Standards Matter!

In December, Ancestry caused shock and consternation to Family Tree Maker users by announcing that the software was to be discontinued.  On 2 February, Ancestry announced that they had sold Family Tree Maker to Software Mackiev, who have been developing the Mac version for the last 6 years.  However, if you think you can relax and concerns can be dismissed, I suggest you think again.

The big issue, that of getting of your hard won data, complete and intact, out of Family Tree Maker, remains unresolved.  The release of unspecified updates have been announced, due on 1 March, but I do not hold out hope that a compliant GEDCOM export will be included.

Much has been written about the shortcomings of GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication), which is a dead standard because it has not been developed or supported since the late 1990s.  Despite years of agitation by independent developers, the formation of interest groups like BetterGedcom and FHISO, and many proposals for improvements, the major players in the genealogy industry have failed to co-operate in the development of a new genealogical data standard. 

A feeding frenzy of offers from other genealogy software vendors to FTM users followed the December announcement.  Sadly the widely touted idea that a GEDCOM file from FTM will perfectly transfer your data to another program is just not true.  Apart from the inadequacies of the GEDCOM standard, practically universal non-compliance with the standard further complicate data transfer.  In a series of 13 posts entitled Replacing Family Tree Maker, Keith Riggle is examining how to correct the faulty export and import processes for a range of genealogy software.  The comparison is presented as a crosswalk table. 

The take home message for the non-technical reader is that there should be no red or yellow blocks in this table. 

A program that does not comply is a shoddy product.  Customers, please demand better quality. 

Developers and vendors, please take a hard look at your product and ensure compliance, and work co-operatively to develop a new genealogical data standard.

A new functional genealogy data standard also needs to interact with other data standards.  Genealogists use archives, digital files and images, and geographic data all the time. Well established standards exist for archival (e.g. ISAD(G)), digital curation (e.g. OAIS),
digital image metadata (e.g. Metadata Working Group) and geographic information (e.g. Open Geospatial Consortium). 

Standards underpin many things we take for granted in daily life, including kitchen appliances that fit under the worktop.  Standards matter for genealogy.

Starting out with a computer package – tips I wish I’d been given

I started using a package in 2013 and it was really exciting, just putting in a few facts and having a tree grow on the screen in front of my eyes, five generations ranging from my son to my great-grandmother in a matter of minutes, just like that.  Get me, amateur genealogist!

But later when I went back to that initial information I wished I’d done a few things differently, so thought I would share those things with you. Some of these apply in principle to any record keeping, others are more specific.

Starting out with your tree [Image from FamilyTreeMaker2012]

Get your timings right

In the excitement of entering data and building a tree don’t race ahead – when I first started using a genealogy programme I would put the year of a specific event and the fact, just so the tree would be as big as possible.  Bad plan.  While census entry dates are easy to check on, eg using Genuki, dates things like baptisms can be a faff to find again and without the precise dates you may be wasting your time, perhaps looking for a census entry in April when that person actually died in February.

Note all you know

So your ancestor lived with her six brothers and sisters? When using census returns don’t just enter the data on your ancestor, put in all the information relating to every family member into their own individual Person profile: estimated DOB, birth town, occupation. I've found that later on this has been useful, eg discovering someone I’d feared had died in childhood was actually living with a married aunt.

Note what you need

I've found it really useful customising my tasks within Family Tree Maker. Recently I've added my own categories specific to counties, specific to resources and specific to actions.

For example I could select my Cornwall, Visit & Photograph and Check with Council categories. This will filter tasks to respectively let me search for a clump of Cornish records on one online resource, plan a trip to see what my great-grandmother would have seen as she ran along her street, and to pop all enquiries relating to a particular cemetery into one email and not have to trouble a helpful but very busy Council employee several times.

Avoid horror and nausea

Always, always, make sure your information is backed up. The feeling of losing data is nauseating, like realising you've accidentally overspent by using the wrong debit card.  And indeed it would be an expensive mistake, all those years of subscriptions wasted, money down the drain. In addition to uploading my Family Tree Maker tree to Ancestry I use Outlook Cloud to upload a copy of my entire FTM tree file as back-up.  I use Outlook because my main email account is my Hotmail one but, as they say, other products are available.  I also upload my e-copies of original census returns downloaded from various sites.

I hope some of these will be helpful. And now I'm off to back up my family tree; after recommending it to you I'm feeling guilty for not doing it myself for a couple of months...

Text copyright Lynne Black 21 June 2015

First published on World Genealogy Collaboration blog site: http://worldwidegenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/06/CompGeneTips.html

Online Trees. Why have one? My Experience

Why do I need to put my tree online?

I am not going to answer this question but hope that by the time you get to the end of this post you will know whether or not you want to do  this and your reason for doing so.

Where can I share my family trees with others?

There are a number of sites where you can upload information about your family I may not have included all of them here but these are the one I have used and I want to discuss my experiences with using these sites.

Website	Website Address
Tribal Pages	http://www.tribalpages.com/
Family Search	http://familysearch.org/
Ancestry	http://www.ancestry.co.uk/
Find My Past	http://www.findmypast.co.uk
My Heritage	http://www.myheritage.com/
Geni	http://www.geni.com/
Genes Reunited	http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/
WikiTree	http://www.wikitree.com/

With almost all of these sites I have uploaded a GEDCOM file, I am going to assume you know what this is, if not I suggest you do a search as this is a standard term.

The only one where I have not used this method is Family Search, but I believe there is a facility to do this. Randy Seaver has at least 2 posts on this at his blog http://www.geneamusings.com/ .

The software I use on my computer uses a GEDCOM file as standard. I have a facility which allows me to create only a part of my tree and to privatize living individuals and those who have recently passed. 
If you are unable to do this, and you want to remove individuals from your file before you upload anything you may find this link useful http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Help:GEDCOM#How_should_I_prepare_my_data_for_GEDCOM_upload.3F

Help with uploading from the database on your computer can often be found on forums e.g http://www.familytreeforum.com/

Alternatively genealogy user groups or blogs can have help pages or discussion of how to do this from a specific program. Try http://ftmuser.blogspot.co.uk/ for Family Tree Maker or http://buddinggenealogist.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ancestral-quest-simple-but-powerful.html for Ancestral Quest.

How do I choose which site I am going to use?

To be sure that you have chosen the best site for your tree you need to ask yourself a few questions.

1. Why am I putting my tree online?
2. Who are my audience?
3. How much do I want to pay to keep my information on the website?
4. Does the website have records I want to access?
5. Can any records on the website be added to my tree?

Most of us put up our tree in order to connect with others researching the same family. 
We may also use it as a backup to the tree on our computer.

Who do you want to see the tree or even add or edit the tree close family or just you?

If you chose a website that charges a fee can you access your records if your subscription expires?

Some websites have records that can be added to the tree to support your conclusions. 
Does  the website have records that cover the areas where you are researching?

If privacy is an issue then be sure to read the contract terms.

I would always recommend reading the terms and conditions before you upload anything.

Are all websites the same?

So you have decided you want to create an online tree and you know what you want from the website.  
What you are willing to pay? 
Do you want a free site or a free trial? 

What do the sites I have used offer and how do they differ?

 This link will take you to a brief comparison of the sites as I see it  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pqUJVXh2x1pAPgTmZIt0kAoCvmHUabhxFGPn265dm4Q/edit?usp=sharing . 
(apologies if things have changed or I have misinterpreted anything) 

Recently I have used Ancestry as a back up tree, my main tree, which I have as a work in progress, so have kept it as private. 
This means that anyone who thinks we may have a connection needs to contact me via the messaging service. 
Most of the websites work along similar lines if they allow for collaboration and you will need a subscription if you want to initiate the conversation.

Genes Reunited was bought by brightsolid who own Find My Past this means the site has changed. It may not be the best option if your research does not extend to the UK but there are also sites for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

WikiTree is set up to build a single collaborative tree and actively encourages you to merge individuals to connect families. If you have a profile for an individual it cannot be merged unless you allow, by giving trusted status to the other profile manager. This video explains the merging process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Waad3pFg74 .
For US researchers who want to collaborate this is a good choice and you can choose your level of privacy for each individual in your tree. You can share trusted status with others researching individuals you share, but they can only edit those individuals you want them to, not your entire tree.

Whatever you choose to do remember this. 
Your living family will not know you are looking for them unless you tell them.
Go make those cousin connections you may get a nice surprise.


For further reviews please have a look at this website which also has links to other sites I may have missed.
http://genealogy-websites.no1reviews.com/


Please leave your comments as we may all have different experiences of the same website and it may help others decide what is the best option for them.
If you are a new researcher many of the websites offer good advice as to where to start and free software to help get you started.