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The Jewish Genealogical Society

of Great Britain

JGSGB Education

Jeanette Rosenberg

22 May 2013

Session 7

Family Tree Programmes

& Recording Data

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Agenda

• Introductions• Thinking about storage of family history data• Evaluating your choice of package• Case Studies of Family Tree Maker/Ancestry & My

Heritage• Survey of recent developments and forward look• Session review

• Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in any genealogy software or other programmes mentioned today.

Rapid Pace of Change

• High tech phones with genealogy on them

• I pad & I Phone

• Mac users

• Tablets

• Users of other operating systems e.g. Linux

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Be prepared for Genealogy on the go

Tablet Computing

Do we still need a

desktop computer?

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iphone ipad etc

• Reunion

• Mobile Family Tree

• GedView

• iHeritage

• Shrubs

• FamViewer

• Traces of the Past

• Families

• Tree to Go (Ancestry)Source: Dick Eastman

Or your Android

• Ancestry

• BillionGraves

• Catch

• Evernote

• FamilySeek

• FamilySearch

• Families

• FindGrave

• Genedroid

• My Heritage

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Mac

• If you’re a Mac user–the software you need is one of these packages:

• Lifelines

• Mac Family Tree

• Reunion

• A bit more for you later!

Linux

• Linux users

• Just about all I can tell you is that the main programme is called Gramps! (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System)

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Recording Your Data

• Where to Start

• What to record in the first place

• How many facts?

• How to do it?

Where to Start

• With yourself

• Your parents

• Your siblings

• Their families

• Work backwards, upwards and downwards

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Sourcing Your Data

• Why?– So you don’t keep re-researching in the same place

– So you know where information came from

– So other people can trust your data if you share

– So other people can find out the same information for themselves

• Further info - my tutorial in October 2009 Newsletter

• Elizabeth Shown Mills – the Sourcing Guru

• Let your software help you (if you use software)

• www.thinkgenealogy.com

Elizabeth Shown Mills

http://historicpathways.com

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What kind of researcher are you?

• Traditionalist

• Generation Historian

• Family Tree Climber

– The 3 types of researcher identified by Shown Mills in 2003

Traditionalists

• Have a sound knowledge of sources

• Carefully document and analyze their

evidence, but

• Produce a genealogy that rarely reflects

anything concerning the way the families

actually lived.

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Generation Historian

• Follows similar procedures to the Traditionalist but once having established the identities and relationships they seek out further information on the economic, religious, legal, social, and cultural conditions that existed in the various localities that can cast some light on how family members lived. With this information they can then portray, with some accuracy, the lives of those individuals.

Family Tree Climbers

• The largest group, but...

• Enthusiastic, and unencumbered by detailed

knowledge of how to do genealogical research

• Accept information from sources without

question

• Assume since it has been published in a book

or on the web, it must be true

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Special Data - How to fit it in to software

• Health

• Adoption

• DNA/Genetics

• Jewish Data

• Photos

• Audio & Video

• The Notes Field – free form for your narrative

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What to put in & what to leave out

• Health, Illness & DNA?

• Bankruptcy?

• Divorce?

• Illegitimacy & Adoption?

• 2010 newspaper article about Warwick University Research: Family tree research can open a "Pandora's Box" of secrets that may cause rifts

• www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7567716/Genealogy-can-open-Pandoras-box-of-family-secrets.html

Family Tree Records & Storage

• In a specialist software package?

• On paper

• On your own computer

• Online / on the internet

• A mix of all of these

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Output

• Reports – different kinds • Charts - types

• Saving & storing

• Printing – to Paper or pdf file www.cutepdf.com– Great big files or paginated in book format

• Sharing and Sending• Privatising• GEDCOMS

Who Owns the Data?

• Privatising

– Different standards in different countries

– When it’s out there, it’s out there.

• Copyright & other intellectual property issues

– No such thing as copyright of genealogy

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Features of Genealogy Software

• It’s just a clever filing system with various

benefits & features

• Helps you store & organise information

• Presents the information

• Allows you to share it

More Features

• Allows you to add:

– Notes

– Pictures

– Audio files

– Video files

• And do more or less everything else you’d

want to besides!

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Genealogy Software Packages

• Choosing which is for you

• Evaluating them

• Cost – from free and share-ware thru expensive

• Updating

• Share-ability etc

• [And...basically most people use Ancestry/Family Tree Maker or MyHeritage]

Questions to ask yourself

• What does the software do?

• Will the software help me trace my family?

• Will the software check what I input is accurate?

• Do I need the same software as the people I want to share my information with?

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What The Software Won’t Do

• Research your tree for you

• Check that the information you put in is

accurate

– (US Acronym: GI Joe – Garbage in, Garbage out!)

• Make it easy to leave/end a subscription

– It’s a bit like a mobile phone contract I think!

Avoid the Top 10 Errors in Genealogy

1. Never adopt details from someone else’s tree without checking the info. Always flag errors.

2. Don’t assume that all information you receive from relatives is always correct. Use it as a starting point, don’t just ask one relative, ask as many as possible!

3. Don’t judge historic events from a modern perspective. If your 44 year old 5 x great grandpa married a 13 year old girl, it may well have been legal at that time and place.

4. Marriage banns or an engagement notice don’t necessarily mean that a couple actually got married.

5. Avoid relying on one source when more than one is always better, the more different sources the more convincing the proof.

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Paton on Pitfalls, continued.

6. Never start with the assumption that you’re related to someone famous and try to force the connection. Always work form the known to the unknown and not the other way.

7. Don’t fall for tourist traps e.g. your coat of arms or that Royal connection! Don’t be misled.

8. Don’t assume your relatives stayed in the same place for too long, but if someone moves suddenly over a long distance do check out the facts, it could be someone else of the same name.

9. Gravestones may have been placed many years after a death and may not be accurate, don’t assume it is.

10. Check the names of all informants on statutory records – they may have got their facts wrong.

With thanks to Chris Paton - Your Family Tree Spring 2010 pp 20-27.

What to look for in your genealogy software

• Ease of use

– Creating, managing, printing & presenting

– Comprehensiveness, clarity

• Ease of installation & setup

– Do you need to be a techie?!

• Features & benefits

– Ease of attaching documents & photos

• Help & documentation

– From the company

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What should you consider?

• What exactly you want to achieve?

– Recording a few basic facts

– How serious a researcher are you?

– What about privacy?

– What, if anything do you want to put online?

– Who controls the data on your website?

Your IT skills

• Basic

– Online

• Genes Reunited

• Find My Past

• Ancestry /Family Tree Maker

• My Heritage/Geni

– Offline

• Many other options.... Let’s explore!

• It’s really all about being organised!

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Storing your family tree data online

• Advantages

– Free or low cost access to basic online facilities.

– Other family members can be given access to your data.

– The site is always up-to-date with your latest research.

– Enables distant relatives who share a common ancestor to make contact with you.

– Access your information from anywhere in the World.

– You may download your data and submit it to other websites for publication.

Storing your family tree data online

• Disadvantages– Privacy and security could be compromised.

– Host organisation has access to your data.

– Limited storage for notes, sources and other interesting stories about your ancestors.

– Very limited range of charts.

– Little or no reporting.

– Relies on relatives knowing where to look to find family information.

– Difficult to determine if the site will still be around in 10, 25, 50 or 100 years time for your descendants to access.

– Host organisation will keep altering the software to stay ahead of other website applications.

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Storing on your own computer

• Advantages– One off cost of software then it’s yours to use for ever

– Storage of sensitive family data - you are the only person with access to it

– More fields for storing data and notes etc.

– Much better methods of recording sources

– Usually a much higher standard of reports and charts

– The software won’t change . It stays the same until you decide to upgrade

– Some software programs allow you to create basic websites

– Better quality programs allow you to create PDF files of diagrams/reports to distribute to relatives via email.

– Software allows you to be selective about what information to submit to online websites via the GEDCOM transfer facility.

Storing on your own computer

• Disadvantages

– Costs

– Not so easy to give others access to your work in progress

– You will have to pay to upgrade the software every few years if you want to keep up to date with software technology.

– You need to be organised to keep backups away from the PC in case of hardware failure, theft or fire etc.

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What the benefits & features do

• Some relate to the genealogical research process

• Some relate to how you display the results– Not possible to evaluate a programme based on how

you want to display results

• [and...basically most people use Family Tree Maker/Ancestry or MyHeritage]

Who is going to see the results?

• What do you want to do with your tree?

• Publish online

• Printed and showed to family friends

• Email attachment – send to others too

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Archiving

• Who will look after your data in the future?

– Grandchildren?

– Their kids...

• Remember that digital media degrades over

time

• Computers change and your info might not get

transferred over...

Why bother with software?

• Can’t it all be done

online?

• Actually, no!

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Packages

• With web-based tools

• Trials of & credits for research sites

• Access to online BMDs & Censuses

• Ability to establish your own website

• Payment

– Credit card or pay-as-you-go

• Subscriptions & ease of cancellation

• .. But what about the Jewish stuff we want?

• .. What if you have a one name study?

6 Bad Things About Today's Genealogy Software

• Make you enter your data into forms and require you run reports to see (some of) your data.

• Person-centric, rather than source-centric.

• Emphasize formatting your citations correctly, rather than documenting your sources correctly

• Promote merging other people’s data with yours, rather than keeping them separate and virtually merging

• Don’t adhere to GEDCOM standards, thereby not allowing you to correctly transfer your data between programs.

• Try to do everything, except the one thing you want them to do: Help you quickly and easily record your data, evidence and conclusions and let you make use of them.

Source Louis Kessler 20 Nov 2011www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=875

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Software Packages

• Family Tree Maker/Ancestry

• Legacy

• Family Historian

• Mac Family Tree

• Personal Ancestral File

• Reunion

• Roots Magic

• Who Do You Think You Are?

• ... And many more

http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

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Evaluation of Software Packages

• http://genealogy-software-

review.toptenreviews.com

• Updated for 2013!!!

• Packages can’t cover all eventualities

• Some programme developers leave things out

now that they used to include because they’ve

become standard on new computers, e.g.

Photo editing and various print options.

So which one do you want to use?

• ... But, most people that I know use Family Tree Maker/Ancestry or MyHeritage

• It comes down to your personal preferences in the end:

• “The situation is similar to what I experience when I do presentations. Some of the people's comments say how much they liked the presentation, others express the fact that everything I said was a complete waste of time. Did these two people hear the same presentation? Sometimes I wonder if my commentators are looking at the same program?”

• http://genealogysstar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/update-on-myheritagecom.html?

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Survey of Genealogy Database Software Usage

• Jerry Kocis offered a 32 page survey of genealogy database software usage in March 2013 in the Google+ Genealogy Tech Community. He has summarized and analyzed the answers from 166 respondents. He described the survey as:

"This is a survey regarding users’ satisfaction with their genealogy software, including their perceptions of to what extent they make use of the software’s features and capabilities.“

• https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=7FC618A074071A39!867&app=WordPdf&authkey=!AGACpklnit8Necs

Kocis Survey – Set in Perspective

• Interested readers should peruse the entire document

• My take on the results, at least for the three programs analyzed in more detail, is that users are fairly well satisfied with their program, but need to learn more about using the program effectively.

• The respondents were probably more “tuned in” to genealogy technology & Social Media than the typical genealogical society member or occasional user of online trees, so it would be interesting to do this type of survey in a large genealogical society with thousands of members.

• Comments from Geneablogger Randy Seaver: www.geneamusings.com/2013/05/survey-of-genealogy-database-software.html

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Comparison of PC Genealogy Software Features

• Data entry & citation

• Views

• Management tools

• Charts

• Reports

• Printing & publishing

• Integration

• Help & support

• Operating System (pc or Mac)

• Family Tree Maker

• Legacy Deluxe

• RootsMagic

• The Master Genealogist (Gold)

• http://genealogytools.com/comparison-of-pc-genealogy-software-features

Comparison of Mac Genealogy Software Features

• Data entry & citation

• Views

• Management tools

• Charts

• Reports

• Printing & publishing

• Integration

• Help & support

• Operating System (pc or Mac)

• Family Tree Maker

• iFamily for Leopard

• MacFamily Tree

• Reunion

• http://genealogytools.com/comparison-of-mac-genealogy-software-features

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Buying your Software

• Widely available from retail outlets

• Can be downloaded

• Specialist shops in the UK that I’ve used:

– S&N Genealogy - www.genealogysupplies.com

– TWR Computing - www.twrcomputing.co.uk

• Try out packages at JGSGB Family History Fair in July

GEDCOM

• Genealogical Data COMmunications

• How genealogy programmes talk to each

other

• Allow exchange of data between dissimilar

programmes without needing to re-enter data

• Standard for data exchange (where 2

programmes both handle GEDCOM)

• Use to upload to other programmes e.g. FTJP

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GEDCOM (Techie bit)

• If you use 2 or 3 different genealogy

programmes because you like the different

outputs each offers, transfer (import & export)

your data between them by GEDCOM, your

only worry is version control for your data.

• NOT for transfer of all file types / media e.g.

images and multiple facts – check error files.

• Translation errors creep in “Chinese whispers”

Better GEDCOM Campaign

• Lots happening among

the techie & developer

world

• Blog

• Website

• Campaign

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A closer look at 2 possibilities

• Family Tree

Maker/Ancestry

• My Heritage.com

Not looking at

Has recently been purchased by MyHeritage

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Comparison

• FTM

– Tie in with Ancestry & JewishGen

– Store info online at Ancestry or offline on your computer

– Blog

– Newsletter

– Worldwide data

– Greater functionality

– More expensive

– Ongoing subscription

• My Heritage

– Tie in with Yad Vashem

– Store online or offline on your computer

– Laurence Harris & Schelly Talalay Dardashti

– Blog

– Online search of other people’s data sets

– Cheaper. & free to use in limited format

www.myheritage.com

• Some frivolous parts e.g. photo mashups and celebrities, sending flowers & gifts

• Serious stuff too – e.g. surname distribution mapping utilities

• Megadex search - www.myheritage.com/research

• Acquisitive of data and other genealogy companies, e.g. www.dynastree.com

• Backupmytree www.backupmytree.com

• www.Geni.com

• Family Link & World Vital Records

• New datasets all the time

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www.familytreemaker.com

• Amazing datasets (via Ancestry)

• Education programmes

• Sales of other data and software

• Not just one site:

Do you still need a desktop (local)

genealogy program?

• Functionality between programs

• Blurring between what runs on your computer and on the internet

• If stored on your pc – a greater risk of becoming obsolete

• Issues with synchronisation & version control

• Backups

• http://genealogysstar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/do-you-still-need-desktop-local.html

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Story Telling – NEW!!!

• Every family has a story and within that story

is power to connect in new ways with those

you cherish most.

• This year’s new genealogy development:

discover how to preserve and share your

stories as part of your family history pursuits.

Story Telling

• The art of storytelling

• Preserving oral histories and family memorabilia

• Creating family history traditions

• Using social media to share your story

• Publishing family stories

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Help from Story Telling Blogs

• http://sortyourstory.wordpress.com

• www.storiestotellbooks.com

• www.yourstorycoach.com

• .... Possibly leading to self-publishing your own book (we are not covering this subject today!)

Looking forwards - Exciting times ahead!

• How genealogy software helps people to

record and share their stories

• Mergers & acquisitions in the market

• It’s all about the data – what do you get for

your subscription apart from the software and

an online tree

• More mobile genealogy

• More sharing & collaboration

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Agenda - Review

• Introductions

• Sourcing

• Story Telling

• Thinking about storage and evaluating your choice

• Looking at some packages in more detail

• Review

• Next session: will be on 20 June 2013.

• The subject is Making the Most of Visiting Archives

• Webinar Link to be sent out soon

Thank You.

Any Questions ?

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The Jewish Genealogical Society

of Great Britain