Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Free Form Citation to a Template - Select Template

A reader emailed requesting how to select the appropriate Template.

The Free Form, non-Template Reference Note looks like this:
Johnson, Daniel F., compilier, New Brunswick, Canada Newspaper Vital Statistics, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 6000, 23 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, NB, Canada E3B 5H1; http://www.archives.gnb.ca, Vol 19, #45, The Gleener and Northumberland Schediasma, Chatham, Northumberland County, 27 Jul 1861, death of Isaac Leighton. Digital image of transcription downloaded 31 Jul 2012.
So, I went to the website to see what I was looking at. We know where this document is, that is,Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, where I did a search for Isaac Leighton.



So, I downloaded the Image.

Now, which Template to use.

I am looking at a Death Certificate found on a website.

I looked at the "fine print" at the bottom of that page.

Appears that this an official Death Certificate that is in the New Brunswick (Canada) Archives and it's online.

I go into Family Tree Maker, Sources Workspace, and select Add, then New



This will bring up the screen where you select the Template. I entered "dea", keyword for death certificate. That will bring up a list of Templates that might be appropriate for a Death Certificate. I select File Moved to State Archives (Local Record). Reason, that this document was in Northumberland before it was sent to the Archives. At this point, I do NOT KNOW that, as I am not familiar with the details of these Canadian Records, but that is what appears to be the case.



Looking at the input screen, and the data requested, this did not appear to be appropriate. So, I changed the Keyword search to "ONL" for Online. The was a long list to select from, when I saw Canada.


The following screen came up and filled it in with information from the website.


That is the Template for that website. Database Online - National Archives (Canada). Clicking on OK, will bring up the Citation Screen.


Filling is the screen, based on what is shown in the above screen (slightly gray). That captures that information from that image for a Citation.


For this example, there was no additional information to put into the Citation Text.

The Reference Note now looks like this:

Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, "Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141)", database, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (www.archives.gnb/ca), Provincial Returns of Deaths, Northumberland County; Code 1961E, Reference C4/1916, Microfilm F18738; Isaac Robert Leighton, age 79, date 1916-01-12; accessed 29 August 2012.
From there, the Image is attached and each Fact, with information from that Image, is linked to this Citation.
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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Friday, August 24, 2012

Do You Source Your Person's Name? Spouses? Parents?

Genea-Blogger, Randy Seaver posted this today:

Do You Source Your Person's Name? Spouses? Parents?

I would hope that you read his blog, and specifically this post. I had watched the same Webinar by Geoff, came away with a different question, but that's for another blog post.

Since I started my family research, I have cited every piece of data in my file. I should say try to. Much earlier versions of Family Tree Maker, we couldn't cite everything. (and I mean much earlier versions). As I have been cleaning up my database, I am cleaning this up as well. My Undocumented Fact Report is still long.

Anyway, Randy asked about Names, and Relationships. I'll add two additional Facts, to Cite or Not to Cite AND not to cite, Sex, and Person ID's.

Citing of Names:

As I research, names appear in the documents or records in many ways. I found it important for me, to record what i see and Cite my sources. It has paid off over time. For example:


You will see that I have found 6, actually 5, different ways for this name to appear in records. the 2nd item has 12 Citations associated with that name. You will see that the "preferred" name has NO citations. I have yet, to find a document that spells out his name completely. However, looking at the other 5 "name" facts, I can determine that the Preferred Name is correct. That zero (0) reminds me that it is an undocumented Fact, but I want that name to appear in Charts and Report as his default name.

Looking at that 2nd entry, selecting it and looking in the Citation list:


In the right hand panel, is that list of 12 Citations. Selecting any of those citations, you will find that the name is shown as is reflected in the Name Fact that is selected.

For example, the 1930 Census record has an Image linked to the Citation:


In this specific case. the name is listed there twice. Looking to the right, the age of the person would be the key. The 3rd line is the name as reported in the database. His father, the 1st line is listed the same way on his record.

This has helped me identify a number of people, based on how they were recorded in the various records. If I question the spelling of the name, I can check the Source, using the Citation and will see exactly what I recorded.

I did a study for a person with the name Ridgely Howard. That is how it was initially reported. After looking at a number of records, I found D. R. Howard, David Howard, David R Howard, and finally David Ridgely Howard. We they the same person, yes, but I did look at the citations a number of times to see what other information and relationships were in that record to help determine I had the right person.

How to reflect Relationships:

One of those tools was how to record relationships. Clearly the 1930 Census record (above) shows the Head of Household and the Son. So, how do I record that in FTM2012. First, here is what Ancestry showed me, before I looked at the Census Image itself.


How, that doesn't reflect relationships, but it does reflect the make up of the Household. I will highlight, from the Name: at the top part of that page, down to the age of the last person on the list. AND I will Print that page to right on it. I then hit CTRL+C, the Control Key and the letter C, to Copy that information. I return to FTM2012 and Paste (CTRL+V) that into the Residence Fact for 1930, NOTEs Tab.


I format or line up the information to make is clearer, then I return to the Census Image. From the Image, I pick up and write on the printed page, the Relationships, and other information that I capture from that Census Record by writing that on the printed page. I return to FTM2012 and type in the relationships next to the names. I will also record all other facts that I have determined or need for each record type.

His helps be set up or the way that I understand the relationships found in these documents. I am only using a Census Record for this example.

Note: If the household has a name that I don't have in my file, and the census record indicates that the person is "not family" I don't record that person. In one case, I did record a non-relative, as that person stayed with the family for several decades.

Having this data in the Notes for the fact, makes it very easy to help identify the relationships, and, in the case, the Source backs that relations up.


Citing Sex:

Is this important? To me it is, especially if the "name" could be Male or Female or the name, to me, does not lead me to the sex of the person. Of course, many records do not reflect sex, so I only cite the sex of the person when it is in the record.


Citing Person ID's:

I my file, I had assigned Reference ID for my Direct Line of Ancestors. That started many versions ago. The Citing was not important, nor did was have the ability to cite them. In FTM2012, those manually assigned Reference IDs are now PersonID's. Since I assigned them, I created a Citation to indicate that I assigned that Person ID #.


I have a "lock" or Marked as Private, the Person ID, as I don't want it displayed in the Ancestry Member Tree that is linked to this file. It is for my purposes.

The program generated Person ID's are NOT cited, as it is a program generated number.

This is what as worked for me.

 Thank you Randy !!!

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Friday, August 17, 2012

No Family Tree Maker 2013 - Free Bonus Features for Family Tree Maker 2012 Instead

I received this announcement from Ancestry.com
 
Ancestry.com normally announces the newest version of Family tree Maker around this time of the year. Instead we have decided to make several key updates to the existing software, and give those updates away for free. We will be working hard this year to improve the current product and you will see these bonus features throughout the year.
 
Remember, you will need to upgrade to Family Tree Maker 2012 before you can download the bonus features.

Since Family Tree Maker 2012 was released last fall, a number of updates have been sent out that include improvements and new features. Here’s a list of just some of these great changes:
  • Numerous enhancements to TreeSync so syncing your tree to Ancestry.com is faster and more reliable
  • A new Family View Report that displays a person’s ancestors, spouse, and children together (similar to the Family View in the People workspace)
  • A new Undocumented Facts Report that lists people’s facts that have no source documentation
  • The ability to merge info from multiple versions of the same fact
  • New source templates for the 1940 U.S. census and improved support for city directories
  • Dozens of report enhancements including performance improvements and new options in the relationship chart, family group sheet, Individual Report, Notes Report, Data Errors Report, Outline Descendant Report, Media Item Report, photo albums, Media Usage Report, Documented Facts Report, and calendar
And there are more enhancements to come in the next bonus update—so stayed tuned.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

How Can I Improve the 1940 U.S. Census?

I am providing a link to this Ancestry.com Blog post when finding problems with the 1940 Census Images on their website.

How Can I Improve the 1940 U.S. Census?

I have used this process and it does work. I have received a number of e-mail messages confirming that the index and the transcription information was updated.


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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Friday, August 3, 2012

Ancestry.com Releases Completely Searchable 1940 U.S. Federal Census

Ancestry.com Releases Completely Searchable 1940 U.S. Federal Census

A searchable index to 134 million records makes researching family history in the latest available U.S. Census dramatically easier 

PROVO, UTAH – (August 3, 2012) – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, is proud to announce that it has completed the records indexing process for the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, which is available at www.ancestry.com/1940census. All 134 million records are now easily searchable by name, date, place of birth and other key information recorded in the census. These records, which are free to search, offer valuable insight for the nearly 90 percent of Americans who either have family members recorded in the 1940 U.S. Census or are in it themselves. 

Since the initial release of the 1940 U.S. Census by the National Archives in April, Ancestry.com has progressively published information from this important family history resource state by state. Ancestry.com has made this vital family history information while providing an engaging user experience including the ability to search for maiden names or other family names, often a roadblock when searching records. Additionally, users can make corrections or update information that is incomplete, leading to a better overall database of information.

Assisting in navigation of the 1940 U.S. Census is Ancestry.com’s Interactive Image Viewer, which enables users to easily peruse document pages with simple graphical overlays. The viewer adds highlights, transcriptions and other functionality directly on the Census page. This enables searchers access to small census fields by simply scrolling over them for a pop up that magnifies the information recorded by census takers.  With the ability to zoom in on individual records, these new features dramatically improve the usability of the 1940 U.S. Census, which previously only included images of the paper records. These paper records, handwritten in small entry fields, have traditionally been very hard to read, making the visual enhancements in the Interactive Viewer a huge improvement.

“We are so excited to be publishing our index to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census for free on Ancestry.com,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com. “As one of the most anticipated family history resources ever, the 1940 Census is a fantastic way for almost every American to get started making discoveries about their family history as well as a key new resource for so many of our two million existing subscribers.  Experienced through our new Interactive Image Viewer, the stories and discoveries inside the 1940 Census really come to life.”
Users can now find basic information such as their ancestors’ names and where they lived, but also gain more insight about their ancestors’ daily lives. This information includes whether they owned or rented their home, the value of the residence and how many people resided there. For the first time, census takers in 1940 also asked questions specific to income and education. Interestingly, details like prior military service, the ability to read or write, and whether citizens spoke English – all asked in prior censuses – were not asked in 1940.

The entire census can be viewed online at www.ancestry.com/1940census
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 2 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 38 million family trees containing more than 4 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com offers several localized Web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include our ability to digitize content, to provide desired content to our subscribers, to make our services convenient to use and to otherwise satisfy customer expectations. Information concerning additional factors that could cause events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, and in discussions in other of our Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements.
  
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