The Journal of Genealogy & Family History - Coming in April 2017

I received this information today via email:

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 The Journal of Genealogy & Family History

Launching in April 2017, the new Journal of Genealogy and Family History (JGFH) will address the current need for a high quality, peer reviewed publication, covering broad scholarly research in 
genealogy and family history in a 21st century online format. The journal will be offered to readers and contributors for free, on an open-access, non-commercial basis, with content available under a Creative Commons Attribution License. The scope of the journal will include any field or academic discipline associated with genealogy or family history research such as heraldry, demography, education and record conservation.

Articles will offer the reader insights into current thinking and practice and provide an outlet for theoretical and speculative ideas within genealogy and family history. Topics will be wide ranging, and include for example:

• Family histories which demonstrate new and innovative approaches and analytic techniques;

• Locational studies

• The use of new technologies

• Software applications and databases

• The use of DNA analyses to better understand kinship

• Ancestry and populations

• Micro histories which may focus on personal, local, community and social histories.

• Ethical and legal issues surrounding the practice of genealogy

The journal will attract authors from around the world who wish to have their genealogical and family history work published in a credible form and made available to anyone who chooses to read it. All articles submitted for publication will undergo anonymous peer review, which will provide a rigorous and robust process of close scrutiny.

The Editor, Jessica Feinstein, says: "I am very excited to be part of the great team involved in this 
venture, and look forward to enabling authors in our field to publish academic articles that will advance genealogical research in many areas."

The editorial board will include prominent individuals from within the field of genealogy and family history as well as associated disciplines. The Journal of Genealogy and Family History is registered at the British Library with ISSN 2399-2964.

The journal was initiated and designed by the Register of Qualified Genealogists and will be published via their website at: http://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/jgfh 

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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.

1673 Marriage Record of Nathaniel Whitney and Sarah Hagar n Watertown, Mass. -- Treasure Chest Thursday Post #352

This week's treasure is the 1673 marriage record of Nathaniel and Sarah (Hagar) Whitney, in the Watertown, Massachusetts town records:

The marriage record on the left-hand page of the image above with the heading "1673":

The transcription of the marriage record is:

"Nathanell Whetny and Sary Hagar Joyned in
maryage the 12 of march [1673]"

The source citation for this record is:

Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 February 2017), Watertown > Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1673 (image 157 of 3991), Nathanell Whetny and Sary Hagar marriage entry; citing original data from Massachusetts town and city clerk records in Jay and Delene Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital and Town Records (Provo, Utah : Holbrook Research Institute), Microfiche collection.

Nathaniel Whitney (1646-1733) was the son of John Whitney (1621-1692) and Ruth Reynolds (1623-1706).  Sarah Hagar (1651-1722) was the daughter of William Hagar (1620-1684) and Mary Bemis (1624-1695).  They married in 1673/4, and had 8 children between 1676 and 1700.

I am descended from their third child and second son, William Whitney (1683-1720), who married Martha Peirce (1681-1759) in 1706 in Watertown.  

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/1673-marriage-record-of-nathaniel.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.

Checking Out the MyHeritage Tree Consistency Checker - UPDATED

MyHeritage announced their Tree Consistency Checker last week in "New Online Family Tree Consistency Checker" on the MyHeritage Blog.  The blog post notes that:

"We’re excited to introduce the new Consistency Checker for online family trees at MyHeritage. This new tool scans your family tree and identifies mistakes and inconsistencies in your data so that you could make the necessary changes in your tree, improving its overall quality and accuracy.

"The Consistency Checker employs 36 different checks on the family tree data, ranging from the obvious (e.g., a person was born before their parent, or when the parent was too young to be a parent) to the subtle and hard to find (e.g., a person was tagged in a photo and the photo is dated before the person’s birth; or two full siblings were born 5 months apart, which is impossible). Some of the issues it finds are factual mistakes (e.g. wrong birth date entered), some are bad practices (e.g. birth year entered as 22 instead of 1922, or prefix entered as part of the first name instead of in the prefix field), some are warnings about possible data entry errors (e.g. a woman’s married surname was apparently entered as her maiden surname, or a place was entered that looks suspiciously like a date) and some are inconsistencies you may want to fix, such as references to the same place name with two different spellings. Any issue you feel is fine and should intentionally not be addressed can easily be marked to be ignored and will not be reported again."

In this blog post, I will demonstrate how to find the consistency checks for my MyHeritage family tree and how to fix them:

1)  You can access your "Tree Consistency Checker" from any MyHeritage page by going to the "Family Tree" tab and seeing the "Tree Checker" item:

2)  I clicked on the "Tree Checker" item on the screen above, and it took a while (like 40 minutes!) to generate the list from my MyHeritage tree with 40,151 persons:

The "Tree Consistency Checker" found 3,472 consistency issues in my MyHeritage tree.

The system found issues in 22 check types, as listed below:

*  Birth after death -- 3
*  Child older than parent -- 3
*  Child born after death with parent -- 4
*  Alive but too old -- 27
*  Parent too young when having a child -- 20

*  Parents too old when having a child -- 39
*  Fact occurring after death -- 18
*  Fact occurring before birth -- 18
*  Siblings with close age -- 130
*  Large spouse age difference -- 9

*  Married too young -- 38
*  Died too young to be a spouse -- 2
*  Multiple marriages of same couple -- 5
*  Married name entered as maiden name -- 32
*  Suffix in last name -- 2

*  Multiple birth facts of same person -- 12
*  Multiple death facts of same person -- 15
*  Siblings with same first name -- 456
*  Double spaces in name -- 1
*  Children with different last names -- 77

*  Inconsistent last name spelling -- 2540
*  Inconsistent place name spelling - 21

Each item in each issue type has a tip for action.

3)  At the top of the screen above are the issues for "Birth after death."  For the issue for Mabelle Emelia Leland (McKenzie), the tip says "Correct birth or death dates" with a link to her profile.  I clicked on the link, and a separate window opened with the "Essentials" screen in the profile for the person:

Yep, the death date is before the birth date!  I must have made a typing error when I entered one of the dates.  I consulted my records and searched again online, and found that the death should have been Jan. 19, 1973 rather than Jan. 19, 1885.

4)  I corrected the death date, and now the screen looks like:

I made sure to click on the orange "Save & close" button and was back to the list of consistency issues.

I did several more corrections on the list.  Some of the issues are not issues at all - the most evident is the "siblings with the same name."  In every case I looked at, the families named a child, the child died, and another child was given the same name.

The issue with the most is the "Inconsistent Last Name Spelling" issue;  Often times, the records in colonial times have creative or phonetic spellings, and I usually used the name given in the records,

5)  When you come back to the "Tree Consistency Checker" page at another time, it will tell you that changes were made since you last looked at the page, and the program will offer to perform the check again.

6)  Some observations:

a)  This "Tree Consistency Checker" seems to be very complete and accurate.

UPDATED 21 February 2017 (in blue): 

b)  I didn't see a way to change the criteria for the check issues.  There are settings available to change the criteria for the check issues.  For instance, I might want to find persons whose mother was less than age 12 rather than whatever age criteria they use.  After the Consistency Check has finished, a gear icon appears at the top of the list of issues where the criteria for the issues can be modified.

c)  I didn't see an issue for "Persons over age xxx" for my tree - perhaps I didn't have any!  

d)  I had only 22 of 36 issues in my tree - I wonder what the other 14 issues are.

e)  Read all of the tips and hints and examples in the MyHeritage blog post noted above.  There is a lot more detail!  

f)  Some of the screen shots used as examples in the MyHeritage blog post are from my tree!  

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/checking-out-myheritage-tree.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.

Twelve Takeaways from RootsTech 2017

Here are twelve takeaways from the RootsTech 2017 genealogy conference last week in Salt Lake City (February 8 to 11):

1)  The Expo Hall is really big now - it takes all of the available real estate in the Salt Palace.  The Media Hub sits in the south end of the Hall, and was really busy since FamilySearch increased the number of Ambassadors this year.  I didn't see some of the genealogy oriented Ambassadors in the Media Hub at all.

2)  The Keynote talks by LeVar Burton and CeCe Moore were excellent and moving and pertained to genealogy and family history.  The Property Brothers and Buddy Valastro talked and showed some family photos, but I wasn't particularly interested.  The major sponsor keynote talks were relatively short and helpful and focused on new features.

3)  The Findmypast brochure with Linda's matrilineal line timeline story (see Linda's Family is in the Findmypast Brochure at #RootsTech) was well done, and she was surprised and happy about it.  I shared it with many friends.

4)  I did two talks for MyHeritage at their exhibit on Record Matches and the Compilation of Published Sources collection.  This was my first time doing that, although I did the luncheon talk last year.  I should have practiced more, but ran out of time because I had to change most of the slides after 1 February when MyHeritage changed their Discoveries tab.  

5)  The Expo Hall featured a number of additional educational opportunities on the Demo Stage and in small in-exhibit theaters for Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Findmypast, Family Tree Maker, Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems, GenealogyDOTCoach, BillionGraves, Family Tree Guide, and several more vendors, with a daily schedule of 15 to 30 minute talks on various subjects.  A RootsTech attendee could come to just the Expo Hall and learn a lot.

6)  The Expo Hall didn't seem as crowded during class times as in past years.  The lines were long at the AncestryDNA exhibit because they were selling test kits for $49 each.  

7)  The only class I attended was the Innovator Summit Semi-Finals on Wednesday.  I was pleased that my friend and geneablogger Louis Kessler made the cut and then came in third in the finals.  It was fun to see his excitement in participating in the event and winning third place.

8)  The DearMYRTLE geneabloggers after party was excellent fun on Saturday night, with good food, drinks, friends, and lots of sharing.  See my photos at Photos From the DearMYRTLE's Geneabloggers After Party at RootsTech 2017 .

9)  The MyHeritage after-party on Friday night was fun with food, drinks, games, and karaoke.  It was difficult to talk at the tables because the music was too loud.  See some of my photos at Photos From the #RootsTech 2017 MyHeritage Party.

10)  I spent Wednesday morning from 8:15 to 11:30 a.m. and then from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Family History Library.  I found deeds for a number of my ancestors, and tried to find Hilperton (Wiltshire) records on microfilm, but didn't succeed in finding anything new.  I came away with only about 50 images on my iPhone.  It was great to be able to share my John Richman problem with Kirsty Gray and her cohorts.  I tried the Family Discovery Experience in the morning but there was a computer problem, so tried again in the afternoon and got through it.  

11)  The FamilySearch sponsored Media Dinner on Tuesday night was fun because I got to meet and talk to many of my geneablogging colleagues and management personnel from several vendors, plus the Innovator Showdown exhibits.  Unfortunately, FamilySearch didn't provide anything new about their record collections or family tree.

12)  Linda really liked the Thursday Night Rodgers and Hammerstein music program and presentation at the LDS Conference Center.  

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/twelve-takeaways-from-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.

Our Catalina Visit in 2011 - Post 2: Post 451 for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

Linda and I had a weekend getaway in December 2011 for her birthday - we drove to Long Beach on a Friday, took the catamaran boat to Catalina, stayed two nights in a hotel, and returned home to San Diego on Sunday.  We took some pictures...

1)  A street in beautiful downtown Avalon:

2)  The street along the beach in Avalon:

3)  The beach in downtown Avalon:

 4)  The entrance to our hotel (whose name I've forgotten) in Avalon:

5)  The pier in Avalon:

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/our-catalina-visit-in-2011-post-2-post.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.

Working With My MyHeritage Photo Discoveries

MyHeritage announced their new "Photo Discoveries" last week - see the "Introducing Photo Discoveries" article on the MyHeritage Blog for details.  The key paragraph says:

"Photo Discoveries makes it easy for you to add photographs to people in your family tree who currently do not have any photos, in just a few clicks, based on the work of other users. Many of us cherish the emotional moment when we see for the first time a photograph of our ancestor or relative whom we’ve never seen before. Photo Discoveries can make those special moments happen for you too! Even experienced genealogists are in for a treat."

I wanted to see what Photo Discoveries I had.  Here is the process to find out:

1)  On my MyHeritage home page, I clicked on the "Discoveries" tab:

2)  On the screen above, I clicked on the "Instant Discoveries" tab:

There are three tabs at the top of the screen - "All Discoveries," "Person Discoveries," and "Photo Discoveries" (with a "New" tag).

3)  I clicked on the "Photo Discoveries" tab and saw:

There were several groups of 10 "Photo Discoveries" on the screen above.

These "Photo Discoveries" are from a number of other MyHeritage family trees.

4)  I clicked on the first group of 10 "Photo Discoveries" and the ten photos with other information opened:

The 10 Discoveries were on one page.  On the left side of the page is information about persons in my MyHeritage tree.  I could click on the "Show relatives" link to see more information about the persons in my tree.

Each "Photo Discovery" on the right side of the page has an orange check mark on it.  If I leave the check mark orange, then I will be able to add it to my MyHeritage tree.  If I uncheck the orange check mark, then the Photo Discovery will not be added to my tree.

I decided that I would add actual photographs of persons, or gravestones, etc. to my tree, but not symbols (like crests, ships, or generic images).

5)  I went through the 10 Photo Discoveries, and unchecked 4 of the 10, leaving me with 6 Photo Discoveries to add to my tree.  Here is the page after I unchecked the 4 images:

Note that the middle item on the screen above is unchecked.

6)  I clicked on the orange "Add 6 photos to your tree" button at the top right of the screen above, and saw:

My "Photos" tab opened, and the first six photos on the list of 105 media items are from the Photo Discoveries.

7)  I clicked on the second one on the list, and saw the "Photo" page for that image:

Apparently, this photo was added to three persons in my tree since it was linked to the three persons in the other MyHeritage family tree that had the photo initially.

I can click on the buttons above the photo to see a "Slideshow" of photos, "View full size," or "Download" the photo.

8)  I went to the "Family tree" tab and searched for Levi Lincoln in my tree and saw:

The photo was attached to Levi Lincoln's profile in my MyHeritage tree, and was also attached to the other two persons named in the photo.

9)  That worked well, so I wanted to go back to the "Photo Discoveries" page and do the next group of 10 discoveries.  I saw:

The page says "We're processing more Discoveries for you.  Please check again tomorrow.  In the meantime, you can explore your list of matches."

The MyHeritage blog post says:

"If you have a PremiumPlus or Complete subscription, you’ll be able to add one Photo Discovery per day. After adding a discovery, we will re-calculate discoveries for you and you will be able to come back the next day and add more."

10)  Well, that explains it, but it's frustrating.  It won't let me do more than 10 at a time.  I will have to come back at another time.  

None of the 6 photos that I added to my tree were for one of my ancestors.  I wonder if one of my cousins has added a photo for one of my ancestors.

I may go through some of my families in my MyHeritage trees and add more photos so that they may benefit other researchers.  

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/working-with-my-myheritage-photo.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 the DearMYRTLE's Geneabloggers After Party at RootsTech 2017

Linda and I attended Dear MYRTLES Geneabloggers After-RootsTech Party at her home on Saturday night.  It was a fun time, with food and drink and laughs and hugs and memories, and was had by all (about 50).

Linda and Ken Robbins picked us up at the Radisson at 5:30 p.m. and were the tour guides for the evening.  Unlike past after-parties, this year it was a beautiful but cool night, with no rain or snow, and the snowy mountains to the east and west gleamed in the sunlight on the drive south.  We got there at 6 p.m along with just about everyone else.

The menu was from Olive Garden - Pasta Fagioli soup, salad, and breadsticks, along with many scrumptious desserts (I paced myself and only had three).  Pat's daughters were in charge of the meal.  They fixed Linda a special plate because of her allergies - thank you Carrie and Tam and Pat!!

Here are some photographs that I took during the evening.

1)  The group photo of the right side of the group (I'm on the far right next to Pauleen and Pat):

2)  The left-hand side of the group photo:

3)  Michael and Yvonne Demoskoff:

4)  Kirsty Gray and Sylvia Valentine from England:

5)  Genealogy Jen:

6)  Linda Seaver and Braden (Pat's grandson) talking:

7)  Alona Tester and Lisa Alzo:

8)  Banai Feldstein talking to Daniel Horowitz, with Linda and Braden in the foreground:

9)  Lilian Magill and Pat Richley-Erickson discussing quilts in the quilting room:

I have a few more, but this is already too large a post with 9 photos.  Maybe later.

We all left at 8:30 and got back to the hotel by 9 p.m.  Thank you to Ken Robbins for driving us to and from.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/photos-from-dearmyrtles-geneabloggers.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.

Treasure Chest Tuesday - 1870 U.S. Census Record for E.A. McNew Household in Tuolumne, California

This week's Tuesday treasure is the 1870 United States Census record for the E.A. McNew household enumerated in Township #2, Tuolumne County, California:

The E.A. McNew household:

The extracted information for the E.A. McNew household:

*  E. A. McNew - age 34, male, white, a miner, $1000 in real property, $100 in personal property, born Maryland, eligible to vote
*  Jane McNew - age 23, female, white, keeping house, born Australia, parents of foreign birth.
*  A.J. McNew - age 3, male, white, at home, born California, mother of foreign birth

*  A.R. McNew - age 2, female, white, born California, mother of foreign birth

The source citation for this record is:

1870 United States Federal Census, Tuolumne County, California, Population Schedule, Township #2, Page 354 (penned), dwelling #1352, family #607, E.A. McNew household, indexed database with digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 July 2009); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 93.

This is the growing Elijah Pickrell and Jane (Whittle) McKnew family.  The two children are Alfred Rodney McKnew and Allethia Jane McKnew; the enumerator got the gender right but the middle initials and ages wrong.  Allethia was born in November 1867 (thus 2 years old) and Alfred was born in February 1869 (thus 1 year old).  Elijah owns real property in Tuolumne County, probably in what is now Tuttletown.

Elijah Pickrell and Jane (Whittle) McKnew are my wife's great-grandparents, through their daughter Edna Catherine McKnew (1884-1974), who married Paul Schaffner in 1906 in San Francisco.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/treasure-chest-tuesday-1870-us-census.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.

BillionGraves Adds Family Trees

I visited the BillionGraves exhibit at RootsTech 2017 over the weekend and picked up their advertising.  They introduced the BillionGraves Tree (https://billiongraves.com/tree#/), saying:

"We've partnered with FamilySearch to deliver a breakthrough in genealogical research: BillionGraves Tree.

*  Connect with the FamilySearch Family Tree
*  Find headstone records for your whole family tree
*  Finally break through your search "walls"
*  Automatic photo requests
*  Enter info once, and it syncs automatically in both places"

1)  I went to the website and saw:

I need to sign into FamiilySearch in order to access the FamilySearch Family Tree.

Apparently, they are planning to enable access to MyHeritage and Findmypast trees "soon."

2)  After logging into FamilySearch, the BillionGraves Tree was filled in (it took about one minute) from information in FamilySearch Family Tree):

There are four colored icons on the persons on my BillionGraves tree:

*  Green = Complete
*  Orange = waiting for a picture
*  Red = possible matches
*  Gray = needs research.

I had mostly Red = possible matches, probably based on information in the Burial Fact in the FamilySearch Family Tree.  I had several Gray = needs research on my tree, probably because there are no burial facts in the FamilySearch Family Tree.  On the tree above, I have one Orange icon and one Green icon because I tested this out before I wrote about it.

3)  I clicked on my grandmother, Alma Bessie Richmond and saw:  

The popup box said "Our record finder will guide you through a step by step guide to find the final resting place of Alma Bessie Richmond."  

4)  I clicked on the green box to "Get Started:"

The system searched and did not find a BillionGraves headstone for Alma Bessie Richmond.  That is probably because the name on the headstone is "Alma Bessie Seaver" rather than Richmond (which is logical because that is her married name and the name she had at death).

5)  The screen above has a green "Search Other Sources" button and an orange "Search for Matches."  I clicked on "Search Other Sources" and saw:  

I clicked on "Find Cemetery" button on the left sidebar on the screen above, and a list of cemeteries in Leominster, Massachusetts (which is in the burial Fact on the left-hand sidebar):

I happened to know that my grandmother is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster, so I scrolled down and saw that cemetery.

6)  I clicked on "Accept Cemetery" for that cemetery, and saw the screen below:

The screen above says:  "Now that we know where Alma Bessie Richmond Seaver was buried, we will notify users near Evergreen Cemetery to go take a picture of her headstone."

There was a comment box so I added the hopefully helpful statement "headstone reads Alma Bessie Seaver."  I clicked on the light blue "Save Notes."

7)  When I go back to my BillionGraves Tree the icon for my grandmother now is Orange, signifying that a photo has been requested:

8)  Some thoughts:

a)  BillionGraves really needs to search on all of the known names - in this case:

***  Alma Bessie Richmond (maiden name)
***  Alma Seaver (married name)
*** Alma R. Seaver (married name)
*** Alma B. Seaver (married name)
***  Bessie Seaver (married name)
***  Bessie A. Seaver (married name)
*** Bessie R. Seaver (married name)
***  Alma Bessie Seaver (married name)
***  If there was more than one marriage, then that surname with the different given names should also be searched.

There may be a headstone on BillionGraves for Alma Bessie Seaver - I haven't checked.

b)  This search and find or request a photo process takes a lot of time - the reaction to a click is not instantaneous - it often takes 5 to 10 seconds.  It took me over a minute to get through the process above.  That is frustrating for most users accustomed to times of less than one second.  Perhaps when the tree feature comes out of Beta it will be faster.

c)  Why does the Tree have only four generations?  I have cemetery records back to the early 1600s for some of my ancestors.  Will the BillionGraves Tree be able to go back further in time?

d)  What about other family members - my ancestors siblings and children who are not my ancestors?  Will the BillionGraves Tree be able to include them also?

e)  It is fairly common that persons are buried in a cemetery not in the town or city that they died in.  Does a user have to pick a specific cemetery, or is there a way to request a photo in all of the cemeteries in a town or a neighboring town?  Perhaps a search in the main section of the BillionGraves should be an option.

f)  This is a nice feature in BillionGraves, but it needs work.  Again, it's in Beta so perhaps it will improve.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/02/billiongraves-adds-family-trees.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.

Day Four (Saturday) at #RootsTech 2017

I didn't get much sleep after the MyHeritage party night, so was bleary-eyed all day Saturday.

Here is a  link to all of the currently available Saturday streamed sessions (I couldn't find the whole day on video):  https://www.rootstech.org/videos-sat

The highlights of my Saturday were:

*  I made it to the Keynote session 20 minutes early because I misread the time on my laptop.  The keynote highlight for me was CeCe Moore's talk on DNA testing and her DNA Detectives success stories.   I was bored by the Cake Boss - all talk no pictures - but he did have some inspirational moments.

*  After the keynote it was off to the Media Hub and there was a crowd around Buddy and CeCe and there was a group talking to the new Ancestry executive.  I neglected to sign up for the latter.  I wrote a blog post instead.

*  I left at 11 a.m. for the MyHeritage exhibit, and gave my 15 minute presentation on using the Compilation of Published Sources on MyHeritage.  The handheld microphone worked better than the lapel mic I had on Thursday.  The talk went well, but the presentation could have been better.

*  I went to lunch in the Expo Hall food area, and sat with Roger Moffat.  We missed the blogger photograph  Oh well - second year in a row.

*  I took some photos during the walk back to the Media Hub, and talked to several vendors.  Then it was blogging and updating the blog compendium.

*  I left at 3:15 p.m. and went back to the Radisson and took a nap.  I was interrupted by the maid to clean the room.  Linda wasn't there, so I went down to the pool and found her - we had to leave at 5:30 p.m. riding with Ken and Linda Robbins to DearMYRTLEs.

*  We had a long conversation on the 30 minute ride to South Jordan, and got there just after 6 p.m.  There were 40 to 50 people at the party.  I have some photos and I'll put them in another blog post.  Dinner was great - from Olive Garden (pasta fagioli soup, salad, breadsticks) and lots of yummy desserts.  Pat and Carrie fixed something special for Linda because of her allergies - thank you!!!

*  We left at 8:30 p.m. and got back to the hotel just after 9 p.m.  I updated the compendium, wrote a blog post, and collapsed at 10:30.

*  Awake at 5 a.m. on Sunday, and never went back to sleep.  We had breakfast at 7 a.m., and had a shuttle scheduled for Sunday morning at 8 a.m., got to the airport by 8:30, and our 10:30 flight to Las Vegas was on time, and we got home by 2:15 p.m., right on schedule, and home by 3:15 p.m..  I took a nap in the recliner.  I worked on the photos and uploaded them to the desktop computer, and got to bed relatively early.

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