Start Your Family History Week 2015 - Day 6

For those of  you with Scottish ancestry, getting started is easier than you think. Scotland was the first country to digitize and make their records available online. The records contain a remarkable amount of information. For those of us fortunate enough to have ancestors with Scottish heritage, genealogy research is a fairly easy task. But first, you need to know where in Scotland your ancestors lived.

If you don't know this, try reaching out to others. One great site to use for connecting with others is GenesReunited. This is by far the best place to connect with others that are researching your same ancestors. Upload your Gedcom and let the smart match filters connect you with distant cousins around the world. The subscription for the year is £20.20 ($32 usd). You will only need the basic membership so that you can be matched up with others and discover where your ancestors lived.

Another way to try and learn where in Scotland your ancestors were from is FamilySearch. Check the already submitted genealogies, Making sure that you always check the actual records for yourself to make sure you are connecting yourself to the correct family. 

Once you have found your ancestors, you are ready to move on to the website where you can actually view the documents.  The ScotlandsPeople website. This is the website for the records of the General Registrar's Office (GRO). Their website is the repository for all official documents: birth, marriage, death, census, wills and testaments. 

This website is the ONLY place where you can see images of original documents. The other websites only provide indices or transcriptions, which limits the amount of information you can get regarding your Scottish ancestors. 

Happy Connecting!

Starting Your Family Tree Week 2015 - Day 5

Uploading your tree

To upload your tree to any website, you first need to create a GEDCOM file.

A GEDCOM is a database designed to allow you to share family history database files with other researchers who may or may not have the same genealogy software program as you. 

A GEDCOM can be opened in any genealogy software program. And best of all, you can even merge the GEDCOM from a fellow researcher into your own database (genealogy software) if you have ancestors in common.

♦ GEDCOM files can easily be shared with others via e-mail attachment or on a disk.

♦ GEDCOM files can easily be uploaded to lineage-linked databases like Ancestry, FamilySearch, GenesReunited.

♦ GEDCOM files can be converted for use in genealogy companion software programs and utilities that will create things like specialty charts (family group records, pedigree charts, genealogy reports), books, scrapbooks and web sites.

To create a GEDCOM:

Open your family tree software program. 

Click on "File" to see the drop down menu

Click "Export File"

A folder will open for you to save your GEDCOM. 
In the Save file as drop down box, choose gedcom. 
Name your file, click save 

Next go to the website where you want to upload your tree. Use the links and instructions on the website to upload. When you get to the part where you browse for your file, find the gedcom on your computer and upload from there, just like uploading a picture or an attachment. 

Sit back and watch the website do the magic in matching you up with others researching your ancestors. but BEWARE that not every one has learned to be as accurate in documenting their sources as you have learned to be this week. Nor have they all checked the actual documents to make sure that the information is correct, so ALWAYS make sure that you check the facts by searching for the actual document to get the correct information. 

Happy matching!

Start Your Family History Week 2015 - Day 4

NOW you are ready to do some research online. Start with the free websites. FamilySearch really is the best place to start. 

First search through the "records" rather than through the genealogies that have been submitted. The records will be far more accurate since the information is extracted from the documents. Search for the missing pieces of the people you already have in your tree. Then start branching out sideways (filling in the details for all of the children of your ancestors). Then you can start searching backwards. 

If you are researching Canadian genealogy, the Library and Archives Canada website is also free!

Remember to document the details of where you got your information, just like you did when you started your tree. This really is a key piece of producing an accurate family tree. 

Next, sign up for the free trials at Ancestry and Find My Past.

Be careful that you cancel these subscriptions on day 14 so you won't be charged for subscriptions that you might not want or need. 

Have fun with these sites. Look for records that you might not be able to access otherwise. Take advantage of the breadth and scope of records available. If you feel that you might enjoy a subscription for a year, then by all means, treat yourself. 

TOMORROW you will be ready to upload your tree. NOT yet, though. Just search for records, add details to your current tree and document the sources. 

Happy Searching!

Start Your Family Tree Week 2015 - Day 3

At this point, you may want to start collecting photographs. You will want photographs to enhance the memories you have collected:

1. Childhood photos
2. School photos
3. Family group photos
4. Wedding photos
5. Photos of people engaged in activities that were an important part of their lives - dance, sports, music
6. Family pets
7. Photos taken at celebrations - Birthdays, weddings, Christmas, Easter, summer vacations

Be sure to label all of the photos so that future generations will be able to easily identify not only the people in the photograph but the occasion when the photo was taken. 

An easy way to gather photos from others is to scan their original photos. This makes it easy for people to share with you because they can keep their originals. You can then add the photos into your family tree software and attach them to the appropriate person. Or you can store them in folders on  your hard drive or in a cloud based storage system so that you can easily find them when you need them. 

My favourite tool for scanning is the FlipPal Scanner. It is lightweight, portable and durable. The photos are automatically saved to an SD card and then you can easily and quickly transfer them to your computer so you can work with them to add to your tree or to place into folders. 

Happy Scanning!

Start Your Family History Week 2015 - Day 2

Now that you have the details for the first five generations, you are ready to round out the stories for as many of the ancestors as you can. 

Information to add to round out the family history:

• What schools people attended
• Where they worked
• Where they met their spouses
• Where they lived, who they lived near

Next add memories:

What family members they were closest to growing up?
Did they have any pets? 
Did they share a bedroom or have their own? 
Did they have any special interests? (Dance, sports, music lessons)
Where did they vacationed as kids?
Who their friends were as kids?
How they celebrated special occasions like Easter, Birthdays, Christmas?
What things did the family like to do together? (Play games, sing, go bowling)

Feel free to add in your own questions. As the family historian, it is up to you to record the memories of the past so that future generations might know their stories. 

Happy writing!

Start Your Family History Week 2015 - Day 1

Getting Started

Find a chart - a good old fashioned paper chart. Here is one from the National Archives:

http://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/charts-forms/family-group-sheet.pdf

Print it out and using your pencil, enter yourname, date and place of birth, date of marriage. Enter the name of the document you used to confirm the information (memory doesn't count). Your birth certificate and marriage certificate. Here's an example:

Surname, First Name, Middle Names, Date and Place of Birth, Certificate Name and Number

Doe, Jane, Francis, 29 October 1973, Hamilton ON, Province of Ontario, Registration of Birth 0004321

Then add in the same information for your spouse and any children you have. Include the documentation that you used to confirm the details.

Now it is time to start working backwards. Fill in the same information for your parents and your spouse's parents. Fill in any of siblings of yourself or your spouse - the children of your parents and parents-in-law. Again, fill in all of the details from the documents that you used to confirm the information that you have added into your charts.

Next move back to your grandparents, filling in all of the details for them and their children. Again, make sure you document the details of the records you used to confirm your information.

Finally, move back one final generation to your great grandparents. Add all of the details on their births, marriages, children, and marriages for the children, dates of death, etc. Remember to cite your sources. The details of the documents that you used to verify the information.

If you are speaking to relatives to ask their dates of birth and marriage, don't be shy about asking for a copy of the certificates so that you can use them to verify the information. Explain WHY you want the document, so that the person knows you aren't going to use the information inappropriately.

Once you have these 5 generations (your children, yourself, your parents, your grandparents and your great grandparents), you are ready to buy a family tree software program to add the information to your computer. This will give you loads of room for expansion. Don't forget to add the details of the documents in the software program. Usually there is a space for this called source citation. 

The icon may look similar to this: 

Happy tree building. 

Start Your Family Tree Week December 26 - January 1

Find My Past has launched Start Your Family Tree Week. It runs from today (December 26) until January 1. Each day, there  are tips to getting your family tree started. For those who are not new to genealogy research, there are also hints about websites to check for documents and other information.

Today the tip is to get as much information as you can and to get it recorded properly. The Find My Past website has free PDF downloads. The first is a Family Tree Chart for recording your family information. The second is an Interview Guide for interviewing family members.  And the final free download is a Quick Guide on how to get started (a hint at what records to check).

Happy Tree Building!