rich (1824-1911), who married #20 James Richman (1821-1912) in 1845.  
*  their son, #10 Thomas Richmond (1848-1917), who married #11 Julia E. White (1848-1913) in 1868. 
*  their daughter, #5 Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962),  who married #4 Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) in 1900.
* their son, #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983), who married #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) in 1942.
*  their son, #1 Randall J. Seaver (1943-....)

 =====================================================

1)  PERSON (with source citations as indicated in brackets):


*  Name:                     John Hill[1–2]   
*  Sex:                         Male   

*  Father:                   John Hill (1725-1769)   
*  Mother:                 Patience Ring (1725-1791)   
  
2)  INDIVIDUAL EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
  
*  Birth:                     about 1765 , Hilperton, Wiltshire, England   
*  Death:                   before 13 January 1825 (before about age 60), Hilperton, Wiltshire, England[2]
*  Burial:                 13 January 1825 (about age 60), Hilperton, Wiltshire, England[2]
  
3)  SHARED EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):   
*  Spouse 1:            Ann Warren (1764-    )   
*  Marriage:           21 July 1788 (about age 23), Hilperton, Wiltshire, England[1]

*  Child 1:               Rebecca Hill (1790-1862)   
*  Child 2:               George Hill (1791-    )   
*  Child 3:               Samuel Hill (1792-1793)   
*  Child 4:               Lucy Hill (1794-    )   
*  Child 5:               Samuel Hill (1797-    )   
  
4)  NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):   

John Hill was listed as age 59 at death in January 1825, so he was probably born in 1765 in Hilperton, Wiltshire.  He was the son of John and Patience (Ring) Hill, who had at least nine children between 1744 and 1765, six of whom were recorded in Hilperton parish registers.

The marriage record of John Hill and Ann Warren is recorded in the Hilperton, Wiltshire Bishop's Transcripts as[1]:

"July 21 [1788]  John Hill and Ann Warren both of this Parish by Banns"

The baptism of five children of John and Ann (Warren) Hill between 1789 and 1797 are in the Hilperton parish church records. 

John Hill's burial in Hilperton was on 13 January 1825, at age 59.[2]

5)  SOURCES
 
1. Church of England, Parish Church of Hilperton (Wiltshire, England), Bishop's Transcripts, 1622-1880, "Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, 1748-1812", Marriages: unnumbered page, John Hill and Ann Warren entry, 27 July 1788; accessed on  FHL BRITISH microfilm 1,279,404, Item 13.


2. Church of England, Parish Church of Hilperton (Wiltshire, England), Bishop's Transcripts, 1622-1880, "Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, 1813-1838", Burials, unnumbered page, John Hill, 13 January 1825, accessed on FHL microfilm BRITISH 1,279,404, Item 14.


=====================================

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-week-71-86.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Dealing with Information Overload - Russ Worthington's Presentation

I just finished watching Russ Worthington's presentation to a Washington DC Family History Center audience on 2 May 2015 - it is on YouTube and you can watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYLgdmNO0PI, or start it below:



In this presentation, which DearMYRTLE produced, you can learn about Russ's research process, including:

*  Use of the Research Overview chart
*  The Record Selection Table from  https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Record_Selection_Table
*  The Resource Checklist from  https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Resource_Checklist
*  Record Links (see Russ's spreadsheet)
*  Person Check List (see Russ's spreadsheet)
*  Research Log Form (see Russ's spreadsheet)

Russ's spreadsheet with all of these sheets is at http://bit.ly/CousinRussResearchSheets.  If you want to be better organized in order to deal with Information Overload, I recommend this spreadsheet.


There are sheets for each of the itemized subjects above at the bottom of the spreadsheet above.

Russ has found it useful to find Ancestry Leaf Hints in a specific database for persons in his Ancestry Member Tree.  He can mine each specific database for all of the Hints for persons in his AMT, and  add events, source citations and media to his Family Tree Maker genealogy database.  This is very efficient since the same master source citation can be used until the Hints are exhausted for the database.  

In the presentation, Russ describes how he uses the Research Log and To-Do Item features built into the Family Tree Maker 2014 genealogy program.  For every Hint that he finds for a person in his Ancestry Member Tree, he adds the information to his Research Log for the person.  He adds other research items that he finds from his daily research efforts to his To-Do List so he can perform the task noted efficiently.

You can see how Russ, and I, do the searching a specific Ancestry database by reading my blog post Tuesday's Tip - Search Ancestry.com Hints by Record Collection (27 January 2015) and watching the demonstration in the YouTube video highlighted in my blog post Demonstrating Adding Ancestry.com Hints in a Specific Database to my RootsMagic Database (30 October 2014) which is part of the DearMYRTLE Wacky Wednesday series.

I enjoyed watching Russ's 60 minute presentation, and I recommend it for your viewing if the subject is of interest to you.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/dealing-with-information-overload-russ.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


MyHeritage Releases Redesigned Mobile App for Family History

I received this press release from MyHeritage today:


=======================================



TEL AVIV, Israel & LEHI, Utah--()--MyHeritage, the leading destination for discovering, preserving and sharing family history, announced today the release of a completely redesigned version of its mobile app. The enhanced MyHeritage mobile app for iOS and Android enables families around the world to build their family tree, instantly discover ancestors and relatives, and preserve and share their legacy, all with a better looking and more intuitive interface. As part of the company’s strong focus on mobile products, MyHeritage also announced the opening of an additional engineering office in Tel Aviv for its rapidly expanding mobile development team.
The Android version was recently selected by Google as a “featured app” in more than 100 countries, making MyHeritage the first company in the family history industry to receive such recognition.So far more than 4 million people have downloaded the MyHeritage app, and its usage is growing worldwide. Within the last 3 months, the MyHeritage app for Android has ranked in the top 100 apps in its category on Google Play in 40 countries. In addition it is currently ranked in the top 5 apps in its category in Denmark and Norway in both Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
“The surge in popularity of the MyHeritage app is a testament to the increasing demand for high-quality mobile products for family history”, said Mike Mallin, Chief Product Officer at MyHeritage. “MyHeritage focuses on enabling everyone to make fascinating discoveries that are instant and meaningful. Our redesigned app is instrumental in achieving this through a much improved user experience. Together with our dedicated and rapidly growing team of mobile experts we plan to explore new frontiers for our users in 2015 and beyond.”
The MyHeritage app is available for free on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Watch a brief video about the MyHeritage mobile app.

About MyHeritage
MyHeritage is the leading destination for discovering, preserving and sharing family history. As technology thought leaders, MyHeritage is transforming family history into an activity that’s accessible and instantly rewarding. Its global user community enjoys access to a massive library of historical records, the most internationally diverse collection of family trees and ground-breaking search and matching technologies. Trusted by millions of families, MyHeritage provides an easy way to share family stories, past and present, and treasure them for generations to come. MyHeritage is available in 42 languages.www.myheritage.com
====================================
Astute readers of Genea-Musings will recall that I wrote three weeks ago about this redesigned MyHeritage mobile app in:

Where are the Sources?  Where are the Notes?  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/myheritage-releases-redesigned-mobile.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 261: 1827 Bounty Land Warrant Claim of Martin Carringer

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the  1827 Land Warrant claim by William Marks for the land awarded to Martin Carringer for his service in the Revolutionary War:


The column headings for this record are on an earlier page:


The transcribed information for the Martin Carringer record is:

*  When presented at the Treasury:  April 17 [1827]
*  By whom presented:  Wm. Marks /Senate/
*  Number:  1259
*  Name of soldier  Martin Carringer:
*  Grade:  Pr[ivate]
*  Name of patentee:  Martin Carringer
*  Acres:  100
*  Location - Lot:  3
*  Location - Section: 3
* Location - Township:  8
*  Location - Range:  6
*  Remarks:  17 April 1827, sent to Wm. Marks Senate same day

The source citation for this record is:

"U.S. War Bounty Land Warrants, 1789-1858," digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 April 2015), 1806 Warrants: 1100-2119; 1835, 1842, and 1848 Warrants: 1299-2479 (Partial Collection), No. 1259, Martin Carringer, awarded 8 December 1827, image 369 of 1069; citing U.S. Revolutionary War Bounty Land Warrants Used in the U.S. Military District of Ohio and Relating Papers (Acts of 1788, 1803, and 1806), 1788-1806; Microfilm Publication M829, 16 rolls; ARC ID: 635444. Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Record Group 49; National Archives at Washington, D.C.

The Ancestry.com database description provides information about this dataset:

"The warrants for Revolutionary War service were issued under acts of July 9, 1788, March 3, 1803, and April 15, 1806.
"The 1788 act gave free land in the public domain to officers and soldiers who continued to serve during the Revolutionary War or, if they were killed, to their representatives or heirs. The resolution provided that a private or noncommissioned officer would be entitled to 100 acres of bounty land, an ensign to 150 acres, a lieutenant to 200 acres, a captain to 300 acres, a major to 400 acres, a lieutenant colonel to 450 acres, a colonel to 500 acres, a brigadier general to 850 acres, and a major general to 1,100 acres.
"A 4,000 square mile tract was located in the Northwest Territory and was set aside for these land warrants. This area came to be known as the U.S. Military District of Ohio. Originally the lands in this district were to be distributed by January 1, 1800. By the end of 1802 about 14,000 warrants had been issued. However, additional time was needed to locate warrants and to grant warrants to soldiers with late applications or uncompleted claims. Congress passed the act of 1803, which was later amended by the act of 1806, to extend the time limit."

It appears to me that Martin Carringer received Bounty Land Warrant 1259 for his Revolutionary War service as a private, and in 1827 he sold or gave it to William Marks who presented it to the U.S. Treasury to claim the land in what was the U.S. Military District of Ohio.  Martin Carringer's 100 acres was in Lot 3 of Section 3 in Township 8 in Range 6.  

Now I need to find out where that was.  I found a map of the U.S. Military District of Ohio on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_District#/media/File:US_Military_Dist_(Ohio).png):


If the Range is the circled numbers along the bottom boundary of the District, and if the Township number is the number in each square, then Township 8 in Range 6 is in the southern part of Holmes County, Ohio.

Martin Carringer did not settle on this land.  He probably received the warrant in about 1800, and  saved the warrant until he sold or gave it to William Marks in 1827.  

Who was William Marks?  He was a United States Senator for Pennsylvania from 1825 to 1831, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Marks_%28Pennsylvania%29).   

Martin Carringer is my 4th great-grandfather, and served as a private for several years in the Revolutionary War.  He received a Revolutionary War Pension in 1820.  This record indicates that he received 100 acres of land in the Military District of Ohio for his service, and sold or gave it to Senator William Marks in 1827.

Well, that was fun!  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/treasure-chest-thursday-post-261-1827.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Checking Out the FamilySearch Central Feature in RootsMagic 7

I had not looked at the "FamilySearch Central" feature in RootsMagic 7 for months, so I was surprised a bit today when I checked it out.  I have been matching persons and events in my RootsMagic 7 with the FamilySearch Family Tree several times a week in an effort to add or correct entries in Family Tree, and perhaps to find useful information in the Family Tree to add to my RootsMagic file.

1)  The "FamilySearch Central" feature is accessed through the "File" dropdown menu in RootsMagic 7:


After clicking on the "FamilySearch Central" link, the window opened:


The "FamilySearch Central" window has four icons at the top - for "Find matches," "Share data," "Import" and "AutoMatch."

2)  I clicked on the "Find matches" icon and the index of my RootsMagic persons appears on the left. The ones that are already matched have a blue Match icon.  The ones that are not matched have no icon.  If I pick one of them, then I can see the information in my RootsMagic database and it finds possible matches in the FamilySearch Family Tree:


As you can see on the example above, I have an exact birth date and a spouse's name that could be added to the FamilySearch Family Tree.  All I have to do is click on the small box to the left of the Family Tree name to match these persons.

I did that, and the person in my RootsMagic database is matched to the person already in FamilySearch Family Tree.

3)  Back on the "FamilySearch Central" window, I clicked on "Share data" icon and found the same person on my RootsMagic person list:


Using the screen above, I can share my RootsMagic information with the Family Tree profile, or vice versa.

4)  The third icon on the "FamilySearch Central" window is the "Import" icon:


If I was starting a new RootsMagic database, I could populate it with information from the FamilySearch Family Tree.  If I am in the Family Tree, I could check the "Me" as a Start person.  If I wanted to add a branch from the Family Tree, I could check "The FamilySearch person with this ID," determine the profile ID number from Family Tree and insert it into the field.  I could select any number of ancestor or descendants generations.  I haven't done this, but it can be done if you trust the information in the Family Tree.  I don't know if Sources and Notes come across (my guess is that they don't), but I'm pretty sure that names, vital dates and places, and relationships come across.  I don't know how extensive the data is for siblings of ancestors.  I guess I could do this in another post.

Why would I want to do this?  If I were performing a One-Name study (say, finding all "Seaver" persons) I could go to the earliest Seaver ancestors in Family Tree, note the profile ID number, and add descendants of the earliest ancestors to my database.  If I was looking for distant cousins who might be DNA matches, or might hold useful family history records, I could easily add many descendants of an ancestor.  The problem with doing this is that the names, dates, places, notes (?), sources (?), and relationships may be inaccurate.  Downloader beware!!

5)  The "AutoMatch" icon on the "FamilySearch Central" window allows a user to set RootsMagic off to automatically find matches in the FamilySearch Family Tree:


The text in the AutoMatch window says:

"AutoMatch will try to find FamilySearch matches for each unmatched person in your RootsMagic file.

"RootsMagic will automatically match your person to FamilySearch, but no actual data will be transferred between your database and FamilySearch.

"AutoMatching can take awhile if you have a large RootsMagic file."

I didn't do this either, but I may try it out later in a separate RootsMagic file.

6)  The "FamilySearch Central" window also tells me, at the bottom, my "Status" - how many of my RootsMagic persons have been matched to profiles in the FamilySearch Family Tree:

Currently, I have 6,230 persons matched, and 38,532 not matched.   I don't know how many persons in my RootsMagic database are NOT in the Family Tree - I would have to AutoMatch the RootsMagic file to find out.

7)  I prefer to manually match my RootsMagic persons family by family rather than match them automatically or by typing data directly into the FamilySearch Family Tree.  This way I can add or edit information systematically one family at a time.  I started out matching my ancestral families, but have started doing some of my Seaver and Carringer one-name study families.

The FamilySearch features built into RootsMagic are the easiest way for me to match persons in my RootsMagic database with persons in the Family Tree, and to share content for a person between the two tree systems.  I can add Notes and Sources to the Family Tree or to RootsMagic in this system also.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/05/checking-out-familysearch-central.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


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