Saturday, February 11, 2017

Photos From Day 4 (Saturday) at #RootsTech 2017

Here are some photos from Saturday, the final day, of RootsTech 2017.

1)  Tim Sullivan was the first Keynote speaker, and highlighted a new feature on AncestryDNA called Genetic Communities.  These are areas where persons have similar genetic characteristics:


2)  Another Keynote speaker today was CeCe Noore of DNA Detectives:


3)  In the Expo Hall, here are DearMYRTLE and Linda Stufflebean:


4)  And Linda Stufflebean and me (shoot, eyes closed):


 5)  Abraham Lincoln was cruising the Expo Hall - here he is (Scott Fisher) and me:


6)  Two of my Aussie genea-mates - Jennie Fairs and Jill Ball:


7)  Me and Cheri Passey:


8)  Mr. Myrt (Gordon Erickson) and Roger Moffat, who has the longest collection of ribbons ever, I think - over 60:


9)  David Rencher and the Ancestry Insider:


10)  Tami Osmer Mize and cohort at the JoyFLIPS exhibit:


11)  Caroline Brooks (in red) at the Twile exhibit:


12)  Lisa Louise Cooke and Amie Bowser Tennant at Lisa's Genealogy Gems exhibit:


That's enough for now.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/photos-from-day-4-saturday-at-rootstech.html
Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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Photos From the #RootsTech 2017 MyHeritage Party

MyHeritage threw the second annual After Party on Friday night in Salt Lake city.  There was food, drinks, games, discussion, prizes and karaoke throughout the night.

Here are some of my photos from the evening:

1)  Here Linda and I are at our table - we had glow in the dark halos at this time:

2)  One of the best karaoke performances was by Jennifer Alford and Kathryn Hogan - I don't remember what the song was:


3)  Elizabeth Swanay O'Neal and Linda at our table:


4)  Kim Hovorka, Maureen Taylor, Janet Hovorka and Kathy Hinckley at their table:


5)  Dean Richardson, Amy Lenertz, AC Green and Michelle Goodrum:


5)  Devon Noel Lee and Amy Lenertz:


6)  Russ Worthington and me :


 7)  Caroline Brooks of Twile presented me with the printed Twile Infographic:


I didn't take many more photos at the party.  We sat fairly far away and were not facing the stage so I missed taking photos of many of the karaoke performances - I know David Lambert had a fantastic performance.

Our thanks to MyHeritage for hosting an excellent party!

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/photos-from-rootstech-2017-myheritage.html

Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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Day Three (Friday) at #RootsTech 2017

Friday at RootsTech 2017 was a very full day.  I managed to take more photographs and wrote some blog posts.  This was African Heritage Day at RootsTech.  The Mormon Channel on YouTube has the full video presentations from Friday:


My timeline:

*  Managed to make it in time to the Keynote talks - Levar Burton's address was moving and memorable, and the presentation of his family tree book afterward by Thom Reed of FamilySearch was beautiful - Levar was genuinely appreciative and surprised by it.  Ben Bennett of Findmypast spoke, as did a panel of Kenyatta Berry, Sherri Camp and Melvin Collier.

*  I went to the registration desk and bought an Expo Hall pass for Linda.  I called her, and went and picked her up at the hotel, and we walked through the Expo Hall.  We had lunch before the classes let out.  I went back to the Media Hub, taking photos the whole way.  Linda wandered around and spent about two hours before going back to the room.  I spent an hour or two in the Media Hub writing blog posts.

*  I watched one of Russ Worthington's presentation on FTM 2017 in the Family Tree Maker exhibit theater and then had a great discussion with Jack Minsky about the program sand saw a demonstration on FTM 2017.

*  Returned to the hotel at 4:30 p.m. and updated the blog compendium, then took a nap.

*  We left with Dennis and Gloria at 5:30 p.m. to go to dinner at Blue Iguana, and then to the Marriott for the MyHeritage party.  The party began at 8 p.m. and was fun, although the music was too loud for us.  We sat at a table near one of the food lines and talked to a number of folks who passed by and sat down with us.  That was fun.  We left after the 10 o'clock prizes were announced, and walked with Laura Hedgecock back to the Radisson through gale force winds and driving rain.  Even with raincoats and an umbrella, we got soaked.

*  I updated the blog compendium again, and got to bed about 11:30 p.m.

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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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#RootsTech 2017 Cake Competition Photographs

My friend, Dovy Paukstys, took photographs of all of the decorated cakes in the Cake Decorating Competition held today at RootsTech 2017.  He allowed me to share the link to his Facebook page with the photos - https://www.facebook.com/dovyp/media_set?set=a.10103195296816539&type=1&l=d1acce98b5.

I found the one I would vote for:


Isn't that great?  There are many others that are fun, beautiful and creative!

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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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MyHeritage Announces Consistency Checker for Online Trees

I received this information from Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage this morning:

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MyHeritage Announces Consistency Checker for Online Trees


I'm delighted to announce the launch of the new Consistency Checker for online family trees at MyHeritage. This new tool scans your family tree and identifies potential mistakes and inconsistencies in your data so that you can quickly make the necessary changes in your tree, improving its overall quality and accuracy.

At MyHeritage, we hold accuracy in high regard and the Consistency Checker is an important tool for family historians of any skill level. We hope it will improve the quality of collaborative genealogy as a whole.

More information is in the blog post here:
https://blog.myheritage.com/2017/02/new-online-family-tree-consistency-checker/

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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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Friday, February 10, 2017

OldNews USA Wins Top Honors at RootsTech 2017 Innovator Showdown

I received this information from FamilySearch today:

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OldNews USA Wins Top Honors at RootsTech 2017 Innovator Showdown



Old news, it seems, is actually “new” news. Very innovative news in fact. Today at RootsTech, the world’s largest family history technology conference, OldNews USA took top honors in the 2017 Innovator Showdown, walking away with $95,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. OldNews is an android app designed to help users quickly discover their family in historical US newspapers. The app uses the Library of Congress “Chronicling America” collection of more than 11 million newspaper pages from 1789 to 1922 to deliver its results.

In front of a crowd of close to 14,000 live and online viewers, the six RootsTech Innovator Showdown finalists battled for $199,000 in cash and prizes and bragging rights in the rapidly-growing, multi-billion dollar family history industry. An experienced amateur genealogist, Bill Nelson of Auburn, Massachusetts, designed the program as a solution to tedious, difficult online newspaper searches. The OldNews USA app was designed to simplify and streamline the search process.

Using keywords, users can look for newspaper accounts of a person or topic with the option to look at articles of historical events. In a person search, you type names and dates into your mobile device and choose a location on Google Maps which produces a list of newspapers in the targeted geographic area for a time period. It brings up images of the actual newspapers with the name or event you are seeking highlighted so you can quickly locate it on the page. Images can be enlarged for easier access to detail.

(See video demo of OldNews USA)

Nelson is a software developer by trade. “I was new to android and needed something to practice on. I had felt the pain points of newspaper research and thought ‘this would be a good project,’” he said. Initially he developed the app for his own use, then realizing it could help other researchers, he expanded it into a mobile app.

OldNews is compatible with Android devices, but Nelson is working to create an app for IOS devices and computers. With his winnings, he can now get business and technological assistance to accelerate development. While OldNews USA is designed to search US newspapers, he hopes to adapted the app for other countries.

The 5 finalists were whittled down from more than 40 applicants from the US and Europe. Each took three minutes to convince the panel of five judges and live audience that their product was deserving of a chunk of the $190,000 in cash and prizes.

The major sponsors of the Innovator Showdown this year included Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kickstarter Seed Fund, Sorenson Legacy Foundation, and others.

After each presentation, there was a four-minute question and answer period between each contestant and the judges. The judges then selected the top three winners, and the viewing audience selected the People’s Choice Award winner.

With $190,000 in cash and in-kind prizes and services from sponsors at stake—an increase of nearly $100,000 from the original projection—the pressure, tension, and energy of the event was tremendous.

2017 RootsTech Showdown Winners

First Place Judges’ Choice ($90,000 cash, AWS credits, and an investment from Kickstart Seed Fund), Bill Nelson of OldNews USA.
Second Place Judges’ Choice ($44,000 cash and AWS credits), The Qroma tag mobile app for embedding stories into pictures, tagging them by voice commands, and making the data accessible on various platforms.
Third Place Judges’ Choice Award ($26,000 cash and AWS credits), Louis Kessler, Double Match Triangulator, an app to help sort DNA matches into groups of relatives.
People’s Choice ($25,000 cash and AWS credits), Kindex, an app designed to help users create searchable, shareable archives of family letters and other documents using tags to help users easily locate information.
Emberall was the other finalist. It provides a method to capture and store pictures and videos creating an accessible archive.

The judges for the final round included Alan Doan, CEO of Missouri Star Quilt Company, John Richards, Founder and CEO of Startup Ignition, Kenyatta Berry, host of The Genealogy Road Show, Thomas MacEntee, founder of High-Definition Genealogy, and Dalton J. Wright, partner in Kickstart Seed Fund.

The Innovator Showdown, now in its third year, was designed to foster innovation in the family history industry.

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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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Day 3 at #RootsTech 2017 Photos

Here are some of the photographs from the RootsTech 2017 Expo Hall.

One of the significant changes from past years is the proliferation of small in-Expo theaters.  Lisa Louise Cooke started this several years ago, and now most of the major companies and some of the smaller companies have a small theater, with a large screen and microphone and 10 to 30 chairs, in their exhibits.  There is a lot of education going on in these theaters and a lot of customer-to-supplier information exchanged.

1)  Here is Russ Worthington teaching in the Family Tree Maker 2017 exhibit:

2)  One of the FamilySearch theaters:

3)  Diahan Southard teaching about DNA in Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems theater:


4)  Paul Woodbury teaching about DNA in the MyHeritage exhibit theater:


5)  At most conferences, geneabloggers collect the ribbons and attach them to their naetag badge.  Roger Moffat has the longest "tail" that I've seen so far this RootsTech - it's down to the floor, but then he's relatively short.  Don't look at his socks; I think he has another pair juyst like that at home.

6)  Linda came over to the Expo Hall today and I introduced her to Jim Shaughnessy of Findmypast who worked on her story in the Findmypast brochure:


7)  Near the main entrance, a young man dressed as a tree was advertising the new online family tree program called RootsFinder; if you look closely, you can see three birds on his branches:


I have more photos, but I'll share them another time.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/day-3-at-rootstech-2017-photos.html

Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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New Records Available To Search This Findmypast Friday, 10 February 2017

I received this information from Findmypast this morning:

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New Records Available To Search This Findmypast Friday



Over 31 million new records are available to search this Findmypast Friday, including;

Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms

Discover your Catholic ancestors from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in this first record release from an agreement we've made with the Roman Catholic Church to digitise their unique records for the first time ever. These baptism records list your ancestor's name, their parent's names, and their residence at the time.

Additional information that you may find from the images include place of birth, sponsors, minister who performed the ceremony, and notice of marriage. Catholic priests were charged with noting all vital events of their parishioners. If, for instance, a parishioner married outside her home parish, the priest who performed the marriage would contact her priest to confirm she was baptised and to share the details of her marriage, hence the marriage notice in the baptism register.

Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish Marriages

View a transcript and image of your ancestor's marriage register from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. As well as details such as the couple's names, and marriage date and location, you may also find dates and locations of the couples' baptisms.

All our Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish records are from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, covering Bucks County, Chester County, Delaware County, Montgomery County, and Philadelphia County. Originally formed as a diocese in 1808 by Pope Pius VII, it was made a metropolitan archdiocese in 1875. The Catholic Church has had a presence in the area since as far back as William Penn's founding of the Province of Pennsylvania in 1681.

Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish Registers Browse

In this browse-only search, you can navigate through each of the 199 sacramental registers that make up the Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish Registers, in their entirety, to discover all there is learn about your ancestor's connections to the church.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Births & Baptisms

Provided by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, these records include images from a variety of sources ranging from the late 1600s to the mid-1900s. Each result has both a transcript and an image of the source document (e.g. original registers, historical society publications, etc.).

This collection is part of a larger body of work that will be published on Findmypast over time. It is important to note that this may not be the only place to find births or baptisms—and there may be records included that are not births or baptisms — in this material from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, rather these were the records that we were able to identify as largely composed of births and baptisms.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Deaths & Burials

As well as details such as name, date of death and burial, parish and diocese, you may find information on your ancestor's military service, age, birth date, or spouse and children. Some even include tombstone inscriptions.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Marriages

Pennsylvanian marriage records ranging from the early 1600s to the late 1900s. You can view a transcript and the original image.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Congregational Records

Gain an insight into your ancestor and the church they attended. Images can include lists of past ministers and those baptised and confirmed, as well as church histories. The lists of confirmations and communicants may also provide the names of parents and spouses.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Word War II Casualty Cards

These cards were created by the Army so if something happened to a local soldier, the newspaper wouldn't have to scramble for the information. These records are particularly relevant in light of the fire at the National Archives and Records Administration in the 1970s when most World War II personnel files were destroyed.

Westminster Roman Catholic Census 1893

As well as the typical information you would expect from a census (occupation, address, birth year, etc.), notes detailing the local priest's opinion on your ancestor's faith and dedication to the church let you find out if your ancestor was a good or bad Catholic.

England Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms

See the record of your ancestor's baptism. The amount of information in each record varies depending on the age of the record, its legibility, and the amount of information recorded by the parish priest at the time of the event. All England Roman Catholic parish records released this week are from the Birmingham and Westminster archdioceses.

England Roman Catholic Parish Burials

View original burial registers to discover more about your ancestor. Every record includes a transcript and an image of the original sacramental register, while some provide additional information such as your ancestor's parents' names or burial plot.

England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages

Discover where and when your ancestor was married, along with witnesses' names and the names of the married couple's fathers.

England Roman Catholic Parish Congregational Records

Did your ancestor receive confirmation? Were they a benefactor of a parish? Explore thousands of Roman Catholic congregational records from Birmingham and Westminster to discover your ancestor's relationship with his local parish.

England Roman Catholic Parish Registers Browse

Browse all 747 volumes of the Birmingham and Westminster Archdiocesan Archives from start to finish. The volumes span from 1657 to 1907, listing marriages, baptisms and births, burials, and congregational records including anniversary books, confirmation lists, parish diaries, and more.

US Marriage Records

Had no joy searching our US marriage records collection for your ancestor? We've just added 26,000,000 new records, so it's definitely worth another look.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/new-records-available-to-search-this_10.html

Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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MyHeritage Launches Photo Discoveries (tm)

I received this information this morning from MyHeritage:

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MyHeritage Launches Photo Discoveries™



Exclusive feature delights users with photographs of their ancestors and relatives, added to their family tree in one click

TEL AVIV, Israel & LEHI, Utah, February 10, 2017 – MyHeritage, the leading international family history and DNA company, announced today the launch of Photo Discoveries, an innovative feature which transforms family trees by automatically adding matching historical photos. A Photo Discovery provides users with a set of photographs of ancestors and relatives they may have never seen before, originating in family trees contributed by others. Users can add the photographs to the matching profiles in their family tree, in a single click.  

Layered on top of MyHeritage's highly accurate Smart Matching™ technology, which locates matching profiles in other family trees, and Instant Discoveries™, which enable users to add entire branches to their family tree in just a few clicks, Photo Discoveries identifies the profiles that have no photographs in the user's family tree and provides photographs of these individuals from matching profiles on other family trees.

Users can add up to ten photographs per Photo Discovery, reject specific ones they do not wish to receive, and apply Photo Discoveries as many times as they would like. The photographs are then copied over to the associated profiles, preserving all useful metadata such as people tags, dates and place names.

“At MyHeritage we’re constantly brainstorming innovative new ways to make our industry-leading matching technologies even better,” said MyHeritage Founder and CEO Gilad Japhet. “Receiving a never-seen-before photograph of an ancestor is a delightful emotional experience, and one that we would like our users to enjoy as often as possible. Photo Discoveries deliver this and fulfill the promise of collaborative genealogy in a slick and gratifying one-click experience."

Viewing Photo Discoveries in thumbnail form is free. Applying Photo Discoveries to one's family tree requires a PremiumPlus or Complete subscription on MyHeritage.


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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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Thursday, February 9, 2017

Day Two at #RootsTech 2017

Here is a quick summary of my Day Two at the RootsTech 2017 Conference in Salt Lake City.

*  Up by 6:15 a.m., read email and blogs on the phone, and ate breakfast in the Radisson Cottonwood Room (this is a free buffet breakfast for RootsTech registrants as part of the room rate).

*  Left at 7:30 a.m. to get to the Keynote session.  This is quite a hike from the Radisson - in on the first floor, escalator to the second floor, a climb up a ramp to a higher second floor, then an escalator down to the first floor.  They built this in two sections that shared the Expo Hall - you have to go through the Expo Hall or do the climbs.  It's big!

*  Sat with Amy, Amy and Cheri on my left and Peggy and Amie on my right for the Keynote.  Jason Hewett kicked it off with some oldies songs we sang along with, then Steve Rockwood (President of FamilySearch) told some family stories and ate ice cream in front of us, and updated us on FamilySearch.  Then the Property Brothers entertained for 45 minutes (too long?) with little family history content - funny but forgettable.  Finally, Aaron Godfrey of MyHeritage showed us 15 minutes about the features of MyHeritage DNA.

*  It was after 10 a.m. when we hightailed it to the Media Hub, which was already busy with the Property Brothers giving interviews and taking selfie shots.  I settled in on my usual table, got out the laptop, and wrote a blog post.  At 11 a.m., I packed up and did my first talk at the MyHeritage exhibit on "Getting the Best Out of Record Matches."  The microphone kept overloading for some reason.

*  I briefly went back to my Media Hub table, then headed for 355B for the MyHeritage lunch.  The lasagna was pretty good.  Gilad Japhet (CEO of MyHeritage) was the lunch speaker,  He spoke about three new features - Photo Discoveries, Consistency Checker and MyHeritage DNA, plus a short chart on the future of genealogy.

*  I was back at the Media Hub by 1:15 p.m., and updated the blog compendium and talked to my colleagues.  It was fun to meet Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer of The Family Locket blog,  I walked a bit around the Expo Hall near the Media Hub and took some photos, but not many.

*  At 2:45 I started off across the street to the Marriott for my interview with a person of interest.  That was a fun hour.

*  Back at the Media Hub after 4 p.m., I wrote two blog posts and called it a day at 5 p.m.  I walked back to the Radisson and up to the room.  Tired, but the dinner must go on.

*  We walked (well, I walked pushing Linda in the wheelchair) to JBs again for dinner - no wait and we both had the salad bar.  We were done by 6:30 and had 45 minutes to kill before we had to be at the Conference Center Theater, so we stopped in the Family History Library to show Linda the Family Discovery Experience.  Well, she needed a FamilySearch account, had to create and write down a user name and password, and an email address, created the account, signed in with the wrong password several times (a capital letter was the culprit), and then we looked at my part of the Family Tree to get her father's OD code, and got her hooked in on the Family Tree.  Whew!!  Patience is not my strong suit.  By then it was 7:10 p.m. and we needed to get to the Conference Center for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert.  So she didn't get to experience the FDE tonight.

*  We were inside the Theater by 7:30 and got a seat in the wheelchair row on the ground level.  There were 10 Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, plus some biography of the two Oscar Hammersteins.  I enjoyed the biography more than the music.

*  The show was over at 9:15 and we walked back to the Radisson, and I've been pecking away here for about an hour.  It's time for bed.

On the day, I took 10,229 steps with the iPhone in my pocket according to the Pacer app.  That's only 3.5 miles, but I'm tired and my feet are sore because I don't walk that much every day.

Tomorrow is Friday, and the highlight is bound to be the MyHeritage after-party at the Marriott.  I hope to walk the Expo Hall more, take more photos, and write some blog posts as stuff happens.  Then we'll party.


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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/day-two-at-rootstech-2017.html

Copyright (c) 2017, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. 

Photos From Day 2 at #RootsTech 2017

I took only a few photos today at RootsTech 2017 because I've been "chained" to my place in the Media Hub, except for getting out for my MyHeritage talk, the MyHeritage lunch, and an interview.

Here are some of today's photos:

1)  Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage and myself - a selfie:


 2)  Laila Christensen from Norway and myself - a selfie:


 3)  Andy and Devon Noel Lee ("A Patient Genealogist" working in the Media Hub - they have shirts that say "Family History Fanatic":


4)  The view from the Media Hub toward the world's largest family tree - right across the aisle:


 5)  The view from the Media Hub toward the MyHeritage exhibit:


Tonight we are off to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance at 8 p.m. at the Conference Center.  I hope it doesn't rain.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/photos-from-day-1-at-rootstech-2017.html

Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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Family Tree Maker 2017 Software Announced at #RootsTech

Software MacKiev announced today that Family Tree Maker 2017 will be available in March 2017.

There is a RootsTech show special for $29.95 today to download in March (retail price will be $79.95 according to the information on display at their exhibit.


The new features include:

*  Family Search:  Searching, matching and merging.  FamilySearch is integrated into FTM 2017 so you can get match suggestions automatically, search billions of free online records, and merge them into your tree.

*  FamilySync:  An upgrade from TreeSync.  FamilySync is our version of the new technology replacing TreeSync.  Families will love the new ability to sync multiple copies of FTM to one Ancestry tree.

*  Color Coding:  Tracing your past.  Get organized and gain insights into your family history using  ur new color coding and filter tools with up to four colors at a time on a single person.

*  Photo Darkroom:  Elegantly simple editing tools.  Powerful but easy to use tools that in just a few clicks can take an old photo faded beyond recognition and restore it to look like it did the day it was printed.

This looks interesting, was expected soon, and here it is.  The ability to integrate with FamilySearch (Family Tree?) and to sync more than one FTM tree with a single Ancestry tree are interesting.

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Copyright (c) 2017, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


Linda's Family is in the Findmypast Brochure at #RootsTech

My wife, Linda, was really surprised this morning when I showed her the Findmypast brochure that was in the RootsTech 2017 registration bag.  One of her ancestral families is featured on the inside of the brochure.  Here is the inside:


There are three panels - Linda's story is on the left side, Lisa Louise Cooke's story is on the right side, and photographs from both stories are in the middle panel.

Here is a larger shot of the left-hand panel with Linda's family story:


Linda's story begins in 1780 in Lancashire in England with the baptism of Jane Haslam, continues throguh her two marriages and then the birth of twins in 1821, and the marriage of Rachel Morley in 1840 to Alexander Whittle, then their journey to Australia in 1840, and their migration to California in the early 1850s.  Rachel and Alexander had a daughter Jane Whittle in 1847 in Sydney, and she married in the California Gold country in 1865 to Elijah McKnew.  Elijah and Jane (Whittle) McKnew are Linda's great-grandparents.

The middle panel in a larger shot:


The photo on the top right is Linda's great-grandparents, Elijah and Jane, with their children outside their home in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.  The young lady on the left is Linda's grandmother, Edna.  The picture on the lower left is of Edna and Paul Schaffner's family in the 1930s, with Linda's mother, also Edna, in the photo.  The picture on the lower right is of Jane (Whittle) McKnew at the time of her marriage in 1865.  The other two photos are from Lisa's family story.

How did this happen?  I was contacted by Findmypast several months ago asking if I had an interesting family story that encompassed more than one continent.  I had several from my own research, and this one of Linda's heritage, that traces from England to Australia to America.  They liked it, and I supplied a timeline and photographs to support the brochure.  And the rest is history!

Thank you to Findmypast for the opportunity to share my wife's interesting ancestral story.

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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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Wednesday, February 8, 2017

My First Day at #RootsTech 2017

Our first day in Salt Lake City was yesterday - we got to the Radisson Hotel at 4:45 p.m., and I was off at 6 p.m. for the Media Dinner sponsored by FamilySearch.  DearMYRTLE gave me my Blogger beads.  I lucked out and got a seat in the back with nine female American and Aussie friends, and we had good discussions over dinner.  There were a number of speakers but it was mainly about RootsTech process and not news or content.  I didn't take notes, but I know James Tanner and the Ancestry Insider did.

There was a blogger photo taken with about 50 people, but I was in the back row and probably can't be seen.  Someone will probably post the photo.  I'm the one with my hand up in the back taking a photo of the camera person.

On Wednesday morning, I got to the Family History Library just after 8 a.m., and was #2 at the Family Discovery Experience.  I did one thing and then the computer failed.  I decided to come back later.

I posted my Family History Library plans this morning, and managed to do about half of the tasks on my to-do list.  It was mainly land records - Mercer County, PA, Killingly CT, Foster RI,  Lots of switching films and trying to find index entries and then finding the actual deeds.  I took digital photos of the deeds on the microfilm machine base where the image was projected.

At lunch time, I headed to the Salt Palace and got my RootsTech badge and gift bag, and had lunch (a donut and a banana) and decided to watch the Innovator Showdown at 12:30 p.m.  That was interesting - a big crowd and several excellent applications.

I headed back to the FHL, and found some more deeds on my list.  Then I went down to the B2 (British) floor and searched on microfilm for Hilperton records for my Richman and Rich families.  I talked a bit to Kirsty Gray and told her my tale of woe about John Richman's parents, and she took some notes.  I didn't find anything new in the Hilperton Poor Law and Tax records.

Before leaving, I took a second shot at the Family Discovery Experience, and this time it worked for me.  They give you an iPad to use, you sign in with your FamilySearch ID, and then point you to a number of stations.Here are some photos:

1)  At the "Who Am I Related" To station, they show you a list of famous persons in different categories:


One of the neater things is they show you a list of people who have done this today - I found David Lambert (of NEHGS) on the list:


2)  At the Where I Come From? station, they show you migration paths for your ancestors:


Note: The one off of Africa is for a person from "British Colonial America).  The map assumes that is Longitude 0.0 and Latitude 0.0 because that place is not in their list of places on FamilySearch.

I can pick one of the buttons on the screen at the top - I tapped on "My Heritage":


3)  There was also an "All About Me" station, and here I could tap on any of the items on the screen.


There is also a panel with information about names.  I found out that there were 9,333 people with the name Seaver in the USA:


The Discovery Experience is pretty cool.  I already knew about it so I wasn't really overwhelmed by it or surprised by any of it.

Of course, you have to have a FamilySearch account (it's FREE!) and know your password, and also be in the FamilySearch Family Tree with links to lots of ancestors.  The information they provide is only as good as the information that you and others have provided.

I got back to the room about 4:15 p.m. and wrote this post, and now it's nap time before we go to dinner.  I'm tired, especially my eyes and feet.

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Copyright (c) 2017, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

My 2017 Family History Library To-Do List

I went through my To-Do List in RootsMagic and added several tasks based on research done this past year.  I had a longer stack of papers last year - about 20 - but got through only 10 of them in one day at the Family History Library.  Rather than print out the RootsMagic to-do list, I have copied each task onto a sheet of paper which gives me two sides to write notes on as I search.

Here is an example of my To-Do List papers that I will take to the FHL.  My plan is to use only microfilms for tasks that are not online in digital format.


I will prioritize the papers the night before I go to the library.

I will take digital photographs right off the microfilm machine screen rather than take the microfilm to the scanner printer.  I take a photo of the microfilm box and the to-do item before I take photos of the records.  That way I know which to-do item I was working on and which microfilm had the record.

Here are the tasks I have defined for myself:

1)  Mercer County, Pennsylvania Deeds - Spangler surname (find them in the indexes, then find the deed records).

2)  Mercer County, Pennsylvania Deeds - Feather surname (find them in the indexes, then find the deed records).

3)  Vigo County, Indiana Deeds - Auble surname (find them in the indexes, then find the deed records).  I did some of this last year, but need to look at 1880 to 1887 indexes.

4)  York County, Pennsylvania Deeds -- Spangler surname (find them in the indexes, then find the deed records).

5)  York County, Pennsylvania Deeds -- King surname (find them in the indexes, then find the deed records).

6)  Killingly District, Connecticut Deeds -- Oatley surname (I listed the ones found last year, I need to make copies of the deeds)

7)  Putnam District, Connecticut Deeds -- Richmond surname (find them in the indexes, then find the deed records).

8)  Foster, Rhode Island Deeds -- Wade and Horton surnames (find them in the indexes, then find the deed records).

9)  South Petherton, Somerset Baptisms, Marriages and Burials for Vaux, Palmer and Laver surnames (I have a list of ancestor events to search for and copy).

10)  Hilperton, Wiltshire Land and Poor Records for Richman, Rich and Hill surnames (there are films for Surveyors Account Books 1840-1852, Overseers Poor Rate, 1824-1868, and Hilperton Land tax assessments 1773-1884).

11)  Middlesex County, New Jersey Deeds for a list of surnames (there are Deed Abstracts and East Jersey Land (10 volumes) on the shelf 974.941 and 979.R2).

That should be enough for this year at the FHL.  I'm not sure how much of it I will accomplish - it really depends on the deed index searches.  They take some time and are not always fruitful.

I hope to be able to use the Family Discovery Experience while I'm at the Family History Library.


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Copyright (c) 2017, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Twile is now completely free for everybody

T received this from Twile today:

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Twile is now completely free for everybody

Doncaster: 7th February 2017

Family history timeline Twile announces its service is now free for all users.  The UK based company, who will be exhibiting at RootsTech in Salt Lake City this week, have revised their subscription in order to fully embrace their mission of making family history more engaging for the whole family.

The totally free service now allows all Twile users to:

 Build their family tree

 Share and collaborate with family

 Add unlimited milestones and photos

 Import trees and memories from FamilySearch

 Import and merge multiple GEDCOM files

Paul Brooks, CEO comments “When we started Twile, our vision was for all family members to share and collaborate on their family story. We want family historians to share their research with their family and we want the whole family to get involved - we felt that the paid subscription was getting in the way.”

Twile, winners of last year’s People’s Choice award at RootsTech, have received financial backing from Findmypast and other investors. Paul adds “Although we will no longer be charging customers to use our core product, clearly we still need to make money. We have some ideas for optional add-ons that customers could purchase to enhance their Twile experience, but we don’t plan to charge a subscription fee or to limit usage again.”

Privacy is a key part of Twile’s offering and the company wants to assure customers that their personal data is secure and will never be sold. Paul adds “We are aware of concerns within the industry about the privacy of data, but we will never sell our customer data or jeopardise their privacy in any way.”

About Twile

Twile is a UK-based interactive timeline of everything that’s ever happened in your family. The timeline consists of photos and milestones—such as births, marriages, and deaths—that tell the story of your family from your earliest known ancestor right through to today. Family historians can import their family tree from any online genealogy service and then add more recent events from their own life before inviting family members to explore and contribute.

While the Twile website is aimed primarily at family historians, it is also designed to encourage the 
rest of the family to add their own content, including the younger generations. Twile was the winner 
of two innovation awards at RootsTech 2016, including People’s Choice.

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Dsicolosure:  I have had a complimentary Twile account and have used the service.


Copyright (c) 2017, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.