OneGreatFamily Newsletter

James Madison - Famous Ancestor Of The Week

scott.dimmick — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:34:00 GMT

February 24th marks exactly 207 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. Madison had been serving as Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson. During his lifetime, Madison also served as a representative in the First U.S. Congress, served as president for two terms, and was instrumental in drafting and ratifying the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights.

In his political theory, James Madison emphasized the importance of having checks and balances, and his three-branch system became the foundation of the Constitution. Once it was drafted, he teamed up with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton to write the Federalist Papers, published in 1787 and 1788 to rally public support for the new government system.

Initially Madison was not in support of a bill of rights; he did not feel that it was necessary to include in the Constitution. But when it became clear that many states would not ratify the document without a bill of rights, Madison changed his mind. He proposed twelve amendments to the Constitution, ten of which were approved and became the Bill of Rights. He is sometimes called the "Father of the Constitution" for his role in drafting and ratifying it. He served as U.S. president for two terms, from 1809 to 1817.

You can also see whether or not you are related to James Madison by going to the Relationship Calculator on the Family Dashboard Page when you login to OneGreatFamily.

Customer Service Corner: Family Info Box: Add Marriage Info

scott.dimmick — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:29:00 GMT

By Mary Jane Saylor, Customer Service Representative

The Family Info box is located in the HandprintT in the Genealogy Browser. It is located between the Selected Individual box and the Spouse box.

When you click on <<Family Info>>, a new window will open that contains the information for that family. This is where you can enter information relating to the family, such as the date of the marriage. From here you can also create a family group sheet by clicking the Family Group button. When you do a new window will open with the Family Group sheet.

By clicking on the Collaboratebutton you can see who else has contributed information about the family and contact them to share information. By simply selecting a group and then clicking on a name, you will be able to e-mail them and begin working together to build your family tree.

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

Maiden Names and Surname Customs

scott.dimmick — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:27:00 GMT

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Margaret Thatcher n�e Roberts? Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton? Catherine Zeta-Jones? What do all these surname distinctions mean?

Surname customs vary from culture to culture. In some traditions, a woman adopts her husband's surname when she is married; in other cultures, a woman retains her family name throughout her lifetime. As a result of second-wave feminism, new surname conventions have evolved over the last fifty years, including the institution of hyphenated last names.

In the English-speaking world, surnames are passed down patrilineally and married women adopt their husbands' surnames. This is the case in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and much of Canada. The exception to this is Scotland, where women have only recently begun to take their husbands' surnames (before that, the Scottish tradition was for women to retain their family names).

The borrowed-from-French word "n�e," pronounced nay, is used to refer to a woman's maiden name. In France and French Canada, the norm is for women to keep their family name as their legal surname-used on official identification and legal documents-but to use their married name in professional and everyday life.

In Germany, a married couple can choose to retain their own surnames, adopt one another's, or combine them, but in any case they must declare an official "family name" that will be passed down to their children.

The American convention is for women to adopt their husbands' surnames. About 25% use their maiden name as a middle name after they are married. But some women will choose not to adopt their husbands' surnames at all. If a woman has already achieved fame and recognition in her career as an actress or a novelist, for instance, she may choose to keep the name by which she is widely known. Others, like Hilary Rodham Clinton, use both surnames. Very, very rare is the practice of a man adopting his wife's surname. Only seven states in the U.S. allow for a man to change his surname upon marriage; in the rest of the 43 states, it would require a court-order name change for a man to do so.

In the field of genealogy, all women are known by their maiden names. This means that whatever surname a woman chose to go by during her lifetime, in genealogical records she will be known by the name she was given at birth.

Canadian Genealogy Centre

OneGreatFamily.com — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:42:00 GMT

Do you have Canadian Ancestors? If so you should visit the Canadian Genealogy Centre to discover information about your Canadian roots and family history.

The site contains passenger lists, Canadian censuses, western land grants, WWI service files, marriage, employment and divorce records. There is a wealth of information at this website.

Visit�Canadian Genealogy Centre Today!

George Washington - Famous Ancestor Feature Of The Week

scott.dimmick — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:25:00 GMT

The weekly newsletter will now feature a famous or notable person's family tree.

The renowned "father of our country" is usually extolled for his roles as general of the Revolutionary war and president of the new American republic. But what about his life before that? What experiences prepared him for those great responsibilities?

When he was only twenty years old, George Washington was appointed adjutant general of the Virginia Militia, which meant that he was responsible for training one quarter of the troops. He continued to move up the ranks of the militia, and in 1755 he was promoted to colonel and named commander of all Virginia forces.

Washington was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758. As a member of the Burgesses, he began to be involved in revolutionary activities. After the Townshend Acts were enacted by Parliament in 1767, he proposed that Virginia boycott English goods. The Acts were repealed in 1770, but then Parliament passed the Coercive Acts against Boston in 1774, as a reaction to the events of the Boston Tea Party. Washington regarded the Coercive Acts as an attack on American rights, and he attended the Second Continental Congress of 1775 dressed in his military uniform and ready for war. The newly-created colonial army needed a leader; John Adams nominated George Washington, and he was elected commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

View George Washington's Family Tree in Genealogy Browser

You can also see whether or not you are related to George Washington by going to the Relationship Calculator on the Family Dashboard Page when you login to OneGreatFamily.

Customer Service Corner: How to Include More Than One Spouse for an Individual

scott.dimmick — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:22:00 GMT

By Brooke Bradley, Customer Service Representative

Do you have people in your family who have been married more than once? If so, you will want to make sure that you record all of their marriages, especially if they have children from each marriage. You will want to do this to make sure the children are recorded under the correct marriage. To add an additional spouse you will first want to go to Genealogy BrowserT. Here is how to get there:

Go to OneGreatFamily.com and login with your username and password. Next, select the Family Dashboard tab. On the Family Dashboard page you will see a picture of a family. Adjacent to them are 2 gray boxes, the second one says Advanced Tree Editor. Click on Advanced Tree Editor. This will launch Genealogy Browser.

Once Genealogy Browser has launched, make sure the person you want to add an additional spouse for is in the individual box. You will see the first spouse in the spouse box. Click the down arrow next to the spouse and click on "select here to add a spouse."

You will then be able to add the spouse and the marriage information. When the correct parents are in the selected individual and spouse boxes, you may then add their children.

Here is a link to a brief video about this topic:
http://www.screencast.com/t/PZlPprBqj

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics: A Family Affair

scott.dimmick — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:20:00 GMT

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Last Friday, the Olympic torch was lit once again to commence the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver! Hundreds of hopeful athletes have gathered from all over the world to have their chance at Olympic gold. Many of these athletes are not alone in their pursuit of Olympic dreams; some are the children of former Olympians or are competing with their siblings. This week, we'll spotlight some of those athletes for who the Olympics are a family affair:

Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux, twenty-year-old twin sisters from North Dakota, have both been named to the women's national hockey team.
Cathy, Chris and Allison Reed were all born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and will all compete in ice dancing-but not for the United States. Cathy and Chris, who compete as partners, will skate for Japan (their father is American and their mother Japanese). Fifteen-year-old Allison, whose partner Otar Japaridze is Georgian, will skate for Georgia.
Olympian spirit and figure skating run deep in the Sato family. Nobuo Sato competed for Japan in 1960 and 1964. His wife, Kumiko Okawa, competed in 1964 and 1968. Their daughter Yuka Sato placed fifth in the 1994. In Vancouver, father and daughter will go head-to-head; Yuka is coaching American figure skater Jeremy Abbott, and her father is coaching Japan's Takahiko Kozuka.
Canadian speed skaters Jamie and Jessica Gregg are the children of NHL hockey player Randy Gregg and two-time speed-skating Olympian Kathy Gordan. They live and train in Calgary with their brother Ryan and their sister Sara.
Britt and Michael Janyk, Canadian alpine skiers, made history in 2004 when they became the first siblings to win national titles in the same year.
Ophelie David is the daughter of Hungarian basketball player Jean Racz, who played for Hungary in 1964 before moving to France. Ophelie competed for Hungary as an alpine skier in 1994. In Vancouver, she'll compete as a cross-country skier for France.
Charles and Francois Hamelin of Quebec will both compete in the 5000m relay and 1000m in short track speed skating. Their father Yves Hamelin is the director of the Canadian short track program.

So whether your favorite event is figure skating or ski jumping, get online at nbcolympics.com (or turn on NBC on your TV) and cheer on these Olympic families.

OneGreatFamily Attending St. George, Utah Family History Expo

scott.dimmick — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:16:00 GMT

Sign Up For A User Lab - Space Limited

OneGreatFamily will be attending the St. George, Utah Family History Expo next week (February 26-27th). We will be doing four things at the Expo:

"User Labs": During the Expo we will be holding scheduled sessions with our Site Design Manager, Jonathon Juvenal. Jonathon is interested in seeing how people use the site to understand what does and doesn't work. He is looking for users of all experience levels.
Space is limited for the User Labs- if you are interested in attending a User Labs, please send an email to Jonathon Juvenal at ogfmarketing@onegreatfamily.com. You will be given a FREE printed OneGreatFamily Quickstart Guide for participating.
Booth Presentations: This expo we will be running training sessions in our booth covering a variety of topics about OneGreatFamily. If you have suggestions for presentation topics, let us know by emailing ogfmarketing@onegreatfamily.com and we will discuss your valuable suggestions.
Scheduled Class Sessions: This expo we will be conducting two lecture sessions on OneGreatFamily. Look us up in the syllabus for time and location.
Booth: We would like to invite all our users to come by and say hello. We appreciate hearing your feedback and suggestions for OneGreatFamily and will try to get you answers to any questions you have.

We always enjoy meeting the people who make our company possible, plus we have some special free giveaways in the booth for our users. So please come by. We hope to see many of you there!

JMK Genealogy Gifts

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:40:00 GMT

JMK Genealogy Gifts�has unique merchandise, clothing & gift ideas for everyone with an interest in genealogy & family history. Genealogy has a culture, humor and sense of community all its own. Finding a gift for someone lucky enough to be part of the genealogy community can be difficult. From humor and quotations to the inspirational and weird - we have it covered! So go on, find the perfect genealogy gift for yourself, a friend or a loved one. Genealogy themed presents : t-shirts, mugs, buttons, tote bags and more. Serving customers in 11 countries across 6 continents.

Visit JMK Genealogy Gifts Today!

Nelson Mandela - Famous Ancestor Feature Of The Week

scott.dimmick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:12:00 GMT

The weekly newsletter will now feature a famous or notable person's family tree.

Born as Rolihlahla Mandela, Nelson Mandela was given his English first name by a schoolteacher. He was the first president of South Africa to be elected in fully democratic elections and held office from 1994 to 1999.

Mandela was born in 1918 in the South African district of Umtata. After studying law, he became politically active in the African National Congress (ANC) and worked to end apartheid. Although he initially advocated nonviolent protest, he became disillusioned with the effectiveness of nonviolent tactics and in 1961 he led a bombing campaign against government buildings. In 1964, he was arrested along with other prominent ANC leaders and convicted of sabotage and armed action against the South African government.

He was imprisoned at Robben Island, just off the coast near Cape Town, for the next eighteen years. In 1982 he was moved to another prison; finally in 1990 he was released by South African president Frederik Willem de Klerk. That same year, the ANC's existence was legalized and Mandela was elected as the organization's official president.

Mandela and de Klerk participated in a series of negotiations and peace talks, and they were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. On 27 April 1994, South Africa's first fully democratic elections were held and the ANC won 62% of the votes. As the elected leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela became the first president of non-apartheid South Africa and led his nation into a new age of equality.

To view Nelson Mandela's Family Tree, login to OneGreatFamily, launch Genealogy Browser, and enter OGFN# 598568281. You can also see whether or not you are related to Nelson Mandela by going to the Relationship Calculator on the Family Dashboard Page when you login to OneGreatFamily.

Customer Service Corner: How To Delete An Anchor

scott.dimmick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:09:00 GMT

By Kirsten Klein, Customer Service Representative

Anchors are a great way to easily organize and navigate through your family tree. Anchors allow you to quickly get to an ancestor that you frequently work on in Genealogy Browser. If for some reason you would no longer like to have someone as an anchor, follow these simple steps to make that change:

In the top left corner of your genealogy browser, click on the button that says: "Anchors." It is located in-between the "View" and "Help" button. Then click on "Organize Anchors," and a new box will appear. Towards the bottom will be a list of all your anchors. Highlight the person you wish to delete as an anchor, and then press the "Delete" button right next to it. You will then be notified that this will delete the individual as an anchor, click "Ok." Then click on the "Ok" button at the bottom of the box, and you have now deleted an anchor.

For your convenience, here is a video link for this process as well: http://www.screencast.com/t/bGk7ZONuh

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

Brigham Young University: the "Harvard of Genealogy"

scott.dimmick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:03:00 GMT

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Many institutes, conferences, genealogical societies, and archives offer classes, seminars, and even certificate programs to teach you to research your family history. But Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah offers the only accredited university-based degree program in genealogy. Graduates of the program are awarded a BA in Family History-Genealogy after four years of intensive genealogical training. Their education at BYU also prepares them to go on to become Certified Genealogists (CGs) or Accredited Genealogists (AGs). Certification and accreditation are the two credentials for genealogy professionals. For that reason, Brigham Young University is the best place to enroll to become a professional genealogist.

If you don't want to be a full-time student but want to learn how to do professional caliber-research, you can take BYU genealogy classes online through Independent Study. While only a handful of the classes for the Family History-Genealogy major are offered through Independent Study, the ones that are offered cover a a variety of genealogy topics. These classes include:

Southern States Research
Germanic Research
Southern European and Latin American Research
Scottish Research
Irish Research
Research in England and Wales Since 1700
British Paleography
American Paleography
Writing Family Histories
The Family and the Law in American History

If you're not interested in taking classes through Independent Study, you can still take advantage of the many free online resources that BYU has to offer. These include:

Script Tutorials. At script.byu.edu, you can find resources and tutorials for reading old handwriting and documents in English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The tutorial for each language includes images of sample documents and even such resources as name lists, surname lists, and lists of common terms appearing in genealogical-type documents.
Immigrant Ancestors Project. This is a huge database connecting immigrants to the United States and Latin America to their countries of origin in Europe. You can look up your ancestors at�immigrants.byu.edu to find them in port records, passport application records, or emigration records.
Census tutorial. At census.byu.edu, you can find a full U.S. federal census tutorial, as well as blank census forms and research tips. It's just what you need to get started on U.S. census research.

Whether you just want to do some free online family history research, or whether you're a genealogist with years of experience and are considering credentialing, Brigham Young University has resources that can help you in your family history and genealogy work.

Is Finding Your Ancestors Part Of Your New Year's Resolutions?

scott.dimmick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Uncover Stories About Your Ancestors

Did you know that most New Year's resolutions fail simply because they require us to reallocate our time? Setting new goals means learning how to juggle even more things in our already hectic schedules. Just resolving to change won't make old habits and pressures simply go away. So no matter how lofty our goals and resolutions, we are often dragged back into our same routines and time constraints and our new interests are abandoned for another year.

If you're reading this newsletter, it's a good bet that you resolved to spend more time on your genealogy in 2010. Are you finding it hard to make that time? May we suggest that, instead of spending more time, you focus on being more efficient in your genealogy in this new year?

That's where OneGreatFamily can be of tremendous help. OneGreatFamily helps you be much more efficient in your genealogy efforts.

OneGreatFamily searches for ALL your ancestors ALL the time. It identifies leads for both new ancestors as well as additional information about known ancestors. And it helps you zoom right in to focus on those leads. Our search system is constantly comparing your entire family tree against any existing or newly entered data. Think of all the time you save by not having to enter each name of interest into a search engine, then adjusting the search criteria to try to get to a manageable number of results.

OneGreatFamily also allows you to leverage the efforts of thousands of other genealogy enthusiasts. Many individuals spend needless hours, days and weeks searching for names that others have already found, documented and recorded into the OneGreatFamily tree. When you use OneGreatFamily you will be provided those names so you can focus on validating those leads!

The step that you need to take to get started is to submit any family tree information you already have to OneGreatFamily. This is most easily done by uploading a GEDCOM of your family tree. Then check back in every once in a while to see what leads we've found. Many users are impressed with the number and quality of the additional information provided. With more than 200 million names already submitted and between one and three million new names being submitted each month, you are sure to find research leads on your ancestors at OneGreatFamily . . . in the near future, if not today.

And while OneGreatFamily can make you much more efficient with your time, it also is efficient with your money. OneGreatFamily is a service that can help you save money in a whole range of ways- on family tree software, travel expenses, photocopies, mail, professional assistance, and data access. OneGreatFamily does not charge for Genealogy BrowserT, its genealogy software program, or Family DashboardT, its powerful family tree analytics website or for our user-submitted data. We only charge for the unique service that we provide in comparing your family tree with the other family trees added to OneGreatFamily.

So make yourself more efficient in your genealogy effort this year and make at least one New Year's Resolution a reality for 2010. Imagine how far you can take your genealogy by this time next year!

GenAnswers

OneGreatFamily.com — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:36:00 GMT

GenAnswers�is a brand new free genealogy question and answer community web site that allows people to find anwers to their genealogy related questions share their knowledge with other members by answering questions. Gen Answers relies on the input of its members to ask and answer questions. To encourage participation and give credit for the best answers, GenAnswers awards points for actions you take. You can't buy anything with your points, but they do allow show everyone how much you have contributed to GenAnswers.

Visit GenAnswers Today!

Handwriting

scott.dimmick — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:57:00 GMT

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

The 23rd of January is National Handwriting Day, established by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association in 1977. As the birthday of John Hancock, the renowned signer of the Declaration of Independence, January 23rd is an appropriate day to acknowledge the little-celebrated art of handwriting.

The typewriter, invented in 1870 and widely used by the 1920s, was the cause of the demise of handwritten documents. But before the advent of the typewriter, all documents were handwritten. This included family records and private correspondence as well as government and business records. For that reason, handwriting is big deal for family history researchers. Have you ever found yourself cursing the name of a sloppy census-taker who enumerated your ancestors illegibly? Have you ever said a silent prayer of thanks when the marriage record you needed was clean and easy to read? The neatness (or sloppiness) of a recorder's penmanship can make all the difference in what you are able to learn about your ancestors. Because handwriting is such an important aspect of genealogy, let's explore the history of handwriting for National Handwriting Day.

Believe it or not, cursive handwriting in the English language pre-dates the Norman Conquest! In the thousand years since that time, handwriting has undergone significant changes. Beginning in the seventeenth century, different styles of scripts were developed for different classes of people; if you were literate, you would write in the style appropriate to your gender and station. Clerks and secretaries had their own style of penmanship; so did gentlemen and ladies. Indeed, the primers that children used to learn to write were different for boys than for girls. In Victorian times in the United States and in England, handwriting differences were taken to the extreme. Women's penmanship became even more disparate from men's as it grew extremely ornate; women tried to cultivate a decorative "lady's hand."

Platt Rogers Spencer, an American statesman, decided that the United States needed a quick but legible penmanship for business and letter-writing. In 1840 he developed Spencerian script. Though it would be considered overly elaborate in our day, Spencerian script simplified and standardized penmanship. Although Spencer died in 1864, his sons published his book, Spencerian Key to Practical Penmanship, in 1866 and Spencerian script was widely used for the rest of the nineteenth century.

In 1888, Austin N. Palmer developed a simpler style of cursive penmanship, and the "Palmer method" gradually replaced Spencerian script as the handwriting style taught to American schoolchildren. But the Palmer method also eventually fell out of favor; typewriter and computer instruction replaced penmanship courses in American schools. Instruction in handwriting has declined from two hours per day in the 19th century to less than two hours per school year in 2007.

It appears, however, that handwriting is making an upswing. Some schools, afraid that penmanship is becoming a lost art, are re-introducing it into their curriculum. Many more schools and students around the nation are participating in national handwriting contests. It appears that the art of handwriting won't be lost after all.

Customer Service Corner: Using the 'Previous' and 'Next' Individual Button in the Tool Bar

scott.dimmick — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:53:00 GMT

By Cheyenne Dahle, Customer Service Representative

When looking at the HandprintT view in Genealogy Browser one individual is selected at a time. If you want to continue on to the next selected individual you can use the Next Individual arrow in the tool bar.

Example:
If Margaret is your selected individual and you want to see more information on her father, Luther, click on the Next Individual arrow in the tool bar that leads you to Luther.

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

OneGreatFamily Tip: OneGreatFamily Will Save You Time

scott.dimmick — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:51:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Can Speed Up Your Research!

With all of our busy schedules we don't have much time in the day to do the things we really like to do, such as spending time with those we love. Working on our genealogy is something we often can't spend as much time on as we would like because of other obligations. So when we do have a few moments to spend, it is important that we be as efficient as possible. Using traditional research techniques is essential, yet much time can be saved if we can see the work that others have already done. We save time in not pursuing dead ends already explored, or in focusing on pursuing evidence for a lead someone else uncovered. OneGreatFamily was created to make researching as efficient as possible, saving time and money.

To get started all you have to do is submit what you already know about your family tree. You can either provide us with a GEDCOM file or enter the information you have in Genealogy BrowserT. Include as many relationships as you can, even aunts and uncles. With more than 210 million names already submitted and between one and three million new names being submitted each month, you are sure to find research leads on your ancestors at OneGreatFamily . . . in the near future, if not today.

Once your family tree is submitted, an automatic review process looks at each individual in your family tree and begins searching for individuals that are identical within OneGreatFamily. When OneGreatFamily identifies that two ancestors match, this means new information becomes available to you . . . on a specific ancestor or even an entire branch of your family tree! A match with someone else's data also provides a point for further collaboration within OneGreatFamily.

OneGreatFamily also makes your own searching more efficient by identifying and merging away duplicate family trees and individuals. You don't need to spend hours wading through copies of the same family tree fragments submitted by dozens or hundreds of different people. OneGreatFamily presents you with a largely de-duplicated version of an individual or a family tree fragment, including conflicting vital information, alternate spellings, notes, sources and other important clues.

OneGreatFamily also saves you time by allowing distant relatives to help each other grow their family trees through collaboration.

So take the first step to efficiently working on your genealogy by first submitting your family tree. Remember, OneGreatFamily is working all the time, even when you can't!

Genealogy Is More Than Just Names And Dates

scott.dimmick — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:48:00 GMT

Uncover Stories About Your Ancestors

When you research your ancestry, you will find more than just a family tree. Besides finding the names, dates, and records of your ancestry, you'll find the stories of your family - the real lives of people that will give you perspective on your own place in history. Many people find a great deal of emotional satisfaction in tracing their ancestry. They also discover that genealogy is a great way to bring together all the generations of the family.

Everyone can help as you begin to document your family history. The oldest family members can share memories of the good old days; these stories become fascinating when younger people realize the link between their grandparents and more distant ancestry. Younger children can help do the research by asking questions. Older children can discover the connections between the genealogical research and their history and geography lessons.

Your family will find additional benefits as you trace your lineage. Your shared heritage will come alive when family members understand how customs from the old country influenced their present-day lives. Additionally, you can revive old customs to discover how your relatives lived. Stories from your family history can add more meaning and joy to family holidays.

A unique feature of OneGreatFamily is that you can share your results with others who are tracing the same ancestry. Collaboration with other genealogists is one way to discover in depth information about your ancestors and uncover fascinating stories that make your ancestors more meaningful to you.

AfriGeneas

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:31:00 GMT

AfriGeneas.com is a site devoted to African American genealogy, to researching African Ancestry in the Americas in particular and to genealogical research and resources in general. It is also an African Ancestry research community featuring the AfriGeneas mail list, the AfriGeneas message boards and daily and weekly genealogy chats. AfriGeneas provides resources, leadership, promotion and advocacy for the mutual development and use of a system of genealogy for researching African related ancestry.

Visit�AfriGeneas.com Today!

GenealogyBlog.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:25:00 GMT

GenealogyBlog.com

Many of us have been caught up in the world of blogs. How many of you have found GenealogyBlog.com? If you haven't come across this site you should check it out. It has fun and informative information for genealogists. There is also a nice list of categories for the archived blogs. Genealogy Blog was started in 2003 as a place for genealogists to come and find the best the Internet has to offer for genealogists.

�� Visit GenealogyBlog.com Today!

Last Chance: Free Download Of The Official OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

heather.matthews — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:31:00 GMT

Last Chance: Free Download Of The Official OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

Take A Survey About The New OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

This is the last week you as a member have the opportunity to download and read the new OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide for free.

Hurry and Download the Quick Start Guide - then provide us with some feedback:

http://www.onegreatfamily.com/quickstart/

You can access the survey by visiting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CRCSY3B

We really appreciate any feedback you have regarding the new Quick Start Guide. You can also email feedback or ask questions about the guide by contacting: qbfeedback@onegreatfamily.com

More Information About the OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide:

This written overview of OneGreatFamily is being produced to help you better use OneGreatFamily. Both long time members and newcomers to OneGreatFamily are finding this Guide very helpful.

The guide is written to:

explain what OneGreatFamily does
orient you to the OneGreatFamily website
provide a brief overview of Genealogy Browser™
help you understand how to best use OneGreatFamily to find information about your ancestors
act as a reference when using OneGreatFamily

For example, here are just a few questions that are answered in the QuickStart Guide:

How do I find my password if I've forgotten it?
Why are some ancestors in the Starfield colored teal?
What is a widget on the Family Dashboard™?
What is an OGFN and what can I do with one?
What is an Anchor?
How can I see my father's parents in the Handprint™?
What does "Surf your Starfield" mean and how can I do it?
What is the difference between a hint and a conflict?
What is a Relationship Conflicts and how do I resolve them?
How can I collaborate with other users on a ancestor?

These and many other interesting and helpful facets of OneGreatFamily are covered in this 39 page guide.

At this time we are publicizing the guide only to OneGreatFamily members as an exclusive FREE download.

The guide is in PDF format, so you must have Adobe Reader installed to view and print it.

You can get the guide here: http://www.onegreatfamily.com/quickstart/

You can get your free Adobe Reader here: www.adobe.com/products/reader/

You can access the survey by visiting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CRCSY3B

Please note: when the OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide is officially launched in its final version there will be a charge to download the guide - so this is your chance to get and use it for free.

You Can Find Your Ancestors Even If You Are On A Budget

heather.matthews — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:30:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: You Can Find Your Ancestors Even If You Are On A Budget

OneGreatFamily Can Save You Money

OneGreatFamily.com can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Remember that an annual subscription to OneGreatFamily has an effective cost of only $6.58 per month! (Only $5.00 per month if you buy it on the current promotion)

OneGreatFamily.com provides you with three valuable services:

1. Access to hundreds of millions of user submitted records combined into the largest single family tree available

OneGreatFamily includes access to hundreds of millions of user submitted ancestors , many with corresponding events, sources, notes, photos, biographies, and other supporting data, with about 400,000 more ancestors submitted every week by genealogists from all over the world . Don't waste time and money sifting through billions of names to find your ancestors before you see what information is available for your ancestors on OneGreatFamily.com.

2. Powerful collaboration tools

OneGreatFamily automatically indentifies ancestors you have in common with other genealogists, and highlights any differences in vital record or evidence information so that you can zoom in and easily review the differences. Just by clicking a button, you can contact other genealogists to compare notes, review evidence, etc.

Online collaboration can help you save hundreds of dollars on correspondence, photocopies, and other expenses. Documents, photos, and other information can be stored electronically on OneGreatFamily or sent to distant family members you meet on OneGreatFamily via email.

3. Access to premium family tree software and your personal Family Dashboard

Genealogy Browser™ is a full featured PC-based genealogy program that is included with your subscription. It handles all the basics of entering, editing, sourcing and printing your genealogy data. But it also has several unique capabilities not found in any other genealogy program, especially the Starfield™ view which allows you to view an entire pedigree tree on one screen. Genealogy Browser is the best tool for viewing a family tree on the market today.

Family Dashboard™ is a unique web-based interface that works together with Genealogy Browser to allow you to drill into your genealogy data in unique ways. For example, quickly view all your ancestors with no identified parents, or all your ancestors born in France, or all your ancestors with one surname. You can also view migration charts to identify the birth locations for a family line or identify ancestors that are missing vital record information.

Both Genealogy Browser and Family Dashboard are included with your subscription. You don’t have to give up your current software to use these tools. GEDCOM export will make it fast and easy to move your data from your current software to OneGreatFamily. And you can do it every time you make a change in your current software.

Finally, you never lose access to Genealogy Browser or Family Dashboard. Even if you don’t renew your subscription, you will still be able to use these powerful tools so you don’t have to worry about stranding your data.

Colors in the Starfield

heather.matthews — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:29:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: Colors in the Starfield

By Kirsten Kline, Customer Service Representative

Have you ever wondered what the different colors in the Starfield mean? If so, here is the answer to your question:

• A white box indicates a record that you own because you submitted it to the system. Data may be added to and merged with that person and it will still appear white.

• A gray box indicates a record that you do not own; meaning the system added it to your tree. If you open a gray record, and make changes to it, it will change to white.

• A red box indicates an end of the line, showing that there are no parents listed for that individual.

• A blue box indicates a common reference, meaning that in addition to the blue box will be a line connecting them to another blue box to show that they have a common ancestor. This color becomes more common the further back you go in your tree, as many people married distant family members.

If you ever forget this, there is an easy way to find it on the site.

Login to Genealogy Browser and on the menu at the top you can click on the "Help" link, which is right after “Anchors.” Then you will click on the last option, which is “About OneGreatFamily"

A new box will appear with the legend of what each color means.

RSS Feeds and Genealogy

heather.matthews — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:28:00 GMT

RSS Feeds and Genealogy

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

The best family history researchers understand the importance of keeping abreast of new technologies and using them to further their genealogical research. No one is too old to learn new technologies and essential computer skills.

One of the greatest things about the internet is the way it connects people to each other and allows contact between people in a much more democratic way. In the early days of the internet, most pages were sponsored by schools, businesses, or government agencies who could hire web developers to put their content on the world wide web. But now anyone who has knowledge to share or information to contribute can easily do it, thanks to the phenomenon of blogging. On blogs you can find everything from sewing tutorials to photos to genealogy.

Some genealogy blogs are specific to certain families. They may have several family members who contribute to share information about their genealogy. If you are related—even distantly—to the family, these kinds of blogs can be helpful to you. Other blogs offer genealogy tutorials and tips. They can tell you how to research your family lines. Some of these blogs are maintained by professionals and some by amateurs, but all have one thing in common: they are a venue for people to share helpful information they know about the field of genealogy.

Reading various blogs can be time-consuming; fortunately, there’s a solution to that. Rather than going to each blog you read and checking for updates, you can just subscribe to each blog’s RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication feed). Then each update from each blog will be sent directly to you.

You can use RSS feeds through an aggregate reader software; if you have a Google or Gmail account, you can find this feature by clicking on the Reader tab. If you maintain a blog yourself, you can subscribe to RSS feeds using the Dashboard on your Blogger account. If you use Firefox as your web browser, you can use a Firefox feature called Live Bookmarks. Other aggregate reader programs include My Yahoo and Bloglines.

Whatever reader software you use, subscribing to RSS feeds is simple. Start by signing into your reader. Then go to the blog you’d like to subscribe to. In the address bar at the far right you’ll see a small orange icon. Click on that icon, and a box will pop up asking you what reader you’d like to use. Select your reader, click subscribe, and you’ve successfully added that blog to your reading list. You can add as many blogs as you want to your reading list. You can also do the same with websites. If you want to keep up on international news, for instance, you can go to CNN.com, click on the World tab, and click on the orange button to subscribe to that page’s RSS feed.

OneGreatFamily offers three RSS feeds to keep you up-to-date on our service. Subscribe to OneGreatFamily’s RSS feeds and receive valuable posts and information to help you with your family history.

• OneGreatFamily Newsletter RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ogfnewsletter
• OneGreatFamily Blog RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onegreatfamily
• OneGreatFamily Pressroom RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ogfpr

Aside from subscribing to the blogs that others post, consider giving back! If you’ve ever benefited from FamilySearch.org, USGenWeb, a genealogy blog, or any other free genealogical information you found online, then you should consider giving back to the genealogical community by sharing some of your own expertise or genealogical information on a blog. As genealogists, we don’t have to work alone. Let’s take advantage of all the great technological resources at our fingertips to start working together.

Ancestor Genealogy Photo Archive

OneGreatFamily.com — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:24:00 GMT

Ancestor Genealogy Photo Archive

Ancestor Genealogy Photo Archive is a free genealogy database of family photos containing online vintage photographs. Many of these photos have been submitted by our visitors to help you find your ancestors and surnames. Others were found in antique stores and flea markets, and posted here in hopes of reuniting them with family members. Your ancestors could be among these genealogy photos.

�� Visit AncestorArchive.com Today!

Family History Library Research Series

heather.matthews — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:04:00 GMT

Family History Library Research Series

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

On every day of the week, at various times throughout the day, there are free classes being taught at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the world's foremost genealogical library. There are classes for every genealogical topic under the sun, from African American research to reading and interpreting German documents. But what if you live nowhere near Salt Lake? Fortunately, you can still learn all about how to do different kinds of research by utilizing the Family History Library Research Series Online.

The online Research Series includes classes for several different kinds of research and geographic localities, with more being added all the time. The classes are anywhere from 8 to 39 minutes long; they are high-resolution, high-quality videos of actual lectures given by professionals, accompanied by coordinating power-point presentations that play simultaneously to the lectures. Each class is taught by an accredited genealogist (AG) or certified genealogist (CG) who is an expert in his or her respective field.

To access the online classes, just go to www.familysearch.org. Under the Library tab, click on Education. Then click on Family History Library Research Series Online. Currently, the topics include:

England Beginning Research
- Five lessons, including classes on census records, civil registration, and church records
Germany Research (three lessons)
Ireland Research
- Five lessons, including classes on church records, civil registration, and immigration
Italy Research
Latin American Research
- Three lessons, all in Spanish, including classes on parish records and civil registration
Russian Research (two lessons)
U.S. Research
- Four lessons, including classes on county courthouse records and military records of all kinds

More lessons are being added all the time, so if the research series doesn't currently have the topic you want, keep checking back. Aside from lessons specific to a certain country or locality, there are several lessons grouped under Research Principles and Tools that apply to all genealogical research. The topics for these classes include descendancy research, an overview of the Family History Library Catalog, and research logs. Take advantage of these great resources. The classes are professional, helpful, and free. And best of all, you can watch them in your pajamas.

See A Preview Of The Official OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

heather.matthews — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:08:00 GMT

See A Preview Of The Official OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

Take A Survey About The New OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

Last week we gave you an exclusive preview to the new OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide. We have been receiving some great feedback - and we want some more!

This written overview of OneGreatFamily is being produced to help you better use OneGreatFamily. Both long time members and newcomers to OneGreatFamily are finding this Guide very help.

The guide is written to:

explain what OneGreatFamily does
orient you to the OneGreatFamily website
provide a brief overview of Genealogy BrowserT
help you understand how to best use OneGreatFamily to find information about your ancestors
act as a reference when using OneGreatFamily

For example, here are just a few questions that are answered in the QuickStart Guide:

How do I find my password if I've forgotten it?
Why are some ancestors in the Starfield colored teal?
What is a widget on the Family Dashboard?
What is an OGFN and what can I do with one?
What is an Anchor?
How can I see my father's parents in the Handprint?
What does "Surf your Starfield" mean and how can I do it?
What is the difference between a hint and a conflict?
What is a Relationship Conflict and how do I resolve them?
How can I collaborate with other users on a ancestor?

These and many other interesting and helpful facets of OneGreatFamily are covered in this 39 page guide.

At this time we are publicizing the guide only to OneGreatFamily members as an exclusive FREE download.

The guide is in PDF format, so you must have Adobe Reader installed to view and print it.

You can get the guide here: http://www.onegreatfamily.com/quickstart/

You can get your free Adobe Reader here: www.adobe.com/products/reader/

Once you read the guide, please take the survey to help us make this guide the very best. The more our members understand all that OneGreatFamily has to offer, the more success our community will be in creating One United Family Tree.

You can also email feedback or ask questions about the guide by contacting: qbfeedback@onegreatfamily.com

Please note: when the OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide is officially launched in its final version there will be a charge to download the guide - so this is your chance to get and use it for free.

We Are Looking For Success Stories

heather.matthews — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:07:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: We Are Looking For Success Stories

Are You Willing To Share How OneGreatFamily Has Helped You Find Your Ancestors?

We at OneGreatFamily are optimistic that, in light of the growing number of genealogists discovering OneGreatFamily, 2010 will be the best year yet for uncovering more knowledge about your family tree.

We would like to hear how OneGreatFamily has helped you in your quest to find more ancestors and grow your family tree.

We are specifically looking for members in the New York or Boston area or those with Irish or Jewish heritage - but any kind of story would be wonderful!

Please email your success story to: pr@onegreatfamily.com

We appreciate you taking the time to share your success with us.

You can view more success stories by visiting:
http://www.onegreatfamily.com/LearnMore/SuccessStories.aspx

NewspaperAbstracts.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:24:00 GMT

NewspaperAbstracts.com

Newspaper Abstracts.com's goal is to become your complete resource for family history research using newspapers. Our site continues to grow with an average of over 900 new items added each month and currently contains over 70,000 abstracts and extracts from historical newspapers. These articles range in size from a single entry to an entire newspaper issue, all provided by site visitors and made available to you free of charge.� This database continues to grow with the daily submission of news items by site visitors like you.� Please visit "Submit an Article or Link" to learn how you can contribute your news items.

�� Visit NewspaperAbstracts.com Today!

Limited Time: Free Download of the Preview Draft of the Official OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

heather.matthews — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:27:00 GMT

Limited Time: Free Download of the Preview Draft of the Official OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

We Need Feedback About The New OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide

We are excited to announce the official OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide. This written overview of OneGreatFamily is being produced to help you better use OneGreatFamily.

The guide is written to:

explain what OneGreatFamily does
orient you to the OneGreatFamily website
provide a brief overview of Genealogy Browser™
help you understand how to best use OneGreatFamily to find information about your ancestors
act as a reference when using OneGreatFamily

For example, here are just a few questions that are answered in the QuickStart Guide:

How do I find my password if I've forgotten it?
Why are some ancestors in the Starfield colored teal?
What is a widget on the Family Dashboard?
What is an OGFN and what can I do with one?
What is an Anchor?
How can I see my father's parents in the Handprint?
What does "Surf your Starfield" mean and how can I do it?
What is the difference between a hint and a conflict?
What is a Relationship Conflict and how do I resolve them?
How can I collaborate with other users on a ancestor?

These and many other interesting and helpful facets of OneGreatFamily are covered in this 39 page guide.

At this time we are publicizing the guide only to OneGreatFamily members as an exclusive FREE download. We are doing so to get feedback from our most valuable resource: you, our users. All we ask is that you email us at qbfeedback@onegreatfamily.com with your feedback or with your email address so we can send you a link for a survey you can take about the OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide.

The guide is in PDF format, so you must have Adobe Reader installed to view and print it.

You can get the guide here: http://www.onegreatfamily.com/quickstart/

You can get your free Adobe Reader here: www.adobe.com/products/reader/

Please note: when the OneGreatFamily Quick Start Guide is officially launched in its final version there will be a charge to download the guide - so this is your chance to get and use it for free.

It is our commitment to continue to make OneGreatFamily the best service it can be. We hope that this guide will help you get more value from OneGreatFamily by helping you with your genealogy work.

Find Success At OneGreatFamily

heather.matthews — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:26:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Find Success At OneGreatFamily

Members Share How OneGreatFamily Extended Their Family Trees

We are pleased with the high praise we at OneGreatFamily continue to receive from our members. We enjoy hearing about the success our members have in building their family trees at OneGreatFamily.

We received the following story from Greg:

I want you to know how much I appreciate what you have done for my family. Today after much search on my part, I was able to locate just the right ancestor that opened up a vast store of names for me to investigate. I believe it is going to take me to the beginning.
It is uniting my family in a special way. One cousin who was not involved with us from birth was found and is now united with us again.

Thank You,
Greg Johnston

Another success email we received was from Jim Walker:

I would like to explain how this site has helped. I finally learned my Great Grandmother's Maiden name and entered it into OneGreatFamily. Within 2 weeks the family had grown to the 1252 range and then it linked to others. Now I have a family line traced back to Adam and Eve. Wow! It is exciting looking through the ancestors; I have kings and queens from almost every country in Europe. Thanks to all of the staff at OneGreatFamily - they are helping me constantly. If you haven't taken the opportunity to join this site I strongly encourage you to. It is the best one I have used.

Jim Walker

You can view more success stories by visiting:
http://www.onegreatfamily.com/LearnMore/SuccessStories.aspx

If you have had success using OneGreatFamily, please let us know. We would love to hear from you. Please contact us either by visit our Contact Page or by emailing ogfmarketing@onegreatfamily.com.

Don't forget you can also post your success stories on the OneGreatFamily Facebook page.

How To Use The All Conflicts Feature

heather.matthews — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:25:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: How To Use The All Conflicts Feature

By Kimberly Brown, Customer Service Representative

Have you been seeing lightning bolts all over your family tree? In Genealogy Browser™ there is an icon on the toolbar that looks like a lightning bolt. This feature is called All Conflicts. When this icon is selected it enables you to see the conflicts that are on your family tree (these are visible in both the Starfield and the Handprint views). You can also unselect this and get rid of the lightning bolts on your tree.

So what is a conflict? A conflict is an alternate view. It means that another user has this person on their tree, but the information is slightly different. Due to these differences, OneGreatFamily has not merged these records. When you click on the lightning bolt icon you are able to see both your view (on the left) and the alternate view (on the right).

Sometimes the difference between the two records is a simple as a misspelled name, or could be a difference in date, place, parents, siblings, sibling order, etc.

Once you look at the conflict you have the option to ignore or accept the other view. If you ignore the other view, then it will remain a conflict (meaning you will still see the lightning bolt), but you will continue to see your own information and the other user will continue to see their information. If you choose to accept their information then you will lose your view (the information that you entered in) and accept the other user’s view and information. It will then merge the two records and the conflict will be resolved.

You should be careful when resolving conflicts, because once you have accepted another user’s view it will alter your family tree and could alter relationships in your tree. It may be that another user’s information is more correct and if so, it is good to resolve the conflict; just make sure that it is correct.

New Years Resolutions for Genealogy Researchers

heather.matthews — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:24:00 GMT

New Years Resolutions for Genealogy Researchers

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

What archive, library, or cemetery have you always wanted to visit to gather information on your ancestors? What research technique have you been meaning to put into practice but haven’t yet? For 2010, make a list of these “New Year’s resolutions for genealogy” and start checking them off your list. Here are some ideas:

• Join a genealogical society. There are small local groups, hosted by hometown public libraries, in which you can meet other genealogists who are doing research in the same area that you are. Or you can join larger societies such as the Daughters of the American Revolution. Many of these large national groups have pedigree requirements for membership, so applying to join will challenge you to do more extensive research on your family lines. It might just be the extra push your research needs.

• Keep a good research log. If you haven’t been keeping a research log, start today! Start now! There is no other research practice and no other aspect of genealogy that will save you more time.

• Involve your family. If you think that your family members won’t be interested in your research, you’re probably wrong. Sure, some aspects of genealogy can be really boring: sitting at a microfilm readers turning reels of records, searching a library catalog for records that might contain your ancestors…but once you start learning about the life stories of your ancestors, genealogy is the most exciting thing in the world. Start by just telling your family members stories about their ancestors. Soon they’ll be accompanying you on research excursions.

• Make time for what matters to you. The most commonly-cited reason for not doing family history research is, “I just don’t have the time.” But we all have the same number of hours in our day; you and I have the same number of hours that Thomas Edison and Mother Theresa had. So quit making excuses. If something—be it genealogy, or your family, or fly fishing—make time for it. How do you make time in your life where there was none before? By eliminating the non-essentials from your life and then planning in time for what you want to accomplish. Schedule thirty minutes of your day for genealogy, and then let people know not to disturb you during that time. If you can plan this time earlier in your day, all the better. That way when unexpected things come up that are beyond your control—out-of-town relatives or a crisis at work—you’ve already gotten your genealogy time.

Whatever goals you decide to set for the New Year, don’t get discouraged if things don’t go smoothly or if life gets so busy that you only keep your goal for the first few months of the year. Just remember: for as long as you keep a goal, it benefits you. Even if you don’t keep it perfectly.

We Wish You The Very Best During This Wonderful Season

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:03:00 GMT

We Wish You The Very Best During This Wonderful Season

Happy Holidays From OneGreatFamily

We wish everyone a warm and merry Holiday Season and look forward to an exciting new year! We hope you are able to spend the Holidays with family and loved ones . . . and that you make genealogy part of your celebrations. As a special gift to yourself, visit us at OneGreatFamily.com and get reacquainted with family members who have come and gone before you. Learn about their lives and traditions to help you discover more about your own.

With all the holiday gift giving soon to take place (new computers, Internet services, etc.), we expect more visitors will be coming to OneGreatFamily. That means more people will be adding their family trees to OneGreatFamily. With this new information and all the new enhancements that are planned for our service, OneGreatFamily will continue to become bigger and better this coming year.

All of us here at OneGreatFamily wish you a safe and Happy Holiday!

The Perfect Last Minute Gift: Subscription To OneGreatFamily

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:02:00 GMT

The Perfect Last Minute Gift: Subscription To OneGreatFamily

Give A OneGreatFamily Gift Subscription for the Holidays

Do you still have one of those "hard to buy for" people on your gift list this year? We have the perfect solution for you: A Gift Certificate to OneGreatFamily. And you don't have to worry about shipping - it's all handled by email!

A gift subscription to OneGreatFamily could be the most meaningful present you'll ever give anyone.

Consider the benefits your friends and family could have with a OneGreatFamily subscription:

View the ancestors who have been added to their family tree because of our unique matching and merging process
See all ancestors who are already part of OneGreatFamily
Meet and work with distant family around the world
See how they are related to your famous ancestors
View unlimited generations of their family tree at one time
Make new discoveries over time - new families and information are added daily
Unique Family Dashboard™, a whole new way to explore your family tree

Your friends and family members can experience the joys and benefits of collaborating with other genealogists from all over the globe in locating your ancestors and merging your own family tree with the world's first true global family tree - found only at OneGreatFamily.com. A gift subscription will be rewarding long after the holidays are over.

Give Your Friends or Family A Gift Certificate to OneGreatFamily

How is OneGreatFamily Different From Other Sites?

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:01:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: How is OneGreatFamily Different From Other Sites?

By Kimberly Brown, Customer Service Representative

“I already have a subscription to another family history website, so why do I need a subscription to OneGreatFamily?” That is a question that we frequently hear. OneGreatFamily is unique from all other family history websites because it is designed to do your research for you.

Most sites like Ancestry, USGenWeb, HeritageQuestOnline, and others have collections of original records like vital records and censuses. To access the records, you are required to conduct a search of their records using your ancestor’s name, birth date, and birth place. If you are lucky and all the information you have for your ancestor is correct, you’ll get search results. But if you think that great-uncle Joe was born in South Carolina and he was actually born in Georgia, you won’t find him when you conduct your search. To complicate things even more, if your ancestor has a common name, you’ll get dozens or even hundreds of search results. Then you’ll have to wade through all these records to determine which ancestor is yours.

OneGreatFamily saves you time by doing your research for you. Once you start a family tree in our program and enter what you already know about your family, our computer system goes through your tree automatically. Our program compares every individual that you entered with every individual in our system to check for matches. Most family history sites allow you to search only by your ancestor’s name, birthplace, and birth date, but OneGreatFamily’s system also compares relationships. This means that if the birth date you have for an ancestor is slightly off, or if the birthplace you have is incorrect, our system will still find the ancestor in our database by comparing relationships. The matching ancestor will then show up on your family tree as a merge or a hint.

There is nothing more frustrating than to do hours of research on one line of your family only to discover that someone else has already done the work. OneGreatFamily prevents this problem. We link you with the family trees that other users (thousands of them) have compiled. This way, you have access to the work that others have already done and you can focus your attention on the parts of your family tree that really need it. Every week, hundreds of people are subscribing to OneGreatFamily, starting their family trees, and discovering new information about their family. Getting new ancestors without even having to take a trip to the archives to research them—that is something to be thankful for!

Christmas Traditions from All Over the World

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:00:00 GMT

Christmas Traditions from All Over the World

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

From leaving stockings out for Santa Claus to fill to attending midnight mass on Christmas Eve, Christmas traditions are different all over the world. Not only do Christmas traditions differ from place to place, but for many cultures the 25th of December isn’t the main event. From St. Nicholas Day to Epiphany Day, and all the festivities in between, here is the rundown on different holiday traditions:

St. Nicholas Day
Christmastime festivities in many countries begin with St. Nicholas Day, which is December 6th. In Holland, children believe that Sinterklaas comes to visit on the night of St. Nicholas Eve, so they leave their shoes out for him to fill with presents.

St. Lucia’s Day
Saint Lucia is the patron saint of light, and in Sweden where the winters are cold and very dark, wintertime festivities honor her. Before the institution of the Gregorian calendar in the sixteenth century, the winter solstice—the time of year when the days are the very shortest—fell on December 13th. For that reason, December 13th is still celebrated as St. Lucia’s day in Sweden and in other Scandinavian countries. For St. Lucia’s day, the oldest daughter of each family dresses up as a “queen of light” in a long white dress and a wreath with candles on her head. She sings the song of Saint Lucia and serves coffee and sweet buns to every member of the family.

Novena or Las Posadas
The nine-day period beginning December 16th and ending on Christmas Eve is called Novena in Italy and Las Posadas in Spain and Latin America. It commemorates the Holy Family’s nine-day journey to Bethlehem and their search for lodging there. The Spanish word for “inn” is posada, and during Las Posadas, processions are held in which villagers acting as the Holy Family go from house to house asking for a place to stay. This culminates in Noche Buena, the night of Christmas Eve when the children lead a procession to the church and place the Christ child in the nativity, or nacimiento, there. Then everyone attends midnight mass; the church bells are rung and fireworks are lit, and everyone goes home for a middle-of-the-night feast.

The Twelve Days of Christmas
December 25th marks the first of the twelve days of Christmas, also known as Christmastide or Yuletide. Christmastide lasts until January 5th; the night of January 5th is Twelfth Night, and the Twelve Days of Christmas are followed by Epiphany.

Epiphany
January 6th, the Day of Epiphany, marks the day that the three kings presented their gifts before the baby Jesus. Thus on the night of January 5th, known as Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve, children receive gifts from the three kings who are traveling on their way to see the infant Jesus.

In Spanish tradition, the three kings were named Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltazar. They represented Europe, Arabia, and Africa, respectively. According to this tradition, Melchor arrived on a horse and brought gold to give the baby Jesus; Gaspar rode on a camel and brought frankincense; and Baltazar rode on an elephant and brought myrrh for his gift. (In reality, frankincense and myrrh were both grown on the Arabian peninsula, and gold was commonly traded along the desert trading routes there, so the three magi were probably Arabian.) Because of the tradition of the magi, the 6th of January is also called El Día de los Reyes, or the Three Kings’ Day, in Spanish tradition.

UltimateTributes.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:22:00 GMT

UltimateTributes.com

Ultimate Tributes is today's answer to archiving the memories of our loved ones. Your archive is custom designed by you and can include photos, poems, stories and news clippings. You owe it to your future generation to provide insight into the character, personality and accomplishments of their family members. Our core product is our "ultimate tribute memorial site" and it is basically a digital version of a scrapbook or photo album you have cherished through the years.

We connect family, friends and generations by memorializing the life, history and spirit of those that have gone before us.

�� Visit UltimateTributes.com Today!

Are There Thousands Of Ancestors Hiding In Your OneGreatFamily Tree?

heather.matthews — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:57:00 GMT

Are There Thousands Of Ancestors Hiding In Your OneGreatFamily Tree?

See Up To 196 Generations Of Your OneGreatFamily Family Tree

How much of your family tree do you want to see when you open OneGreatFamily's Genealogy Browser™? Do you know how many ancestors are really in your family tree at OneGreatFamily?

Many of you may have noticed this on your Genealogy Browser toolbar but never really understood what it can show you:

Number of Generations Display on the Toolbar

You will notice this drop down menu in the toolbar section at the top of Genealogy Browser. This convenient menu lets you quickly and easily set the number of generations to be displayed in the Starfield area.

Many users have never changed this setting and so have never actually seen everything that OneGreatFamily has found for them. If you have never changed this setting, we strongly encourage you to play around with it. You can select a value off the drop down menu or just enter a value into the box. If you are on a high-speed internet connection, we would suggest you try starting with at least 50 generations. Dial-up users might want to start with 20 generations.

Remember, the higher the number, the longer it may take to load your pedigree. Still, you could be surprised to see how much OneGreatFamily has added to your family tree, and it will be worth the wait!

Everyone can see the size and shape of their family tree on OneGreatFamily; however, only subscribers will be able to see the names of the ancestors found by OneGreatFamily's matching and merging process.

Great Gift Idea - Gift Subscription to OneGreatFamily

heather.matthews — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:56:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Great Gift Idea - Gift Subscription to OneGreatFamily

Give A OneGreatFamily Gift Subscription for the Holidays

This holiday season, give your loved ones the precious gift of learning more about themselves - by finding out more about their family history. A gift subscription to OneGreatFamily could be the most meaningful present you'll ever give anyone.

What better gift to give this Holiday Season than the gift of genealogy?

But what exactly could that gift be? Of course, you could print out a nice family tree or create a special tribute book. These would be cherished by family members. But as someone who does genealogy, you know that the true gift is to get involved in discovering your family's history. Genealogy can be a rewarding lifetime endeavor that enriches not only yourself but others. And genealogy is even more fun when you work together with other family members. Whether collaborating on a hard-to-find ancestor or sharing fun facts you’ve each identified, working together with family members on your genealogy is a wonderful experience.

Consider the benefits your friends and family could have with a OneGreatFamily subscription:

View the ancestors who have been added to your family tree because of our unique matching and merging process
See all of your ancestors who are already part of OneGreatFamily
Meet and work with distant family around the world
See how you are related to your famous ancestors
View unlimited generations of your family tree at one time
Make new discoveries over time - new families and information are added daily
Access your Family Dashboard™, a whole new way to explore your family tree

Your friends and family members can experience the joys and benefits of collaborating with other genealogists from all over the globe in locating your ancestors and merging your own family tree with the world's first true global family tree - found at OneGreatFamily.com. A gift subscription will be rewarding long after the holidays are over.

Give Your Friends or Family A Gift Certificate to OneGreatFamily

How To Add Notes

heather.matthews — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:55:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: How To Add Notes

By Andie Noe, Customer Service Representative

As you continue your research, you may want to make notes on the ancestors you are searching for. Once someone is added to your tree, either by yourself or by OneGreatFamily, it is easy to add notes to the individual. You can add a note to any ancestor by editing that ancestor. To do that, first launch Genealogy Browser. You can edit anyone by right-clicking on the ancestor’s name in either Handprint or Starfield, then choosing the Edit option on the menu. That will open the “Details For:” dialog. On this details box, you will see small square shaped boxes along the right hand side. The notes icon looks like a piece of paper that has a pushpin stuck in it:

After clicking on the notes icon, a new box will appear:

You will now be able to add notes for your ancestor. The type of notes you are able to enter depends on the information you already have entered for this particular ancestor. If you have entered nothing about their death date or place, then you will not have the option to put notes under the category for “death”. You can however, put these notes under “individual notes” until you find their death information, and then just move the notes to the correct location.

Using a Research Log

heather.matthews — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:54:00 GMT

Using a Research Log

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Good family history researchers know that there is no habit more valuable than keeping a good research log. A research log helps you keep track of what sources you have searched, which individuals you searched for, the results of your searches, and when you conducted the said searches.

If you're like most of us, you squeeze genealogy in around all the other demands on your time. You may fit in a half hour of research here and there; sometimes you may put down a project not to take it up again until six months later. Six months from now, or even a week from now, you won't remember exactly which sources and which years you've searched. That is why a research log is so invaluable. Nothing is worse than wasting your time duplicating searches that you've already done just because you can't quite remember what you've searched already and what you haven't. But if you keep a good research log, you can take up a project after not working on it for months and pick up right where you left off.

How do you keep a good research log? It doesn't matter if you make an Excel spreadsheet or write it out with pen and paper. There are, however, a few elements that all good research logs have in common:

• The source you searched. Don't just put "1820 census"; it's too vague. Record the specifics of the source you searched, and what years you searched. For example: "Hardy County, West Virginia, Personal Property Tax Records, Years 1807 to 1819, on Family History Library US/Canada Microfilm 250005."

• What information you searched for. Did you search Orange County marriage records just looking for your grandmother's name? Or did you also look for the marriage record of her sister while you were searching? Did you search for your grandmother under her given name, Sarah? Or did you also search for Sally, which is a common nickname for Sarah? Keep track of these kinds of details so that in the future you'll know if you need to go back and search records again.

• Results. If you found what you were looking for, record it. If you didn't find what you were looking for, record that. Recording "nil" searches is just as important as recording the documents you did find, because doing so will save you from unnecessarily searching the same records again looking for ancestors that aren't there. If you do find what you're looking for, the best thing to do is to photocopy or print the document, label what it is and where it came from, and also label it with a document number. Then record that document number in your research log. Your research log can then serve as a table of contents for your documents.

• Date. It's important to keep track of when you performed searches. That way, if you make a momentous discovery about an ancestor - that he was married to a different woman than you originally thought, for instance-you can go back through your research logs and see which searches need to be re-done to take this new information into account.

Making a detailed research log may seem like a lot of work - and it is. But keeping a good log will save you a lot of hassle, and it will actually save you a lot of time in the end.

Linkpendium.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:21:00 GMT

Linkpendium.com

Linkpendium.com is a helpful resource for genealogists. There is so much free information on the internet that it's becoming very complex to find your ancestors. Linkpendium.com is a site that categorizes and organizes genealogical information.

Even looking beyond genealogy, Linkpendium is one of the largest human-edited directories to resources on the Web. The Linkpendium collection includes 8,631,057 links specialized to genealogical information.

The links are divided into two collections. There is a 7,660,180 link surname collection, categorized by almost a half-million surnames from around the globe. There is also an American locality collection, categorized by the American counties and similar geographical entities.

On average, 100,000 links are added each month. Check out Linkpendium.com to see if you can find any of your ancestors in this extensive genealogy directory.

Visit Linkpendium.com Today!

Get Your Family Excited About Their Ancestors

heather.matthews — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:50:00 GMT

Get Your Family Excited About Their Ancestors

Involve Family Members In Your Genealogy Research

Doing genealogy work together as a family is a great way to involve everybody in a shared hobby. Researching your ancestors draws on the family knowledge and stories of the older generation, while younger family members can contribute useful computer and Internet skills to the ancestor research project.

Working together is a great way to schedule family time. Here are some ways that genealogy research can bring your family together:

Ancestor research starts at home. Even small children can ask Grandma and Grandpa for stories about their families, though they may need your help recording information. "What was it like when you were my age?" can elicit some memorable answers.
Make visits to local libraries, museums, and archives. Family adventures are an exciting way to pursue your ancestor research. Take family members of all ages to visit a local history museum so older relatives can explain the common objects of yesteryear to younger folk.
When you know a little more about your family tree, plan vacations around important places on your ancestors' lives. Compile a list of houses, cemeteries, and places of historical interest connected with your family history. A trip to Ellis Island has much more meaning and interest when you know the names and stories of some of your family members.

Whether you're a genealogy expert or just starting out, OneGreatFamily.com offers the chance to add entire branches to your family tree. You may find a lost ancestor or an entire forest of new connections. Share the fruits of your ancestor research with other members of your family. Our families, even those members who lived generations before us, are the stuff we are made of. They are our roots, our beginnings, and they influence our lives in ways we may not even understand.

Great Gift Idea - Gift Subscription to OneGreatFamily

heather.matthews — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:48:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Great Gift Idea - Gift Subscription to OneGreatFamily

Give A OneGreatFamily Gift Subscription for the Holidays

What better gift to give this Holiday Season than the gift of genealogy?

Consider the benefits your friends and family could have with a OneGreatFamily subscription:

View the ancestors who have been added to your family tree because of our unique matching and merging process
See all of your ancestors who are already part of OneGreatFamily
Meet and work with distant family around the world
See how you are related to your famous ancestors
View unlimited generations of your family tree at one time
Make new discoveries over time - new families and information are added daily
Access your Family Dashboard™, a whole new way to explore your family tree

Your friends and family members can experience the joys and benefits of collaborating with other genealogists from all over the globe in locating your ancestors and merging your own family tree with the world's first true global family tree - found at OneGreatFamily.com. A gift subscription will be rewarding long after the holidays are over.

Give Your Friends or Family A Gift Certificate to OneGreatFamily

Collaborate

heather.matthews — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:45:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: Collaborate

By Steve Morley, Customer Service Representative

As genealogists we often question the source of information about a particular ancestor, the reliability of the information, and whether the submitter is a distant relative—questions that can be resolved by communicating directly with the submitter.

OneGreatFamily has designed a feature so you can contact other OneGreatFamily members and communicate with them about records and other genealogical related information.

As you bring up the edit box for a particular ancestor you will see an icon in the bottom left hand corner of the edit box that says “collaborate,” click on this:

You will then see a list of the groups that have this record on their tree. Click on one of the groups listed and then the username listed below the group. You will see the group owners name and email address listed in the space provided.

Here is a link to a brief video about this topic:
http://www.screencast.com/t/MKW42g46

Pearl Harbor Remembrance

heather.matthews — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:42:00 GMT

Pearl Harbor Remembrance

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

The attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese navy occurred on Sunday, 7 December 1941. Four U.S. navy battleships were sunk: the USS Arizona, the USS Utah, the USS Oklahoma, and the USS West Virginia. The USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee, and USS Nevada were also hit by Japanese missiles. Altogether, there were more than 2,400 American soldiers and seamen killed that morning.

The USS Arizona is the final resting place of 1,177 of the men who were killed; nearly all of the crewmen of the Arizona perished with her. To honor those who had died, a flagpole was erected over the sunken battleship in 1950. In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved an official memorial, which was completed in 1961. The USS Arizona Memorial has become a monument to all the American men who died on 7 December 1941.

A few hours after the Pearl Harbor disaster, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his legendary speech to a joint session of Congress: “I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.” Within an hour, Congress had complied with the president’s request and passed an official declaration of war against Japan, thus bringing the United States into World War II.

Do you have relatives who were stationed on the base at Pearl Harbor or on a U.S. navy ship there at the time of the attack? There are published Pearl Harbor casualty lists online, including the one at http://www.usswestvirginia.org/ph/phlist.php. The casualty list is searchable by surname and records the full name of each man killed, his rank and/or age, whether he was a civilian or whether he served in a branch of the military (most of the men killed were in the navy), and where he was stationed (the Pearl Harbor base itself or one of the ships docked there).

You can also access Pearl Harbor Muster Rolls with a subscription to footnote.com. These records list all men stationed on ships at Pearl Harbor from 1939 to 1947. The muster rolls list each man’s full name and service number, the ship he served on and the date received on board, and the date he enlisted. The database is currently 91 percent completed, with the last of the records currently being added.

With all the records being uploaded online every day, learning more about the Pearl Harbor disaster—and the soldiers and seamen who were involved—is becoming easier and easier. And the 7th of December 1941 continues to be a date that will live in infamy.

NamesInStone.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:20:00 GMT

NamesInStone.com

NamesInStone.com is a unique online repository designed to help researchers find and document cemetery records AND maps. Interactive maps that show each grave's location allow the visitor to visualize families, and fill in the missing pieces to the family puzzle.

We encourage you to contribute to NamesInStone.com by inviting your local cemetery to participate, by using the on-line mapping tools to add smaller cemeteries, and by sharing photos and other information with the online community.

We hope NamesInStone.com will help provide you with the answers you seek.

Visit NamesInStone.com

Are You Looking For A Meaningful Gift To Give This Holiday Season?

heather.matthews — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:41:00 GMT

Are You Looking For A Meaningful Gift To Give This Holiday Season?

Give The Gift Of Family This Holiday Season

The Holiday Season and genealogy go hand in hand. Why? The holidays are embodied with the spirit of family and gift giving. And genealogy is a gift to your family members today as well as for future generations. What better gift to give this Holiday season than the gift of genealogy? Nothing could be more important or more meaningful than bringing your family closer.

This Holiday Season, we want to make it easy for you to give the gift of genealogy. There are two different ways you can share what OneGreatFamily has to offer to those on your Holiday gift list:

1) Use the feature on Family Dashboard that allows you to share your family tree with others.

Under the "Information About Your Family Tree" section of Family Dashboard, there is a button "Share this Dashboard"

When you click on the link, a page will open with a very simple form for you to fill out.
Once you click 'Submit' the person with whom you are sharing your Family Dashboard will get an email with a link for them to view your Family Dashboard. They can also click on the "View my Family Tree" button and be able to see your family tree in Genealogy Browser™.
However, the person will not be able to make any changes to any of your data on Family Dashboard or Genealogy Browser.

Family Dashboard is the perfect way to get your family members excited about genealogy. The wide range of widgets and the tight integration with Genealogy Browser™ makes it fun for people to explore. Imagine your children or siblings experimenting with the Relationship Calculator, or looking for all their ancestors who share their given name or tracing your family’s history through the Migration Calculator, or getting a Time Capsule for their own birthday. Family Dashboard really brings genealogy alive, and now it is so easy to share without worrying about them messing up your valuable work.

2. As a member of OneGreatFamily, you can buy gift certificates for your loved ones.
Please visit: http://www.onegreatfamily.com/GiftCertificate to give those special people on your list a gift that will last the whole year long.

A gift subscription will be rewarding long after the holidays are over. Imagine collaborating with your family members and building your family tree and preserving it for future generations in 2010.

A OneGreatFamily Gift Subscription is a gift that will always be remembered.

What a wonderful time of the year to get your family excited about working on your family tree together.

Advanced Dashboard

heather.matthews — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:38:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Advanced Dashboard

Try The "Advanced Dashboard' On Family Dashboard

The last couple of weeks we have been discussing features of Family Dashboard. This week we would like to tell you about the "Advanced Dashboard " tab:

This tab allows you to take full advantage of all the space on your computer monitor. The trend with computers is toward larger monitors with high resolution. The Default Dashboard is set to a 3 columns of a fixed size, so on a bigger monitor it just sits in the middle with a lot of wasted space on the sides. On the other hand, the Advanced Dashboard will expand to take up your full monitor size. It also allows you to adjust the number of columns from 1 to 5, further utilizing the space of your monitor.

We also removed the graphics at the top of the Family Dashboard. This means you can see more widgets on the screen at one time, reducing the amount of scrolling you have to do and allowing you to see more information about your family tree at a glance.

We recommend that all our members switch from the "Default Dashboard " to the "Advanced Dashboard " to enhance your Family Dashboard experience. Visit OneGreatFamily today and switch over to "Advanced Dashboard” right now!

Visit OneGreatFamily today and switch over to "Advanced Dashboard."

Religious Documentation

heather.matthews — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:36:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: Religious Documentation

By Andie Noe, Customer Service Representative

Regardless of whether or not we are religious, religion plays an important role in family history. Before government records were kept on a regular basis, church records kept steady accounts of births, marriages, and deaths. Sometimes, these records are vital to us in that they can provide the much needed information that we have been searching for.

One Great Family offers the ability to keep track of religious information. Christening information is kept track by clicking on the Christening “dot” instead of the default birth “dot” on the Details For box when you are editing an individual(see the image to the left).

For more specific information for Catholic, Protestant, LDS (Mormon) and Jewish information, you simply need to change your settings in Genealogy Browser™:

You can do that by first starting Genealogy Browser. It can be started by clicking on the “View or Edit My Family Tree” button on the Family Dashboard page. Once in Genealogy Browser, go to the “FILE” menu in the tool bar. Then select “USER PREFERENCES”. Make sure that you are on the “SETTINGS” tab (it usually defaults here) and then look towards the bottom. At the bottom of the settings box, you will be able to click the Catholic, Protestant, LDS (Mormon), and/or the Jewish box. Select the boxes that apply to the families that you will be working on. You may select more than one. Once you have clicked the appropriate boxes, click on “OK”. Now, every time you open up a record to edit it, you will be able to access new tabs to enter in the religious information that you find.

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

Spend Some Time Getting To Know Your Ancestors

heather.matthews — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:28:00 GMT

Spend Some Time Getting To Know Your Ancestors

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

This Holiday season, as you spend more time inside and more time with your family, we hope you take time to enjoy and catch up on your family history.

Why do we all feel drawn to our ancestors? We love learning about them because the stories of our ancestors are the stories of us. We are descended from them. We share their genetics, and, in some cases, their surnames. Our ancestors, even the ones we have never met, have shaped our lives. Our values, beliefs, traditions, and habits have been passed down from them to us. Who we are is in many ways influenced by our ancestors.

It is important to know our ancestors--not just to list their names on a pedigree chart, but to learn stories about them and to get to know them. Knowing our ancestors helps us to better understand ourselves. Our ancestors did remarkable things. Maybe your ancestor was an emigrant who had the courage to leave his home country to make a better life. Maybe your ancestor was a pioneer woman who raised many children, and lost many to childhood disease. Maybe they managed to keep their family together against the odds of the Great Depression. Maybe your family endured war. Learning about our ancestors' accomplishments makes us grateful for their sacrifices and can help us have the fortitude that we need to make it through difficult times.

Remember the importance of learning about all your ancestors. Some people think that the most exciting part of genealogy is tracing theirs back to as many famous, prominent, and powerful people as they can. They don't know what they're missing! Our so-called "ordinary" ancestors have done things that are just as important, and we can learn from them just as much as our well-known ancestors.

Take some time in your spare moments to look at your family tree, to learn more about your ancestors, and to reflect on them. Give it as a gift to yourself. You'll be glad that you did!

Ancestor.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:19:00 GMT

Ancestor.com

Ancestor.com is a great starting point for everyone who wants to learn more about their family's history and further their family tree. With countless of hours of their own research and investigating, they have come up with some of the best resources and solutions to enhance your ancestry research.

The main goal of Ancestor.com is to provide our visitors with useful information and first-class genealogy resources. By including a Forum on the site, we hope that genealogy enthusiasts from all walks of life will get to know each other and assist one another on their amazing journeys through history.

Visit Ancestor.com

Mayflower Ancestors

scott.dimmick — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:56:00 GMT

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

There were one hundred and two passengers who arrived at Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620. Many of those passengers were religious pilgrims from the Leiden congregation; some came for financial gain and to acquire land; and about twenty were sailors manning the ship. About half of those people died during the first winter at Plymouth Colony. Today, tens of millions of Americans claim these original pilgrims as their ancestors. Those who can document their claims are eligible for membership in groups like the Mayflower Society.

The Mayflower Society, or the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, was founded in 1897 by pilgrim descendants. It is the oldest and the most prominent Mayflower genealogical group. Both religious and non-religious Mayflower immigrants are considered "pilgrims" by the society, and their descendants are eligible for membership. For membership requirements, see: http://www.themayflowersociety.com/index.htm.

Since the pilgrims were a well-known immigrant group, many people today try to fraudulently claim Mayflower descendancy. Beware of websites and published books that don't have documented sources; you don't want to corrupt your family tree by accepting someone else's fake claims as fact. But if you want to find out whether or not your ancestor's Mayflower claims are true, there are reliable sources that you can search.

One good resource is Plymouth Massachusetts History and Genealogy, which has published online a list of all Mayflower pilgrims at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ma/county/plymouth/passengers.htm. You can click on each individual to view his or her spouse, children, birth information, death information, biography, and ancestry.

Another good website is the Plymouth Colony Archive Project at http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/index.html. This archive has fully searchable texts for the early years of Plymouth Colony, including journals, court records, probate inventories, and wills. On the archive project's site, you can search by the name of the ancestor you're looking for.

Don't forget the New England Historic Genealogical Society at http://www.newenglandancestors.org/default.asp. Founded in 1845, the society is the oldest and most respected group of its kind in the United States. And, not surprisingly, its collection for Mayflower passengers is almost unrivaled. All these resources can help you learn more about your connection to these brave early colonists.

Customer Service Corner: How to Earn Free Months At OneGreatFamily

scott.dimmick — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:53:00 GMT

Customers often ask how they can earn free subscription time. The answer is to refer your friends and family to our website. You can receive one FREE month for every subscriber you refer to OneGreatFamily.

HERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR REFERRING SOMEONE TO ONEGREATFAMILY:

When you refer family or friends to OneGreatFamily, simply tell them to enter YOUR username (created at sign-up) into the "Rewards Program" field when they subscribe.

After they subscribe, you will receive an email to confirm your free month.

Check your account to see your new expiration date. After you login, click on "My Account" to view your account. One of the boxes provides you with your Subscription Information. You will see below the space that will inform you whether or not you have received credit for a referral.

For more information on our Rewards Program, follow this link.
http://www.onegreatfamily.com/Help/Rewards.aspx

OneGreatFamily Tip: Are You Related To A Passenger On The Mayflower?

scott.dimmick — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:48:00 GMT

Use The OneGreatFamily Relationship Calculator To See If You Are A Mayflower Descendant

Does your family tree include any of the 102 passengers who braved stormy seas in the Mayflower? Did your ancestors celebrate the first Thanksgiving dinner with the Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1620? At OneGreatFamily.com, you can enter your family genealogy and see if it connects to any of the Mayflower passengers.

You can view the list of the 102 passenger's Family Trees by visiting:

http://www.onegreatfamily.com/general/famous_ancestors/mayflower-passengers.aspx

To see if you are related to a certain passenger, click on the "Family Dashboard" tab once you have logged into OneGreatFamily. Find the "Relationship Calculator" and choose "How is this person" [select yourself] related to this person [select Seach by Name and enter the name of the passenger you're looking for]. Our database will process through hundreds of millions of names and outline the relationship (if it exists).

We Have A Cyber Monday Deal For You!

scott.dimmick — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:39:00 GMT

Best Deal All Year

As the busiest shopping days are soon upon us we thought you might like to know that OneGreatFamily is offering a great Cyber Monday Deal for you.

For�4 Days only- Monday, November 30th until Thursday December�3rd get an annual subscription for $59.95 plus 2 months free!

The Mayflower Society

OneGreatFamily.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:38:00 GMT

More than one hundred years ago, a group of descendants of the Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, saw the need for a national society to honor their memory. The intention was to remember these Pilgrims who established Plymouth Colony, in what was then called the northern part of Virginia.

Today there are tens-of-millions of individuals descended from these brave souls. It is the goal of The Mayflower Society to join together people who share this heritage and to carry on the memory of our Pilgrim ancestors.

If you are interested in in becoming a member of The Mayflower Society, please visit www.themayflowersociety.com

Let OneGreatFamily Find ALL Your Ancestors

heather.matthews — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:27:00 GMT

Let OneGreatFamily Find ALL Your Ancestors

OneGreatFamily Is Always Searching For You

Tired of searching for your ancestors one at a time? OneGreatFamily searches for ALL your ancestors ALL the time, so you don't have to waste countless hours looking for a needle in a haystack (imagine trying to find YOUR "John Smith" in other databases with "billions" of names). Once your family's branch is included in OneGreatFamily, we will automatically and continuously search THE Human Family Tree (which is what we are creating) to find YOUR ancestors!

Searching ancestor by ancestor using other services not only takes a great deal of time, but the process makes identifying your ancestors difficult. Other databases don't provide you with a clear picture of how the names you find are related or if they are even YOUR ancestors. Genealogy is all about being able to see relationships in your family tree. OneGreatFamily uses those relationships to help pinpoint your ancestors among the more than 200 million names that have been entered into OneGreatFamily.

Simply searching for a bunch of names without seeing how they are all related is not an efficient or effective use of time and can create more questions than answers. OneGreatFamily searches for ALL of your ancestors 24 hours a day and seven days a week to make more information available to you related to your ancestors. We then notify you when matches are found through our weekly GenMail email service. No other service is as proactive or accurate in finding your ancestors.

Remember the only way OneGreatFamily can help you find all your ancestors is by others submitting genealogy information they have. So submit your family tree today, and help others and yourself expand your family tree!

What Is An OGFN?

heather.matthews — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:20:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: What Is An OGFN?

Learn About OneGreatFamily's Unique Numbering Method

Every individual in OneGreatFamily's database has a unique number to identify them. We refer to that number as an OGFN, which simply stands for "OneGreatFamily Number". With an OGFN you can always immediately return to the specific individual within the database.
The easiest place to find a person's OGFN is by looking in the Selected Individual box in the Handprint, as shown here:

A good tip to know about OGFNs is that you can also copy and paste them out of the Details For: box. To do so, simply click on the Selected Individual. The Details For box for that person will open. One of the fields is labeled I-OGFN (which stands for Individual OneGreatFamily Number). You can double-click on the 9 digit number in the box to select it, type CTRL-C to copy the number. It is a good practice to copy and paste the number instead of writing it down because with 9 digits it is very easy to make a mistake.
You can use the OGFN in several other places within Genealogy Browser:

1. As an option to upload information by "Using Known OGFN."

2. Next to the name of every Anchor on your "Select Anchor" screen.
3. As you mouse over any individual in your Starfield.
4. Each time you manually add an individual you have the option to "add an existing individual" by using an OGFN.

OGFN's are helpful when sharing information with others. When you upload information using an OGFN you get both the information on the individual the number represents, and all of the ancestry and descendancy that is available on the individual.

Note: Uploading information using OGFN's is only available to subscribers. User settings must be set on "Advanced" in the Genealogical Expertise Level.

Try It Out
Enter 501695521 in the "Use Known OGFN" field on the "Select Anchor" screen after you login to Genealogy Browser.

Last Name Popularity Widget

heather.matthews — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:14:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: Last Name Popularity Widget

By Andie Noe, Customer Service Representative

Ever wonder how popular your last name is? Well with the OneGreatFamily Dashboard it is easy to find out in a very short amount of time. After you log in to your account, make sure that you are on the Dashboard tab. Scroll down the page until you find the widget that says “Last Name Popularity in the U.S.

Simply enter your last name in that box and click "Show Popularity". The results will show you how popular your last name was as of the 1990 United States Federal Census, and the ranking within the United States. It will also show the percentage of people in the United States that have the same last name as you.

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

A Time To Be Thankful

heather.matthews — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:47:00 GMT

A Time To Be Thankful

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

As Thanksgiving approaches, we are all counting our blessings, especially in the field of genealogy. Technological advances have made genealogy work faster and easier than it has ever been before. It's great to be a twenty-first century genealogist. In honor of the season, here are a few things to be grateful for:

. Digitization of records. From Ancestry to GoogleBooks, more and more genealogical sources are being scanned and even indexed to be viewed online.

. Digital photography. You can take a photo of a gravestone and post it on your blog or e-mail the .jpg to your cousins and they'll receive it in only a few seconds. High-resolution cameras mean that you can also photograph documents and share high-quality copies with family members. If you want to, you can even stand right at your microfilm reader and take a photo of an image instead of carrying your microfilm over to the copy machine.

. FamilySearch Indexing. This ambitious project means that soon all U.S. federal census records will be available online for free!

. Social networking. Even if Facebook isn't your thing, there are sites like MyFamily.com, FamilyLink, and MyHeritage.com where you can have family discussion boards, swap photos, share genealogical information, and even keep track of birthdays. OneGreatFamily has their own group in Facebook that you can join to meet and talk to other members of OneGreatfamily.

. Free online tutorials. Who needs to take a genealogy class when there are so many great, professional resources out there to help you learn the tricks of the trade? From script.byu.edu to wiki.familysearch.org, you can find all the instruction you need online.

. Online storage. Who hasn't experienced the agony of a computer crash or the panic of losing one's flash drive? It happens to the best of us, unfortunately. But online storage options like iDisk and www.xdrive.com make backing up your data quick and easy, without taking up lots of space on your computer's hard drive. And if you want an option that's completely free, you can always store things in GoogleDocs or e-mail them to yourself. Also remember that OneGreatFamily stores all your genealogy information so you will never lose your family tree data.

It's an exciting time to be doing genealogy. As technology marches forward, the work gets easier, more convenient, and more fun.

JewishGen

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:31:18 GMT

JewishGen

JewishGen is the primary internet source connecting researchers of Jewish genealogy worldwide. Its most popular components are the JewishGen Discussion Group, the JewishGen Family Finder (a database of 400,000 surnames and towns), the comprehensive directory of InfoFiles, ShtetLinks for over 200 communities, and a variety of databases such as the ShtetlSeeker and Jewish Records Indexing-Poland. JewishGen's online Family Tree of the Jewish People contains data on over two million people.

Created to assist those researching their Jewish ancestry and based on the concept of free sharing of information, JewishGen is staffed primarily by volunteers. To learn more about what JewishGen offers anyone researching Jewish ancestry, we invite you to explore www.jewishgen.org.

Visit JewishGen.org

OneGreatFamily Has A Unique Way Of Looking At Your Ancestors

heather.matthews — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:51:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Has A Unique Way Of Looking At Your Ancestors

Learn More About The Unique Handprint Concept At OneGreatFamily

Most genealogy sites today let you search large record collections to try to find details about your ancestors. This technique focuses primarily on names, dates and places to identify ancestors. Names, Dates and Places are valuable, but they have limitations. How many Benjamin Johnsons might have been born in Arlington, Virginia on July 5th, 1921? Focusing on family relationships is far more effective in identifying an ancestor as a unique individual. In our previous example, you would feel much more confident that you had found your ancestor if the mother's and father's names matched in addition to the ancestor's name, date and place.

OneGreatFamily takes a very different approach to genealogy by factoring in all the direct relationships of an ancestor in addition to names, dates and places when searching.
We call this unique way of searching the Genealogy Handprint. Like a fingerprint, it is a way to uniquely identify an individual based on relationships rather than patterns made by the ridges of your skin.

The genealogy handprint can be visualized by thinking of an ancestor standing in the palm of your hand, with your fingers outstretched. Then visualize each of that ancestor's family members standing on the fingers. On one finger stands the person's father, on another is his mother, on another is his spouse, on another stands the ancestor's children and on the last stands his siblings. Those relationships taken together, then coupled with dates and places will uniquely identify an individual far better and more accurately than just names, dates, and places.

You are able to view any ancestor's handprint in Genealogy Browser. Selecting any name in the Starfield makes that person the current individual. OneGreatFamily then displays that individual's unique handprint, allowing you to see the relationships that identify who that person is. The handprint view also lets you see details for the selected individual and for that individual's family.

Clicking on the selected individual opens those details, and allows you to edit the record and view additional information, such as biographies, photos, notes, and sources. By clicking the button that says "Family Info" you can view the details of the selected individual's immediate family. You can see the family in which that person was a child or the family in which the individual was a parent (if there were offspring). The family view provides marriage/divorce information and access to additional information that applies to the entire family.

OneGreatFamily's unique handprint technology is also useful when finding matches in the OneGreatFamily database and showing you where more information is available on your family tree.

While OneGreatFamily searches for matches with everyone who has submitted their family trees to OneGreatFamily, only subscribers gain unlimited access to the new relationships and the information that results from the matching and merging process.

How To Change Your Privacy Settings

heather.matthews — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:25:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: How To Change Your Privacy Settings

Determine How Much Is Shared About Your Family Tree

We've all heard horror stories about identity theft, so if you're like most of us you are worried about internet security. Fortunately, in your OneGreatFamily tree you can protect your information and your family's information.

To adjust your privacy settings, click on "File" in Genealogy Browser and then click on "User Preferences." The "User Information" box will pop up. Click on the tab that says "Privacy." There you will be able to change your account settings, including hiding the data for individuals under 18 or hiding the data for all living individuals.

Keep in mind that changing your privacy settings changes the information that can be seen by other users in your family tree. You'll still be able to see all the information on your account.

How To Use The "Search The Internet" Widget

heather.matthews — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:01:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: How To Use The "Search The Internet" Widget

By Kirsten Kline, Customer Service Representative

Do you currently feel stuck in your research, and cannot seem to find information you are looking for? If this sounds like you, please visit the "Search the Internet Widget" on our Family Dashboard page. If you have not customized your dashboard widgets, the "Search the Internet Widget" will be the third box down in the first column.

There are three areas to input a name or piece of data that will search Google, Wikipedia, or Dictionary.com. If you want you can use all three. Simply type in a name or piece of data in one of the empty fields and click "Search." Doing so will open a new tab in your current browser with the search results of what you have entered. There is a lot of information on the internet and sometimes we overlook performing a simple search that could help us find valuable information. Enjoy your search!

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

Adoption

heather.matthews — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:45:00 GMT

Adoption

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

November 21 marks National Adoption Day, and the month of November is National Adoption Month in the United States. President Gerald Ford was the first to institute a national adoption week to raise awareness about adoption, and in 1990 the week was extended to a month.

The first adoption laws weren't instituted in the United States until the 1850s; prior to that, adoptions were largely informal and no adoption records were kept. If a parent (or both parents) died or became too ill to care for their children, they would be sent to live with relatives without any kind of legal arrangement. In 1851 Massachusetts passed the Adoption of Children Act, which represents the first modern adoption statute.

The 1850s and 1860s marked the beginning of a movement to place orphans and children of destitute parents in families, rather than in institutions such as orphanages and poorhouses. This movement continued into the twentieth century, but not without problems. Some parents who chose to place their children with adoption agencies were driven to this by desperation, but in other cases the agencies were corrupt and gave parents no choice. In Memphis, the Tennessee Children's Home Society was one such corrupt agency. The Home Society was run by Georgia Tann, a social worker who forcibly removed thousands of children from the homes of poor families and "placed" them in the houses of wealthy families for exorbitant prices. In her position as a social worker, Tann took children from their homes without consent of their parents; in many cases, she raided hospitals and seized newborn infants from poor unwed mothers who had just given birth. Tann would then adopt these children out to other families and tell the birth parents that the children had died. Tann pocketed huge profits and bought the silence of law officials and Memphis family court judge Camille Kelley. Because of this, and because the Home Society destroyed all records of the children they placed, parents were powerless to track down and recover their children.

Tann also used her money and influence to lobby for adoption confidentiality laws. As a result, laws were passed in Tennessee to seal adoption records. States across the nation followed suit and passed similar statutes. The concern for privacy was cited as the reason for confidentiality, but the result was that these secrecy laws facilitated the dishonest practices of Tann and others like her.

This kind of secrecy and the sealing of records is the greatest challenge facing researchers of their birth families today. Confidentiality laws meant that when a child was adopted, the state would produce a new, amended birth certificate for him or her listing the names of the adoptive parents. The original birth certificate listing the birth mother's name would be sealed. In some states adoption privacy laws were so strict that adult adoptees could not even view their own adoption records to learn about their birth families. This means that in some cases hospital records are the only available records for adoptees to learn about their birth parents, if the records still exist.

Fortunately, the secrecy is slowly coming to an end. In the 1970s in New York, adoptee Florence Fisher founded the Adoptees' Liberty Movement Association; more and more adoptees began demanding access to records. Their lobbying efforts have met with success in some states. Notably, Ballot Measure 58 was passed in Oregon in 1998, making state adoption records open to adult adoptees.

Today open adoptions are becoming increasingly common, and the face of adoption is changing. An increasing number of adoptions are international, and more and more families are multiracial. A significant number of adoptions now are a result of divorce and remarriage; today many adoptees are children being legally adopted by their stepparents.

AncestorsPast.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:29:00 GMT

AncestorsPast.com

AncestorsPast.com launched just 2 days ago! It is a unique website with listings of hundreds of ORIGINAL family heirlooms.

With over 5 million family heirlooms (and counting), they plan on adding over 100+ items to the site throughout the week. It's a big job, but bringing a touch of the past into the hands of family historians and genealogists is well worth it.

We look forward to bringing ancestors from the past back into the lives of family members of today. Also, helping collectors of ephemera, old postcards and vintage photos find exciting items on our site : )�

Another unique aspect to our site is the hundreds of ephemera, old postcards and vintage photographs listed by location. Collectors all over the world can browse through pages to see individual listings of what's in our database.

Several items will be listed throughout the week.. To check updates, you can follow them on Twitter!

Visit AncestorsPast.com

OneGreatFamily Solves The Challenge Of Knowing Who Else Is Researching Your Ancestors

heather.matthews — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:16:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Solves The Challenge Of Knowing Who Else Is Researching Your Ancestors

Meet Others Who Are Searching For Your Ancestors

Subscribers to OneGreatFamily have the benefit of using our matching and merging to tie family trees with shared lines together. This process removes duplication from the OneGreatFamily database, which allows you to see each person or group that has provided information for each ancestor in OneGreatFamily. You no longer have to review dozens or hundreds of duplicate records for the same family members. The merging process also provides you with confidence that you are meeting and collaborating with others who are researching your ancestors.

After the family trees have been tied together, you can access the information others have provided for YOUR ancestors. This is done by checking your family tree for new information. Any individuals who are added to your family tree will appear in gray boxes. You can also review hints and conflicts that appear in your family tree. Hints are indicated by light bulbs and conflicts are indicated by lightning bolts . You can review past newsletters or our online help files to learn more about these features.

As you review hints and conflicts, you can see the other groups in OneGreatFamily that provided the additional information. You can then collaborate with these groups using the collaborate feature in Genealogy Browser. This process allows you to contact and communicate with other members of OneGreatFamily via email. OneGreatFamily automatically references the individual in the family tree on whom you wish to collaborate in your email message. When you open an individual's "Details For" box, there is a "Collaborate" button at the bottom (see image below).

Several people have been surprised over the years to find that other members of OneGreatFamily have duplicated or extended research they had already done. The ability to find and collaborate with other researchers can create relationships with distant cousins and provide a wealth of genealogical information that may be hard to find otherwise.

By combining duplicate research, OneGreatFamily also makes information available on collateral genealogical lines. A collateral line is a line that includes the descendants of a sibling of your ancestor. Collateral lines provide valuable clues to fill in gaps or answer questions related to your direct line. They also let you see how you are related to your distant cousins and others with whom you collaborate on OneGreatFamily.

The ability to meet and collaborate with others researching your family tree is one of the core benefits provided by OneGreatFamily. OneGreatFamily is the ONLY genealogy service designed to let you see everyone else who is researching your family tree and to let you see how you are related to the rest of humanity.

The Differences Between OneGreatFamily And Other Online Family Tree Collections

heather.matthews — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:14:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: The Differences Between OneGreatFamily And Other Online Family Tree Collections

OneGreatFamily Is Different From All Other Online Genealogy Services

A couple of weeks ago in our newsletter we shared with you some major differences between OneGreatFamily and other online genealogy services. OneGreatFamily is an online database of lineage-linked data, a genealogy records management software program, and a collaborative environment for sharing and working on family history.

The chart below easily compares the three different types of Family Trees available to you for genealogy research.

The Three Types of Online Family Trees:

Another unique feature of OneGreatFamily is your personal Family Dashboard that you cannot find anywhere else online. Family Dashboard allows you to explore and work on your family tree in ways no other program provides. Family Dashboard makes exploring your family tree a lot of fun while aiding your genealogy research. Family Dashboard, which is fully integrated with Genealogy Browser, allows you to analyze your family tree from a variety of unique aspects, and then drill directly into a specific ancestor you are working on.

OneGreatFamily is truly a powerful genealogy service that provides unique benefits to those who use it. Dive into OneGreatFamily and see what we can do for your family tree.

Searching in Genealogy Browser

heather.matthews — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:13:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: Searching in Genealogy Browser

By Jesse Bingham, Customer Service Representative

One of the major benefits of OneGreatFamily is that we search for your ancestors to save you time. Yet, there may be times when you may want to do some searching of your own. Did you know that you can search for your ancestors while you are working in Genealogy Browser?

In Genealogy Browser, click on the "Search" button ( the icon with the pair of glasses) located under the menu:

On the right hand side of your screen the Search view will appear:

Enter the names you're looking for, then select one of the two buttons above the primary name box to search within OneGreatFamily (Search OGF) or to search other sites on the web (Search Web).

Clicking on the "Search OGF" icon will search for the name specifications in the OneGreatFamily database only while clicking on the "Search Web" icon will allow you to specify a few websites to search. These search results will pop up in another window once the results are compiled.

Please note that some of the sites we link to require a subscription if you do not already have one, others are free of charge.

Here is a link to a brief video about this topic:
http://www.screencast.com/t/iuwkqlgE

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

National American Indian Heritage Month

heather.matthews — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:44:00 GMT

National American Indian Heritage Month

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

One of the first proponents of an American Indian day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian who directed the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Rochester, New York. As a result of his efforts the Boy Scouts of America adopted a "First American" day to honor the American Indians. In 1915 the Congress of the American Indian Association approved its president Sherman Coolidge, a member of the Arapahoe tribe, to lobby for a national "First American" day. It wasn't until 1990, however, that Congress, along with President George H. W. Bush, enacted a law to observe November as National American Indian Heritage Month.

American Indian heritage should be of interest to all Americans, whether or not they have Native American ancestry; after all, many of the place-names that we have today come from American Indian words. The state of Delaware takes its name from the Delaware tribe, and the city of Miami takes its name from the Miami Indians. The Chesapeake Bay takes its name from an Algonquin village that was nearby, and Niagara Falls was named after an Iroquois town. Nebraska comes from an Oto Indian word that means "flat water." Manhattan and Dakota are also American Indian words.

If you do have American Indian ancestry that you want to research, there are a few basic things that you should understand about American Indian history before you start. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, and the next twenty years marked a period of forced removal and mass-migration for the Indians. Many American Indians lost their tribal identity during this time, since Indians of many different tribes were all forced to migrate together to places like Oklahoma. From about 1850 to 1887, most Indians lived on reservations. All kinds of genealogical-type records were kept on the reservations during this time, including school records and censuses. In 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act with the goal of assimilating Native Americans into the rest of society and helping them become self-sufficient. As a result of this act, tribal lands were no longer held in common but were divided up and distributed for individual ownership. As a result, allotment records and land records are among the premiere resources that can be used to find your ancestors during this time period.

In 1920 the American Indians were finally granted United States citizenship. With this came the long-awaited rights to vote, to run for public office, and to own land off of the reservation. From this time on, finding one's ancestors is simply a matter of searching federal censuses, vital records, and other typical genealogical records.

AncientFaces.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:27:00 GMT

AncientFaces.com

Take a look at AncientFaces.com! Share Memories and Build Relationships. The AncientFaces Community welcomes you to share your genealogy research and family history for free. Take this opportunity to Join the Community and begin your discovery.

Here are a couple of features now at AncientFaces.com:
��
- Free genealogy search: Here you can find valuable information about your family legacy. Use your family surname to find family photos, family stories, military photos, family recipes, and connect to others in your clan.

- Share Memories - photos, stories, recipes: Share as well as discover your family legacy. Browse through shared memories and experience the world as it used to be.

- Build your Family Space: Family Spaces are personal websites where you can easily display and manage your family history in one place! Get your own web address to give to friends and family members and share family snapshots and family history.

Visit AncientFaces.com

Store A Treasure Of Information About Your Ancestors At OneGreatFamily

heather.matthews — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:35:00 GMT

Store A Treasure Of Information About Your Ancestors At OneGreatFamily

At OneGreatFamily You Can Store More Than Dates and Places

Several icons appear on the right side of the "Individual Details" screen that provide access to more information related to that individual. These icons, which appear below the icons for hints and conflicts, and include notes, biographies, a research log, citations, and multimedia files.

Clicking on any of these icons will display what others have shared relating to the individual. You can also add your own information after clicking on an icon to make your insights available to others.

If you have selected religious preferences (please refer to the following article below), you will also see corresponding tabs for the preferences you have selected on the "Individual Details" screen.

Clicking on the "Family Info" box in the handprint view will provide these same options for your selected family. The "Family Details" screen also lets you see available marriage information for the selected family.

OneGreatFamily has been designed for more than simply holding the names of everyone who has ever lived in one family tree. The service is also intended to let people share all of the important information that helps others understand who these ancestors were, how they lived, and what made them unique.

Success At OneGreatFamily

heather.matthews — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:34:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Success At OneGreatFamily

Beyond My Wildest Dreams

We enjoy hearing about the success our members have in building their family trees at OneGreatFamily. We appreciate Logan for sharing his success with us.

Dear OneGreatFamily,

I am excited with the results that I received within the first 2 days of my trial period. One of my lines was extended by your OneGreatFamily Tree from the mid 1500's to the early 1300's. I am amazed by the power of your system and how fast it is in merging my tree into the OneGreatFamily Tree and noting any discrepancies and other possible mergers. It even fully merged the three separate GEDCOM files that I submitted at the same time when I first signed up.

Your unique and very dynamic full tree in the right side of your browser window is way beyond anything that I have seen before. I cannot say how many times that I have gotten lost in a tree using other software technologies. Now I can know exactly where I am at all times. Then to think how quickly I can locate and change to any other part of my tree is just beyond my wildest dreams.

Sincerely,
Logan Wright

You can view more success stories by visiting:
http://www.onegreatfamily.com/LearnMore/SuccessStories.aspx

If you have had success using OneGreatFamily, please let us know. We would love to hear from you. Please contact us either by visiting our Contact Page or by emailing ogfmarketing@onegreatfamily.com. Thank You.

See How Many Ancestors OneGreatFamily Has Found For You

heather.matthews — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:33:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: See How Many Ancestors OneGreatFamily Has Found For You

By Jesse Bingham, Customer Service Representative

There are two different areas that you can look to see how many ancestors OneGreatFamily has added to your tree. Luckily, both of these places are easy to find. You will want to click on the Dashboard Tab in order to view this. You will then notice a rolling counter at the top of the screen.

You will notice next to it says, "Ancestors OneGreatFamily has found and added to your tree". You can click on this statement and it will list all of the individuals that have been added to this tree. Note: this will only reflect one anchor at a time.

The other place that you can find this is in the "General Statistics box under the Information about ____________'s Family Tree" area. It also says, "Ancestors OneGreatFamily has found and added to _________'s tree". You can also click here for a list of these individuals.

Click here to see a short tutorial on this.

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

The History of Halloween

heather.matthews — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:31:00 GMT

The History of Halloween

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Modern-day Halloween festivities are a result of hybridization of Celtic, Catholic, and English traditions. The Celts, who lived two thousand years ago in what is now Britain, France, and northern Spain, celebrated the festival of Samhain in late October. Samhain marked the beginning of winter-a time commonly associated with death-and was believed to be a time when the boundary between the world of the dead and the world of the living could easily be crossed. People wore masks and disguises so that they wouldn't be recognized by evil spirits who had come to visit the earth. Turnips, rutabagas, or large beets were carved to look like faces; and as with all Celtic festivals, Samhain was celebrated with bonfires.

Later, after the Celtic territories had come under the influence of Catholicism, Pope Gregory IV saw fit to Christianize the Celts and sought to eradicate their "pagan" holidays by replacing them with Christian ones. Thus in the ninth century All Saints' Day was moved from 13 May to 1 November, and the festival of Samhain and the Catholic day for the dead were made one. The new celebration became known as All-hallow's day, or the day of all saints. The night before became known as All-Hallow's Eve.

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their Halloween traditions with them. Naturally, the "pagan" holiday of Halloween did not flourish in Puritan New England; Halloween festivities were much more widespread in Virginia and in the mid-Atlantic colonies. It wasn't until the late 1840s, however, that Halloween really became popular in America. During this time, Irish immigrants were pouring into the United States by the tens of thousands as a result of the Great Potato Famine. Inheritors of the Celtic traditions, the Irish celebrated Halloween as it had been celebrated in Ireland for centuries. Instead of carving jack o' lanterns out of root vegetables, however, as was traditional in old Ireland, they were carved out of pumpkins, which were more readily available in America.

English traditions have also influenced the way Halloween is celebrated today; the practice of trick-or-treating can be traced back to All Saints' Day parades, when the poor went from door to door begging food (usually a "soul cake") for their families, and in exchange promised to pray for the dead relatives of those giving them food. Later children began dressing in costume and going from door to door asking for food or money.

Halloween is primarily celebrated in places with Celtic roots, and is not popular worldwide. However, El D�a de los Muertos is widely celebrated in Catholic countries. Unlike Halloween, which is now nothing more than a secular holiday, the Day of the Dead has not lost its original religious meaning. On El D�a de los Muertos, people burn candles and leave food and flowers for their dead relatives.

Today Americans spend about $6.9 billion on Halloween; making it America's second-largest commercial holiday. Evidently the legacy of the Celts-and the early Catholics-lives on.

FindAGrave.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:24:00 GMT

FindAGrave.com

Find A Grave is a resource for finding the final resting places of famous folks, friends and family members. With millions of names, it's an invaluable tool for genealogist and family history buffs.

Find A Grave memorials are rich with content, including dates, photos and bios. You can even leave 'virtual flowers' on the memorials you visit. Find A Grave also contains listings for thousands of celebrity graves, making it the premier online destination for tombstone tourists.

Visit FindAGrave.com

It's The Best Time Of The Year To Subscribe To OneGreatFamily

heather.matthews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:30:00 GMT

It's The Best Time Of The Year To Subscribe To OneGreatFamily

Only 3 Days Left To Subscribe For Only $5 A Month

If you have not taken advantage of our Family History Month Promotion we encourage you to do so. The promotion will only be available at OneGreatFamily until October 25th which means you only have 3 days left!!

Act now to experience OneGreatFamily for only $5 a Month!

Consider how much more you get from OneGreatFamily by becoming a subscriber:

View the ancestors who have been added to your family tree because of our unique matching and merging process
See all of your ancestors who are already part of OneGreatFamily
Meet and work with distant family around the world
See how you are related to your famous ancestors
View unlimited generations of your family tree at one time
Make new discoveries over time - new families and information are added daily
Access your Family DashboardT, a whole new way to explore your family tree

So, as a guest, if you have not taken advantage of our Family History Month Special we encourage you to do so. We want to make sure that all our guests get their chance to see how powerful OneGreatFamily will be to their family tree.

Our prices for subscriptions through October 25th are the following:

1 Year (billed annually) ~~$79.95~~ Now only $59.95!
3 Months (billed quarterly) ~~$29.95~~ Now only $19.95!
1 Month (billed monthly) ~~$14.95~~ Now only $9.95!

We encourage you to subscribe to OneGreatFamily to more fully enjoy the benefits of this expanding service. This promotion will end October 25th.

Join OneGreatFamily in celebrating Family History Month by taking advantage of huge savings when you subscribe to this remarkable service.

How Does OneGreatFamily Compare With Other Genealogy Products?

heather.matthews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:28:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: How Does OneGreatFamily Compare With Other Genealogy Products?

OneGreatFamily is Four Products in One

People have asked us in the past what makes OneGreatFamily unique. They have also asked us another similar question: How does OneGreatFamily compare against other genealogy products?

OneGreatFamily provides an enormous amount of value because it successfully combines four products into one. OneGreatFamily is an online database of lineage-linked data, a genealogy records management software program, a collaborative environment for sharing and working on family history, and our Family Dashboard allows you to experience a whole new way to explore your family tree.

The following is a list to consider when comparing OneGreatFamily against other genealogy products:

OneGreatFamily is creating a combined database for the human family

There are several benefits of tying family trees together. These benefits include gaining research leads to explore, easily identifying others who are researching your family lines, discovering how you are related to other researchers, tracing collateral family lines, seeing how you are related to famous relatives, and gaining instant access to updates, conflicts and new information on your ancestors.

Other services will search multiple databases for instances of a name, but no other service makes finding information on your ancestors easier by comparing all the family trees at OneGreatFamily.

OneGreatFamily is searching for ALL of your ancestors ALL the time

OneGreatFamily searches for ALL of your ancestors ALL the time. Other programs require you to enter names and dates of specific ancestors or require you to be using their software at the time potential matches are found. OneGreatFamily, on the other hand, is always searching for any possible matches based on the individuals and families in your family tree. OneGreatFamily only notifies you when matches have been found for YOUR ancestors (not just anyone with the same name).

OneGreatFamily does not sell your family tree

OneGreatFamily sells a subscription service to provide users with a system that matches and merges their family trees and provides new opportunities for collaboration. You can search OneGreatFamily and submit your own family tree for free. A subscription is only required to access the features that provide additional value by saving you time and effort in researching your family tree. Free services that provide you with access to millions of names in family trees do little to add value to the data provided. Other services actually charge people to access family trees that have been freely submitted. They charge access fees to search their family tree databases or sell the records on CD-ROMs. Many people who have purchased family trees on CD-ROMs express dismay when they realize they have actually purchased the very same data they submitted!

OneGreatFamily is a living, dynamic family tree that is always growing!

OneGreatFamily is continuously updated by tens of thousands of subscribers. Everyone who uses OneGreatFamily is working on a shared database, but enjoys the benefit of seeing the family tree from his or her own perspective. Any additions or changes in OneGreatFamily can be seen instantaneously by everyone around the world without any waiting or additional processing. While working on your family tree in OneGreatFamily, you may suddenly receive a notification that new ancestors have been added to YOUR family tree.

Family Dashboard, shows you a whole new way to explore your family tree

Family Dashboard allows you to explore and work on your family tree in ways no other program provides. Family Dashboard makes exploring your family tree a lot of fun while aiding your genealogy research. Family Dashboard, which is fully integrated with Genealogy BrowserT, allows you to analyze your family tree from a variety of unique aspects, and then drill directly into a specific ancestor you are working on. Family Dashboard provides drag-and-drop widgets designed to provide interesting information and insights into your family tree. Example widgets include Relationship Calculator, Migration Calculator, Time Capsule, Top 10 Birth and Death Countries, etc.

Important Events on this Date Widget

heather.matthews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:25:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: Important Events on this Date Widget

By Jesse Bingham, Customer Service Representative

If you are looking for something to celebrate, look no further than your Family Dashboard page. The "Important Events" widget on your dashboard allows you to view events that have happened in your tree on a specific date.

If you click on the ">>more" link it will bring up a page that will give you a list of all events that happened on that day as well as allow you to change the date:

This page will inform you of births, deaths, marriages, and christenings that happened on that specific date. Change the date shown and you can see what other events appear. You can feel closer to your family and what occurred in their life through this one simple widget.

Click here to view a brief tutorial.

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

Salem Witch Ancestors

heather.matthews — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:15:00 GMT

Salem Witch Ancestors

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Many of us have New England ancestors. And many Americans can trace their ancestry back to Massachusetts to the infamous episode in American history known as the Salem Witch Trials. Cotton Mather, Rebecca Nurse, and Samuel Parris are all names that have been made well-known by the witch trial drama of 1692. Aside from those accused (and many condemned and executed) as witches, there were many others involved: the accusers, the ministers, the bailiffs, the judges, and the witnesses involved in court proceedings. What does it mean to be descended from one of these individuals?

If you are a descendant of one of the accused, you can find a place in the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches, a genealogical society for women descended from anyone who was accused of witchcraft prior to 31 December 1699 in colonial America. The proclaimed mission of the society is to preserve the memory of those accused of witchcraft in New England and to locate all their living female descendants. On their website at www.adeaw.us, you can view a list of approved ancestors, or you can submit your own ancestor for review.

If you are trying to determine whether or not your ancestor was indeed involved in witchcraft trial proceedings, you can conduct your own historical research or you can check the Salem Witches database of Ancestral Findings, at http://www.ancestralfindings.com/freed5141.htm. Its name is somewhat misleading; the database actually contains the names of more than 200 individuals accused of witchcraft in New England between 1647 and 1697, including people from the villages of Andover and Gloucester. The database lists each individual by first and last name, names the town where he or she was accused and tried, and states the outcome (acquittal, execution, etc.).

For a detailed look at the Salem proceedings, one of the prime resources available online is the Salem Witchcraft Papers Project, a historical project whose aim is to compile all documents pertaining to the Salem disaster and make them available for free online. At http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts, you can read the complete court documents. You can also view lists of the accusers, defenders, judges, jurors, and ministers involved. Most significantly, there is a list of the "afflicted" girls, along with plat maps showing where they lived in relation to those they were accusing (and the land their families stood to gain by their accusations).

The 1692 Salem witch disaster is one of the most documented events in American history: countless books, articles, and even plays have been written about it. If you have ancestors who were involved in the saga, learning about them will be easy-and fascinating.

Genealogy.About.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:40:00 GMT

Genealogy.About.com

About.com and run by genealogy professional Kimberly Powell. Kimberly Powell has built a comprehensive environment around genealogy topics, including the best new content available, relevant genealogy links, How-To's, forums, and answers to just about any question you may have about genealogy. Visit genealogy.about.com today.

�Genealogy.About.com

Honor Your Ancestors During Family History Month

heather.matthews — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:12:00 GMT

Honor Your Ancestors During Family History Month

Celebrate National Family History Month By Working On Your Familiy Tree

October is National Family History Month, a month to celebrate our ancestors and the stories of our families. OneGreatFamily wants to help you make the most of this month. Get started by submitting or creating your family tree on OneGreatFamily.

OneGreatFamily will then compare your ancestors against over 200 million names that have already been submitted to our service. When a match is found, your family tree will be merged with others and become part of the larger OneGreatFamily database.

If you have already submitted your family tree, now is the time to see if your family tree has grown, to verify new information that has been made available through OneGreatFamily, to add more ancestors to your family tree to provide more potential connections for others or to just play around with your family tree in Family Dashboard.

If you haven't had a chance, you may also consider inviting others who are interested in genealogy to become part of your experience at OneGreatFamily. Give them your OneGreatFamily username to enter when they sign up and we will add a free month to your subscription as our way of saying "thanks" for spreading the word about our great service.

We hope you are enjoying OneGreatFamily and that you will want to share your experience with others. Get others involved in their family history to celebrate National Family History Month.

In honor of Family History Month, we're lowering the prices of our subscriptions until October 25th.

Sign-up for an annual membership and get up to 33% OFF the regular price! . . . OR, if you'd rather dip your toe before jumping into a year's membership, you can try the first month for only $9.95! By upgrading to an annual subscription, you will gain ongoing access to OneGreatFamily for only $5 per month (compared to $14.95 per month for our standard monthly subscription plan).

Our prices for subscriptions are the following:

1 Year (billed annually) ~~$79.95~~ Now only $59.95!
3 Months (billed quarterly) ~~$29.95~~ Now only $19.95!
1 Month (billed monthly) ~~$14.95~~ Now only $9.95!

Join OneGreatFamily in celebrating Family History Month by taking advantage of huge savings when you subscribe to this remarkable service.

Are Others Working On your Family Tree Right Now?

heather.matthews — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:09:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Are Others Working On your Family Tree Right Now?

Celebrate National Family History Month By Collaborating With Others

You can collaborate with other OneGreatFamily members by following simple steps:

Launch Genealogy Browser

Select an ancestor on whom you would like to collaborate

Click on the ancestor in the Handprint View to see the Individual Details

Click on the "Collaborate" button found in the lower-left corner of the Individual Details box

Click on the "Owners" tab on the "Collaborate with others" window. This window will show your group and any other group that has a family tree with this individual

Expand the groups to see individuals by clicking on the (+) sign to the left of the group name

Click on an individual's username to view the user's name and email address and to send the user a message

If you have an email application, such as Outlook, clicking on the "Send" button will open a new email message to send. If not, you will need to copy the other person's email address and paste it into the "To" field of your email application.

Whether or not you collaborate with others through email, you are still collaborating every time you use OneGreatFamily. You are adding individuals to the world's largest family tree that will someday result in hints, merges, and collaboration for others who are also using OneGreatFamily.

We hope you enjoy collaborating with other genealogists through OneGreatFamily.

How to Change Who Your Family Dashboard Information is About

heather.matthews — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:55:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: How to Change Who Your Family Dashboard Information is About

By Linda Smith, Customer Service Representative

Have you finished working on one line and would like to focus on another? The "Change who this information is about" link will change the information you see in the Family Dashboard.

When you select "Change who this information is about" a pop up will come up.

You will need to select who you want your new default anchor to be. Select a new default anchor and click ok. The Family Dashboard will refresh to show the new information on the anchor that you selected. (Note: This tool can only be used if you have more than one anchor.)

Anchors are like "favorites" or "bookmarks". Just as a favorite allows you to quickly return to a specific webpage on the Internet, an anchor allows you to jump quickly to a specific person in your family tree.

You can easily add new names to the list of anchors by adding new anchors in Genealogy Browser. Just open Genealogy Browser, make the person you want to be an anchor into the selected individual, and then click on the Anchors menu and pick the Add Individual to Anchors menu choice.

As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

Know Before You Go

heather.matthews — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:41:00 GMT

Know Before You Go

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Are you planning a research trip? Are you traveling across the state, across the country, or even across the Atlantic Ocean to conduct genealogical research? If so, you can make the best use of your research time by making a few simple preparations before you go.

There is no reason to spend your precious on-site research time searching records like census records or death certificates that you can access at home. Conduct all that research before you go. If you will be traveling to an archive or library to research, use their online catalog to see exactly what records they have available. You should also verify the addresses and hours of the archive or county courthouse so that you can plan your schedule accordingly. Then make a detailed list of who you are looking for, in what records you will search for them, and what date range you will search. For example, if you know that your great-grandparents married in 1910 in Orange County, Indiana, you may write as your list item: "Search for the birth of great-grandmother Mary Jane Wilson in Orange County birth register from 1880 to 1895.

You should also prepare pedigree charts and family group records before you go. Even if you bring your laptop, you should still print out copies of these documents. That way, if the library or archive doesn't have a place for you to plug in your laptop, you will still have all your charts at a glance. Back up all your data before you go and make a second copy of everything, either on a second flash drive, an external hard drive, or on CD or DVD. That way, if you lose your flash drive or your computer crashes you can still make use of your research time because you'll have your information saved to a second location. Take small bills with you so that you can quickly and easily make photocopies of documents (some archives don't allow you to take digital photographs or scan digital images, so photocopies are your only option).

If you're going to be in the area where your ancestors lived, you don't want to be stuck in the archive the whole time. If possible, go see the house where your ancestors lived or the church they attended; soak in the ambience of the places they frequented. Check plat maps or interview older relatives before you go to find out where, precisely, your ancestors lived. One of my most rewarding genealogical experiences was driving four hours into the middle of the sagebrush desert in Southern Utah to see the homestead where my great-grandfather lived as a boy. On research trips, you should always take a camera with you, as well as extra batteries or your camera charger, so that you can take photos of headstones, houses, or even records. Doing on-site research is a unique and rewarding experience, and you may not return to the location for a long time, if ever. Make the most of it.

FunStuffForGenealogists.com

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:38:00 GMT

FunStuffForGenealogists.com

The holidays are closer than we think. Want a unique gift for a genealogist? Do you want to find crafts, prints, games, stickers, and other genealogically themed products and items? Then surf on over to FunStuffForGenealogists.com. They have TONS of unique genealogy gifts - there is something for everyone!�

Visit: FunStuffForGenealogists.com

Did You Know October Is National Family History Month?

heather.matthews — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:58:13 GMT

United States Officially Recognized October as National Family History Month

Every October we at OneGreatFamily honor National Family History Month. In 2003 the United States Senate officially recognized October as National Family History Month, a time "to encourage family history research, education, and the sharing of knowledge."

President George W. Bush, in signing a Proclamation in support of Family History Month in 2003, said, "Lessons in family lineage are often lessons in courage, endurance, and love. While tracing our roots can be challenging, the rewards can be great - affirming our pride in our history and keeping us mindful of the sacrifices of our forbears."

We at OneGreatFamily also wish to echo those sentiments by encouraging everyone to spend time this month in pursuing the discovery of their personal roots as a gift to future generations.

In honor of Family History Month, we're lowering the prices of our subscriptions until October 11th.

Sign-up for an annual membership and get 33% OFF the regular price! . . . OR, if you'd rather dip your toe before jumping into a year's membership, you can try the first month for only $9.95! By upgrading to an annual subscription, you will gain ongoing access to OneGreatFamily for only $5 per month (compared to $14.95 per month for our standard monthly subscription plan).

Our prices for subscriptions are the following:

1 Year (billed annually) ~~$79.95~~ Now only $59.95!
3 Months (billed quarterly) ~~$29.95~~ Now only $19.95!
1 Month (billed monthly) ~~$14.95~~ Now only $9.95!

Join OneGreatFamily in celebrating Family History Month by taking advantage of huge savings when you subscribe to this remarkable service.

Detail Page on Family Dashboard

heather.matthews — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:30:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Detail Page on Family Dashboard

The Detail Page Can Be Very Helpful In Finding Information About Your Ancestors In Your Family Tree

This week we will be discussing the valuable information you can find on the Detail Pages. When you are browsing through Family Dashboard, some widgets will have a link in the bottom right hand corner, often labeled "More", like this:

In other cases, an individual item in a widget may be a link as well. In either case, clicking on the link brings up a page with a lot more detail on it. For example, I clicked on the "Merges performed this week" link in the General Statistics widget on my Family Dashboard and here is the Detail Page that popped up:

In the middle of the Detail page is an area that looks like a list. This area contains all the applicable data, whereas the widget often just contains a few sample items. So, for example, the Sample Surnames only lists three random surnames, whereas the Detail page actually lists every surname in your family tree.

There are several features about the Detail Page that you will find very valuable:

Sort by Column: You can sort your list by any column. In the example in the image above that includes: Surname, First Name, Birth Day, Birth Place, Death Date or Death Place. To sort by a column just click on the column heading. An arrow pointing down means the list is sorting First to Last, whereas an arrow pointing up means the list is sorted last to first. If you want the opposite sort order, just click on the column heading again and it will switch.
In the image below you will see that the list is sorted by Birth Place.

Jump To Link: Because some lists are quite long, there are a couple of aids to help you find a specific ancestor. Notice the list of the alphabet in the header of the list. Click on a letter and you will jump directly to the page in the list where that letter starts. Please note that the letter may start somewhere on the page, not necessarily at the top. So you might have to scroll down the page in order to find the first of that letter, but you are on the correct page.

You can also enter several characters into the "Other" Box to try to more accurately jump to the right page. For example, if there are a lot of Birth Places that start with an S, it might be faster to type "Suf" to get to Suffield.

Finally, note that this Jump To list is created depending on the type of data you are sorting on. For alphabetical data, the alphabet is displayed. For dates, years throughout the range are displayed.

Relationship Calculator, Migration Calculator and Genealogy Browser: Each individual listed has a group of 3 boxes on the far right side:

The Relationship Calculator shows the relationship between this person and the anchor chosen on the Family Dashboard main page. The Migration Calculator will show a map of the migration from the person selected to the anchor chosen. The Genealogy Browser button will show this person in Genealogy Browser.

We encourage you to explore the Detail page and see how easy it is to find interesting information about your ancestors.

How to Update Your Credit Card Information

heather.matthews — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:05:21 GMT

Customer Service Corner: How to Update Your Credit Card Information

By Brenda Eyring, Customer Service Representative

On occasion, customers need to change which credit card number we charge our renewal fees to. To change your card number, please follow these steps.

1. Go to www.onegreatfamily.com.
2. Click on the "Login" link in the top right corner.
3. Enter your username and password.
4. Click on "My Account" on the black bar near the top of your screen.

5. A new window will open up that is divided into 4 sections.

6. Locate the section titled “Credit Card Information” and click on the "Edit" button.
7. Enter the necessary information for your new card number. You will be asked for the name as it appears on the card, the credit card type, the credit card number, and the expiration date.
8. You will be required to enter your password again for security purposes before your account will reflect the new card number.
9. Click on the "Submit" button.
10. Congratulations, you are finished. Your next renewal will be billed to the new card number.

Scotland's Genealogy Blog

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:14:23 GMT

Scotland's Genealogy Blog

'Scotland's Genealogy' is a new blog by Chris Halliday,amateur genealogist and enthusiast of Scotland's history.

This blog is for all of you who have Scottish Ancestry - which I'm sure includes several of you. Learn about clans, handwriting, demographics, etc. Anyone with Scottish Ancestry should add this to their favorites.

Visit Scotlandsgenealogy.blogspot.com

Hispanic Heritage Month

heather.matthews — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:14:00 GMT

Hispanic Heritage Month

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

The month from 15 September to 15 October is Hispanic Heritage Month. The event was originally Hispanic Heritage Week, approved by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. In 1988 President Ronald Reagan made it a month-long event. 15 September was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because five Latin American countries celebrate it as their day of independence: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all declared independence on 15 September 1821. In addition, Mexico celebrates its independence day on 16 September, Chile on 18 September, and Belize on 21 September.

Today Hispanic culture in America is thriving. Hispanic Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, with 46.9 million Hispanic Americans in July of 2008. Hispanics are the largest minority group in America, comprising 15% of the nation's total population, not including Puerto Rico. Only Mexico, with 110 million Hispanics, has a larger Hispanic population than that of the United States. Forty-eight percent of Hispanic Americans live in California or Texas, with 13.5 million in California and 8.9 million in Texas.

One of the best sources for searching your genealogy, if your Hispanic ancestors were from Mexico, is the 1930 Mexican census. This census is available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and its extension offices, Family History Centers. FamilySearch Indexing is currently working on digitizing all these records; they will soon be made available free on pilot.familysearch.org. In addition to the census, the Family History library has microfilmed 99% of Mexican parish records. Parish records are a gold mine for genealogical researchers, since every baptism, marriage, and death was recorded by the parish priest.

If you have early Spanish ancestors in the Americas that you want to learn more about, the Spanish Colonial Research Center is a prime resource. A partnership between the National Park Service and the University of New Mexico, the Research Center has over 85,000 pages of Spanish colonial documents, microfilmed. The Research Center also publishes the Colonial Latin American Historical Review, a quarterly journal.

Together We Have Created The World's Largest Online Family Tree

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:56:00 GMT

You Have Made OneGreatFamily The Active, Growing, And Dynamic Family Tree It Is Today

OneGreatFamily has become known as a great tool for doing genealogical research. The system works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year to search and then sift your entire family tree against the family trees of all the other OneGreatFamily Members. Our system does this work in order to save you from performing endless searches resulting in thousands of obvious non-matches.

However, all this technology and all our efforts would be of little value without your support and participation. It is the hundreds of thousands of family history enthusiasts contributing their personal research that keeps the OneGreatFamily engine running. Together we have made OneGreatFamily the active, growing, and dynamic service it is today.

The last couple of months the OneGreatFamily Online Family Tree has seen some amazing growth. Our members are really benefiting from all the collaborative activity and using the many resources and tools we offer to expand their family trees. We appreciate all the contributing information that so many of you have shared that has helped others have success in finding their ancestors.

The following are 2 emails we received from OneGreatFamily members expressing their gratitude to OneGreatFamily members:

"...No longer will families remain separated in many error ridden genealogy files that are kept by one family member (like me) on their computer and unavailable from family members. I believe that it is better to give and share with others. Until now I have not had a way to do this...One person can't possibly do all of the work alone; they need help to speed up the work...The only way to do this is with your wonderful service which I believe will in the near future solve all of my problems." ~ Jeff Bagley

"I just want to say how thrilled I have been with my experience at OneGreatFamily. The best thing is that the search program runs continuously and adds data automatically to your tree...my experience has been very positive and I have recommended OneGreatFamily to friends of mine who are also interested in genealogy." ~ Joe Cercy

Unlike other services, EVERYONE benefits from new discoveries or corrections that are made to the world's largest online family tree. We have an active community working on a common global pedigree. New information is available at OneGreatFamily every day to help you in your research. Many users have found that, even with no recent activity, all of a sudden they may benefit from a file just uploaded that day by a new member half way around the world.

Your participation has made OneGreatFamily the best framework for genealogy content. Thank you.

Add More Than Dates And Places To Your OneGreatFamily Tree

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:55:00 GMT

OneGreatFamily Tip: Add More Than Dates And Places To Your OneGreatFamily Tree

Store Treasures About Your Ancestors Or See What Other Treasures Can Be Found At OneGreatFamily

OneGreatFamily goes beyond names and events to allow members to share treasures like biographies, notes, citations, photos, scanned documents, videos, and more about your ancestors.

Genealogy is more than simply identifying ancestors and their vital information. Genealogy research means learning everything you can about your ancestors. This information can include photos, key documents, written descriptions and biographies. The information can also include significant religious events that go beyond birth and death information.

All of these information and file types are supported and viewable within OneGreatFamily. When using Genealogy Browser, simply double-click on any individual in your Starfield or Handprint view to see what details are available for your ancestors.

Several icons appear on the right side of the "Individual Details" screen that provide access to more information related to that individual. These icons, which appear below the icons for hints and conflicts, include notes, biographies, a research log, citations, and multimedia files.

Clicking on any of these icons will display what others have shared relating to the individual. You can also add your own information after clicking on an icon to make your insights available to others.

If you have selected religious preferences (Catholic, Jewish, LDS or Protestant), you will also see corresponding tabs for the preferences you have selected on the "Individual Details" screen.

Clicking on the "Family Info" box in the handprint view will provide these same options for your selected family. The "Family Details" screen also lets you see available marriage information for the selected family.

Migration Calculator on Family Dashboard

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:20:00 GMT

Customer Service Corner: Migration Calculator on Family Dashboard

By Kirsten Klein, Customer Service Representative

One interesting feature available to you on your Family Dashboard is the Migration Calculator. The Migration Calculator creates a Google map with pushpins identifying the birthplaces of the direct line ancestors between any two people in OneGreatFamily.

Just like the relationship calculator you can choose yourself, your immediate family, search OneGreatFamily or your family tree, or browse your family tree to find the names of two people you want to compare.

Once you have decided on two people and you click on the "Show Migration" button you will be taken to a page where you can see the map and the pushpins showing the birthplaces between two people.

See below for an example of what the results page looks like:

We hope you will find OneGreatFamily a useful tool to learn where your ancestors came from.

Pirates

heather.matthews — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:16:00 GMT

Pirates

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

September 19th marked the fifteenth International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Some of these notorious swashbuckling fellows that we regard with grudging admiration can actually claim pirates as their ancestors.

The golden age of "Pirates of the Caribbean" style smuggling was from about 1560 to about 1730. During this time, Spain was amassing a worldwide shipping empire, with Britain as its chief competitor. Both nations were bringing home ships loaded with New World gold and silver across the Atlantic, and they made great targets for pirates who attacked ships, took command, and confiscated the treasure.

Privateers operating during this time were essentially the same as pirates, except that they possessed commissions or letters of marque from their sovereign nations authorizing the capture of merchant ships of enemy nations. (Of course, corruption still abounded, since many privateers held back loot for themselves or pirated ships outside their authorized territory.) One of the most famous privateers of all time was Sir Francis Drake, favorite of Queen Elizabeth and captain of the Golden Hind, who captured dozens of Spanish vessels and was instrumental in Britain's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Privateers played a key role in the American Revolution, since the colonies had no official navy and were up against the British Royal Navy, which was at that time the most powerful in the world. During the Revolution, about 55,000 American sailors served aboard privateer ships, and they successfully captured 2,283 British vessels. Pirates and privateers also helped greatly in the War of 1812. Jean Lafitte, for instance, was a notorious pirate who played a vital role in America's victory in the Battle of New Orleans.

If you happen to be descended from one of these controversial buccaneers, there are genealogical membership societies you can join. Along with descendants of horse thieves, army deserters, and other criminals, pirate descendants are welcome at blacksheepancestors.com. You can also join the Order of Descendants of Pirates and Privateers at piratesprivateers.org. This society is open to descendants of pirate ship officers and crew, American privateer ship officers and crew, and those issuing letters of marque. Avast there, yellow-bellied milksops, get to work and research your pirate ancestors, or by my bones I'll see ye walk the plank!

podcastGenealogy

OneGreatFamily.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:12:00 GMT

podcastGenealogy

This site was created to provide a tool for beginner, intermediate, experienced, and professional genealogists.
The podcasts are hosted by Bob Fornal and Dave Hawk.�

In our podcasts we will be discussing basic topics involved in genealogy research.� We bring a broad range of skills to the table; from extremely experienced to learning how to spell Genealogy correctly. Visit our website and listen and read some of our podcasts to gain very informative information to help you in your genealogy research.

Visit postcastGenealogy.com

How To Date Old Family Photographs

heather.matthews — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:41:00 GMT

How To Date Old Family Photographs: Basic Techniques Of Dating Pictures

Great-Grandma's family collection of antique pictures can be a treasure trove for you, the genealogy researcher, especially if you can establish when an antique picture was taken.
Dating a photograph can help you identify the subject(s) (in early photography the subjects were referred to as sitters) and can provide additional information as you piece together your family tree.

There are some basic techniques to begin the process of dating an antique picture:

What is the print made of? Is the image printed on metal, glass, card stock, or paper? Daguerreotype (early tintypes) and ambrotypes (printed on glass) were often mounted in double wooden frames that opened like a book. These were the most common types of early photographs and date back to around 1839. By 1870, almost all antique pictures were printed on heavy paper or card stock. The heavier stock was much more common in early photographs; by the 1930s even studio portraits were printed on thin paper.

Is the antique picture printed in black and white or color? Some images were being hand-tinted as early as the 1850s. Although color still photography was introduced in 1906, it was an expensive process that only professionals could afford to use. Color antique pictures did not become common for home use until the late 1950's and early 1960's.

How are the people in the photograph posed? Very early antique pictures showed people in rigid poses and usually without smiles, partly because exposure times could be as long as twenty seconds. Many portrait photographers even used braces to help sitters stay in position during the process. Candid pictures and then snapshots became more common in the 1920s.

How are the sitters dressed? The straight tunic dresses and bobbed hair of the 1920's are easy to distinguish from the cinched waists and luxuriant chignons of the late 1890's.

What other objects are visible in the antique picture? A Model T car is absolute proof that the picture was not taken before 1908. Furniture, toys, brands names, logos - all these things can provide clues, and thus, invaluable assistance in identifying previously unidentified photographs.

Additional information on dating family antique pictures is available from this list of links.

Tracing a family resemblance through the generations with antique pictures can give you a warm sense of connection to your family's past.

Store your pictures and other media in OneGreatFamily - it's a safe place to keep your treasures.

What Is A GEDCOM?

heather.matthews — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:39:00 GMT

How To Export And Import A GEDCOM Into OneGreatFamily

GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. It is a common file format for exchanging data between genealogical record managers such as Family Tree Maker, Personal Ancestral File (PAF), Legacy Family Tree, Family Origins®, and others. If you use one of these (or a similar product), you can create a GEDCOM file containing your information.

A GEDCOM file can be uploaded and the records it contains can be inserted into the OneGreatFamily tree. Visit "How Do I Enter Data" for instructions on how to import GEDCOM into OneGreatFamily. The function of creating the GEDCOM file is usually called “exporting” data. The result of exporting is a file such as “myged.ged”. You can export your information from Genealogy Browser by selecting “Export from Current Individual to GEDCOM file” from the file menu.

You can import a GEDCOM into your group by selecting “Import GEDCOM file to View” on the File Menu or by selecting the third option on the Organize Anchors page (On the Anchors pull-down menu, select “Organize Anchors”). If you upload the same GEDCOM more than once, you may find some hints and conflicts from your own information. This is because some merges did not automatically take place.

You can export data from your group by selecting “Export from Current Individual to GEDCOM file” on the File menu. This will create a GEDCOM file around the record currently in the individual box; therefore, all of the information in your group might not be exported.