FTM2019 - Find A Grave Memorials - Review what you have

Focusing on Find A Grave is a real bonus, for me at least.

Spending time just on my Find A Grave and Burial information, I found an additional benefit.

Of the 246 Find A Grave Memorials, I added 6 new headstones to my database 3 new records, and 4 new portraits that I added to my database. I did this by relooking at those 246 Citations, clicking on the Link to the Find A Grave Memorial link, in my Citation screen, and founds those records. 

Besides those Memorials that have been removed or merged, I may have found a clue on how to find out where those memorials went. I do remember when this happened, because of my notes, it was when ownership of the Web Site changed to Ancestry. A number of contributors took the memorials down, that they had created.

After I complete my review of the Find A Grave Fact Notes, I will then use my Citation, where the memorial has been removed, and relocate the memorial. One of my clues, was when a Burial had the word "unknown" when I found them a number of years ago, but because I marked them as in my Memorial Number fact (Find A Grave #), I can filter on that and re-search for them OR to check to see if those profiles have a Find A Grave Index Hint.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 - Find A Grave Memorials --- Moved Memorials

Clean up, focusing on Find A Grave Memorials.

This clean up of my Find A Grave memorials has been really helpful. What I started with, was to Move any Find A Grave entries, in the Person Notes field, to the Find A Grave Memorial # Fact Notes Field. I had notes in both places but wanted them ALL to be in the Fact Notes.

I have only reviewed the start of the alphabet, up to the letter D. I am doing a Surname by Surname letters to keep track of where I am. Using the Filter In Feature, I used the Find A Grave Memorial # Fact as my Filter.

As I finish a letter or series of names, I remove them from the Filter. So, it's easy to keep track of where I am.

To date: I have reduced 35 Pages of Person Notes, and have added 11 Pages of Fact Notes. Going in the right direction, as I had hoped. I have 322 profiles that have the Find A Grave Fact.

As I am doing this review, I look at the Burial Fact, to make sure that the Cemetery in that Fact is in my "Cemetery" database, which is a Citation. I have 81 Cemeteries in that Database. So far, that means that  ALL of the Cemetery Information from the Find A Grave website, is ALL in ONE place. I had a number of Burial Fact Notes with information about the cemetery, which is why I created the Cemetery Database. That database is anything I can find on the Find A Grave website about the cemetery, including physical locate, contact information (some time), former Cemetery Names, most helpful, and other comments. I don't have to remember to put cemetery information in the Burial Fact Notes.

Also, with the focus on Find A Grave, I was reminded that when there was a change in "ownership" of the Website other things changed. For example, some Memorials did NOT have Cemetery Locations. Many of those Memorials were removed. I HAD marked, in the ToDo list, those memorials in two ways. The ToDo list AND in the Find A Grave Memorial # Fact AFTER the number. So, looking at the Find A Grave custom report I created, I could SEE those memorials I used to have, that no longer exist.

At last count, there are 30 such memorials that no longer exist. But, some of them had been replaced. I have been tracking that. I had 79 "missing" memorials, so I have been finding some of them.

I have also made sure that IF I have a Find A Grave Index record, that I also have the information from the Find A Grave website. I have about 65 of those identified.

As I have been doing in the past, but have been really focusing on this Clean Up (Genealogy Do-Over, my style) to make sure that I have my Evernote Notebook Up to date.

Time consuming, yes, but so worth the time an effort when I do more work on my Prep work for the 1950 Census Release.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 - Master File - Clean Up Summary

A Summary of a week long Clean Up project:

A little over a week ago, I started a Clean Up project of my Master Family Tree Maker file (FTM2019). I found notes back to 1997, which reminded me of how long I have been working on this SAME File. More importantly, I was reminded of the Changes that the program has made over the years. Most of the clean up was caused by those changes, which, in fact, is a Good Thing.

The biggest push, for me, to take the TIME to clean up, is the use of the Research Log (Notes) and Person Notes. Most of the work was to take Person Notes out of the Research Notes Tab and move them into the Person Notes Tab.

I started with 742 PAGES of Research Notes and ended with 578 Pages of Research Notes.

About 800 Pages of Person Notes that ended up with 919 Pages of Person Notes.

I now have NO (0 - Zero) Notes that can be seen in the Ancestry Member Tree. Mostly because of the formatting, or lack of formatting in the AMT. It looks very bad in an AMT, so I marked them ALL Private (for now), for the AMT.

When I started this clean up, I realized that in about 2014, I changed the formatting of the DATE in the Research Log and saw where I had played around with several formats in 2014. I took this time to Reform the dates, using the Find and Replace feature in FTM2019 and updated about 1,150 Entries.

I was reminded about the amount of resource material I have in the Person Notes tab. The plan going forward is to work on those Private Person Notes. Mostly for myself, but may re-consider making them public.

The other MAJOR clean up was to Mark ALL FACTS as Private, with the exception of Birth, Marriage, and Death Facts. I now have a record of the FACTS that I use, and have already Deleted 5 or 10 Facts along the way. Mostly, early Facts that I didn't clean up earlier.

I now have an Evernote Notebook with the Facts I have reviewed already, and how I want to use them. For example, my Military Facts are out of control. I had not documented, at the time, how I was going to use them.

Also, I realized that I had some Fact Notes information in the Person Notes Tab. Again, it's one of those things I changed over time, but hadn't made time to clean up those changes.

Of the 919 Person Notes Pages, I expect that number to go down, as the 488 Fact Notes Pages, goes UP. 

My goal is to be Consistent and to document how I do "stuff" in my File.

AND, I have 1,682 Profiles without Documentation, meaning at least ONE Fact without a Citation. I know who they are, but this review have me hints that I really do have the information about where I got that information, just hadn't entered it correctly.

The Filter In, Filter Out feature is my best friend going forward. That is why the FACT Review was and IS so important, as that is what the Filters help with. Knowing who has Undocumented Facts, helps, but along the way, with earlier Do-Over's, I have notes as to where to look for the Citations for those Facts.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 - Clean Up - No Documentation - Check Research Log

Not Documentation, check Research Log

I run an Undocumented Report frequently, to make sure All of my FACTS have citations. I will add a "No Documentation" Fact for those profiles that I need to find or create Citations. As long as I know, and can see that I need Citations, I know what I need to do.

During this Clean Up project, Specifically in the Research Log and Person Notes fields, I found a gold mine. 

Way back in 1997 I had merged a file from a Cousin, from his Family Tree Maker program into my file. I had made note of that, in the person notes (at the time), that simply gave me the Date, the Filename, and who sent it to me.

During this clean up of the Research Log, those notes ended up in the Research Log. So, as I was into a specific Surname list, in the log, I saw these entries. When I looked at the Profiles, and I moved the Notes to the Person Notes I saw that many of those Profiles and the No Documentation Fact.

Now I can Document those Facts.

In those "good old days", when a FTM file was Merged, Citations didn't go along with the merge, but at least I had made a notation what I did and when, so now I can go back and Document those Facts.

The whole Clean Up of my working File, is so worth the time and effort to clean up the file.
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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 - Notes Clean Up Project

Clean Up Project:

What does a Family Researcher do on a Holiday Weekend ? Clean House (oops, Family File).

This all started with the change in Terms of Service by Ancestry. That wasn't a bad thing, but I gave me cause to look at my database and do some "house cleaning". 

I have made a couple of Blog Posts about this project:

FTM2019 - Remove Person Notes from AMT

FTM2019 - Just the Facts

FTM2019 - Update Privatized Facts

FTM2019 - I've got Photographs & Bookmarks

FTM2019 and WikiTree

FTM2019 Clean Up

FTM2019 - Web Links Tab

During that process I wanted to do more Clean Up of my database. I have a "Notebook" in Evernote where I keep "how I do stuff" in Family Tree Maker. I have a lot of documentation in that Notebook because that is one way for me to Standardize my database. Mainly because I will Forget something. For example, how I use certain Facts.

When I Privatized the Facts, I put ALL of the Facts into an EXCEL Spreadsheet, then, one FACT at a time, entered that Fact Name into Evernote, as another Chapter.

Since all of the FACTS, with 4 exceptions, are Private, I wanted to Address NOTES. I did a blog post on Notes, Notes, Notes. 

I ran a report in FTM2019, from the Person Collection, Notes, and selected Research Notes. (I have blogged about that as well. Although that was back in the stone ages, (FTM2012) they work about the same.

The Report Showed that I had 742 Pages of Research Log. The good thing is that they are ALL Marked Private. That was the good news. The BAD News is that many of the Research Log had Person Notes in them. Remembering that Family Tree Maker has added and / moved features over time, and this file is the one I started with in Version 3.4. I had notes where they didn't belong.

All of the Person Notes have been privatized already. I did not get a count when I started, but when the Research Log page count was at 723 pages, I had 765 Pages of Person Notes. So I have been moving (copy / paste) the Person Notes from the Research Log to where they belong.

Taking a break from that, I looked at the FACT NOTES: There was 208 Pages of Fact Notes that were Public and 488 Pages of Fact Notes that are Private. Working on making ALL of them Private.

This is where Evernote came into plan. Over time, I have changed how I did "stuff". For example, I created a "Cemetery" database, within this SAME file. I had been entering Cemetery Information in the Burial Fact Notes. I realized that I was retyping a bunch of stuff, so that is when I created the Cemetery database (Profiles with the Cemetery Information). So rather than using the Burial Fact Notes, I created a Link from the Burial Fact to the Cemetery Profile. So I now will go back and clean that up. That is one example of Fact Notes that will clean up.

There are also Person Notes, that my "standard" is to Copy / Paste that information into Fact Notes.

One of the reason for this clean up, is because of the way that Ancestry Member Tree's make (or don't make) Notes available or how they are displayed. They certainly do NOT look like how I have them in FTM2019.

I am about 1/4 of the way through my Research Log, but needed a break from that, so I am going after the Fact Notes, to Privatize ALL of them. Then go back to clean them up.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 Clean Up

After I Privatized my Media Files, I thought I would do some File Clean Up.

This is work on my own File, with 12,661 profiles. I have two questions in my mind as I have been doing this clean up.

What do I need / want to see

What do I want YOU to see

Those two questions have been on my mind when I give presentations on Family Tree Maker or when I blog, here, about the program. I have implemented these questions in a couple of smaller files, but not on my own file. I have been cleaning up a lot of information, like Citations in my file, but not really spent some time making this file public. Too messy, and needed to be cleaned up.

Thinking through the Media file issue, those two questions returned to this file and the related, linked Ancestry Member Tree (AMT). In an earlier blog post I figured out a way for someone finding the AMT, to communicate that I had images for the Profile. I can do that with my Master File.

But what about other information, like Facts, Notes, those stories. I know what I want to handle the Person (Profile) Notes. Each Note will have a Citation, keeping in mind that may be many notes in one persons Notes, but each one will have a Citation and that citation is in Bold. I have been doing that. The bolded Citation is a visual for me, that there is the "next" note, in the person note Tab. So, IF I have notes and I have not put the Citation, in bold, I just Privatize that Persons Notes. Looking at what I had left, not made private, I just privatized that note and moved on. I realized that the notes, with citations, were not consistent. So, I went through almost 200 pages of notes and made them Private. I want to see consistent notes, with Citations, but don't want anyone else to see them YET. Also, Ancestry AMTs do not present the Notes with the formatting (like bold Citations) that I have in my version of the Notes. Remember that those notes may appear in a Book that I may create from this file. That Formatting WILL remain in that Book. I can also unprivatize those notes for that book.

All Notes are not marked as Private.

I already have a number of FACTS that I have marked as Private, like Current Place Names for a Historical location (see earlier blog posts on that), but when I was looking at the 200 Facts that I have in my database, again my use of those Facts were not Consistent.

I did two things with the Facts. Marked ALL but Birth, Marriage, and Death Facts as Private, but Default, AND those existing, as Private. I can see that ALL. As I did this, I created an EXCEL spreadsheet with each Fact and the Number of times that Fact was used. As I went along, I made a quick notation that I needed to fix my usage of that Fact, in EXCEL.

What I also have, is an Evernote (another program) Notebook on how I use Family Tree Maker. I have used that for a long time, especially for Citations. So my next task, and I may blog about this, is to put all of those Facts in Evernote, and describe how I use that Fact and Where I get it from.

In EXCEL, I made a couple of Notes. Self, Records, System. Where did that fact come from. Very high level, but I did this to give me a clue as to the Order in which I want to work on those Facts. Some are easy, some, not so much. My Military FACTS are out of control.

Going forward, my workplan is to make those Private Facts public, as appropriate. Keeping in mind those two questions.

What do I need / want to see

What do I want YOU to see

I have not forgotten my prep work for the 1950 U.S. Federal Census project, as I will switch between the two projects from time to time, probably one day with one project the next on the other.

I probably will share some of this work in this blog, if there is any interest. But I want my file to be the way it should be. I have learned a lot of information since I started AND Family Tree Maker has many new features that make it easier to accomplish my goal.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 - Remove Person Notes from AMT

This is a follow up to FTM2019 - Remove Media files from an Ancestry Member Tree 

Ancestry had made some changes to their Terms and Conditions on the Website that impacts me, and probably everyone else, we read what had been provided. 

The Legal Genealogist blog is on MUST READ blogs, as I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or on a blog. The bottom line for me, is that I have less than 30 days to remove my Media Files from the Ancestry.com website, on any of their properties, including an Ancestry Member Tree (AMT). 

Another MUST READ Blog is Genea-Musings. The author expresses his concern and plan of action.

This post is handling of Person Notes in FTM2019. They were created by me, each note has a citation below each item in the Person Notes. I consider that, my content.

Over time, I have been working on bringing all of my Notes up to My Standards. That is, has been, and will be a work in progress. But, I want to pull them all down, for now. Do some more clean up then I may, or may not include the Person Notes in the Ancestry Member Tree.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

Preparation for the 1950 US Census ==> Part 4 - Profile Review

Are you ready for the release of the 1950 US Federal Census ? Watch for this graphic, on this Blog, and DearMYRTLE's Blog and Facebook Groups as we will use this for the DearMYRTLE's CensusGenie branding.

This  blog will also carry this branding on the blog posts related to the CensusGenie project.

Profile Review

- Residence Fact - 04/01/1940

- SD, ED in Description ==> Changed to Use Citations

- Other Facts - Date on Census Page

- 1935 Residence - Description

- 1940 Residence - Notes

- URL to Record

- Research Log entry -- date - 1940 Census Reviewed

- ToDo - Need 1940 Census [ Hint ]

- ToDo - Preview 1950 - 1940 Census Reviewed

- ToDo - Complete / Low Only when ready

Future blog posts will demonstrate the Profile Reviews that I do, as well as information that I may need to locate.

I intend to provide links in the Blog to educational material that may be discussed in a Video.

 

Review of the Initial Filter (saved as 1950Census)

• Include all persons
• Filter Out: Death is before 1949
• Filter Out: Birth is after 1950
• Filter Out: Residence does not exist
• Filter Out: Address does not exist
• Filter Out: Birth is after 1940 - Added

References: 

1 - Preparation for the 1940 US Federal Census on this blog already, can be found in the "Census1940" Label. The 1950 CensusGenie series will use the "Census1950" Label on the Left Column of this blog, or search for "1940census" or "1950census".

2 - DearMYRTLE's CensusGenie Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rdO6qrz4tHtCyoioEfyIuTdwfOF8V3ph- 

Myrt as a Tab on her Website for easy access to this project.

https://blog.dearmyrtle.com/p/censusgenie.html

The usual schedule will be:

Weekly - 7 Apr 2021 14 Apr 2021 21 Apr 2021 

Monthly - May 2021 -Feb 2022 Weekly - Mar 2022 

Daily - Apr 2022 until we get the hang of the indexing. 

3 - Register once for this recurring Zoom Meeting. 

Dates for upcoming will appear below. For the most recent dates, be sure to see DearMYRTLE's Calendar located here

:

https://blog.dearmyrtle.com/p/geneawebinars-calendar.html

2 Jun 2021 at 9pm Eastern.

21 Jul 2021

11 Aug 2021

8 Sept 2021

6 Oct 2021

3 Nov 2021

1 Dec 2021

5 Jan 2022

2 Feb 2022

2 Mar 2022

9 Mar 2022

16 Mar 2022

23 Mar 2022

30 Mar 2022

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

Reader Question - Citation Formatting Errors

Response to a Reader Question:

I just wrote (and erased) a long screed about the formatting errors I found in using a source template (SSDI) for the first time. Since the workarounds either didn't work or took a lot of extra time, I hesitate to use another template, especially for more complicated citations. Your stats show that you're a confirmed template user. How do you deal with the formatting errors that don't have a workaround, e.g. the disappearing italics in the reference note? Or do you recommend the basic citation format for those of us who'd like to deal only with errors caused by our own input?

I do not find formatting issues when using the Source Template Feature.

I have run a number of the Full Reference Notes onto the EvidenceExplained website. Exact in all cases NO, but really close most of the time.

The trick, for me, is the correct Source Template, based on WHERE I found the information, and the Citation Detail field for the Citation information required.

There are about 179 Source Templates, but in reality, I end up by using 3 or 4 ,because most of the data so far comes from an Online Website.

I do NOT loose italics, they are where they belong.

I always do my Citations immediately on data entry. I have also spent much time, getting some of my very old Citations, into a Source Template format. 
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Copyright © 2020 by Cousin Russ
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Census Records - Extra People in Household

What do you do, when the Census Record has people listed, that may not be family?

This is a 1940 U.S. Federal Census Record, where Raymond Lane and Donald Dutton are both listed in the Household. Since this is a 1940 Census Record which indicates that they both are Hired Hands.

I have spend a couple of days thinking and seeing if it is important to capture this information. That is, add these two people to the database. So, I played around with this to see if there was any benefit.

When I enter a Census Record, I Copy what Ancestry provides in the Transcription and Paste it into the Residence Fact NOTES.

You will notice, that these two "extra" people are in Bold. That is the indication to me, that I have entered them into my database, as Unrelated People. The Data Error Report will show them with that they have No Spouse, No Children, No Parents. I can deal with that.

But, what about later, I find that person again, in another record. I wanted to be able to see, that in a Census Record, there were in a Census Record, but NOT related to the Head of Household. So, I created a Fact called "How Related", where I enter the Census Year, Head of Household, and what the relationship is. Here is what Donald looks like, with the Data Error Report and the How Related Facts appear.

He is unrelated, and will appear in the Data Error Report, but when I run that report, I filter OUT everyone who has a Data Error Report Fact. Meaning, I KNOW about that error.

Why the Extra Work?

I found this one person, Relation to Head of Household as Boarder. A throw-away, right ? Wrong.

As it turns out, the Head of Household would become his Mother In Law.

Here she is in the 1900, 1920, 1930, and 1940 Census (haven't gotten to the 1910 census yet)

1900 she is Head of household where I found my person as a boarder. 1920, 1930, and 1940, she is the Mother-in-Law to the Head of Household. (don't jump to conclusions please).

Those are the Residence facts as recorded, but look at the How Related Fact looks.

The 1940 Census record shows that she had moved into another Daughter's home. Because the 1940 has the reference to 1935, showing Same House, I can now pin point as to WHEN show moved from on daughter's house to another, and in a different state.

My records indicate that the "mother in law" was widowed about 1911. I have not yet found a reason why she might have moved back to Pennsylvania, only that the "son in law" and her daughter had 6 children in the 1920 Census and the second daughter, the one in Philadelphia, only had 1 daughter.

I have added this to my new Best Practices: Add seemingly Unrelated Individuals to the Database.

The secret to this is the Bolding of the Name, in the Residence Fact Note, when you Add that "Unrelated" person to the database.

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Copyright © 2019 by Cousin Russ

What? No Citations ?

I have a Family Tree Maker file that I had researched 10 to 15 years ago. Many versions of the program ago, but a friend asked me for some information from that file.

I had opened it several times over the years, but was very disheartened to notice that ALL of my Citations were gone. ALL of them. I went to my oldest back up, same deal.

I did have an external drive crash, had recovered it, but still no back up's with Citations.

This is one reason why I recommend "testing" your back ups.

So, what do I do ? I have this very important person asking me questions about folks in this database. I, of course, wanted to be able to say yes or no to questions, but be able to provide Source Information.

After some dialog, mostly that I didn't have answers to the questions, I thought about what I should do, This database has about 1250 profiles, with some good information. Some Dates, some places, many relationships, but no Citations.

I should mention, that this line has some stories that I know about, and have a cousin connection, in my Master File, but that cousin connection also happens to be in THIS FILE. That is one of the reasons that I had looked at this file some time ago. I need to get this file, up to my standards.

Here is my PLAN:

Get this file Online to see IF what I have, will generate HINTS from Ancestry?

7,039 Hints
5,595 RECORD Hints

The data that I have, Names, Dates, Places AND Relationships are doing what they should be doing, Generating Hints.

I totally use these hints for all of my research, that I can Online, to gather enough information to know what I need to look for, and where, when a visit to a repository / archive it required.

I did a couple of Web Merges, to make sure that I would get the expected results, that is GOOD Hints. The one's I have tried, all were accurate, presented no conflicting information (so far). So the theory that the file and linked Ancestry Member Tree would give me good hints.

As I said earlier, I have created my standards for my file (now files). How I do things, manage Filenames, Citations, Place Names (historic and current), Research Log and ToDo Lists.

My first step is to Marks ALL Profiles with a Fact that I will use to show me that this Profile is NOT Documented. I use the Undocumented Fact Report on a routine bases (usually daily). That would be of no use on this file. So, ALL profiles will have this Fact, so when I run the Undocumented Fact Report, I can Filter OUT, all profiles that have this Fact. When all of the Facts for each profile is documented, I can Remove that Fact and run that report again.

While I am Adding that Fact to each profile, I am looking at the profile, mostly for Place Names. This file is so old, that we did NOT have a Resolve Place Name utility, so place names were not in the proper format. So while I am looking at the Profile, I will resolve those Place Names that I am able to (quickly). For example, I had 341 Unresolved Place Names and now am down to 224. Still a lot, but most of those unresolved place names will require a RECORD to correct the place name. There are many that are involved with Virginia / West Virginia historic place names. As I have posted before, I will double enter those place names to include the historic place name and the current place name for the Map feature.

Also, there are many place names from England and Ireland. I am not even trying to address those place names until I look at the records. Many of the 224 Place names all into that category.

ALL of my Birth, Marriage, and Death Dates, that only have the Year, I change to "Abt. YYYY". So, that clean up is being done. I have also deleted a number of Birth, Marriage, and Death Dates where I might have the Year, AND another entry for complete data and place name. I'll delete that Year only entry.

I have already run the Data Error Report with ALL Profiles what appear in that report are Marked with a Fact with that name AND a ToDo item for that profile. I know that the only way I will resolve most of those errors, is with a Record. They are ALL Marked and will resolve them when I am looking at records.

When I finish marking all of the Profiles as being not documented, I will invite this researcher to this Ancestry Member Tree to allow them to look at my data themselves. I have a "File Note" profile, in my database and in the AMT, where I add all of the information on how I handle this file. Why I do "stuff" in the file. Why did I do THAT ??? see the File Notes.

I already have a number of "stories" about the people in this File. I have visited a number of place where this "line" traveled through or to. One of the stories, that I have documented, is this line had an encounter with George Washington and his brother, as the family were neighbors of the Washington's.

I can't forget my Cousin Connection from my Master file, NOR can I forget the connection to my Mother's family, that may have a connection. I had forgotten that connection until I started to look at the file.

Finally, I am writing this blog post, as one of the things I am tracking, is how good or bad are the Hints we get from our online trees, from Ancestry. I have done this study several times in the past, and in the past I have experienced a high rate of success (90% - 95%). With all of the changes in Family Tree Maker and how we receive our Hints, I want to see how the hinting system is working today.

Lesson Learned:

1) Test your Back Up's

2) Don't Delete your "old" Back Up's.


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Copyright © 2019 by Cousin Russ

Reader Question: Purpose of the Fact Description field

Another User Question (love these questions)

What kind of information goes in the “description” tab and does that information eventually migrate to the “notes” section?

This is a great question. "It depends" is my quick answer.

Each FACT that is created in Family Tree Maker has Three (3) FIELDS. You can see the Facts in your File, in the Edit Menu, Manage Facts item.

That will bring up a list of All of the Facts that you are using, and where you will Select the Fact you want to Edit, or one of the Places where you can Add a New Fact. You can always Add a New Fact in the People Workspace, Person View, which is where I would add a new fact.

In this case, I selected Address. It is an Individual Fact, that can be shared with any other Profile. You will note the Annulment Fact, which IS Shared. So, you enter that Shared Fact, and it can be Shared with only a Spouse. Most Facts are Individual. 

I chose Address, because you might think that many profiles might use that Address. That is True, but the "shared" fact is not broad enough, and it only intend for a "married" couple. Married defined in the Marriage Fact settings, which does mean that the couple of married. That is a topic for another blog post.

I am going to click on the Fact, Properties button:

And we have Choices on what Fields we want to have with that Fact. Date / Place Fields, Date / Place / Description Fields, Description Only.

The default for this (system created Fact) is Date / Place / Description, which makes sense, right?

Below that is "Fact sentence". There is where you can change that the Fact will look like in a Genealogy Report. Below that is an Example of that that Fact Sentence Looks like.

You will notice that I marked this FACT as "Private by default". I do not want the Address Fact in my Online Tree. I want to see it always in my File, just not online. So, every time I Add an Address Fact, to a Profile it will be marked Private.

The question was, what do I put in the Fact Description?

Before the Places Workspace was improved, I would put the Street Address into the Description Field. With the option to use the Historical Place Name option, I put the Full Street Address in the Places Field.

Here is an example from a Profile.

There are four (4) Address Facts. Each with a Date, Place, but the description field is blank (image to follow). I point this one out for a reason. I have 2 Citations on the 1917 Fact, World War I draft), 1930 and 1940 Census Records, and a 1942 Fact, which was a World War II draft record).  That was this persons residence, from those records over time. I mention Census, because I use the Residence Fact, with Citations to the Census RECORD. But, these two census records had the street address. Here is why I do it this way. Who else lived at that address ?

Seven (7) People lived at that address over time. The use of the Historical Name is how this works.

You will notice that the address is in that upper field.

What is not in my earlier screen capture, is the Zip Code. Why didn't I enter is. Answer: It was NOT in the Record. If I have or know of the Zip Code, like from an Public Record RECORD, I would put that in the Description Field.

This is the image, mentioned earlier, from the People Workspace, Person View. I  entered the Date, and the complete address, on that 1940 Census Record. Not the "Lock" or Privacy setting.

The Options, on the screen capture, is another place where you can Change the Properties for that, or any Fact.

The final question ask, Migration to Notes. NO. All Notes fields, and there are many, are manually added. I have a blog post on Notes, Notes, and More Notes.

https://ftmuser.blogspot.com/2014/04/notes-notes-notes-and-more-notes.html

for all of the blog posts on Notes:

https://ftmuser.blogspot.com/search?q=notes

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Copyright © 2019 by Cousin Russ

Reader Question: What is included in the FamilySync

From a reader:

Does syncing your tree include information in the Media and Tasks tabs?

Not everything that is in your Family Tree Maker File, that you see and enter, is included in the Sync Process.

The Names, Dates, Places, Citations, and Media files are all included in the Sync Process.

There are some Media files that are NOT included when you Sync. Any Media File that you mark as Private and those Media files that come from Ancestry. For example, I have Marked this Media file as Private. I do not what this image to be in my Ancestry Member Tree.

Any FACTs that are marked Private, will also not be included in FamilySync. For example, I do not want the Address Facts that I have in my database, in my Ancestry Member Tree. So, I mark them Private.

I have Person Notes, that I am not ready to have in the Ancestry Member Tree, so I mark those notes as Private.

Research Notes / Logs, by default are marked Private and will not be put online. and the Task / To Do list are also not put online during the FamilySync Process.

Here is a link to other FamilySync articles on this blog and links to the Family Tree Maker Knowledge Base website.

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Copyright © 2019 by Cousin Russ

User Question - Create Source Template

A Reader's Question

I would like to learn how to CREATE Source Templates.

Answer:

You can NOT. The Source Template Feature is built into the program. I am suspecting that you might want to learn HOW TO USE the Source Template Feature. The Source Templates are very close to the EvidenceExplained Standards. It's a matter of selecting the Correct Source Template and filling in the Citation Details to complete the Reference Notes as described in EvidenceExplained.

The book is available on the Family Tree Maker website store.

I have a number of blog posts on this Topic.

REMEMBER:

What am I looking at

Where did I get it

The Keyword search uses the first 3 characters of your search screen, Source Workspace, Add, and New.

Blog posts on this Topic:

FTM2017 Sources Template

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Copyright © 2019 by Cousin Russ

User Question: What Name to Use

Answering another Reader Question:

What would be the proper procedure to: If a male changes his surname name legally is his birth surname still the name the one used ? Ie: born Gingles Adopted and name changed to Yaworski Legally changes surname to Sundberg What name do I use for my genealogy records? or do I use notes to show the history?

I'll expand on that to "Any Name Changes", including names that the Family knows.

The simple answer is, Record the NAME as claimed by the record? With the appropriate Citation.

Here is an example from my own database:

The "Also Known As" or A.K.A. is what he was called by many, others by the Preferred AKA Fact.

The highest number of Citations, also does not Drive the Preferred Name Fact. In this case, there are 7 records that has his name with "Sr" at the end. I have blogged about that as well. As with females, I make the Preferred Name as the Birth Surname. He wasn't born with "Sr" as part of his name. Later records may reflect "Sr", but I do not use that as the Preferred name.

The control over the Preferred Name comes from User Evaluation of the records.

The Reader's question gets to the next level, where the Surname Changes. My preference, in general, is Birth Surname. The Exception, and I have them, gets down to the reader or audience of your database. My cousin was adopted by her step-father. I made her Preferred Name to be her adoptive surname. So family may drive the name preference. So, the person asking the question might choose to use the most recent surname.

User's choice.

Now, the AKA issue. Not specifically asked, but in Reports and Charts, that AKA field is Optional.

In the Publish Workspace, Chart Collection, Pedigree Chart (and most others) you have this option under Items to Include

In a Descendants Report, with AKA selected, it would look like

Which option to use ? It's up to you. As mentioned, my preference is Birth Names, Family or Given Names and Surnames, but there are times, when it is appropriate to make another Name entry as Preferred. In my example: I have 10 different Name Facts, with 42 Citations for all of the Name facts. In this specific example, the Name Fact with 24 was my choice, as my current thinking it is the most accurate, but I have another example of 8 different Name Facts, 39 Citations, but the Preferred Name Fact only has 4 Citations. 

Or, as I have seen and heard "It Depends"


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Copyright © 2018 by H R Worthington

User Question: Batch Editing of "Source Citations"

The Readers Request for a Blog Post

Working with (or batch-editing) source citations generated by Ancestry.com

First, please watch this Video on this topic:

How do I merge duplicate source citations ?

Why? The term "source citation" in the question. That "term" is two DIFFERENT topics. I hope I explained that in that presentation.

Working WITH Source Information from Ancestry is one thing. Crafting a Citation based in the information used from that record is another.

I have blogged about this many times before, but I ALWAYS move ALL Source Information into the Source Template feature in Family Tree Maker. That feature was introduced in FTM2010 and is based on the EvidenceExplained standard that was present at the time. 

The SOURCE Templates are not as accurate as they should be, but I have been successful getting them as accurate as possible. Please remember that this feature only deals with the SOURCE information. The container of the information.

Crafting the Citation, is the next step. I say "craft" as it is not a science, being that you "this, this, and that". It takes time. 

The "out put" of the Source Template and adding the Citation Details will automatically populate the Reference Note. I have explained that with color coding on what information in the Reference Note comes from the Source Template and what information comes from the Citation Detail field.

To make it easiest for me, I use the Citation TEXT field for my information and do NOT include that, nor the Web Address into the Reference Note.

ANSWER to the Question: 

I will NOT and do NOT Batch Edit ANYTHING in Family Tree Maker, let along a Source or a Citation.

The thought that is always on my mind when working on Citations, is that most, if not all websites, that provide us with Source Information MUST BE Cleaned up, if I want for my Reference Notes to be as close to EvidenceExplained as possible, I must to them ONE AT A TIME !

But, that's just me.

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Copyright © 2018 by H R Worthington

Use for Burial Fact Notes

How I am using the Burial Fact Notes

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Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

Why am I not seeing the Tabs in the Person View ?

Blog post comment that they were not seeing the Media and Notes Tabs in the People Workspace, Person view

Note: the screen may go blank in the last 2 or 3 seconds. Sorry about that. _______________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

FTM2017 User Question - Where to start a FTM2017 File ?

User Question:

Would you rather start your tree on FTM 2017 and sync to Ancestry or start in Ancestry and sync back to FTM 2017?

My Answer:

It is my opinion that WE, the User of this or any other genealogy software, need to take responsibility for our research. That starts at the beginning. The short answer is start with your genealogy software, in this case Family Tree Maker (FTM2017). 

Further, that includes manually Backing Up our files, and from time to time, doing a test Restore from Back Up. The Tools menu, has a great utility to do this, Compact File. As I have blogged about many times before, using that utility will help maintain a good file. Testing that Back Up from time to time is a MUST.

Then the FamilySync™ feature comes into play. As I have blogged about before, in order to get Ancestry Hints, you must have an uploaded and linked Ancestry Member Tree (AMT). That AMT can be Public, Private, or Private and not searchable by Ancestry. User Choice.

That AMT then, can be another Back Up of your research. BUT, some of the information in your FTM2017 file is NOT included in that AMT. Privatized Media, for example, will NOT be uploaded to the AMT. Privatized Facts, Notes, Research Notes, Todo or Task Lists will NOT be uploaded to the AMT. If you use the Source Template Feature in FTM2017, those Sources and Citations will NOT be formatted correctly in the AMT.

All of that to say, my Best Practice is to Compact and use the Back Up feature, all check marks along the way. Backing up to an External Drive (NOT a Flash Drive, but External Hard Drive) is another best practice. If your Hard Drive crashes, which it will, your information is on an external drive. Also, doing a Restore from Back Up from time to time, once a month for example, is another Best Practice.

One additional Best Practice, for me, is to have my Hard Drive AND External Drives backed up to a Cloud Service, like BackBlaze. will back up your external drives as well. All done in the background. And, to a restore from there as well.


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Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington