FamilySearch Affiliates Update - and Ancestor Split program

...
I like to look at the list of the different affiliates that are working with FamilySearch to help users of the New FamilySearch Family Tree.  The affiliates are listed on

The Helpful Products site (https://www.familysearch.org/products) says:

"Please click on the listed platform (Web, Windows, Mac, Mobile) on the left side to see the available products for that platform. Then click on the product name to see the detail information.
FamilySearch.org is a non-profit organization. We provide genealogical resources and historical records free to the public. FamilySearch.org also opens our tools to software developers. We love to see the creative and helpful products they build. We want you to discover much more about your family history, so we’ve listed tools and services here that we think can bring you closer to your ancestors than ever before.

"Many of these products have a close relationship with FamilySearch.org. We’ve noted where certain features are “certified” with a ✓ . This means the product is compatible with FamilySearch.org and has features that conforms to our strict standards of quality."

The certified affiliate that caught my eye was the first one listed on the Windows list - Ancestor Split, which I had not heard of previously. 

I clicked on the link and saw:

This screen says:

"More often than not your family tree has an ancestor that is incorrectly combined. It can be ominous looking through the 60 records with the mismatched birth date, as well as quite tedious. We make it easy! All you have to do is click on the arrow next to the birth date to separate all the records with that mismatched birth date.

"With Ancestor Split you will spend more time researching your ancestors and less time fixing other people's mistakes."

That description matches my experiences when working in the New FamilySearch Family Tree several months ago. 

I clicked the link to go to the Ancestor Split website (www.AncestorSplit.com):

This website indicates that Ancestor Split is part of the Sharing Time, a subsidiary of the Real Time Collaboration, Inc. company, which is also working on the AncestorSync program (to synchronize data between desktop software and online family trees).  and other software tools.  The Sharing Time page for Ancestor Split is (http://sharingtime.com/ancestorsplit/) - two screens:

When you click on the video tutorial to run it, a screen appears that says:

"We are pleased to present to you Ancestor Split.  Click here to download Ancestor Split for Microsoft Windows.  You may also download the Mac OS X version.

"AncestorSplit is the ultimate ancestor separation utility for New FamilySearch. AncestorSplit is free to all subscribers of SharingTime. If you have a paid subscription [$9.95 per year right now], download AncestorSplit today!"

The video that demonstrates Ancestor Split is 2:51 minutes long, and does not have sound.  I found the video somewhat confusing without sound, although the words on the screen describe the process.

It appears that Ancestor Split is embedded in the FamilyInsight genealogy program ($25 retail price) created and marketed by Ohana Software, Inc., which is also a subsidiary of Real Time Collaboration, Inc. 

All of this raises questions that I want answers for:

*  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.

*  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?

*  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. 

Of course, this product was developed because of the major problems in the New FamilySearch Family Tree online database - there are so many duplicate persons, duplicate facts, persons merged that should not have been, etc., in the New FamilySearch Family Tree.  An entrepreneurial company emerged to make the peg to fit in the hole to make fixing the online tree much easier.

I look forward to seeing how this all turns out.  It's an interesting time to be a genealogy software user , an online family tree user, and a genealogy blogger.

Amanuensis Monday - Will of Thomas Chase (1654-1734) of Newbury, Mass.

...
Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The subject today is the will of Thomas Chase (1654-1734) of Newbury, Massachusetts.  Thomas married (1) Rebecca Follansbee (1658-1711)  in 1677, and Elizabeth Woodhead (1674-????) in 1713;  Elizabeth survived him.  Thomas and Rebecca (Follansbee) Chase had children:  Thomas (1680-1756); Jonathan (1683-1756); James (1685-1753); Aquila (1688-1714); Ruth (1691-1758); Mary (1695-1732); Josiah (1697-1723); Rebecca (1700-1769); Nathan (1702-1784); Judith (1704-1747).  Thomas an Elizabeth (Woodhead) Chase had Elizabeth (1715-????).

Thomas Chase died testate in 1734, having written a will on 3 August 1732. It reads (transcribed from Essex County [Massachusetts] Probate Records, Volume 321, pages 55-56, accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,875,131):

In the Name of God Amen, I Thomas Chase of Newbury in the County of Essex in his majesties Province of the Massachussetts Bay in New England being sensible of my Frailty and mortality, but as yet of perfect mind and memory Thanks be to God, do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament. First of all I commend my Soul to God ect. and as touching ye worldly Goods wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this Life, I give demise and dispose of in the following manner and Form.

1. I give and bequeath unto my loving and well beloved wife Elizabeth Chase ye use and Improvement of one third Part of my real estate during her natural Life, and one third Part of my personal Estate forever to be at her dispose except my Utensils of Husbandry, Carpenters Tools & wearing Apparel & I give my Horse to my said Wife during her remaining my Widow, and at her marriage or Decease, I give my said Home to my son Nathan Chase.

2. I give to my son Thomas Chase his Heirs and assigns forever four acres of my Island of Salt meadow at that End next the Gut as Called, having paid him his Portion already.

3. I give and bequeath to my son Jonathan Chase ten Pounds in Bills of Credit or in other Species equivalent to Bills to be paid by my Executor within, One Year after my decease and one Quarter Part of my wearing apparel besides what I have given him already.

4. I give and bequeath unto my Son James Chase ten Pounds in Bills of Credit or other Species equivalent to Bills of Credit (besides what I have already given to him) to be paid by my Executor within two years after my decease & I Give my Son one Quarter Part of my Wearing Apparel.

5. I give to my Grandson Edward Chase ten pounds in Bills of Credit or in Other Species equivalent to Bills of Credit to be paid by my Executor when my said Grandson shall arrive to the Age of twenty one years.

6. I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Ruth Miller fifteen pounds in Bills of Credit or in other Species equivalent to Bills of Credit to be paid by my Executor within four years after my Decease.

7. I give to my daughter Mary Horton five pounds in Bills of Credit or in other species equivalent to Bills of Credit to be paid by my Executor within five years after my Decease.

8. I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Rebecca Moulton five Pounds in Bills of Credit or in other Species equivalent to Bills of Credit to be paid by my Executor within six years after my Decease.

9. I give & bequeath unto my Daughter Judith Horton five Pounds in Bills of Credit or other Species equivalent to Bills of Credit to be paid by my Executor within seven years after my decease.

10.. I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Tirza Chase thirty Pounds in Bills of Credit or in other species equivalent to Bills of Credit within one year after my decease to be paid by my Executor and I give my said Daughter Tirza two thirds of my Household Goods and one Cow & my great Bible, after my Wifes decease, and my will is that If my Daughter Tirza depart this Life and leave no Child, then what is herein given to her shall be paid to my four Daughters abovenamed in equal Shares viz: in Case my said Daughter depart this Life, before she receive her Portion herein given to her and leave no Child then her Sisters shall receive ect.& I give to my daughter Tirza One half of my Sheep, and I give to my aforementioned Wife the other half of my Sheep, & what I Have at my decease I give to my Wife & sd daughter Tirza. I give and bequeath unto my Son Nathan Chase and to his Heirs and assigns forever all my real Estate consisting in Housings and Lands, meadows ect. whatsoever and wheresoever it may be and also all my personal Estate not before disposed of in this my Will and I do constitute and appoint my Son Nathan Chase to be Executor to this my Will to receive all my Debts and to pay all my just Debts Legacies and funeral Charges and my Will is that all my Legacies shall be paid in Newbury and I do revoke and make void all former Wills by me made and ratifie and Confirm this to be my last Will and Testament, In Witness whereof I set to my Hand & Seal this third day of August Anno Domini 1732.

Signed, sealed and published & declared by the abovenamed Thomas Chase to be his last Will and Testament in Presence of us --

Joseph Coffin ....................................... his
William Goodridge ....................Thomas T Chase (seal)
Nathaniel Coffin. ............................... mark

The will was accepted by the Court at Ipswich on 25 February 1733/4, with Nathaniel Coffin and William Goodridge attesting that Thomas Chase signed, sealed, published and declared the above written will in their presence.

Four sons, a grandson (perhaps the son of Aquila or Josiah Chase), and all five daughters are named in this will.  Is Tirza Chase the Elizabeth Chase found in the Newbury records?  My ancestry goes through Mary Chase who married John Horton in 1719 in Swansea, Massachusetts and had a family in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.  Mary (Chase) Horton died several months before the will was written.  Interestingly, all four daughters by Thomas's first wife Rebecca settled in Rehoboth, even though it is a fair distance from Newbury. 

BBC Executive Producer Discusses WDYTYA? series details

...
John Gasson, on his The Wandering Genealogist blog, links to a BBC TV blog titled "Who Do You Think You Are: Researching celebrities' family histories" by Tom McDonald, Executive Producer of the popular Who Do You Think You Are? television show in the United Kingdom. 

This is an interesting viewpoint and summary of how long it takes to put the 10-episode series together, along with some details of some of the persons researched.

Check out the comments too - many from viewers who like and disliked the first episode.

I watched several of the BBC episodes from 2009 in March 2010 on the Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Sydney.  They are extrmely well done, and longer than the USA shows because they are commercial free.

How long will it be before the genealogy community has a blog dedicated to the USA version of Who Do You Think You Are?  Or maybe there is one, and I don't know about it? 

Thank you, John, for the link!

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 7-13 August 2011

...
Hundreds of genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:

*  I Know Why We Have So Many Brick Walls by Linda McCauley on the Documenting the Details blog.  Linda attended a day of ESM's presentations and came away with some insights.  Ouch!  True.

*  Integrating the law with family history by Pat Richley-Erickson on the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog.  Ol' Myrt provides some recommended books and advice about adding context to your family history.

*  In Which I Am Accosted By A Skeleton At 3 a.m. by Kerry Scott on the Clue Wagon blog.  Kerry found something in her ancestral closet while browsing the Chronicling America site.  You never know... I hope Kerry gets well soon.

*  Confessions of a Genealogy Hoarder by Lorine McGinnis Shulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.  Lorine wants to know how to deal with her tubs of 129 years of NYGBR issues.  I can relate.

*  Why Can’t I Find a Record in a Large Database like FamilySearch? by AndersonSF on the FamilySearch.org - Indexing, Records and Resources blog.  This is a logical look at the answers to a really big question.

*  Coming Soon to a FamilySearch.org Near You by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI highlights some of the news from the BYU Conference.  Lots of interesting items here.

*  Your Advice for Organizing Family Archives by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.  Diane lists the advice that Allison Stacy received about organizing the 15 boxes of family papers and photos she obtained from her grandmother.

*  No Pain No Gain – Finding Family Treasures Within the Purgatory We Call Probate by Melanie on the ObituariesHelp.org Blog.  An interesting story, and a good list of possible genealogy treasures.

*  Family Tree Friday: Bounty land vs. pensions–what’s the difference, anyway? by John on the NARAtions blog.  Here's an excellent description of bounty land warrants, with a beautiful picture of one.

*  Skipping the evaluation of records by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  James says many researchers make a big mistake by not critically evaluating the records they obtain.

Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:

*  Monday Morning Mentions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

*  Ruth’s Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.

*  Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

*  Follow Friday Gems - 08-12-11 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral, August 8-12 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.

*  Week in Review by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog.

I encourage readers to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs to your Favorites, Google Reader, RSS feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 1030 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - True Confessions about Genea-Assets

...
Hello there, genea-collectors - it's SATURDAY NIGHT, time for more GENEALOGY FUN.

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

1)  Think about this:  Is all of your genealogical material, which you've gathered over the years, well organized?  Do you have papers, certificates, photographs and other ephemera squirreled away somewhere in your genealogy cave center?  Do you have forgotten digital files, including documents, photographs and notes hiding in your computer file folders?  It's Saturday night, do you know where ALL of your family history information is?

2)  Give yourself a grade (from A to F) on how well you've done with your filing of tangible and digital genealogical assets (two grades, one for each).  Brag about your organizational prowess if you deserve it - you can be a good example to the rest of us.  Bemoan your situation if your files are like mine.

3)  Look through your tangible or digital genea-assets and find something you've "lost," forgotten or overlooked that might add to your knowledge about one or more families.  Tell us what you found, how will it help you, and will you commit to analyze it, source it, and use it? 

4)  Write a blog post of your own, make a comment on this blog post, or enter a Facebook Status or Google Plus Stream item concerning your "find" and what you're going to do about it.

Here's mine:

I truly have too much information in both my tangible and digital family history files.  The paper I collected between 1988 and 1999 are in surname notebooks, and, in general, have not been looked at for a long time.  Then there's the tangible assets collected since 1999, which are not in the surname notebooks.  They are in piles on my bookcase shelves and my desktop.  The family photographs are in a big box on top of a file cabinet, under other stuff.  For tangible assets - my grade is a C-minus, I think.

I have my digital genea-assets in file folders with labels of Clients, Correspondence, Education, Forms, Funnies, Localities, Randy's Ancestry, Reports,  Societies, Software, Surnames, Talks and Websites.  My family photograph images are in the My Pictures folder, with the historic photos in an "Old Photos" folder.  Each file folder mentioned above has many sub-folders with many files.  I know that I have many digital files filed inconsistently, and most are named inconsistently. I need to go through these digital files and give them consistent names, weed out duplicates and obsolete files, and reorganize my File Folders.  For digital assets - my grade is a C-plus, I think.

My "Find:"  While clicking through my RootsMagic database yesterday, I noticed that my Vaux family data was poorly sourced, and that I didn't have any research notes for my ancestral line of Vaux back into England in the 1600s.  I recalled that I had downloaded chapters of a book manuscript compiled by Sara Vaux several years ago.  I managed to find the book chapters in a "Vaux Book" file folder in my "Vaux" file folder in my "Surnames" folder.  I eagerly tried to open one of the PDF files, but it required a password.  Hmmm.  I downloaded it in 2008, so if I look in my email files, I think that the password will be there.  Uh-oh, it's on the old computer.  I booted up that computer, searched my email files, and found the password.  I created a Password.rtf file in the "Vaux Book" folder.  It worked!

I read several of the chapters.  Great stuff here.  I had entered many of the persons and vital data before, but had few sources.  I added biographical data to the Notes in my RootsMagic database for three Vaux ancestral families, and entered source citation data for the persons in those families, all citing page numbers in the Vaux book manuscript (citing the source that I used).  There is much more to do on this project! 

I keep finding useful things to do each day - I think I'm avoiding working my way through the piles of unfiled papers, since there is much data that needs to be added to the database.  When that is completed, I can revamp my surname folders.  I have 127 pages of digital images obtained on my last library trip to Carlsbad that needs reviewing, analyzing and entering into the database.  The digital historical photographs need to be organized into person groups.  The digital surname and document folder files need to be put into family group folders. 

Whew.  I'll be up all night now worrying about how long this is going to take!  If I just stopped the paper and file collecting right now, my guess is that it would take me 10 years working 8 hours a day to put this all in order.  But that will not be much fun, and I need to have fun doing this.  I hope one of my daughters wants to sort it all out!

Frankly, it is much more fun to do online research, and write blog posts about websites and software, than to organize my files!

Surname Saturday - HUBBARD (England > CT > MA)

...
It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 265, who is Mary HUBBARD (1712-1754), one of my 6th-great-grandparents. [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]

My ancestral line back through four generations of HUBBARD 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)

264.  Amos Gates, born October 1706 in Stow, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died before 12 March 1783 in Marlborough, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 528. Simon Gates and 529. Hannah Benjamin.  He married 07 November 1732 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
265.  Mary Hubbard, born 04 May 1712 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died before 10 December 1754 in Marlborough, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Amos Gates and Mary Hubbard are: Oliver Gates (1733-1813); Amos Gates (1735-1804); Simon Gates (1739-1803); Abraham Gates (1741-1806); Isaac Gates (1746-1831);

530.  Samuel Hubbard, born 27 April 1687 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 12 December 1753 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.   He married 08 December 1709 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
531.  Sarah Clark, born 14 July 1681 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 25 July 1720 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 1062. Samuel Clark and 1063. Rachel Nichols.

Children of Samuel Hubbard and Sarah Clark are: Ephraim Hubbard (1710-????); Mary Hubbard (1712-1754); Samuel Hubbard (1714-1783); Sarah Hubbard (1716-????); Lois Hubbard (1718-????).

 1060.  Jonathan Hubbard, born 03 January 1659 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, United States; died 17 July 1728 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.   He married 15 March 1681 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
 1061.  Hannah Rice, born 1658 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 09 April 1747 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2122. Samuel Rice and 2123. Elizabeth King.

Children of Jonathan Hubbard and Hannah Rice are:  Mary Hubbard (1682-1769); Jonathan Hubbard (1683-1761); Hannah Hubbard (1685-1725); Samuel Hubbard (1687-1753); Joseph Hubbard (1689-1768); Elizabeth Hubbard (1691-1757); John Hubbard (1692-1761); Daniel Hubbard (1694-1784); Thomas Hubbard (1696-1728); Abigail Hubbard (1698-????); Ebenezer Hubbard (1700-1755).

2120.  John Hubbard, born 1630 in England; died before August 1702 in Hatfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States.  He married about 1649 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
 2121.  Mary Merriam, born about 1630 in Hadlow, Kent, England; died 08 March 1721 in Hatfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 4242. George Merriam and 4243. Sarah.

Children of John Hubbard and Mary Merriam are:  Mary Hubbard (1651-1662); John Hubbard (1655-1748); Hannah Hubbard (1656-1662); Jonathan Hubbard (1659-1728); Daniel Hubbard (1661-1744); Mercy Hubbard (1664-????); Isaac Hubbard (1667-1750); Mary Hubbard (1669-1754); Sarah Hubbard (1672-1754).

 4240.  George Hubbard, born about 1600 in England; died January 1683 in Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.  He married before 1625 in England.
 4241.  Mary, born about 1600 in England; died 14 September 1675 in Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.

Children of George Hubbard and Mary are:  Mary Hubbard (1625-1713); John Hubbard (1630-1702); Sarah Hubbard (1635-1675); Hannah Hubbard (1637-1717); Elizabeth Hubbard (1638-1710); Abigail Hubbard (1640-1680); William Hubbard (1642-1702); Daniel Hubbard (1644-1720).
Sources used for the family information for these Hubbard families are:

Irvin W. Hubbard, Record of the Descendants of George Hubbard, one of the founders of Wethersfield, Milford and Guilford, Connecticut (Stockton, Calif.: the author, 1961).  

Harlan Page Hubbard, One Thousand Years of Hubbard History, 866 to 1895 (New York: the author, 1895).

Family Tree Maker 2012 Beta News

...
I received this in email via the Ancestry.com Weekly discovery email distribution about Family Tree Maker 2012 Beta testing:

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

Thank you for all of the testing and feedback regarding the new 2012 release of Family Tree Maker and TreeSync™: the ability to synchronize information in your tree between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com. This has been very useful to us and effective in helping us to make significant improvements to the software.

TAKE A BREAK
We are in the process of making some changes to our servers here at Ancestry.com. We suggest that you take a break from testing the sync process for the next couple of days. Tuesday morning (Aug. 16) we will post a new update that can be used for further testing. Notification of the new build will be sent in a follow-up email and posted on the Beta message board. In order to continue testing, your current beta version of Family Tree Maker 2012 will need to be uninstalled and the new update will have to be downloaded and installed.

VERY IMPORTANT
When you get the new software, you'll notice that all of the trees you've been testing are no longer linked between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com. The changes we're making over the weekend will require that you delete all of the trees you have been using for testing. The new update is much more solid and includes some important improvements, and it is important that we start this next round of testing with a clean slate to help us insure that none of the problems with previous beta versions are showing up anymore.

In order to continue using the software after you've deleted the trees you've been using for testing, you will need to re-import new trees from your previous version of Family Tree Maker or download new trees from Ancestry.com. DO NOT continue to use any trees that have been synchronized during the beta period.

During the beta period, please continue to test only with a backup of your tree. To create and use a secondary copy of your online tree, you can download a current online tree to a GEDCOM file and then re-import it as a new tree. Then use the newly-imported tree for sync testing. To create and use a secondary copy of your tree in Family Tree Maker, use the Backup feature in your previous version of Family Tree Maker to make a backup file and then restore that file in Family Tree Maker 2012.

Please post any issues you find with new threads on the message board.

We are very excited about the new release of Family Tree Maker, and we thank you all for helping us to make it a solid release.

Many synchronization proboems between Family Tree Maker 2012 and Ancestry Member Trees have been reported on the FTM Sync Beta mailing list.  Many of them have been resolved, and most of them have been explored in detail by FTM staff, volunteers and beta-testers.

One of my significant problems was that when I synced my FTM2012 Tree to the Ancestry Member Tree, all of the children disappeared from the Ancestry tree (they were still in the database, but did not show up in the parents profiles.  This problem was traced to using the Version 306 of FTM2012 with an Ancestry tree created by a previous FTM2012 version.  Once I unlinked my Ancestry tree from the FTM2012 tree, copied my FTM2012 tree, loaded the copied tree in FTM2012, and uploaded it using FTM2012 into Ancestry, the children were there.  A subsequent synchronization worked also. 

If you are an FTM2012 beta tester, please follow the directions given above in this email. 

FGS 2011 Conference Program - my Wednesday selections

...
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 Wednesday, 7 September:

8:30 a.m. W-100:  Plenary Session: How Will Our Society Survive? Do We Alter, Mutate, Modify, Shift or Switch? - David Rencher

9:30 a.m.  W-104: But It's My Family: Copyright Issues for Genealogists

- Cath Madden Trindle

11 a.m.  W-113: Internet Collaborative Tools for Genealogical Societies - Jane G. Halderman

2 p.m.  W-118: Engaging a New Generation of Genealogists - D. Joshua Taylor

3:30 pm.  W-127:  Brainstorming Session - Education and Programs

5 p.m.  W-135:  Brainstorming Session - Marketing Your Society

As you can see from the program schedule, and by my selections above, Wednesday is devoted to genealogical society issues.  As the current Newsletter Editor, and former President, of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society, I am very interested in all of the issues presented throughout Wednesday.  Thankfully, the syllabus should have summaries for all of these presentations (except for the brainstorming sessions, I think). 

Follow Friday - Weekend Genealogy Fun

...
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 "Read All About It - Newspapers and Genealogy" The guests are:

*   Tom Kemp of GenealogyBank and ObitsArchive 
*  Miriam Robbins of the Online Historical Newspapers website.

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 Thomas MacEntee. The topic is "Self-Publishing for Genealogy Societies" The special guests are:

*  Kathryn M. Doyle, of the FGS-member society California Genealogical Society and Library in Oakland, California. Kathryn will tell us how CGSL has been able to move its current publications to a more efficient model using self-publishing platforms.
*  George G. Morgan of Aha! Seminars, Inc. as 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:

* "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 San Diego Genealogical Society meeting on Saturday morning to hear Barbara Renick make two presentations.

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

7) Spend time with your family doing fun things.  I'm still recovering from Grandpa Camp, but have some photos to offload from the camera. 

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.

More WikiTree Widgets available

...
I posted Check Out my Wikid at WikiTree! back in June, and WikiTree creator has added many more widgets since then.  These widgets can be embedded in web pages or files that use HTML.  The list includes these styles:

1. Three-generation color tree widget (496 pixels wide by 495 pixels high)
2. Three-generation black and white tree widget (496 pixels wide by 495 pixels high)
3. Three-generation pedigree-style widget (400 by 804)
4. Four-generation pedigree-style (500 by 820)
5. Four-generation pedigree-style with locations (500 by 850)
6. Barebones four-generation with no photos, etc. (420 by 420)
7. Ten-generation paternal line (450 by 200)
8. Ten-generation maternal line (450 by 200)
9. Tree for an American immigrant family, with Ellis Island in the background (496 by 510 for this and all the following)
10. Tree for a New York family
11. Tree for a Chicago family
12. Tree for a Massachusetts family
13. Tree for a Nova Scotia family
14. Tree for an Irish family
15. Tree for an English, French, or Northern-European family
16. Tree for an Italian or Southern-European family
17. Tree for the World War 2 generation

1)  Here is an example of the Tree for a Massachusetts family:

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

2)  An example for a Four Generation Pedigree Chart with Locations:

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Oops, looks like it ran out of space for the persons 7, 14, and 15.

3)  Here is a 10-generation maternal line:

updated live from WikiTree

These widgets are really pretty cool - and bloggers or website creators can add them easily.  You can add them to a book or family newsletter by snipping the image and saving it as a separate file. 

In order to create them, you do have to have a tree on WikiTree!

Thanks, Chris!

NOTE:  The widgets show up on the web page, but not in Google Reader.  If you lcick the links for each widget in the list above, the page takes awhile to load.