Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 15: Genealogy Reports

I installed FamilyTreeMaker 2008 in early July and uploaded a large database to see how it worked. I also started a new database to test other program features. Please see the list at the bottom of this post for the earlier posts.

In this post, I want to display some pages from the Genealogy Reports generated by FamilyTreeMaker 2008.

I'm using Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) in my database as a starting point for these charts.

When you click on the [Publish] icon on the top menu, you see a list of the different Charts and Reports that can be generated in the left-hand panel. I clicked on "Genealogy Reports" and got this screen:



There are two Report choices - a "Register Report" and an "Ahnentafel Report."

The first report type is the Register Report - I double-clicked the "Register Report" choice and a 20-page report for the descendants of Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) came up. On the right-hand panel, I could change the title of the report, change the number of generations, and add a background if I chose. The Zoom level can be changed to obtain from 25% to 500% magnification, and from one page on screen to up to 8 pages on screen (25% Zoom level). You can Zoom in smaller increments by using the + and - magnifying glass icons also. For the screen shots below, I changed the Zoom level so as to show two pages on one screen. Here are the first two pages of my Register Report for Benjamin Seaver:

For both report types, the user can select the Items to Include, Fonts, and Page Setup icons in the right-hand panel to modify the format of the Report. The Items to Include menu includes user-selection of Facts (select either or both Preferred Facts and Private Facts), Notes (select any or all of Person Notes, Fact Notes, Research Notes and Private Notes), and Sources (check Include sources as endnotes). For these reports, I selected Preferred Facts, Person Notes and Research Notes, and to Include sources as Endnotes.

The shot below shows Pages 5 and 6 of the Report, with the listing of the children and the start of the next generation families.

The second Genealogy Report type is Ahnentafel Report - a report that works backward in time generation by generation, with the selected person as #1 in the Report. In the first screen above, you can double-click on the Ahnentafel Report icon and obtain the report. The screen below shows Pages 1 and 2 of the Ahnentafel Report for Benjamin Seaver.

I chose four generations for this report, and the other Items to Include from the Register Report. Here is the Children list, on pages 5 and 6 of the report, which shows that Notes for children of the Selected Person (Benjamin Seaver) are included in the report.

Below are Pages 7 and 8, which shows the rest of the list of children and the start of Generation 2 of the Report, with the Father (Norman Seaver) of the Selected Person (Benjamin Seaver) as person #2 in the Ahnentafel Report.

Pages 9 and 10 of the Ahnentafel Report finishes Norman Seaver's Notes and then adds the information for Person #3 (Sarah Read, wife of Norman Seaver, mother of #1 Benjamin Seaver). This screen is shown below:

At the end of both the Register Report and the Ahnentafel Report is a list of Sources used in the Report.

For both reports, the user can choose to show only the Birth, Marriage and Death vital records and the list of children by going to the Items to Include icon and unchecking the Facts, Notes and Sources boxes. The resulting 4-generation ahnentafel was only 8 pages rather than 31 pages.

The Ahnentafel Report is a bit different from previous FTM Ahnentafel Reports in that the vital records information for the wife of the male parent is not included just below the male parent's vital records information. It is located after the Notes for the male parent. The marriage information for the couple are listed just before the list of children.

I like both of these Genealogy Reports - the numbering system is accurate, the vital records, notes and sources are listed consistently, and the report format can be edited with respect to fonts, colors, etc. The formating options are better than earlier FTM software releases.

I would like to see an NGSQ Report option for the descendants report - the NGSQ Report assigns a number to each descendant, whether there is a later paragraph for that descendant or not. Note that in the Register Report, numbers are assigned only for those descendants that have a later paragraph. For my genealogy reports, I much prefer the NGSQ report. Hopefully, FTM will add the NGSQ Report to later software updates.

Previous posts in this series:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 1: Loading. Installing the program and uploading an existing database file.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. Looking around the uploaded database file to see what the different views look like.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 3: The Menus. Most of the menus were itemized and described.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 4: Starting a New Tree. I started a new tree and added some people demonstrating the program options to do this.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 5: Adding a Source. I added sources to the Facts that I previously entered.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 6: Adding Children to a Family. I added children to a family.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 7: The Person Menu. I described the items in the Person menu and attached a spouse to a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 8: Finding a Person in the database. I described three ways to Find a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 9: Places I. I explored the vagaries of the Places icon.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10: Places II. The different map types are discussed and displayed.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 11: Places III. The method to Resolve many places with standardized place names is explored.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 12: Charts I. Introduction to Charts and examples of pedigree and descendants charts.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 13: Charts II. Examples of Hourglass, Relationships and Vertical Pedigree Charts.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 14: Charts III. Examples of large wall charts created by FTM 2008.

The next post will cover some of the Person Reports available in the [Publish] menu.

My Genealympics - Day 2

The events for the 2008 Genea-Blogger Group Games (which I call the Genealympics) were posted by Miriam Midkiff here and by Thomas MacEntee here. Miriam hosted the GBGG Opening Ceremonies on Friday here - complete with theme music, flags and the entries for each competitor.

Here is the official GBGG badge for the Games (created by the talented footnoteMaven):

And here is the flag I created and am competing under:



I decided to enter only two events - the Organize Your Research! event and the Reach Out and Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness! event - as discussed here.

The tasks for Organize Your Research are:

A. Organize at least 20 hard files or ancestral items (books, fabrics, inherited items) into file folders, boxes, envelopes, containers, etc.; archival-quality where appropriate.
B. Organize at least 20 digital files into folders, label, add metadata, add descriptions, add tags, etc.
C. Organize at least 20 photos into photo albums, scrapbooks, collages, protective holders, boxes, etc.
D. Organize at least 20 digital photos into folders, label, add metadata, add descriptions, add tags, etc.
E. Create at least 20 data entries in your database, or scan 20 photos, or scan 20 documents.
F. Create a master list of your files and notify your family members of where it is stored.

Qualifications for "Organize Your Research!":

Complete any one task - Bronze Medal
Complete any two tasks - Silver Medal
Complete any three tasks - Gold Medal
Complete any four tasks - Diamond Medal
Complete five or more tasks - Platinum Medal

The tasks for Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness!

A. Comment on a new (to you) genea-blog.
B. Join another genea-blogger’s blog network on Facebook Blog Networks.
C. Invite other genealogists to join Facebook.
D. Assist another researcher with a research request or lookup.
F. Join a genealogical, historical, heritage or lineage society.

Qualifications for "Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness!":

Complete any one task - Bronze Medal
Complete any two tasks - Silver Medal
Complete any three tasks - Gold Medal
Complete any four tasks - Diamond Medal
Complete five or more tasks - Platinum Medal

Yesterday was the first official day of competition, and I went sightseeing around the genea-blog universe rather than jump right into the competition. It's fun to see how everyone else is getting right down to it and working hard for those medals.

Today was the second official day of competition, and I accomplished the following:

Organize Your Research:

* C. I created a photo album on my Facebook page for pictures of my granddaughter Audrey, and put 11 photos on the page with tags for each person. I am 55% complete with this specific task.

Reach Out and Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness:

* A. I commented on blog posts by Amir Dekel (I Dream of Genea(logy) blog), by Midge Frazel (Granite in my Blood blog), and by Tina Sansone (GtownMa's Genealogy blog). I am 100% complete (actually 300%) with this specific task.

* B. I joined two genea-blogger networks on Facebook Blog Networks - the New Mexico Genealogical Society network, and the Elyse's Genealogy Blog network. I am 100% complete with this specific task.

Obviously, I'm just warming up. I don't want to pull a brain muscle or anything typing too fast. I am in the middle of two significant research projects for friends and colleagues, and I need to work toward those goals also.

This is not a competition with other genealogists. This is an effort to match accomplishments with commitments. I'm having fun! That's what it's all about, isn't it?

UPDATED: 9:30 p.m. - added task A in the Reach Out event.

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of August 3-9, 2008

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 Carnival of Genealogy, 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:

* Ancestry.com and FamilySearch Partnership and Making Sense of Motives by the Ancestry Insider on The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI explains, in simple economic terms, the agreement between these two genealogy behemoths. Makes sense to me!

* The Danger of Historical Books by Midge Frazel on the Granite In My Blood blog. Midge has excellent advice about historical books, especially reprints. They may not include everything that was in the original book.

* Legacy Cruise 2008 - An Enormous Success by Geoff Rasmussen (I think!) on the Legacy News blog. Want to know what a genealogy cruise is like, with pictures? Read this post.

* Top Ten Genealogy Group Games That Were Cut by the Committee and 5 Ways That Genealogists Are Similar to Athletes by Donna Pointkouski on the What's Past is Prologue blog. Donna does a humorous Top 10 list post and then a serious Top 5 post. Excellent work - both of them!

* Zillow as a Genealogy Tool by Kathi Reid on the Ancestor Search blog. Kathi has a great tip for finding photos of homes in many areas - use the Zillow real estate web site.

* Record Search Updated to Version 1.4 by Tim Crabb on the FamilySearch Labs blog. This post describes changes to all of the LDS FamilySearch Labs projects. The most important addition is the use of wild cards in searches. Great news!

* Welcome to the Picnic by Bill West on the West in New England blog. This is the summary post for 19 picnic memory posts. These are fun reads!

* All Roads to Parham by Terry Thornton on the Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog. Each of us should be so lucky to be able to take a stroll down memory lane like Terry takes us in this post.

* Reflections on my first dying, well, almost dying ... by Terry Thornton on the Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog. A true life story well told. I teared up reading this one. I rarely put two posts by the same author, unless it's a series, in my Best of lists, but this one is a no-brainer.

* The Greatest Show Above by Tim Abbott on the Walking the Berkshires blog. I'm a sucker for poignant "dad teaches the kids" stories and this is one of the best - short and sweet! These are really lucky kids - what a treasure trove of stories for them!

* August 8 - Friday from the Collectors: Don't Purge, Get Creative! by Thomas MacEntee on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Thomas shares his wonderful ideas for creating gifts and memories using family photographs - things like Christmas ornaments, refrigerator magnets, placemats, memory quilts, puzzles, etc.

* Here are the web sites recommended in July by Dick Hillenbrand on the Upstate New York Genealogy blog. Dick has a nice list of upstate New York genealogy blogs and web sites that have social or historical information on them - recommended by his readers.

* The Missouri Insurance Company and Update: The Missouri Insurance Company by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig uncovers some interesting documents and asks a good question about why parents would buy an insurance policy for their infant; he gets a good answer too! Craig is on his new host - is he in your feed or Bloglines?

Thank you to all genealogy bloggers for an interesting and informative week.

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 - we all appreciate feedback on what we write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me!

Wheel of Genealogy Fortune - Post 10

You all know how to play Wheel of Fortune - I've given you R S T L N and E just like in the Final Round on the TV game!

Take a crack at this quote:

_ _ _ .... _ _ L L .... N E _ E R

.... L _ _ _ .... _ T .... _ N

.... _ L _ .... _ _ _ T _ _ R _ _ _

.... T _ E .... S _ _ E .... _ _ _

.... _ _ _ _ N

Can you figure this out, find the author, and find it on a blog page?

Please email me your answers (rjseaver@cox.net) and I'll list the answer and the readers who get it right in Comments later in the week.

SDGS Book Auction and Sale Today

I always enjoy the annual San Diego Genealogical Society Potluck Luncheon and Book Auction. Today was the day! The announcement was posted here. The food is good, the table conversation is excellent, the book offerings are almost always good, and the auction raises a significant amount of money to support the SDGS genealogy library in El Cajon.

This morning, I printed off my LibraryThing book list to take with me so I didn't buy something I already had.

I went to the FHC before the meeting to work on Footnote awhile, which didn't work out because the images wouldn't show for some reason. I kept getting a message that Footnote was unavailable and to check back in a few hours. I reported it to the FHC staff. That was disappointing, because I needed one specific "diamond in the database" for a colleague that would answer some questions. Frustrated, I left in time to pick up some fried chicken at Von's grocery deli to share.

Before we ate, I had a chance to browse the auction tables, the sales tables (books for $5, $2 and $1) and the free stuff table (lots of conference syllabuses here!). From the free table, I took the:

* A World of Records, the 2000 FGS/UGA (Salt Lake City) Conference Syllabus
I bought the following at the book sale tables:

* Pennsylvania Genealogical Research by George K. Schweitzer, Ph.D. ($5)
* Massachusetts Genealogical Research by George K. Schweitzer, Ph.D. ($5)
* In Search of Your British & Irish Roots by Angus Baxter ($2)
* Psychic Roots by Henry Z. Jones, Jr. ($5).

Peter Steelquist, the former President of SDGS, was the auctioneer and tried every trick in the book to bump up prices and get people bidding against each other. There were many excellent genealogy books at the book auction, and many sold in the $20 to $40 range. At the beginning, the bidding wasn't as spirited as later in the hour, and the bidding prices came down as the room emptied out after 2 p.m. I stayed until 2:20 p.m. I bid on quite a few books, but stopped short of $20, because I know that all of them are on the shelf at a local library (either San Diego, Chula Vista, the FHC or the SDGS library). I didn't "win" any except for:

* The New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Volumes 1 and 2, Volumes 3 and 4, and Volume 7 (all for $5!).

Not bad - 8 volumes chock full of information for $22!

My plan for some of these gems is to read them and donate them to the Chula Vista library genealogy collection if they are not in the collection. The second choice is to donate them to the once-in-awhile CVGS book auction. I have half a mind to do that with all of my periodicals too in order to start culling some of the paper in the Genealogy Cave.

This was a fun genealogy day at the SDGS meeting. I got to share some family stories and news of my blog with a table of women, some of whom were interested in them. Of course, I heard their stories too... and the lunch was good, especially the desserts.

Now I need to figure out if any of today can count toward the Genealympics...

Using FamilyTreeMaker - Post 14: Charts III

I installed FamilyTreeMaker 2008 in early July and uploaded a large database to see how it worked. I also started a new database to test other program features. Please see the list at the bottom of this post for the earlier posts.

In the last post, I described and displayed the Hourglass, Relationship and Vertical Pedigree Charts. In this post, I want to display some completed charts that might be useful for wall posters if the user could get them printed on appropriate material.

I'm using Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) in my database as a starting point for these charts.

I wanted to see how many generations I could put on a one-page pedigree chart. The default is 4 generations. I went up to 6 generations - here is a screen shot of the pedigree of Benjamin Seaver from FTM 2008:



As you can see, I added some color to the names, increased the font size some, and added an old map (one of the options in the Background list) for a background.

You can print the chart by clicking on the [Print] icon in the top right-hand corner of the FTM 2008 screen. You can also [Share] the chart - save it to a .bmp, .jpg, .png or .pdf file if you desire. I saved the Pedigree Chart to a .jpg file and it took 1.141 mb. Here is the saved chart (I think I increased the transparency of the background for this chart):

I was so pleased with this that I made 6-generation charts for myself and for many of my 4th great-grandparents!

I also modified many of the settings for the Descendants, Hourglass and Vertical Pedigree Charts that I created earlier and showed in the last two posts. The process is really very easy - you can create a multi-page Poster chart by making selections from the on-screen boxes and the menu items at the top of the right-hand panel.

For an Hourglass chart, I chose 5 generations for both ancestors and descendants, and then I added the Tree 2 background and selected "Stretch" from the options (this stretched the background over the whole chart). In the menu items, in the Items to Include menu I chose Name, Birth, Death and Marriage from the Facts list. Then I went to the Fonts menu and changed the font size and color for each fact and for the chart format. In the Box and Line Styles menu, I changed the box size, the box line width and color, the box background color, the pedigree line weight and color, and the chart border line weight and color. The resulting chart - in a 33% magnification view, is shown below in an FTM 2008 screen shot:

In the 10% magnification view in FTM 2008, you can see the entire Hourglass chart - a 4-generation chart is 5 pages wide and 3 pages high. The 4-generation chart is 50 inches wide by 17 inches high in full size.

I added another generation to both ancestors and descendants and created another Hourglass chart. This one was 79 inches wide (8 pages) and 21 inches high (3 pages). I saved this chart as a .jpg file, and it was 2.256 mb in size. I saved the chart as a .pdf file, and it was 22.394 mb in size. When I viewed the .jpg chart with my photo viewer program, it looked like this:

All in all, I like the chart making capabilities of FamilyTreeMaker 2008. There are a lot of options to be tested and optimized - there is definitely a learning curve. I estimate that I've spent about three hours getting to this point in the Charts. I'm still tweaking some of the options - just today I checked the box in the right-hand panel of the FTM 2008 screen to "Center tree on page." It made the Hourglass chart above look not so crowded.

One of the options I didn't use was to put a Photograph in the boxes for each person. FTM 2008 gives you options of None, Thumbnail or Photo. The default size is 0.75 inches. You can choose to have silhouettes in each box also. These options are in the right-hand panel menu.

I could send the chart image file to a chart maker (such as Generation Maps - there are others) for them to create a beautiful wall chart of my handiwork. However, it might be better to send your FTM database to companies like Generation Maps, since they can add many special features to your chart.

What would I change? I would like to see the Chart Title moved to the Center of the entire Chart and larger font sizes allowed for the title. I would like to be able to put text boxes on the chart in random locations in order to provide a biography of one or more persons on the chart.

Previous posts in this series:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 1: Loading. Installing the program and uploading an existing database file.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. Looking around the uploaded database file to see what the different views look like.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 3: The Menus. Most of the menus were itemized and described.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 4: Starting a New Tree. I started a new tree and added some people demonstrating the program options to do this.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 5: Adding a Source. I added sources to the Facts that I previously entered.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 6: Adding Children to a Family. I added children to a family.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 7: The Person Menu. I described the items in the Person menu and attached a spouse to a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 8: Finding a Person in the database. I described three ways to Find a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 9: Places I. I explored the vagaries of the Places icon.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10: Places II. The different map types are discussed and displayed.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 11: Places III. The method to Resolve many places with standardized place names is explored.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 12: Charts I. Introduction to Charts and examples of pedigree and descendants charts.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 13: Charts II. Examples of Hourglass, Relationships and Vertical Pedigree Charts.

The next post will start in on the Reports available in the [Publish] menu.

The Genea-bloggers Group Games Opening Ceremonies

Please go visit Miriam Midkiff's blog "Opening Ceremonies of the Summer 2008 Genea-bloggers Group Games: The Parade of Delegates" to see the events of the 31 participants and their beautiful flags displaying their heritage.

The post proclaims (accompanied by the Olympic theme playing in the background) ...

In the Spirit of

Unity

Friendly Competition

Quality Standards

and Achievement

we present to you the participants of

the Summer 2008 Genea-Blogger Group Games.

This may be a lot of fun... Genealympics in action!

Miriam challenged the competitors:

Genea-Bloggers, are you prepared?

May the light of our ancestors' lives shine before us,

guiding us, motivating us,

and leading us on to record their history

for the generations to come.

Thank you to Miriam Midkiff, Thomas MacEntee and Kathryn Doyle for planning the Genealympics (well, the GBGG) and getting the opening ceremonies off to a running start.

Let the games begin...

Book Review: "The Dead Horse Investigation" by Colleen Fitzpatrick

Colleen Fitzpatrick's latest book is titled "The Dead Horse Investigation: Forensic Photo Analysis for Everyone." It is published by Rice Book Press, Fountain Valley, CA., copyright 2008 by Colleen Fitzpatrick, 239 pages, softbound, $25.50 cover price. Colleen's web site is http://www.forensicgenealogy.info.

The book is intended to provide examples of new ways to look at old photographs so that the reader can develop their photo detective skills. The basic premise is that no detail should be ignored, however insignificant it seems. The introduction says:

"Old photographs are part of the legacy that our ancestors have left us. Each person in an unidentified photograph was just as much a human being as you and I, with a name, a personality, a family history, and quirks. Yet many of these people remain unidentified because no one remembered to put their names on the backs of their pictures.

"But there is hope that life can be breathed back into these cardboard images with a little bit of ingenuity. The name of a person in a picture may not be lost forever."

In this book, Colleen uses many of the photographs that are on her web site to demonstrate how she, and other contributors to her site, solved many family history puzzles based on the clues provided by the photograph media in addition to analyzing the clues in the photograph. For instance, the paper type, the edges, the shape, the mat, writing on the back, photographers' marks, lot numbers, etc. may define an approximate time or a certain photographer and location.

The author uses case studies (many of them from her web site) to describe the clues found in the photographs to determine the names of the subjects, the date, setting or location of the photograph, the photographer, etc.

Colleen devotes two chapters (60 pages) to a history of photography, describing how photography "developed" - it's an amazing story. She describes the process and shows examples of Daguerrotypes, Ambrotypes, Union Cases, Tintypes, Cartes de Visite, Cabinet Cards, collodion and gelatin prints right up to modern times. There is a chapter on fake and doctored photographs.

The final chapter is about the title case - The Dead Horse Investigation. Colleen goes step-by-step through the process used by several researchers to determine the date, time and location of a photograph of a dead horse lying in the middle of a street with the horse's owner in top hat sitting on the carcass. In the process of analyzing the photo, the researchers found a locomotive "hiding" in plain sight. There is a PDF of the analysis of the Dead Horse Picture here.

Details of many of the cases mentioned in this book can be seen at Colleen's web site - www.forensicgenealogy.info. Colleen hosts a weekly forensic photograph contest at http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/contest.html. Some of the weekly contest entries are in her CDROM of the 30 Best Photo Quizzes. She has another CDROM of 30 more Photo Quizzes in work. Colleen has also written two other books - Forensic Genealogy and DNA & Genealogy.

Reading and applying the lessons learned from this book will help every family history researcher get the most information out of their family photographs. Colleen likes to say "You will never look at an old photograph the same way again!" I heartily agree!

This is an excellent book for researchers to have in their personal library, and for genealogy societies to put on the shelves of their local libraries for community patrons to find, browse through, and get excited about analyzing their photographs and searching for their family history.

Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 13: Charts II

I installed FamilyTreeMaker 2008 in early July and uploaded a large database to see how it worked. I also started a new database to test other program features. Please see the list at the bottom of this post for the earlier posts.

In the last post, I described and displayed the Pedigree Chart and the Descendant Chart. In this post, I want to describe the three other Charts that can be created by the program.

This is the screen shown when you click on the [Publish] icon in the top menu and have selected [Charts] in the left-hand panel:


The third chart type is the Hourglass Chart. Fore a selected person, you can create a chart that shows the ancestors and the descendants of the selected person. An hourglass chart for Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) looks like this:

This is a "Poster" view with three generations of ancestors and three generations of descendants. I added one of the available backgrounds to this chart. The names on the chart have only the names of the people - I could add the birth, death and marriage dates and places (or any other set of facts) using the "Items to Include" icon on the right-hand panel menu (I discussed this in the last post).

The fourth chart type is the Relationship Chart. In this chart, you can select two persons in your database and see the lineage from one to the other. I chose to create a relationship chart between Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) and myself. It came out on two portrait pages - the first one is shown below:

In this chart, the relationship of each person to the "relation from" person is listed. Only the name, birth and death dates for each person on the chart are shown. You cannot include any other fact to this chart. You cannot change the box size, the line format, or the fonts of the data inside the boxes. You can change the page format.

The fifth chart created by FTM 2008 is the Vertical Pedigree Chart. All of the options noted for the standard Pedigree Chart are available for this chart. A typical four-generation pedigree chart in vertical mode is shown below:

As with the Pedigree, Descendant and Hourglass charts, more Facts (e.g., birth, death, marriage, etc.) can be added to this chart. Formatting of the pages, including background pictures, can be added.

Each of these five Charts are very useful to a researcher. They are a significant improvement over the charts produced by earlier versions of FamilyTreeMaker.

What other charts would be useful to a researcher? I can think of some -

* a chart showing the lineage of two people from a common ancestor - for example, one showing the lineage of Randy Seaver and Barack Obama from Thomas Blossom.

* a timeline chart that shows the persons in ancestral, hourglass or pedigree relationships with major geopolitical and social events displayed.

What other charts would you like to see added to FamilyTreeMaker 2008?

Previous posts in this series:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 1: Loading. Installing the program and uploading an existing database file.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. Looking around the uploaded database file to see what the different views look like.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 3: The Menus. Most of the menus were itemized and described.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 4: Starting a New Tree. I started a new tree and added some people demonstrating the program options to do this.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 5: Adding a Source. I added sources to the Facts that I previously entered.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 6: Adding Children to a Family. I added children to a family.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 7: The Person Menu. I described the items in the Person menu and attached a spouse to a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 8: Finding a Person in the database. I described three ways to Find a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 9: Places I. I explored the vagaries of the Places icon.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10: Places II. The different map types are discussed and displayed.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 11: Places III. The method to Resolve many places with standardized place names is explored.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 12: Charts I. Introduction to Charts and examples of pedigree and descendants charts.

The next post will show some of the charts I've created using the Chart program options I selected to demonstrate the charting capabilities and to make beautiful wall charts.

Searching for really rare surnames on Ancestry boards

As part of my O research project (I'm using letters for privacy reasons), I went searching on the Rootsweb/Ancestry message boards today. I input the O******* name (well, with the right letters, of course) in the keyword field (basic search) on the Message Board page and found that I got over 19 million matches. Oh no! It will take me a day or two to read all 19 million messages!

Hey - this is a really rare surname. What happened? I tested it again using a more common name - like Smith, and got over 500,000 matches, which seemed about right for all message boards. I tried a made-up surname - "Zxcvb" to see what would happen. Same thing - there were 19, 798,495 messages (as of today!) for that keyword. The screen shot below shows the count:

This looks like a problem with the Search algorithm - if there are no matches, it returns all messages in the database. Using the word "the" as a keyword returned 12,761,805 messages. The word "family" appears on 6,662,137 messages. The word "geneology" appears in 57,918 messages, and "genealogy" in 389,866 messages. I guess this means that over 13% of all message board users can't spell the word correctly!

However, if I choose the Advanced Search option, and use the Surname entry box (and not the Keyword box), I get 0 matches for "O******" and even for "Zxcvb!"

When using the message board Advanced Search, you can use a wild card in the Surname box, choose a Soundex option, but you have to click on the Search button in order to get results (i.e., you cannot just hit your Return key).

The lesson here is to not take search results at face value, and to use the Advanced Search options on the Rootsweb/Ancestry message boards.