Printing Pages From the "New" Ancestry.com Member Trees

One of the longstanding issues for Ancestry.com Member Trees was printing the LifeStory or Facts pages.  Ancestry.com announced on 7 August that this was now fixed in The New Ancestry: August 7th Feature Update on the Ancestry.com Blog:

The description of the Print feature says:

"Printing in LifeStory and Facts view – The print image is now formatted to fit the page while still reflecting the layout and benefits of the LifeStory and Facts view as well as removing the dark backgrounds to reduce unnecessary use of ink for printing. We will also be working on printing for MyCanvas publishing options."

1)  I wanted to try this out, so I went to a Profile of my 3rd great-grandfather, James Richman (1821-1912) and opened the LifeStory and checked out all of the buttons and links I could find:

There was no "Print" button in Tools or Edit or anywhere.  Frustrated, I went to the Browser controls in the upper right-hand corner of the screen above, the list of Browser Commands opened, and I clicked "Print."

2)  That worked!  Silly me - I thought there would be something on the Ancestry.com created page.  My Print dialog page opened, and it said there were 9 pages for the LifeStory page.  Here's the top of the LifeStory:

I saved the LifeStory to a PDF file (Ancestry named it "James Richman - LifeStory.pdf" for me).  I opened it in my PDF Reader, scrolled down to the last page and saw:

The documents that I attached are readable on the nine pages, which is encouraging.

3)  I did the same process with the "Facts" page.  Here is the "Print" screen for the top of the "Facts" page:

The three columns, for Facts, Sources and Family are a bit squished together, and take 7 pages.  I saved the "Facts" to PDF (Ancestry named it "James Richman - Facts.pdf" for me) and opened the PDF:

I changed the Print to Landscape and I think it looks better on 8 landscape pages:

4)  I also looked at Printing the Pedigree Chart using the Browser "Print" button in Landscape mode:

That doesn't look so good, does it?

And the Family View Chart Print doesn't look so good either:

To be fair, Ancestry didn't say they would look good.

So all of that works, and the Printed LifeStory and Facts pages look pretty good, although the font size is pretty big and it takes many pages to include everything for profiles with many Facts and relationships.  

5) A user could try to save these pages to a PDF using a tool like the Print-Friendly & PDF program or as an Evernote Note.  Those don't work so well, at least for me!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/printing-pages-from-new-ancestrycom.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Ancestral Quest Genealogy Software is Now Available for the Mac

I received this press release recently from Gaylon Findlay, President of Incline Software, and developer of Ancestral Quest genealogy software:

Salt Lake City, Utah (August 19, 2015) – Incline Software, LC announced today that Ancestral Quest™, its family tree software, is now available for Mac.

For over 20 years, Ancestral Quest has been a Windows program, providing excellent, easy-to-use yet comprehensive tools to millions of users worldwide, both professional and beginner. During that time, it has been sold directly by Incline Software, and licensed by others, often under different titles, including Ancestry Family Tree (AFT) by Ancestry.com and with more extensive adjustments as Personal Ancestral File (PAF) by FamilySearch. This powerful family tree record keeping program is now available to users of Mac. Ancestral Quest for Mac will run on OS X 10.7 and later.

Ancestral Quest for Mac simply downloads and installs directly to the Mac, without the need for additional software. Those who have used Ancestral Quest on Windows computers will find that AQ for Mac is the same program as AQ for Windows.

Overview of Ancestral Quest for Mac

Ancestral Quest for Mac allows users to record their family tree, including the names, dates and places of ancestors and descendants, and provides for the recording of notes and sources for each individual, as well as scrapbook collections for each person. AQ for Mac also allows users to print standard forms and charts such as Pedigree charts, Family Group Records, Ancestry and Descendancy charts, birthday and anniversary calendars, and scores of additional charts, lists and reports to help them review and share their family tree. AQ for Mac can create a web-site that can be uploaded to the Internet, showing whatever parts of a family tree users feel like sharing. It also generates a customizable research timeline, to help put ancestors in perspective of the times and events in which they lived, and provides users with a research log and manager to keep their genealogical research efforts organized.

Ancestral Quest provides an ability, unique for desktop family tree software products, to have several users work as a team on a single data file, from multiple computers anywhere in the world. This feature is called "Collaboration." Whether the user has a Windows computer or a Mac, team members will be able to work together with AQ's Collaboration system.

Ancestral Quest for Mac meets the same certification requirements with FamilySearch Family Tree (Family Tree) as its Windows counterpart. This means that users can upload portions of their personal family tree to the Family Tree, or download portions of the Family Tree into their personal file. Users can also synchronize individuals, families, and notes and sources for both individuals and families between their personal file and Family Tree. Additionally, like its Windows counterpart, Ancestral Quest for Mac allows users to search such online databases as those of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, along with other sites that can be added into Ancestral Quest's Internet search engine.

Ancestral Quest has won several awards over the years, including the 2009 FamilySearch award for "Most Comprehensive Syncing", which is indicative of the way AQ is not only easy to learn and use, but of paying attention to the important details required by genealogists. AQ was also awarded the 2009 FamilySearch award for "Best Listing Tool", which epitomizes the fact that AQ provides the most advanced tools for finding individuals and defining groups of individuals for various reporting and research tasks.

Benefits to PAF Users

Many PAF 5 users have moved, or are contemplating moving, from Windows computers to Mac computers. Because the Windows versions of PAF were derived from AQ, these PAF users will feel right at home as they use Ancestral Quest for Mac. Ancestral Quest for Mac can directly update a PAF 5 file, so current or former PAF 5 users can simply copy their PAF 5 file from their Windows machine to their Mac, and AQ will be able to open and work with their data, as is.

Summary

Incline Software™ developed Ancestral Quest in 1994, and has been enhancing it ever since.

In addition to English, Ancestral Quest is also available in German, French, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Hungarian and Swedish, with other language modules being developed. You can learn more about Incline Software, Ancestral Quest, and Ancestral Quest Basics, by visiting www.ancquest.com or calling Incline Software at 1-800-825-8864.

Ancestral Quest for Mac is expected to sell for $34.95. But for a limited time, it can be purchased at the same price as AQ for Windows, which currently is $29.95. Ancestral Quest Basics for Mac is a free version of Ancestral Quest, with all of the essential features of a family tree program available for free, but with the more advanced features locked. The free version will only be available for a limited time, so those wishing to take advantage of obtaining a full-featured, free genealogy program for Mac should act quickly. Ancestral Quest for Mac can be downloaded from www.ancquest.com/mac.

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

I don't use a Mac, and have not used Ancestral Quest for Windows software to date.  But this appears to be a valuable addition to the variety offered to Mac users for family tree genealogy software.  Perhaps the most attractive quality is the ability to interact with FamilySearch Family Tree.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/ancestral-quest-genealogy-software-is.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 276: Death Record of Joseph Champlin (1757-1850) in Worcester, Mass.

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the  1850 death record of Joseph Champlin (1757-1850) in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts:

The snippet for Joseph Champlin:

The extracted information from this death record:

*  Date of death:  17 June 1850

*  Name:  Joseph Champlin

*  Age:  92

*  Sex and Condition:  Male, Widower

*  Occupation:  Farmer

*  Birthplace:  So. Kingston

*  Parents Names:  Elijah and Phoebe Champlin

*  Cause of Death:  Killed by the Cars

The source citation for this record is:

"Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915," digital images, New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org : accessed 23 June 2014), Deaths, Volume 50, Worcester, Mass., 1850, page 158, Joseph Champlin, age 92, entry.

In addition to the "normal" death information in this record (name, place, date, age), the Massachusetts Vital Records collection also provides the birthplace, the occupation, the parents names and the cause of death.  From all of that information, I know that this is the Joseph Champlin who is my 4th great-grandfather, son of Elijah and Phoebe (Card) Champlin, husband of Nancy Kenyon, and father of 12 children, including my third great-grandmother, Amy (Champlin) Oatley.

The really interesting piece of information in this record is the cause of death - "killed by the cars."  I believe that means he was killed by a train car in an accident of some kind, perhaps at a station.  One reference book I have says he was on his way to visit a son in Rome, New York by train.  Worcester was probably the closest train station to South Kingstown, Rhode Island at the time to travel to central New York.  At age 92.  That's really amazing, I think.  I wonder if someone was with him.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/treasure-chest-thursday-post-276-death.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

More on Ancestry.com About Family Tree Maker 2014 Web Merge Problem

One of the commenters on the post Family Tree Maker 2014 Changes Web Merge Default - Users Beware yesterday uses the name "Gene Spelunker."

1)  "Gene" also sent the letter below to Ancestry.com yesterday about the Web Merge problem in Family Tree Maker 2014 that Discards alternate facts rather than retaining them when they provide alternative information (used with permission from "Gene"):

"I am contacting you in the hopes of bringing visibility to a critical issue created by the August 10 2015 'patch' to FTM 2014 that is actively deleting FTM customers’ data without their knowledge.

"This may sound like an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not.

"The aforementioned 'patch' changed FTM’s Merge feature – a feature central to FTM, the behaviour of which is second-nature to your customers over the years - to, by default, 'discard' alternate Facts and merge the supporting sources for those deleted items under a single preferred Fact - which those sources do not support.  As a result of this change to the default behaviour of the Merge, I can guarantee you that the majority of your FTM customers have yet to recognize that their data is now being deleted with every Merge.

"To illustrate, here's a snippet posted on Ancestry’s Support Forum August 18th by user 'Diane Jones':

" 'I hadn't really done much of anything in my tree since the dreaded patch was installed a few days ago. I did work on several people in my tree yesterday afternoon, and didn't really notice anything was amiss until I looked at the "facts" associated with someone I had just merged a census record with. Everything else was missing! I was horrified!... '  

"I encourage you to visit the thread on the Ancestry Support Forum at (http://ancestryforums.custhelp.com/posts/fd8f6a1f34) to read more customer feedback from the group of individuals who have become aware of the impact of this “patch”. 

"How is this happening?  As I’m sure you’re aware, it is a basic tenant of software that data is never deleted without an active initiating action by the user, and most often, without a secondary affirmation to a question such as 'Are you sure?'.  Your customers can assume that any software they are using follows these rules.  Therefore, the last thing your customers would expect is that Ancestry would buck these universal rules by implementing the deletion of data by default - and instead require user intervention to stop data from being deleted.

"This unfathomable change to the Merge behaviour that your customers are familiar with and depend upon was slipped into the latest 'patch' with a one line description in the patch notes (which – as I’m sure you’re aware – most customers do not read): 'When merging, changed default to discard duplicate facts (even when different) rather than keep as duplicate alternate facts'.     

"Ancestry is touting the new Ancestry Academy.  This is encouraging as it leads me to] believe that Ancestry cares about educating its customer base about genealogy and genealogical research standards.   Unfortunately, these great educational offerings are now actively being undermined by Ancestry’s own Family Tree Maker software as it, Merge by Merge, destroys years of your customers’ meticulous research, deleting their Facts and shuffling their sources.

"The FTM customer base who has become aware of this agrees that this change must be reversed immediately in order to stop the continuing destruction of FTM customers’ research that is currently happening without their knowledge. If there is a legitimate request for the automatic deletion of data not initiated by the customer, we strongly suggest this be a user selectable feature in FTM’s 'Preferences' section."

In my opinion, that is an excellent letter describing the problem, providing a solution, and urging that Ancestry revise their Web Merge process to retain the "Alternate" default decision.  

2)  In a comment on my earlier post, "Gene" said:

"I spoke to an Ancestry corporate representative Aug 17 regarding this issue and she informed me that FTM developers implemented the change to the default Merge action in response to user complaints about accumulating too many alternate facts. 

"Ancestry will bring our concerns about the detrimental impact of setting data deletion as a default to the attention of the developers."

Don't Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker have staff genealogists on their software development teams that can caution against making unforced errors like this?   Or have a rigorous review process of updates or additions to the program?  Genealogists can find "alternate facts" for almost every assertion made in a record in an Ancestry database.  I hope that wiser heads (seasoned genealogists?) at Ancestry will strongly encourage the developers to change the default action back to "Alternate" in the Web Merge feature.

3)  Genealogists use these "alternate facts" to critically analyze, correlate with other information, resolve conflicts and come to a reasoned conclusion about an event.  

Here is a screen shot of a Web Search Merge request for an 1880 U.S. Census record for my great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver:

If I did not know better, and did not replace "Discard" with "Alternate" while keeping the "Keep sources" box checked, when I merged this record to add it to my great-grandfather's Facts list, the media and the source would have been added to the previously  "Preferred" name, birth date and birth place, and a "Residence" fact would be added to the Facts list (since there wasn't one).  The "Discard" means that Family Tree Maker 2014 would not retain the alternate Fact information, but would add the source citation and media to the "Preferred" Facts.  

Here is the screen after I intentionally merged the 1880 U.S. Census record with the Facts for my great-grandfather:

As you can see, the "Preferred" information was retained for the Birth Date and Place, along with the previous sources and media.  For the Name, the source and media for the merged record was attached to the "Preferred" name rather than the alternate name already in the FTM database.  

Thankfully, the original "Preferred" Name and birth date/place were not really discarded - only the "Alternate" Name and Fact were discarded.  But now the "Preferred Name" has a source that does not include the "Preferred" name or birth date/place, but has an "Alternate" name and birth date/place.  

If I select "Alternate" from the dropdown list, then an "Alternate" Fact would be added to the Fact list for the person, along with the appropriate source citation tagged to the "Alternate" Fact.  This is the proper way to merge records like this in Family Tree Maker 2014 and other genealogy software programs.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/more-on-ancestrycom-about-family-tree.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Twile Converts Family Tree Data into Visual Timelines - Post 2: Photo and Document Upload

I wrote Twile Converts Family Tree Data into Visual Timelines - Post 1: GEDCOM Upload  yesterday, covering the GEDCOM upload and basic navigation around the site.  The site is attractive and seems to have excellent potential to provide visual timelines for family tree data.

After I uploaded my first GEDCOM file, I realized that it did not include many of my second and third cousins because of how I selected persons to include in the GEDCOM.  I replaced my initial GEDCOM with another GEDCOM file which included 10 generations of descendants of my 16 great-great-grandparents.  The new GEDCOM file has only 600 persons in it.  I included Notes, Sources and Media.  

In this post, I want to show how I included Profile photographs and Event documents to Twile.  

1)  When I logged into Twile today, this timeline, from 1817 to the present, showed up on my screen:

This initial view provides ALL events in the database between the first event and the last.  The screen above is from about 1900.  The timeline icon is at the bottom and shows the relative position between the first event (1817) and the last (2014).

2)  In order to add a photograph of a person for the family tree and person events, I went to the "Family Tree" link in the upper right corner of the screen above.  That opened the tree, and you can see that I've already added several photographs for persons in the tree.

3)  I want to add a photograph for my grandfather, Lyle Carringer (1891-1976).  I ran my mouse over his profile, clicked on "Profile" and saw his information:

In order to add a photograph, I clicked on the "Add a photo" area on the screen above, and my file folder system opened, I selected an appropriate photograph for Lyle, and clicked "Upload" and it was added to the profile:

I wanted to make sure that the photo was added, so I clicked on the "Your Timeline" button at the top of the screen above, and saw:

4)  I wondered what I could add to an Event, so I clicked on the 1920 U.S. Census event on the screen above, and was able to add a story Description (I copied and pasted it from my RootsMagic program):

After I clicked on the red "Save" button, the Story showed up on a separate page:

I, or some other reader, could click on one of the buttons at the top of the screen for "Love It," "Share," "Add Photos" and "Edit."

Hmmm, I can add a Photo.  I will try to add a document image of the 1920 U.S. Census record for the Lyle Carringer family.

5)  I clicked on the "Add Photos" button and selected the census document image from my file folder system.  I clicked on "Upload" and the document image was added, as shown below:

Now can I see, and read the details of, the document image?  I could by increasing my monitor Zoom:

6)  I was done, so I "X"ed out of the screen above, and out of the "Description" screen, and was back to the Timeline for my grandfather:

The 1920 U.s. Census document image replaced the thumbnail photo for that event.

7)  Now I have a quandary.  I could go person by person adding photographs, descriptions and document images into the Twile profiles.  That would take a very long time (weeks just to do, say, my 30 ancestors in this file).  I have a photograph for most of those 30, and many Events for each of them, and document images for almost all of the Events.  I also have some of those items for the other 570 persons in this uploaded database.  The descriptions are all in the Event Notes and the document images are all Media items tagged to the Events in my RootsMagic program.

I don't know if Twile has plans to incorporate photographs, descriptions and document images from the GEDCOM file or not.  If they do, when can these features be incorporated?  If not, I strongly suggest that Twile add the capability.  I'm not going to add any more documents to Twile profiles until I find out so I don't waste any time doing tasks that Twile plans to do automatically in a GEDCOM upload.  

8)  It is apparent to me that Twile is not your typical family tree program that a user can use for typical genealogy purposes (documentation, cousin bait, charts, reports).  It is a tree that can be used to invite your family members to view and contribute information (data, photos, stories, etc.) to so that other family members can see.  I will investigate the invitation feature in another post.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/twile-converts-family-tree-data-into_19.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Family Tree Providers at 2008 SCGS Jamboree -- Post 374 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

I'm posting old (and sometimes new) family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless posts like others do - I am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here are some of the most precious (to me) images from my Seaver/Carringer genealogy collection:

1)  The Legacy Family Tree exhibit with Ken McGinnis and Geoff Rasmussen:

2)  The RootsMagic exhibit with Michael Booth and Bruce Buzbee - selling RootsMagic 3:

3)  The Generations Maps exhibit with Janet Hovorka and Kim Hovorka:

all of these are from the 2008 SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank, California, and were taken in the Exhibit Hall on 28-29 June 2008.

This was my first Jamboree, but I had been blogging for two years, so I knew the names, and some of the faces, of the exhibitors.  It was great fun to meet these folks in person and get to know them and discuss their products.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/family-tree-providers-at-2008-scgs.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Family Tree Maker 2014 Changes Web Merge Default - Users Beware

My friend, geneablogging colleague, and HOA/YouTube video producer Russ Worthington found a significant change in the latest Family Tree Maker 2014 update (Patch 5, build 404 and 1404) recently.  He wrote about it in Family Tree Maker 2014 SP6 Patch Notes - Patch #6, (build .404 or .1404) on his Family Tree Maker User blog on 11 August 2015:

The key paragraph is:

"...when you use the Web Merge Feature, you MUST look very closely at ALL of the Facts that are being merged.

"When merging, changed default to discard duplicate facts (even when different) rather than keep as duplicate alternate facts."

Read his entire post for more information, and watch his two YouTube videos about the BEFORE patch update and the AFTER patch update:

1)  BEFORE (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI7uopzkna4):




2)  AFTER (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJXguz4rcZg):




In summary, the previous versions of Family Tree Maker 2014 in Web Merge (accessing Ancestry.com from within Family Tree Maker and adding Ancestry data into FTM directly) had the default set as "Alternate" for Facts for which there was already an entry (e.g. a Birth Fact for a person might already be available, and a Census record might provide an implied birth year and place).  The program would, for example, create an Alternate Birth Fact for the implied birth year and place from the Census record by default.  The user could mark it as Preferred if they wanted to, keep it as an Alternate Fact, or mark it for Discard.

The latest version of Family Tree Maker 2014 sets the default as "Discard" for Facts in the Web Merge for which there is already an entry.  If the user isn't careful, the Merge will not include the Alternate Fact.  Russ told me that the Source citation for the Alternate Fact would be retained and attached to the Preferred Fact - which is just WRONG!

Why would Family Tree Maker do this?  Some observers, including myself, have postulated that Ancestry wants to simplify information input and decision making for mobile users of the Ancestry.com app, which syncs with a user's Ancestry Member Tree and with a user's Family Tree Maker file.

Having Alternate Facts, or Names, in a family tree program can be very useful in order to perform critical analysis, correlate evidence, and resolve evidence conflicts for a specific research question.  Such activities are encouraged by professional genealogists who deal with these issues on a regular basis.  Russ Worthington has demonstrated the application and value of these principles in some of his YouTube videos working in Family Tree Maker on his FTMUser blog.  Each source contains bits of information that may be the same or different than the other Facts, and all bits of information needs to be considered when applying the Genealogical Proof Standard.  This is often called "evidence-based genealogy" rather than "conclusion-based genealogy."

Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker should fix this Web Merge default issue quickly so that users will not lose valuable information.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/family-tree-maker-2014-changes-web.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Twile Converts Family Tree Data into Visual Timelines - Post 1: GEDCOM Upload

Twile was released several months ago - see Announcing a New Genealogy Website: Twile (posted 2 June 2015) and Twile Converts Family Trees Into Visual Timelines (posted 12 August 2015) on Dick Eastman's blog.

When Twile was first announced, I registered and added four profiles to see how it worked, but it took a relatively long time so I didn't even blog about it.  My hope was that Twile would add a GEDCOM import feature to make adding family tree information easy for researchers with family tree software.

Twile sent an email today with the press release from 11 August 2015 announcing that Twile now supports GEDCOM import to automatically create a timeline of a family's history."

So I revisited the site, created a GEDCOM of my family (I chose 8 generations of ancestors and 4 generations of my descendants), and took screenshots of the results.

1)  Here is the home page - the Register or Login buttons are in the top right corner:

2)  I logged in, and saw my previous effort with four persons included:

In the upper right-hand corner of the screen is a link to "Import GEDCOM."  I clicked on that.

3)  A popup screen appeared and I had to choose between discarding the existing people and milestones on Twile, or to Merge my existing tree and milestones (but rely on Twile folks to merge the profiles):

I chose the first option, then clicked the green "Choose a GEDCOM File" button and the GEDCOM file uploaded.  It took about 10 minutes for a file of 2,000 persons.  When it was uploaded, another popup screen appeared asking me to select who I was in the file.  I scrolled down and found me:

Once I picked myself in the GEDCOM file, the program sorted out the relationships between me and the other persons in the tree:

That took about ten minutes also.

4)  After the relationships were built, the family tree showed on the screen.  Males have a blue background for the first name (no last names are shown) and females have a pink first name background:

The photograph placeholder area for each person has the persons initials.  Below the person's first name is the number of milestones in the database for that person.

5)  On the screen above, I ran my mouse over my grandmother's photograph area, which listed her full name, her relationship to me, and had the option to see her profile, her timeline, or to add a relative.  I chose to see her Profile:

The Profile is a list of dates of events in chronological order.  There are icons on the screen above for different events (some events have a green icon, marriages have a red icon, deaths and burials have black icons).

6)  The screen above has a link to "View Emily's Timeline" so I clicked on that and saw:

The Timeline provides all of the events in the family tree file for my grandmother, with event title, relationships, event place and event date.

That's as far as I've gotten in Twile so far, but it took less than an hour to add over 2,000 profiles to the program and click around to see how it works.

I need to add the thumbnail photos for the persons in my tree, and will show how I did that in the next post on Twile.

7)  The GEDCOM upload process was quick and easy to use.  The tree is easy to see and navigate, and the Profile and Timeline are easy to understand.  I would prefer that the Profile be a full web page so it could be captured as a PDF although I could use the Windows Snipping Tool to save it as an image.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/twile-converts-family-tree-data-into.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Tuesday's Tip: Enhance Your Genealogy Education with Family Tree Webinars

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Enhance your genealogy education by watching and learning from Family Tree Webinars on a regular basis.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars (www.familytreewebinars.com) is a set of over 250 classes by notable genealogy presenters available for FREE when presented live, and for a week afterward, and for a monthly or yearly subscription from the webinar archive, including syllabus material.  Legacy Family Tree Webinars is part of the Legacy Family Tree genealogy software company, Millennia Corporation.  The webinars are usually hosted by Geoff Rasmussen of Legacy Family Tree.

Here is the home page (www.familytreewebinars.com):

There are tabs across the top of the home page for "Upcoming Webinars," "Webinar Library," "Legacy Videos" and "Products."

The "Upcoming Webinars" page highlights the planned webinars for the coming months:

The next five webinars planned are:

*  19 August 2015, 2 pm. EDT (11 a.m. PDT):  J. Mark Lowe on "Discovering Your Kentucky Ancestors."

*  21 August 2015, 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT):  Devin Ashby on "Digital Family Reunions"

*  26 August 2015, 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT):  James M. Beidler on "German Names and Naming Patterns."

*  2 September 2015, 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT):  Lisa Alzo on "Break Down Brick Walls in Eastern European Research: Tips, Tools and Tricks."

*  9 September 2015, 2 pm. EDT (11 a.m. PDT):  Kathy Meade on "Research Your Swedish Ancestors in Living Color Using ArkivDigital Online."

The "Webinar Library" page lists previous webinars available for viewing:

The last five webinars available for viewing online include:

*  14 August 2015:  Amy Johnson Crow on "Ten Years is a Long Time -- Census Substitutes for the In-Between Years (Bonus Webinar for Subscribers)

*  12 August 2015:  Chris Staats on "Power Platting - Technology Tools to Create Pictures from Property Descriptions" (FREE until 19 August)

*  7 August 2015:  Thomas MacEntee on "Facebook - A Tool for Genealogy Researchers (Bonus Webinar for subscribers)

*  5 August 2015:  Ron Arons on "What's In a Name?  Trouble!

*  31 July 2015:  Melvin Collier on "Mending Broken Ties: Reconstructing Family Trees Sawed by Slavery."

Each webinar is in a presentation format, with an introduction by Geoff Rasmussen of the speaker, the presentation, a question and answer session, and information about furture webinars, plus contests and Legacy Family Tree promotions.

Here is the starting screen from the Chris Staats presentation on Power Platting:

By dedicating time each week, a genealogist can get 52 weeks worth of quality presentations by watching the Wednesday webinars live or within a week after the live presentation.  Some webinars are free after the one week, but not many.  However, the syllabus for each presentation is not available unless the attendee is a member of Family Tree Webinars.

A genealogist can subscribe to Family Tree Webinars on the Subscribe page (http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/memberships-c11.php) - the monthly cost is $9.95 and the annual cost is presently $49.95.  The latter is a really good deal.

This is an outstanding opportunity for genealogy education for researchers who don't or cannot attend local or regional genealogical society meetings or conferences.

Since I usually have plans each Wednesday at 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Chula Vista Genealogical Society meetings), I cannot catch many live webinars.  I subscribed to Family Tree Webinars almost two years ago and enjoy catching one or two presentations each month.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/tuesdays-tip-enhance-your-genealogy.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Who Were the Parents of my 4th Great-Aunt, Angeline (King) Vaux (1813-1852)?

My Ancestry Member Tree had the name of my 4th great-aunt as Angeline (King) Vaux (born in about 1813 in New York, married John Palmer Vaux in 1833, had eight children in Erie County between 1835 and 1850, died on 7 August 1852, and buried in East Aurora Cemetery in East Aurora, Erie County, New York), and that her father's name was Clement King with an unknown mother.

1)  Another Ancestry member challenged the identity of the father in an Ancestry message, so I went looking for evidence in records to prove or disprove the assertion that the father was Clement King.

There are, of course, no birth records for the 1813 time frame in New York records, there are no death records for 1852, and there are no census records for 1820, 1830 or 1840 that might place her in a family group.  The only records I have found are:

*  an 1850 census record in Aurora, Erie County, New York with her name as Angeline Vaux, age 37 born in New York)

*  a  Find A Grave memorial for Angeline King, wife of John P. Vaux, died August 7, 1852, age 38

2)  One record type that might provide a relationship is the probate records of Clement King, if they exist.  I reviewed the New York Probate Records, 1629-1971 record collection on Family Search, for Erie County.  In the Estate Index, 1800-1929 I-L volume, I found that Clement King had an Estate File No. 12152.  I found the file in the Estate Papers, 1800-1929, Case 12127-12164 volume in images 795 to 819 of 1153.

There was no will, inventory or account in the Estate File, although there may be a Will in Volume 5, page 10 of an Erie County Will Book (which is not on the Erie County list in this collection).  There were several Letters Testamentary in the Estate File, one of them is shown below (image 809 of 1153):

The handwriting is somewhat difficult to read.  fortunately, image 817 shows the newspaper notice that was published for six weeks in the Albany Argus newspaper, starting on  November 9, 1852:

The heirs of Clement King listed in these pages are:

*  Salley Carney, Erie county NY
*  Darius King, Erie County, NY
*  Mary Corwin, Wayne County, NY
*  Elizabeth Henshaw, Michigan
*  children of Leonard Le Bar, names and places unknown
*  Hannah Earle, Erie county NY
*  Elisha Earle, Michigan
*  Arnold Earle, Michigan
*  John N. Palmer, Wisconsin
*  Jeremiah Palmer, Wisconsin
*  Asa Palmer, Iowa
*  Edmund Palmer, Chautauqua County, NY
*  Henrietta Faucher, place unknown
*  Adin Faucher, place unknown
*  Elizabeth Faucher, place unknown
*  Adams Faucher, place unknown
*  Edwin Faucher, Ohio

There is no mention of Angeline (King) Vaux, or of the 8 Vaux children, in that list.

Lewis N. Conklin is the executor of the will of Clement King, and Alfreda A. (Conklin) King is the widow mentioned in several of the other Letters Testamentary.

So I think this qualifies as Negative Evidence - this record indicates that Angeline King was NOT an heir of Clement King.

3)  If she was not the daughter and heir of Clement King, then who was her father?  Was it another man named King who resided in Erie county in the 1830 to 1860 time frame?  Or was it another surname altogether?  If so, why was her name given as Angeline King on her gravestone in East Aurora Cemetery.

One factor that may have caused some confusion was that after Angeline (King) Vaux died on 7 August 1852, and Clement King died in late 1852, his widow, named Alfreda A. (Conklin) King married John Palmer Vaux in about 1853, Angeline's widower.  Did the gravestone carver given false information about Angeline's name?

As a result of this study, I have removed the relationship link between Angeline and Clement King.  I don't know who her father is at this time, but I'm sure that it was not Clement King.

4)  Although this is not my ancestral family, I like a challenge and will pursue it to some extent.  I found no other online family tree (I looked on Ancestry, MyHeritage, Geni, WikiTree, FamilySearch Family Tree, WorldConnect) with a surname other than King.

The records I have thought about searching for are:

*  Other King families in Erie County, New York in the 1830 to 1860 U.S. Census that might be Angeline's parental family.  I can do this online at Ancestry.com.
*  Other King probate records in the Erie County, New York probate records - perhaps Angeline and/or her Vaux children are mentioned.  I can do this online on FamilySearch.
*  John and/or Angeline Vaux land records in Erie County, New York - perhaps they mention a parent or a sibling.  Perhaps they name a King as a neighbor.  I can do this online at FamilySearch.
*  The Clement King will in Erie County that might mention Angeline but does not provide a bequest to her.  This is not online, so it's a candidate for researching at the FHL in February 2016.
*  There may b e a church record or a newspaper record for the marriage of Angeline King (?) and John Palmer Vaux.  Contacting an Erie County historical or genealogical society may be useful.
*  A death record or certificate of one of the Vaux children that lists their mother's maiden name.  There may be records online in FamilySearch or Ancestry record collections.

5)  We discussed the relative value of the Internet in genealogy research last week - in Yes, Janet, the Internet is Progress!    Finding the probate records noted above are just one example of how researchers can find original or derivative records with primary information and direct evidence of relationships in an online record collection, in this case on FamilySearch.  I was able to do the task in less than one hour at home on my own computer.

If I had performed this search two years ago, before the probate records became available at FamilySearch, it would have taken me several weeks to order the correct Estate Index and review it, several more weeks to order the correct Estate File volume and review it; at least two months and maybe more if I had waited until my next trip to the Family History Library.  Another option would be to hire a professional in Salt Lake City to find the records on microfilm, which would have taken several days or more.

6)  These probate records are "golden" IMHO, as long as the researcher understands the details of the record collection and the record types.  The images above are the original estate file papers, primary information and direct evidence of relationships between Clement King and his heirs.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/who-were-parents-of-my-4th-great-aunt.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.