CGSSD Meeting on Saturday - Barbara Renick

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) program meeting is this Saturday, 15 August. Here is the email notice sent out by Linda:

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego meets on Saturday, August 15, 2009 from 9:00 am to noon.

9:00 - User groups for Legacy, Macintosh, and a Special User Group on Digital Imaging and Scanning

10:00 - A break and refreshments

10:15 - Announcements followed by Program

"On-line: How You Get There Does Make a Difference" by Barbara Renick

This lecture provides examples from a variety of different types of websites where initial searches failed, but accessing the site in a different way or making the search in a different way brings positive results.

Barbara is a professional genealogist and a nationally known speaker and researcher. She is a regular volunteer and instructor at the Regional Family History Center in Orange, California.

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

I look forward to this meeting and hearing Barbara. I won't tweet it, though! I will blog about it! My biggest quandary is whether to attend the Legacy group meeting or go to the SIG on Digital Imaging or Scanning.

Getting into the FREE WorldVitalRecords.com databases

The WorldVitalRecords press release received last night offered three free days (August 11, 12 and 13) access to ALL of the databases at http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/.

Here is what a non-subscriber will have to do to obtain access.

* Go to http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/. There is a signup box here for the three days. You need to supply a working email address:



* Once you have filled in the blanks, then pressing the green "Continue" button will show you another information box:




This box tells you that you will get an email with a link to the free access.

* go to your email client and find the email from WVR:





* There is a link in the email that takes you to a validation of your account at the WorldVitalRecords site:

* Click on the link "To starting using WorldVitalRecords.com, click here" link:

Your name appears in the upper right hand corner. Your account will terminate at midnight MDT on 14 August (11 p.m. PDT Thursday night).

Note that they now have your email address, your name and a phone number. But you did not provide a credit card number for them to bill you.

After your three days expire, you can still visit the Recently Added databases and obtain free access for ten days after the database was added - at least for US databases. There are many good databases added on 10 August!

Good luck!

WorldVitalRecords.com FREE for three days!

Just received an email press release from WorldVitalRecords.com announcing:

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

WorldVitalRecords.com Opens Site Allowing for Free Public Access to More Than One Billion Family History Records

With the addition of the largest number of records to be released in a single day since the site launched in 2006

PROVO, UT, August 11, 2009 – WorldVitalRecords.com, an online family history resource, today announced the addition of the largest number of records to be released in a single day since the site launched in 2006. To commemorate this milestone, for the first time WorldVitalRecords is offering free public access to its entire online collection of historical and genealogical records beginning August 11 and continuing through August 13, 2009. The public will have unlimited access to more than one billion records in over 11,000 databases from around the world including newspapers, census, birth, marriage, death, immigration and military records; family trees; stories and publications; and yearbooks.

“As a genealogy enthusiast, I’m thrilled that people can go to one place like WorldVitalRecords.com, try family history research for free and find their parents or grandparents, and see how simple it is to start tracing back and discovering stories that bring family history to life," said Jim Ericson, Vice-President of Marketing for Family Link. “This is a rare opportunity to delve into the records and discover information about your family and ancestors you may have never known.” Featured records in this release include:

* Historical Newspapers -- Through a partnership with Newspaper Archive, WorldVitalRecords is adding access to pages from a variety of newspapers from all over the United States, dating from 1759 through 1923. This collection features images of entire newspapers from the western frontier, the Midwest at the turn of the century, and the long-time standard of our nation's news, "The New York Times" which includes over 7 million names. Newspaper Archive produces the largest historical newspaper database online, and the collection is fully searchable by keyword and date, and individual pages can be saved or printed. According to Gena Philibert Ortega, Genealogy Community Director for FamilyLink, "Part of the fun of family history is uncovering details about our ancestors’ daily lives -- the events of the day, the goods and the services they bought. Newspapers allow us to better understand our ancestors."

* Immigration Records -- Living in a country of immigrants, ship passenger lists and other records documenting immigration can be an essential part in learning more about your family history. It is a thrilling experience to see their names transcribed on paper the day they entered this country through the Port of New York. Browsing and searching these passenger lists is a perfect way for someone to start researching their family history. This record collection provides documentation of over 150,000 passengers who arrived on nearly 8,000 ships at one of the busiest ports in the United States, New York, from 1820-1832.

* Yearbooks -- In partnership with the website E-Yearbook.com, WorldVitalRecords is doubling its collection of digitized yearbooks. This collection features university yearbooks from the late 1800 to mid 1950’s. E-Yearbook.com houses the largest collection of old college yearbooks on the Internet. Universities featured this week include Duke University, University of Oklahoma, Iowa State and the College of William and Mary.

* Vital Records, Military Records and Tax Lists -- Other records being released on the site include birth, marriage, tax lists, military records, and death records from Maine, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

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

It is encouraging to see more content being added to the WorldVitalRecords collection. I am especially interested in the UK and Canada items in the World collection (since I have a US subscription). The NewspaperARCHIVE collection and the added US vital, military and tax records may have some useful information also.

I will email my CVGS colleagues today about this!

GenSeek on Facebook Application is Available

Tamura Jones alerted me to the presence of the GenSeek (the Family History Library Catalog 2.0) on Facebook application on Facebook. You can read Tamura's review of the application in
his article GenSeek on Facebook at www.TamuraJones.net (I cannot get a link to the article for some reason).

Login to Facebook, and go to the GenSeek Facebook page. (If the link doesn't work, login to Facebook and put "GenSeek" in the Search box.) Become a GenSeek on Facebook fan while you're there. In the upper lefthand corner of the GenSeek Facebook page is a blue "Go To Application" button. Click on that, accept the access to your data, and you should be on the Genseek for Facebook Application!

Here is my first look at the home page and then I did a simple Search. The home page has five tabs across the top for Search, Favorites, GenStream, Following and My Profile. There is some explanatory information below the tabs:


The site says:

"What is GenSeek?

"Research tools for every genealogist. GenSeek on Facebook houses a unique method of searching for sources that may contain records of your ancestors that may be housed in the Family History Library."

I clicked on the Search tab and put "Seaver" in the Last Name search field:


A number of results came up from the LDS Family History Library Catalog that matched my Search criteria:


I clicked on the first one just as an example, and saw a description of the work "The Seaver Family" by William Blake Trask:


The yellow banner says that this source has not been digitized yet. I could click on the red flag and they will notify me when it is digitized.

Now inquiring minds want to know: Is this what http://GenSeek.com will look like when it is unveiled and there is a massive tsunami of genealogy seekers to the site after it is launched?

It seems really smart of FamilyLink to put this on Facebook as an Application before launching the website.

Tamura mentioned that this is still a "beta" site meaning that users can test-drive it but it may not be fully functional. In essence, we should try to try it out and report any problems to FamilyLink.

You can see a lot more of the site in Tamura's article. Thank you, Tamura, for the heads-up.

Not much Bling in the Carringer-Auble families

The impression I have about my Smith, Auble and Carringer families in the 1860 to 1940 time frame is that they were frugal and fairly simple people. In the hundreds of photographs in my collection for these families, I see very few noticeable rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

Their income went to support the family, and many of these families suffered financial losses when the economy failed in 1873 and 1893 and again in 1929.

I thought that I would find some jewelry in the wedding photographs I have, but there is none apparent in the wedding picture of my parents, her parents, or her grandparents.

I did find one picture of my mother (Betty Virginia Carringer) and her mother (Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer) taken in about 1930:

In this photograph, Emily is wearing a very nice pearl necklace and fairly large pearl earrings (real or fake?) and Betty is wearing a pearl necklace with smaller pearls in the necklace and a larger pearl at the end.

My best guess is that this may be a photograph taken in honor of Betty's graduation from elementary school in about 1930, or of her birthday in July. She was age 11 in 1930, and Emily was age 31. In this time period, both of my grandparents worked at Marston's Department Store in downtown San Diego and, for probably the first time in their lives, could afford some nice jewelry and little extras.

I have no idea where this jewelry went. Perhaps one of my brothers, or their wives, have it as part of the family heirlooms passed down over the generations. Or sold at the garage sale when Emily died in 1977.

I love this picture because my mother is almost smiling. I don't have many pictures of her as a young girl smiling. And my grandmother is in the prime of her life, and is almost smiling too. Her family is stable (which was a challenge for her first 18 years), she is surrounded by loved ones, and she can be proud of her place in the world. This is a really special picture for me - two of my favorite ladies in my life looking absolutely beautiful!

Making an Ahnentafel List in Family Tree Maker

Our Saturday Night Genealogy Fun assignment was to create an ahnentafel list of our great-great-grandparents, and many "players" successfully created a nice list and posted them on their blogs or in comments to my post or on Facebook.
However, those who tried to use any version of Family Tree Maker (up to 2009) were unable to easily make an ahnentafel list using FTM software.

How do I define an "Ahnentafel List?" It has exact ahnentafel numbering (similar to a really big pedigree chart), names, birth date and place, death date and place, and marriage date and place for the ancestors of a selected person. No notes, no facts, no children, etc. This is a genealogy industry standard report!

I use ahnentafel lists in place of a pile of pedigree charts. I have over 2,000 known ancestors, and my ahnentafel list is about 50 pages long. That is much easier to navigate, and to take with me in a notebook, than many pedigree charts, or a large printed genealogy report.

Family Tree Maker (all recent versions) creates an Ahnentafel Report very nicely - but it does not permit the generation of an Ahnentafel List as described above. It should be able to - but it doesn't! The capability should be added to the program in the next release.

When the only genealogy software I had was Family Tree Maker, I made the Ahnentafel Report and then edited it in my word processor to eliminate the children and the notes. With over 2,000 ancestors, this was a major time waster task.

Family Tree Maker 2009 offers an Ahnentafel Report and a Simple Ahnentafel Report. In an Ahnentafel Report, the user can include preferred facts, private facts, person notes, research notes, private notes, Fact notes, and sources. I created a 5-generation Ahnentafel Report for my father - with preferred facts, person notes and sources (I clicked on the Items to Include icon), as shown below:




The resulting Ahnentafel Report was 64 pages. Cutting out the Preferred Facts, Person Notes and Sources, the resulting Ahnentafel Report is shown below:

Note that it has all the Facts (since I deleted Preferred Facts), adds the "More About" facts (where does that come from?), adds the Reference Number (huh? why?), and is only 19 pages. It still has the children. I WANT an Ahnentafel List with only the names dates and places for my ancestor's birth, marriage and death.

There is a check box on the Ahnentafel Report screen that says "Use short biographies (B,M,D only)." When I click on that, I get a shorter five-generation Ahnentafel Report - only 14 pages:

But it still has the children listed, and there is a separate paragraph for the marriage. It's not what I Want.

What about the Simple Ahnentafel Report? It looks pretty much like the Ahnentafel Report. Here is the 5-generation screen shot with Preferred Facts, Person Notes and Sources:

This report was 57 pages - why is it different from the Ahnentafel Report? Ah, it lists only the Birth, Marriage and Death Facts, not the other preferred facts.

Eliminating Preferred Facts, Person Notes and Sources using the Items to Include screen results in this report:

This Simple Ahnentafel Report is still 15 pages, and still lists the children. It includes "More About" the children and also includes the names of the parents of each person in the Ahnentafel list.

While this is a nice Ahnentafel Report, it is not the Ahnentafel List that I want with just names, BMD dates and places for my ancestors.

Every other genealogy software program that I've seen (Legacy, RootsMagic, The Master Genealogist, Personal Ancestral File, Brother's Keeper, The Family Historian, Family Tree Builder, Reunion, etc.) has the capability to create a simple Ahnentafel List. Here is the screen shot of my five-generation ahnentafel list generated by RootsMagic 4 (it took less than five seconds!):

That is exactly what I want! The other programs create something similar.

How can Family Tree Maker modify their program to create a simple Ahnentafel List? Easy - add more check boxes to "Include only BMD Facts," "Include children," "Include parents," "Include More About" information, etc. to the "Items to Include" screen.

Surely, that cannot be difficult, can it?

Tweeting a conference presentation

An interesting conversation broke out Saturday on the Association of Professional Genealogists mailing list (APG-L). The initial post by Rondina Muncy wondered if tweeting a conference presentation violated fair use copyright protections. (Use this link to see the full mailing list thread.)

The discussion has provided the following points:

* Michael John Neill and Elizabeth Shown Mills raised the issue of accuracy of what was tweeted or reported.

* Larry Boswell thinks that "circling the copyright wagons" is a futile exercise in this case.

* Ray Beere Johnson opined that compiled tweets may violate a presenter's copyright rights, but individual tweets may not.

* Elizabeth Shown Mills noted that a tweeter was essentially a reviewer and/or a reporter.

* Karen Mauer Green commented that she learns best by taking notes during the presentation, not from just listening to a lecture.

* Michael Hait thinks that lecturers should welcome tweets - they may encourage more attendees at future lectures.

You really have to read the entire thread for the full exposure of what the "genealogy professionals" think.

I commented today on the issue on the APG-L list, but it hasn't appeared yet. I noted:

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

I'm late to this conversation...but have two cents to share - from the tweeters viewpoint.

First - thank you everyone for the fascinating and civil discussion.

I do not learn much by just listening to someone talk from notes or memory. I do learn well when I can see a presentation, hear the speaker's words, and take notes for future review and even "reporting."

None of you have seen my handwriting, which has gotten worse over the years. A month later, I often cannot read my notes. If I use my computer to take notes, or tweet, then I can at least read through my typos and make sense of the presentation at a later time. I have found that I can "keep up" on my laptop taking notes better than writing in longhand (shorthand always baffled me).

I tweeted during the Blogger's Summit at the SCGS Jamboree, along with several others. Afterward, I compiled the tweets in a blog post in chronological order (and that was a difficult cut-and-paste job). The 9-person panel presentation was 150 minutes long with a 15 minute break. I posted 87 tweets during the 135 minutes. There is no way that I captured anything close to 10% of what was said or shown on the screen, or even the highlights from each speaker. There was an "audience" on Twitter and on Facebook (where my tweets get posted automatically) living the summit vicariously through the tweets from the Blogger's Summit.

Having had this experience actually tweeting, there were some real problems. The wi-fi was not reliable in the lecture hall. Even though I wanted to tweet something, there were times when I couldn't. Rather than fall behind on the tweeting, I just skipped to the present discussion when the wi-fi came back on.

I doubt that I will tweet a conference presentation again. I will take notes on my laptop when I can because it is easier than writing in longhand - assuming I have power to the laptop!

Elizabeth said early on that tweeting was essentially "reporting" what a person heard or saw during a lecture or presentation. I agree with that. I, and many others - especially local society newsletter editors, routinely summarize the programs and lectures we attend for our newsletters, periodicals, blogs and web pages. Occasionally, print reporters write an article summarizing genealogy presentations - the Mormon Times and Deseret News did that for the recent BYU Conference.

My two cents -- Randy Seaver (www.geneamusings.com)

Best of the Genea-Blogs - August 2-8, 2009

Several hundred 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:

* Shot Myself in the Foot by Thomas Fiske on Leland Meitzler's GenealogyBlog. Tom tells us an interesting story and posits his own law of genealogy: “Genealogy is finding the person who has done all the research.”

* Genealogical Serendipity: Does the Internet lead to more or less of it? by Dean Richardson on the Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented. Dean analyzes the NYTimes article and disagrees with it, then poses some interesting questions for us to ponder.

* What's New in Family Tree Maker 2010 by Russ Worthington on the Family Tree Maker User blog. Russ hears first-hand about FTM 2010 from an FTM creator and tells us about it.

* BYUGEN Tweets by Mark Tucker on the ThinkGenealogy blog. Mark provides his tweets for six of the presentations he attended at the BYU Family History Genealogy conference last week.

* The 77th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Disasters by Miriam Midkiff on the Ancestories: Stories of my Ancestors blog. Miriam hosted this Carnival with the topic of Disasters! There were 30 entries - read all of them - fascinating, scary, excellent writing!

* The Other Side of Genealogy, Don’t Put Sources In New FamilySearch? and Research Practices and NFS by the Ancestry Insider on The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI posted his tweets from three of the sessions at the BYU conference.

* Breaking News: Man Smashes Through Brick Wall in Louisiana!, Breaking Down the Wall-Prologue, The Process of Breaking Down a Brick Wall and “So What Makes You So Sure You’ve Knocked Down a Brick Wall?” by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig started his multi-part series on his Gines brick wall problem solution. There are lessons here for everyone!

* Browning v. Beck Pt 8 - The Cases Are Resolved by Patti Browning on the Consanguinity blog. Patti finishes her series on two fascinating court cases involving her ancestors.

* BYU Genealogy conference by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet posted her tweets, and those of The Ancestry Insider, from Mark Tucker's BYU conference session.

* WDYTYA and Ancestry by John D. Reid on the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog. John discusses the relationship of the TV Show Who Do You Think You Are? with Ancestry.com in this post.

* Genealogy is more than just craft. by George Geder on the George Geder blog. George persuades us to listen to the stories about our ancestors rather than get wrapped around the genealogy process axle. Wise words!

* Genealogy Rant (Pet Peeve) by Lorine Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Lorine discusses (rants!!!) genealogy "researchers" who won't look for any information that is not online. Excellent post - read the comments too!

* State of the Staats Estate by Chris Staats on the Staat's Place blog. Chris provides some house history of one of his ancestral homes in words and pictures.

* Genealogy Through A Wider Window by Leah on The Internet Genealogist blog. Leah provides her perspective on Lorine's rant, based on her research experiences.

* A Misunderstood & Underutilized Resource by Tami Glatz on the relatively curious about genealogy blog. Tami discusses the LDS FamilySearch.org website in detail - great summary post.

* The Year Was 1893 by Sheri Fenley in her The Year Was ... column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog-ezine. Sheri tells the story of the year in pictures and words - it was a fascinating year!

* For genealogy, let the computer do what computers do by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. Computers are tools to be used efficiently and wisely in genealogy, according to James. Well said.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Bloglines, reader, 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 500 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

Which Family Tree Maker version to use?

On my recent post Family Tree Maker 2010 <=> Ancestry Member Tree Synchronization, David commented:

"I am new to FTM and have a tree in Ancestry.com of about 625 records and would like to purchase a hard copy of the FTM software. There are several versions to pick from. 2009 basic, deluxe, platinum, etc. and now 2010. What would you recommend? My main focus is my in-laws have a HUGE data base that I would like to import into mine and I was told by Ancestry.com that the only way was to do it through an FTM product."

David, if you currently do not have any genealogy software program and want to ensure that your Ancestry Member Tree, and your in-laws Ancestry Member Tree, can be downloaded to a genealogy software program with as much retained information as possible, then Family Tree Maker 2010 is probably your best choice.

The reason for this is that the company Ancestry.com owns Family Tree Maker software and is trying to provide an easy conversion from the online Ancestry Member Trees to FTM 2010 software on user computers, and vice versa. The user can download an Ancestry Member Tree, with attached media items (meaning images, audio, video), except for historical data records collected from Ancestry.com databases, to Family Tree Maker 2009 and/or 2010. The user can also upload an FTM 2009/2010 database, with attached media, to a new Ancestry Member Tree.

With any other genealogy software program, the user is limited to a GEDCOM upload to Ancestry.com or a GEDCOM download from Ancestry.com to the other genealogy software. In a pure GEDCOM action, there are no media items transferred.

There are some things to consider:

* You need to make sure that the Ancestry.com family tree databases you mention are in the Ancestry Member Trees, and not in the One World Tree or World Family Tree collections. Ancestry has these three sets of family trees, with the Ancestry Member Trees the collection that can have attached media.

* When you upload a GEDCOM file or an FTM 2009/2010 file to Ancestry, you must make it a NEW family tree. You cannot add more information onto an existing Ancestry Member Tree except by inputting it item by item using the keyboard. If you frequently make NEW Ancestry Member Trees, you may end up with a number of similar family trees on Ancestry.com if you're not careful. You should delete the older ones if the newest one has the most recent changes to your database. Of course, any tree you delete on Ancestry.com means that you will lose any media that you have attached (from your computer or Ancestry.com record databases) to the deleted tree. That is why the upload/download feature between Ancestry Member Trees and FTM 2009/2010 is so important!

* Note that what Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker software are doing is not a true synchronization, where if you change data or records in one of them then the other is automatically updated somehow. That is not happening yet - but it is what many users want, and Ancestry may be working on ways to implement it.

* Every user needs to pick whether to make all of their changes to data and records in the Ancestry Member Tree database or in the genealogy software database. Then they must occasionally upload or download to the other in order to make them the same database. I choose to make my changes on my desktop computer because FTM 2009 (and any other desktop software) is much easier to use to add, edit, delete, display, save and print information than in the Ancestry Member Tree. Genealogy software has many more useful features than any online family tree system, including Ancestry Member Trees.

* Using FTM 2009/2010 as the primary data entry resource means that you will need to back it up once in awhile. That is one of the best things about the FTM 2009/2010 <=> Ancestry Member Tree data exchange - the AMT is a backup database not stored on your home computer. If your computer crashes, then you have a recent backup of your database (and attached media) on the Ancestry.com computers. This is one reason why I'm going to buy FTM 2010.

* You will need to purchase Family Tree Maker software. You mentioned different "versions" of FTM 2009 - basic, essentials, deluxe, platinum, etc. These are bundles of the same software package (in this case FTM 2009) with extra items added on - genealogy books on CDROM, FTM user manual, and various Ancestry.com subscriptions. You can find these "sales" at http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/ and other discount websites. You need to decide how much "extra stuff" you want with your FTM 2010. To buy FTM 2010 now, you can go to http://www.familytreemaker.com/. The retail price is $39.95. If you do a Google search for "family tree maker 2010" you may current sales bundles at Amazon and other websites. I saw the FTM 2010 Essentials (just the software, nothing else) on sale today at Amazon.com for $29.99. The discount sites will probably bundle FTM 2010 with books on CD, an Ancestry subscription, etc. I've had good results using these sites and have saved money on software and on Ancestry.com subscriptions.

* You said that "... I was told by Ancestry.com that the only way was to do it through an FTM product." That is probably a true statement IF your in-laws tree is only on Ancestry Member Tree and has many media items attached to it. If they don't have any media items attached to it, then a GEDCOM download of the file should be readable on any genealogy software with a GEDCOM import function. If they have their file in some other software, then they can create a GEDCOM file and send it to you and you can import it as a GEDCOM file into your own genealogy software program (including FTM 2010).

I know this is a lot of information, but the issue is very complicated. I wanted to give you a complete answer so that you can ask more questions, make a good decision and obtain genealogy software that suits your needs. I also thought that other readers might be interested in the answers to your questions! It is possible that other software companies will come to an agreement to permit media uploads and downloads to or from Ancestry Member Trees, but I doubt that this will happen in the near future. Why? Because the Ancestry <=> FTM "synchronization" provides FTM 2010 with a unique and excellent sales point in the marketplace.

Russ Worthington is also addressing questions like this, and demonstrating how to work between Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker 2009/2010, on his Family Tree Maker User blog at http://ftmuser.blogspot.com/. Check out Russ's work - he does a great job of explaining things in a step-by-step process.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your 16 Great-Great-Grands

It's almost Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun!

Do you have a pedigree chart that shows you as #1 and goes back five generations? If not, you should make one! Fire up your software program and create a report and save it (you'll see why in am inute!).

Here is your SNGF assignment for the evening (if you choose to accept it - this is not stump the genealogist or even Mission Impossible):

1) List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.

3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

4) If you don't know all 16 of your great-great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.

5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

Here's mine:

1. Isaac Seaver: born 16 Oct 1823 in Westminster, Worcester County, MA; married 9 Sep 1851 in Walpole, Norfolk County, MA; died 12 Mar 1901 in Leominster, Worcester County, MA. ENGLISH

2. Lucretia Townsend Smith: born bef 6 Sep 1828 in Medfield, Norfolk County, MA; died 24 Mar 1884 in Leominster, Worcester County, MA. ENGLISH

3. Edward Hildreth: born 30 Apr 1831 in Townsend, Middlesex County, MA; married 25 Dec 1852 in Northborough, Worcester County, MA; died 26 Apr 1899 in Leominster, Worcester County, MA. ENGLISH

4. Sophia Newton: born 14 Sep 1834 in Springfield, Windsor County, VT; died 29 Aug 1923 in Leominster, Worcester County, MA. ENGLISH

5. James Richman\Richmond: born bef 8 Apr 1821 in Hilperton, Wiltshire, ENGLAND; married 7 Sep 1845 in Hilperton, Wiltshire, ENGLAND; died 20 Dec 1912 in Putnam, Windham County, CT. ENGLISH

6. Hannah Rich: born 14 Apr 1824 in Hilperton, Wiltshire, ENGLAND; died 7 Aug 1911 in Putnam, Windham County, CT. ENGLISH

7. Henry A. White: born 1824 in Glocester, Providence County, RI; married 30 Jun 1844 in Thompson, Windham County, CT, (VR); died 1 Aug 1885 in East Killingly, Windham County, CT. ENGLISH

8. Amy Frances Oatley: born 1826 in South Kingstown, Washington County, RI; died bef 1870 in Killingly, Windham County, CT. ENGLISH

9. David Jackson\D.J. Carringer: born 4 Nov 1828 in Greenville, Mercer County, PA; married 16 Oct 1851 in Mercer County, PA; died 20 Jan 1902 in San Diego, San Diego County, CA. GERMAN

10. Rebecca Spangler: born 2 Apr 1832 in Mercer County, PA; died 13 Dec 1901 in San Diego, San Diego County, CA. GERMAN

11. Devier James Lamphear Smith: born 7 May 1839 in Henderson, Jefferson County, NY; married 4 Apr 1861 in Rolling Prairie, Dodge County, WI; died 1 May 1894 in McCook, Red Willow County, NE. ENGLISH ?

12. Abigail A. Vaux: born 28 Oct 1844 in Aurora, Erie County, NY; died 11 Sep 1931 in San Diego, San Diego County, CA. ENGLISH

13. David Auble: born 1817 in Stillwater, Sussex County, NJ; married abt 1844 in Newton, Sussex County, NJ; died 22 Mar 1894 in Terre Haute, Vigo County, IN.

14. Sarah G. Knapp: born Jan 1818 in prob. Woodbridge, Middlesex County, NJ; died aft 1900 in prob. Bushnell, McDonough County, IL.

15. James Abram Kemp: born 22 May 1831 in prob. Hillier, Prince Edward County, Ontario, CANADA; married 10 Mar 1861 in Middleton, Norfolk County, ONTARIO; died 19 Sep 1902 in Delhi, Norfolk County, Ontario, CANADA. ENGLISH

16. Mary Jane Sovereen: born 29 Dec 1840 in prob. Delhi, Norfolk County, ONTARIO; died 20 May 1874 in Middleton, Norfolk County, ONTARIO, CANADA. GERMAN

As far as I can tell, my ethnicity is European (Y-DNA haplogroup is R, mtDNA haplogroup is H).

My "nationalities" are 13 ENGLISH (10 from early colonial New England) and 3 GERMAN - so 81% English, 19% German. Another generation back would add a Dutch line.

This was real easy to do once I made the ahnentafel list in RootsMagic 4. I saved it as an RTF file, and copied/pasted the 5th generation into the post above. Piece of cake!

One of the great things about writing a blog post like this is that now other searchers can find you on the Internet in a search engine.

UPDATED 11 p.m. - That smart blonde Sheri Fenley figured out that there are 16 great-great-grands not 16 great-grands like I originally posted. You know, it's easy to spell check but harder to content check! Sheri gets an A+ if she posts her 16 GGGP. Some of the bloggers posted their 16 GGGPs and noted the fact, my challenge notwithstanding.