TIP OF THE WEEK – ABOUT RETIRING FTM

Many people are upset with Ancestry.com “retiring” the desktop application “Family Tree Maker” aka FTM. The thing to remember is don’t panic.  There is time to explore your options as  Ancestry.com has pledged to support the program through January 1, 2017 and you can actually continue to use it after that for as long as your computer’s operating system will allow. Just be aware that after January 1, 2017 it won’t sync your online tree or do other things that interface directly with Ancestry.com.

Since this is a widely used application we will be visiting the issue again and again. SGS members have made suggestions and pointed to articles they found helpful.

For starters read Keith’s article  at GenealogyTools.com .  It was recommended by Dick Eastman and provides a good overview to the novice of what a “gedcom” file is and how to scrub your data to become “gedcom” compliant.

Find the article here :

Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 1: How to Scrub Your Data (Updated 16 May 2018)

Tip of the Week – Improve Your Google Search Results

As promised in the last edition here are some examples on using “*” as well as the “site:” operator.

The “*” is known as a wild card in searching. Use “*” to match one or more words in a phrase (enclosed in quotes).  For example,  “Google * my life”  tells Google to find pages containing a phrase that starts with “Google” followed by one or more words, followed by “my life”.  Phrases that fit the bill include : “Google changed by life”, “Google is my life” and “Google helps me with my life”.  Can you see yourself using this when you’re not sure of the exact title of a book, or the entire adage you are trying to recall, or someone’s full name?

The operator called “site:” is used to when you only want results from certain sites or domains.  Likewise with the  “–site:”,  you can exclude a particular site or domain.  Some examples,    “James Brown” site:ancestry.com  or  “James Brown” site:familysearch.org   tells Google  find me all the James Brown pages in Ancestry.com or all the James Brown pages in Familysearch.org, respectively.  Likewise, “James Brown” –site:Youtube.com  says find me all pages for James Brown, but ignore any at Youtube.com

Don’t worry about memorizing the syntax for every operator or punctuation we’ve discussed because you can also use the Advanced Search page to create these searches.   If you search often, try adding advanced search to your favorites:   https://www.google.com/advanced_search

TIP OF THE WEEK –  Improve Your Google Search Results

Presented below are a couple lesser known operators that will benefit the genealogist doing Google searches. Search operators are words that can be added to searches to help narrow down the results. You can use search operators and other punctuation to get more specific results from your Google search.

Many of us already know to use quotes around two or more words in order  to search for that exact phrase, the same exact words in the same exact order.  A search for Philander Smith will return millions of  hits; pages that contain the word Philander and/or the word Smith.

Not what we were expecting, right? So try  “Philander Smith” in quotes; this will return 237,000 hits. Closer, but there is still room for improvement.

Did you know when you use a dash before a word, it excludes sites with that info from your results?  In our example try “Philander Smith”  -college   ; this returns 9,970 hits; gone are the pages for Philander Smith College because we are looking for people named Philander Smith, not information about the college.

Another thing to consider when searching for genealogy data is often names are stored last name, first name.       Try searching “Smith, Philander” instead of “Philander Smith” .

One more trick; did you know there is syntax for specifying a date range?  It’s year two dots year.   In our example let’s add the date range 1820 through 1825.    “Smith, Philander” or “Philander Smith”   1820..1825 –college

To recap, when searching for genealogical data remember : •Formatting names as last name comma first name might be beneficial
•Use of the year range function and the minus sign function helps exclude inconsequential data
•In most searches,  using quotes around your phrase will get you better results

Next time we’ll explore using  “*” (the wild card function) along with something I just learned about  “site:” (the site operator).

TIP OF THE WEEK – DEMYSTIFYING THE CENSUSES
1790 TO 2000

In 2002, Jason Gauthier of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Economics and Statistics Administration produced a 148-page document called Measuring America: The Decennial Census from 1790 to 2000. It explains, in detail, exactly what the census takers were told to do for each and every U.S. Census from the first census in 1790 through the twenty-second census of 2000.

This document will prove invaluable.   Besides a good, clear image of each census form itself, you’ll find an expanded definition for every column on the form.   No more straining your eyes or guessing.

Reading the instructions to the enumerators tells you what terms such a “housekeeper” vs “keeping house”, “farmer” vs “planter”, or “inmate” meant in the context of the census. And why “indians not taxed” weren’t included in the enumerations.   Were you even aware there was a separate questionnaire for “Indian Population” in many of the censuses?

There is just a wealth of information in this document.  Check it out.  It’s available to read on-line, or to download, absolutely free, at: https://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/pol02-ma.pdf

THOUGHT FOR THE SEASON – EMBRACING YOUR ETHNIC HERITAGE

Our immigrant ancestors had a tendency to cling to cultural traditions and religious faith.  But gradually, assimilation came after a few generations. Unfortunately, with assimilation comes a blurring and even loss of the rich traditions that are a part of us.

“What the immigrant generation knows and cherishes,
The second generation chooses to discard and forget;
It is the third generation who strives to piece it all together and to remember…”
Hansen’s Law –from Marcus Lee Hansen

Most of us are that third generation and we have an important job to do. During the holidays – interview your family members – Don’t miss this opportunity.

TIP OF THE WEEK – THE CLEVELAND NECROLOGY FILE

Here’s a find if you had ancestors in NE Ohio; about 800,000 paid death notices and local cemetery records, literally at your fingertips, dating back to as early as 1833.

Prior to 1976, the Cleveland Public Library staff clipped death notices from the local newspapers and maintained a file of these notices known as the Cleveland Necrology File. The Library has converted this file into an on-line database that is a breeze to search, readily accessible, and free to everyone.

It contains the complete full text of paid death notices as published in the following newspapers during the time periods listed:  •The Cleveland Plain Dealer – 1850-1975
•The Cleveland Herald – 1833, 1847-1848, 1876, 1878-1879
•The Cleveland Press – 1941-1975
Just go to :  http://newsindex.cpl.org  and enter your search criteria.

TIP OF THE WEEK – THE LEGAL GENEALOGIST’s BLOG

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TIP OF WEEK – SWEDISH RECORDS
Member Jill Morelli has discovered some well done videos on reading Swedish Records presented by Geoff Morris on the home page of his web site “The Swedish Genealogy Guide” . Start at http://swedishgenealogyguide.com/ and then click on “Learning Center” for a list of the 9 videos currently available for you to watch.