30 April 2024

Ancestors At Rest: Potentially Some Unique Documents

Image by Michael Kauer from Pixabay
Certainly, when you're looking to place those DNA matches in your tree, you're most likely working with the challenge of placing living people. But to find where those people fit, you have to look at those who came before. As uncomfortable as the idea of death is for many, much of our research focuses on people who have passed away. Ancestors At Rest is a site dedicated to records and information about deaths.

The site contains links to all kinds of various resources, from the expected death and cemetery records, to unique resources on items like coffin plates. Many of the resources are organized by state (but the list and areas are far from all-inclusive). They also have articles and tutorials on tombstone inscriptions, causes of death, funeral customs and more! According to the site, there are some databases not found elsewhere...but they don't actually detail the specifics on these databases. But some items are clearly not on other sites....items collected and scanned (presumably) personally by the site owner.

I was particularly interested to check out the ledger books, journals and diaries. It appeared to be a pet project the site owner was working on to scan and provide free PDFs of these original sources he had collected. I wasn't sure of the contents of these sources, and unfortunately, I still don't know. The link doesn't actually take me to any PDFs. I'd like to think it's still a project in process, but the site hasn't posted any updates.

Interestingly though, when I Googled "Ancestors At Rest", in addition to bringing up the current site, there was also a link to an older version (through 2017) when it was a Blogspot blog. The blog has a brief bio of Brian, the site creator. More interesting, some of the ledger book links on the blog DO work and take you to documents on the current site. If you're willing to do a little work to get to them, it's possible you might find some interesting tidbits! I noticed there was one ledger from Bucks County, Pennsylvania where my paternal line is from. A quick look shows it would take some time and determination to read the documents, but it's possible they may be worth the effort at some point. I actually prefer the old blog to the new site. 

Ancestors At Rest has been around since 2004, and somehow seems to be tied to Olive Tree Genealogy. Clicking on the privacy policy of the site takes you to the privacy policy for Olive Tree Genealogy. However, the sites don't actually appear to be run by the same person. Many of the links simply drive you from one site to the other. There's no information on when the site was last updated, but in and of itself, this isn't really important. Our ancestors died long ago, and if any site happens to have information on them, the details won't change with the passage of time.

By no means is this a "one stop shop" for everything death record related - far from it! But, if you're curious to learn more about our ancestors funeral customs you may find some of the articles interesting. And if you have an elusive ancestor (and who doesn't?!) it could be worth a quick peek to see if anything turns up. Sadly, I didn't find anything on the ancestor who launched my genealogy journey, but I'll keep looking whenever I find a site with potentially new information!

Image by Michael Kauer from Pixabay

28 April 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 04/21/2024 - 04/27/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

How Does Endogamy Affect DNA? by Mercedes Brons on Who Are You Made Of

Having Fun with Genealogy – A Look at Genealogical Humor by Carolyn L. Barkley on Genealogical.com

New Practice Exercises for The Family History Guide by Bob Taylor on The Family History Guide Blog

2 Free Tools Can Read Document Images for You by DiAnn Iamarino Ohama on Fortify Your Family Tree

"Or Related Field" by Jacqi Stevens on A Family Tapestry

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 21 to 27 April 2024   by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — April 27, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

26 April 2024

Pro Tools: Tree Checker Top Trees

Ancestry Pro Tools Tree Checker Tree Rating
Sometimes, it's the little things in life. Small, seemingly insignificant things can bring a sense of fulfillment and help keep me motivated. Such is the case with Ancestry Pro Tools Tree Checker. When accessing the Tree Checker recently, I noticed a "Tree Rating" showing at the top of the results. 

The Tree Rating is calculated using the following:

  • 35%: people with no documentation
  • 30%: people with possible errors
  • 25%: people with only tree documentation
  • 10%: possible duplicate people
My tree shows as a 9.9 (presumably out of 10), making it a "Top Tree". Now, I know I try hard to evaluate every single hint I attach for accuracy. I know I typically (but not always) have a hint I'm using when I attach people (though sometimes they're added ahead of time because I found a relevant record I haven't worked with yet and I just want to record the name). I currently have 66 people with no documentation and 2 with only family trees as documentation. My tree is a relatively modest 2,523 people at this point. When I noticed the rating a few days ago, my undocumented number was a few higher, working out to about 3% of my tree.

In theory, I really like this little badge. It lets me know I'm doing a good job. I started wondering if Ancestry would use this information in the future to perhaps highlight trees people might want to refer to when researching and thought "this is a wonderful idea". And then I stopped to think, there is absolutely nothing in the calculations to evaluate the accuracy. So long as I have one hint of any kind (other than a family tree) Ancestry will recognize it. There's currently nothing to indicate the hint has to be accurate for the person. This means all those trees, created by simply accepting every presented hint, will also be marked as Top Trees. 

This little addition to the site has the potential to be powerful, but only if there's some credibility behind it. Because I don't blindly accept hints, perhaps my score is more or less reliable for me (based on the current criteria), but could I use this score as an indication of some other random tree being correct? Nope! I don't believe I could. I'd like to think this is a first step towards a useful new feature, but it remains to be seen.

For now, I'm using it as a personal motivator to go back and attach a record or 2 to the folks missing them. It's more of a test to see if the score jumps to 10 if I can get the number down to 0 people with missing information. And it's a fun little project for a few days. I hope as time goes on, this lnew addition turns into a truly useful tool, but for right now, I see it as a personal motivator only, not as any kind of metric for true reliability in evaluating user trees. If you have Pro Tools, give it a look and check your score!

23 April 2024

Sadly, No Backup Plan is Foolproof

Image by Henryk Niestrój from Pixabay
Last Thursday night, I experienced a catastrophic failure with FTM2019. Even though I diligently back up (auto and manually), I was unable to sync to Ancestry even after restoring from backup (2 different backups from 2 different days as a matter of fact). Live Chat didn't even look for the issue, as soon as I told them restoring didn't work, they said I either had to upload my tree back to Ancestry, or download a new copy to FTM. Each has drawbacks. It was a a rough couple days deciding. 1/2 of my media files don't come down from Ancestry. I DO have backups of all the media so that's fine. But I also have a small amount of private notes and private facts, and FTM currently doesn't have an easy way to find these.

If I re-uploaded to Ancestry, I'd have had to re-invite some family to my new tree, relink all my DNA matches, and I'd be uploading a ton of media items eventually showing up for other users as those pesky multiple images of the same item, something I don't enjoy in my own research,  I didn't really want to go this route.

I did download a new copy of my tree from Ancestry to FTM, after applying my customizations for the tree, I started manually relinking, renaming, and recategorizing all the media files, including those not downloaded. (These extras are primarily screenshots of text only records, and additional pages of census records or draft cards when only the main image downloads.) I spent about 16 hours on it Friday and Saturday and was barely 5% of the way done. I started rethinking my plan. There was no way I'd finish any time soon, and my OCD dictates I've have had to work on it exclusively until finished. It wasn't practical given most of what I "lost" wasn't tremendously important and I really want to continue moving my tree forward.

I finally made the difficult decision not to do all the reattaching. I decided a tolerable amount of non-critical data loss was acceptable for me. Of course, I've saved all the media (and a copy of the tree) in case I want to refer to it. But after much consideration, the reality is most people see my online tree anyway. My male offspring has no real interest in genealogy (unless I happen to stumble on something interesting, then he'll listen for a few minutes). Most of my work will be preserved online. I doubt anything I have private would ever be found by anyone and there wasn't very much of it.

So I scrapped the reattaching project, redownloaded another fresh copy of my tree, and I'm moving on! I do have color coding and some filters set up in my software, so I can reference people easily and track where I am in my research, but for the most part (probably 95%), my sync will be down from Ancestry only from here on in. FTM is now a true mirror tree. (If this happens again, it won't be any big deal). I won't rename my media anymore (beyond the titles on Ancestry photos). I won't take all the screenshots or index only data. I won't categorize my media (I already do it on Ancestry anyway). And since I already transcribe and save everything in my Ancestry citations, I'm not really losing a whole lot (just a little). 

It was disheartening the restore didn't work...especially since I try so hard to make sure I have backups of backups. I suspect somehow the trees became unlinked, explaining why there were no options to restore. I've no clue how it happened (it certainly wasn't intentional and I don't recall seeing any pop-up confirming such an action), but anytime 2 different programs try to communicate, there are bound to be glitches from time to time - especially with all the changes Ancestry's been making. Everything happens for a reason. Yes, I felt (and still sort of feel) like the world stopped spinning briefly. But I'm trying to be optimistic and forge ahead. In a few days it'll be nothing more than a memory, like nothing ever happened. I'm back to researching (albeit adjusting to not doing all the double documentation, improving my speed thru hints slightly), so all is well with my genealogy world.

21 April 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 04/14/2024 - 04/20/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

“DNA Doesn’t Lie”: How To Accurately Interpret DNA Test Results by Brandt on Legacy Tree Genealogists

10 Odd Stories that Really Ran in Newspapers by Karen Lee on Fishwrap (Newspapers.com)

One Thought on "Genealogy Education: Two Websites that Spotlight Excellent Techniques & Methodology” by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Ancestry to lay off 6% of workforce because of a slowdown in the consumer DNA-testing market by Christina Farr on CNBC

What is Autosomal DNA? by Katy Rowe-Schurwanz on FamilyTreeDNA

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 14 to 20 April 2024  by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — April 20, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

18 April 2024

Favorite Photos: Genealogists Who Graciously Share

Photos seem to be a constant point of contention for many family historians. Some seem to get upset, even downright angry, when they've posted a photo online and others then save it to their trees, and/or it's reshared. It's a recurring theme in online groups (especially on Facebook). It's a sentiment I just can't wrap my head around. Genealogy is all about sharing. Sharing our finds, stories and photos helps others in their own research. 

While research is often a solitary endeavor for many of us, the information we gather is the result of someone else's sharing (whether we realize it or not). None of us would be where we are in our research without others who researched before us. From an oral family story sparking our initial interest...to photos...to family bibles with lists of births, deaths and marriages...to the algorithms finding additional records we've attached to our tree, so they can be recommended to others...sharing is a necessary part of effective genealogy. Even the person who recorded an original document was, in a way, sharing. It may be been legally required, or it may have been their choice. But were it not for someone passing along records, none of us would have anything to research.

My first problem with the closed-minded  "mine, mine, mine, all mine" attitude about photos begins with the person posting the photo online in the first place, presumably publicly. Any time you share anything on the internet (no matter how private you may believe it is) there's always the chance it will become public. I'm not entirely sure why anyone posting a picture to Ancestry (or any other online site) thinks there's any sort of expectation the photo is entirely private. It's up to each individual user to choose if their tree is public or private, and if private, whether the tree is searchable. Even private trees are not really private if you give access to others. It's not Ancestry's fault, nor the fault of other users, if someone doesn't understand privacy settings or doesn't bother with them. If one truly doesn't intend for a photo to be shared, what exactly is the purpose of putting it online? Use desktop software to organize and save anything you may not want to have circulated.

My second frustration is the "I have the original" belief some folks have, whereby they and only they, are entitled to possess a particular photograph. The reality is, in the past, the same photo was often copied and distributed to many family members. Not unlike many (if not most) of us have experienced with school photos, lovingly labelled and passed out or mailed to just about every family member and friend our parents could think of. Just because a user happens to have an old photograph, does not necessarily mean it's the only copy. But, if you have a photo you believe is the only one, and you truly don't want it shared - then don't share it yourself. Save it privately offline. I'm not sure why anyone would feel so strongly no other related family member should ever be allowed to see a photo of their relatives (no matter how distant) but I can respect it. If the image then shows up online, you now know you didn't really have the only copy. Simple.

Certainly, there are valid copyright issues to consider. For photos, copyright is the life of the creator, plus 70 years. Just because you happen to have a photo in your possession doesn't necessarily mean it's yours to post (although to be fair, most of us are unlikely to face any complaints from a long deceased person's family...in fact, they might be glad others are remembering the person). For more recent photos, try to find out who took the photo and ask permission before posting online. Personally, whenever I save another user's photo even though Ancestry shows who posted it when I attach it in my tree, I still copy the information into the photo description to give credit where credit is due, as a common courtesy. If I find multiple copies of the same photo in my hints, I try to choose one with the earliest posting date (hoping it is truly the original poster of the image). I may not be able to credit the person who actually took the photo, but I can certainly try to credit the person who I believe provided it. I also have family members who've sent me many family photos I've shared in my tree. Along with requesting permission before posting, I acknowledge the person who provided the photos to me in my photo description (since I don't know who took them).

I'm personally very excited when I find new photos of family members online. It helps me visualize the person, and how the facts I'm finding about their life may have impacted them. The posture, the eyes, the expressions, the clothing, the setting....everything we see in a photo gives us a little glimpse into the person we're researching. I personally have a custom tag (on Ancestry) I use when I find a photo of particular interest. I enjoy photos with period clothing, military uniforms, old cars and adorably cute children.

In fact, one of my favorite photo "finds" is of Lillian Jane Kenney (1919-2003) the grandaunt of my ex-husband, shared by a relative. It shows her as a small child, and the note on the back of the photo states "Aunt Jane loved to poke out the eyes of her dolls. Look closely and you’ll see that’s what she’s doing in this photo." I don't know precisely why this is one of my favorites, but it is! Were it not for the family member graciously sharing this photo, I'd have never known it existed. I'm including it as the feature photo in this post...look closely and you'll see what she's doing! Both the owner of the photo and I believe copyright is out of play, and I have her permission to include the photo here. 

I've always been thankful for the generous genealogists and family historians who embrace sharing anything and everything they can to help others with their journey. I welcome others to save photos I share. Photos are small glimpses into our ancestors lives and we should treasure those elusive moments in time, captured on film. 

Image shared courtesy of Ancestry user brownray921

16 April 2024

BillionGraves: A Valuable Tool for Genealogists

Serene cemetery scene with researcher
AI image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT 4
BillionGraves is one of the largest resources for cemetery information, searchable by GPS location. This is distinctly different from many other cemetery databases. Other sites may provide the coordinates for the cemetery itself (and if you're lucky, a plot number) but rarely do you have an opportunity to see the GPS coordinates for the actual interment of the person you're searching for. This is exactly the level of detail BillionGraves provides. And on BillionGraves, unlike some of the other big sites (who shall remain nameless in this post) every entry has an image. This means you won't be seeing "memorials" created only from recent obituaries. You'll see actual headstones and interment locations. If you enjoy visiting cemeteries, this precise information can make locating your relatives much easier!

The site hosts information about cemeteries from around the world. They use both technology and collaboration, with an emphasis on accuracy to grow the database. Volunteers are encouraged to use the free smartphone app to photograph, transcribe and post information about headstones. The GPS coordinates are tagged directly from submitted photos and provide accurate information for others who may want to do additional research or visit the cemetery in person. While there is some overlap with cemeteries on other sites, there are also unique cemeteries (including family plots) you won't find elsewhere. In addition to photographing, there are also numerous other ways volunteers who can't go out and take photos can help! Those opportunities can be viewed here.

BillionGraves has both free and paid (BG Plus) memberships. Both offer access to GPS headstone information, vital record suggestions, and your family tree (based on your tree from FamilySearch.org). With a paid membership, you gain additional GPS headstone collections, higher quality images, more vital records, an expanded tree, as well as nearby graves, family plots, family notifications and alerts, and partner site discounts. They collaborate with MyHeritage to offer you vital record hints, and MyHeritage also provides cemetery hints from BillionGraves on their site.

 BillionGraves offers several features to make researching easier:

  • GPS Location: Each gravestone image comes with exact GPS coordinates.
  • Images: Every entry has an image.
  • Mobile App: Convenient for volunteers to contribute to the database directly from the cemetery or to access specific information when you visit the cemetery in-person.
  • Collaboration: BillionGraves partners with various genealogical organizations and groups (such as Eagle Scouts), as well as volunteers, to help grow the database. 

BillionGraves.com is more than just a repository of gravestone images. It's a project connecting the past with the present, helping individuals uncover their family histories by encouraging community and volunteer collaboration. Whether you are a seasoned genealogist or just starting out, BillionGraves offers both valuable and easy to use resources, making it a key tool in your Genealogy Toolbox. They have a Quick Reference Guide and Informational Packet to help get you started. If you're interested in volunteering, there are also free training videos

Free membership provides a ton of useful information. Annual membership is 50% off the regular monthly price. But I've seen memberships go on sale for even less! If you're considering joining the site, keep an eye out for deeper discounts. I joined during a great sale, and have remained a loyal member for several years. With BillionGraves, there's no more wondering if you can locate a plot number or wandering around aimlessly looking for a headstone with the name of your relative. 

One of the most refreshing things I found as I was writing this post is BillionGraves attitude towards user submitted data. Unlike other sites (who shall continue to remain nameless in this post) they do not take the attitude user posted content is out of their control. Their Terms of Use say in part "BillionGraves also reserves the right to decide whether content or a user submission is appropriate and complies with these terms and conditions." They do not turn a blind eye. They are committed to the quality and integrity of the data presented on the site.

BillionGraves enhances the experience for both online researchers and those visiting the cemetery. I've been lucky to find quite a few headstone images on this site I wasn't able to locate elsewhere. I'm very thankful for the volunteers who support this project. There are many sites available to us as researchers. No one site will have all the information we may be sleuthing for. BillionGraves.com is an amazing resource for accurate cemetery and interment information. 

14 April 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 04/07/2024 - 04/13/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Who Owns Your Family Story? by Mercedes Brons on Who Are You Made Of

All My GEDmatch Articles by Kitty Cooper on Kitty Cooper's Blog

Informed Consent for DNA Testing | 5 Things to Consider by Sonja Sarantis on Your DNA Guide

How to Organize Family Census Data Efficiently with ChatGPT 4: A Genealogy Hack by Dana Leeds on Genealogy With Dana Leeds 

Disclosing Use of AI for Writing Assistance in Genealogy by Nicole Elder Dyer on Family Locket

Jude’s Gen – What’s Left Unsaid by Judith Batchelor on Genealogy Jude

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 7 to 13 April 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — April 13, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

12 April 2024

Maximizing your DNA Matches

DNA
AI created image using DALL-E and ChatGPT 4
If you're just starting out with DNA, you may be interested in maximizing your DNA matches. Even though your testing site may have returned hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of results, finding more matches really isn't a bad thing. Unless you're prepared to spend a lot of time researching living people and reaching out to matches (who may or may not respond), it's unlikely you'll find where every match fits in your tree...not even close. So having more matches is better when trying to trace back to those elusive ancestors. You never know when one match may break down a brick wall to solve a mystery!

Testing your DNA is always an individual decision. Only you can decide if it's the right choice for you. There are concerns over privacy, the discoveries you might make, who might gain access to your data in the future and who else might be influenced by your results and research. These are all very valid concerns and no one can tell you if DNA testing is right for you - you must decide for yourself. I struggled with all the same questions, but decided to test anyway - and I  don't regret my choice one bit. Once you've made the choice to test, the next question is where?

There are 2 of the major sites who notably do not allow uploads from other testing sites, a critical step if you want to maximize your matches. These are 23andMe and Ancestry.com. While 23andMe can be good for those interested in how their DNA results might impact their future health, it's not the easiest site to deal with as far as matches in my experience. While I have tested there (since a friend gifted me the DNA kit), I find working with matches frustrating since so little information is provided, the site isn't geared toward research and I'm not at a point where I feel compelled to reach out to individuals to figure out how we're related.  Their tree builder is simply not up to par as compared to other sites. You can however download your raw DNA to upload elsewhere, so if the health component is important, it may be the right choice for you.

Ancestry does not allow uploads from other sites either, but it's likely your best bet for a first test. They also have the largest database of testers, so in general (but not always), you'll be more likely to find the most matches on their site. Plus, you can download your raw DNA for upload elsewhere. Their DNA tools are very easy to use (although some are now behind a paywall). I strongly suggest waiting for a holiday sale to buy a kit at Ancestry. You can usually find them on sale around major holidays for as low as $59. If you have Amazon Prime, they've always had the sale price and you don't have to pay extra for shipping. If you purchase through Ancestry, they do charge shipping fee.

Once your DNA results are back, if you've decided to maximize your matches, head over and download you raw DNA file (instructions for Ancestry are here). Now, I want to tell you where you can upload your raw DNA results once you have them in hand and how to get many more matches for free. Keep in mind, if your relatives have tested or uploaded their results at multiple sites, you may find some overlap, but you'll also find lots of matches who haven't tested at Ancestry.

The followings sites allow a free upload of raw DNA files (from both Ancestry and 23andMe). While there are plenty of other sites allowing upload of raw DNA, these are all well known, reputable sites. If you choose to use another site, be sure to check their privacy policies as well as who they allow to access your DNA. Each site offers slightly different features and/or DNA tools with your free upload, but as of now, they all include matching for free. 
**Both FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) and GEDmatch work with law enforcement. When uploading to either of these sites, be sure to review your opt-in or opt-out settings to ensure they're set the way you prefer. Also be aware, while sites do their best to protect your DNA results to the extent they are legally allowed to do so, they may still be compelled to provide access by court order. And no site is immune to hackers, as we saw with the 23andMe breach. Sites are doing their best to beef up security in the wake of the breach, including limiting viewable information and downloads (including match lists) until sufficient security is in place. Over time, I fully expect we'll see the ability to download more data and match lists come back, but for now, using your matches may take some patience. 

After uploading to any, or all, of the sites above, sit back, relax and allow a few days for matching to occur. It's not instantaneous. After a few days (or when you receive an email your matches are ready) go ahead and login and start exploring all your new found relatives! If you choose to communicate with your matches, you may make new lifelong bonds. With others, you may communicate just long enough to figure out how you're related. And some may never respond to your requests. I've uploaded my Ancestry DNA results to all 4 of the additional sites for free. I've communicated with several matches using Ancestry, MyHeritage, GEDmatch and LivingDNA. I'm thankful for every single match I'm able to place in my tree. They help me confirm my research and in some cases, open the door to generations I have yet to explore.

09 April 2024

Who Has Your Family Members In Their Family Tree?

Treasure Map
Image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT 4

Researching your family history is a lot like searching for lost treasure. It's easier if you have a treasure map. If you're like me, you probably have a go-to site for researching. For me, it's Ancestry.com. But I'm also keenly aware many other sites have information I may be interested in finding (hence why I have so many subscriptions). Some of those details might be very important to me. 

There are many different sites to search, and it's impossible to keep up with all of them. Utilizing family trees of others has the potential to point the way to information we may not know. I readily admit, not all family trees are well sourced and they should always be viewed as a tool, not a source in and of themselves. I choose not to discount other user trees as a whole. I look at them carefully to see if they're sourced and whether they might point me toward new details. Many (if not most) aren't of any use, but sometimes, I find a gem with enough detail to send me scurrying off to look at hints I wasn't aware existed. In the last few weeks, I've identified 3 previously unknown children, born between census enumerations, this way (with headstone images on FindAGrave showing son or daughter of and listing the parents). So other family trees are not lock, stock and barrel of no use whatsoever. You simply have to comb through them to find the diamond in the rough. 

If, like me, you do look at other trees, I'd like to introduce you to a site I haven't seen much about - a site making searching across multiple family tree sites super simple - FamilyTreeSearcher.com. In the vast sea of genealogy research sites, finding a really useful reference point can be daunting. This innovative platform streamlines the search process by allowing users to input ancestor information once and then "almost" automatically searches through multiple genealogy websites. Please keep in mind, this site is searching for other family trees, not displaying a list of actual hints/records. The plus side is you typically don't have to have subscriptions to see user trees at most sites. The drawback is you still have to review the trees to see if any new useful information is available. But, as genealogists, we're always assessing and reassessing information we find, so this isn't really a huge drawback in my mind. If a tree does contain new sources, you may very well need a subscription to see the actual records. Following are the sites used in the "almost" automatic searching (notably FindMyPast is unfortunately NOT one of them):

  • Ancestry.com
  • Computerized Ancestor
  • FamilySearch
  • FamilyTreeNow
  • GeneaNet
  • Geni Search
  • MyHeritage
  • MyTrees.com
  • WikiTree
  • WorldConnnect (currently offline as it's migrated to Ancestry)
Each ancestor added is saved in an active search section. To start a search, simply input the basic information about your ancestor and then click the search button next to each site. This is why it's "almost" automatic. I wish there was a single button to search all, but currently, it does require a few quick clicks of the mouse. Each search result opens in a new window for convenience Each search also includes links to other additional resources you may want to search manually including:
  • DNA sites such as AncestryDNA®, MyHeritage DNA, FamilyTreeDNA and23andMe
  • Research options such as: FindMyPast and Google
  • And more

The benefit of FamilyTreeSearcher.com is its simplicity and efficiency. By quickly searching across multiple family tree databases, the site saves invaluable time and effort. Whether you’re taking your first steps into family history or you're a seasoned genealogist, this tool offers a straightforward way to navigate through many of the family tree sites available to us online. By offering the quick searches as well as options for those who prefer a hands-on approach, using more detailed search hints and suggestions provided, it empowers users to easily explore each family tree website it covers. Many of the searches have customizable check boxes, but I find using the default options works quite well.

In testing the site, I added the information for my father, who is deceased. Some results provided accurate information and some sites didn't return anything useful. But it was absolutely quick and easy to use. Overall, I found it was a very pleasant search experience and I have no doubt it will be extremely useful for those times I really want to get a wider view of others who have my family members in their trees. I really like how it saves my previous searches so I can go back and check them again at any time without the need to reinput details. With more people testing their DNA and the popularity of genealogy as a hobby, invariably more people will add my family members in their trees at some point. Being able to quickly "re"search to see if anyone else has added someone I'm monitoring is extremely handy.

Rooted in the journey of its creator, Douglas K Barry, FamilyTreeSearcher adds a personal touch, a layer of authenticity to the site, demonstrating the creator's commitment to helping others in their own quest for the treasure of their ancestors. Over its two decades of operation, FamilyTreeSearcher.com has established itself as a reliable and secure platform. Searches are saved via a cookie on your computer and are not uploaded and saved on a server, so you can feel comfortable when using the site.

For those embarking on their journey of uncovering their family's past, FamilyTreeSearcher stands out as a somewhat unique resource. By merging convenience with comprehensive tools to search other family trees, it paves the way for discoveries to bridge the past to the present. Please remember to verify, verify and verify! Just because someone puts information in their tree doesn't make it true. It's on each of us to decide for ourselves if new information is useful, not useful, or requires more research. Give the site a try and see if it leads you to any treasures you may not yet have discovered through more traditional hinting. Let me know if you discover a great find!

07 April 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 03/31/2024-04/06/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Flow by Valorie Zimmerman on South King County Geological Society

How People From 100 Years Ago Imagined 2024 by Roi Mandel & Daniella Levy on MyHeritage Blog


Kissing Cousins by Will Moneymaker on Ancestral Findings


Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 31 March to 6 April 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — April 6, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

04 April 2024

By Request: Easier to Read and Interact

 

By Request AI Generated Image - DALL-E
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Based on reader feedback, I've made a few small tweaks to improve your overall experience on A Tree With No Name, and to make it easier to interact with me. 

Commenting has been turned on!
You can absolutely still interact with me on social media. It feel it encourages others (who may or may not have read my posts) to join in the conversation. And I love conversation! But for those who don't use social media or prefer to comment here, please feel free! I'd love to hear your thoughts. (All older posts have been edited to allow commenting as well.) All comments will be moderated and will appear after review.

Background color changed on posts: 
I received feedback some users found it difficult to read text against the default background on my posts. I've changed posts to a solid color background for better readability.

Let me know what you think of the changes! I really do appreciate feedback.

02 April 2024

FindAGrave: Abject Indifference for Grieving Families

Image by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay
FACT:  I really like Ancestry for most of my research.. It's a fantastic place to plant my tree.
FACT:  I use FindAGrave (owned by Ancestry) regularly.
FACT:  I will continue to use FindAGrave, despite my feelings, because it can assist in helping me find details about some of my relatives.
UNFORTUNATE FACT:  FindAGrave allows memorials of very recently deceased persons to be created by random people scraping obituaries or listening to news stories, with little to no oversight, even when the person hasn't yet been interred (or in some tragic cases, when a body hasn't even been found). 

There is a feeling of abject indifference by FindAGrave when it comes to allowing families the time to grieve and mourn their loss. There seems to be no oversight whatsoever to prevent random users from creating memorials while families are still processing. Knowing families will see their loved one's death details posted online by others and intentionally allowing them to become search results and hints on Ancestry in short order is cold, callous and shows no empathy for families of the deceased. There is a culture I call "Memorial Hoarders" on FindAGrave. Folks who scour recent obituaries of people completely unrelated to them, posting memorials as soon as the day an obit is available. In some cases, this is before the person has even been interred. While FindAGrave may limit some details from being shown for a mere 3 months, there seems to be nothing preventing people from creating these memorials in the first place. In the face of tragedy, 3 months is barely the blink of an eye. And let's be real, the name of the site is find a GRAVE not find an OBITUARY. While it's true not everyone gets buried, the intent is to "...present final disposition information as a virtual cemetery..." according to the About information on the site. The recently deceased, but not yet interred, do not fit this criteria. 

Daniel Loftus, host of The Irish Genealogy Podcast, recently posted on Threads about how memorials for the victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse had already been posted. Being from Baltimore, I'm all too well aware of this tragedy and the shock the community, state and our nation feel. I can only imagine the horrific grief of the families. At least 4 memorials were already created on FindAGrave despite the fact only 2 of the 6 bodies have even been recovered. The search for the other 4 victims has been postponed due to the challenges of debris in the water. The memorials list all the bodies as cremated even though they hadn't all been found. I can only imagine the pain and horror the families would feel if they see (or have seen) these memorials.

Daniel followed up his social media post with a podcast titled Episode 7 - Find a Grave brilliantly detailing the out of control problem in more detail (including memorials created about the Baltimore bridge tragedy as well as several other prominent tragic events). I typically don't listen to podcasts, but I listened to every word of this one. I'm not going to rehash all the points he covers because he does an excellent job explaining the concerns. I simply encourage you to listen and draw your own conclusions.

I can only speak to my personal experience regarding FindAGrave. After listening to the podcast, I curiously went to see if my father (who passed November 7, 2022) had a memorial. Indeed he did! And, the memorial wasn't created by anyone in our family. Going back in time, on November 8th, I was making funeral arrangements. Later in the evening, the obituary went online. By November 9th, someone unrelated to me created a memorial, scraping and posting the full obituary. In this case, the memorial was posted a full 6 days before the body was interred (incontrovertible proof is in the obituary). When my father first passed, a relative posted about his death on Facebook less than an hour after I started notifying family. I was shocked, hurt and angry - it was not their story to tell. I hadn't even had time to process when it was out already out there. Undoubtedly, I'd have been even more upset had I known someone created a memorial on FindAGrave during a time when we hadn't even grieved the loss. I did request the memorial be transferred to me for management. To give proper credit, the creator did so willingly and very quickly - with no trouble whatsoever. But it doesn't negate FindAGrave allowed the memorial to be created in the first place, in contradiction to their policies, before the burial even happened. As to memorials I manage? I have a whopping 5. As of now, all are my direct ancestors.

It's sure good for FindAGrave to get so much "free help" adding to their site isn't it? From the outside looking in, these Memorial Hoarders seem to view this almost as a game. Who can get the most memorials? I imagine they've fooled themselves into thinking they're providing a service - but it really seems more like a contest. Porch pirates, steal your Amazon packages, Memorial Hoarders steal your relatives and loved ones. We shouldn't have to ask to get back control of the details of our own family. We should be given an appropriate amount of time to determine if we wish to create a memorial ourselves.

Supposedly, in January 2022, FindAGrave tightened up a bit as per this post from Amy Johnson Crow. It infers they realize people who are creating large numbers of memorials may not be related to the deceased and they were adding controls to help reduce this occurrence of "immediate memorials", including limiting the details shown. I say supposedly because the person who created the memorial for my father has added over 12,000 memorials! Granted, the person has been on the site for many, many years...but simple division across all those years shows an average off 633 memorials per year being created. Seriously? You think this person isn't bulk creating memorials for the numbers? Exactly how are the new policies helping? Just limiting details does nothing to stem the creation of memorials in the minutes, hours and days following a death.

The solution is maddeningly simple. Only two fields are required. Date of burial and relationship to the deceased. I'd propose if a memorial creation date is within 3 months of the death date and/or prior to the actual burial date, do not allow the creation by anyone other than an immediate family member. Certainly if immediate family chooses not to do so within 90 days, then perhaps letting any related family member create it is appropriate. If it were up to me, for the first year, only someone who can prove a relationship of some kind to the deceased should be allowed to create a memorial. There are times when someone passes and it takes months just for cause of death to be established. Posting a FindAGrave memorial simply isn't at the top of the list of things to do when someone passes. Even 90 days could still be a psychological trigger for some families. After a year, let anyone else have at it. I rather suspect scraping obits would lose it's appeal and the game of collecting memorials much less gratifying if creators had to wait a full year to do it. And if a contributor has more than a given number of recently deceased memorials in a short period of time, they should simply be suspended from creating anything new for 90 days. Again, it takes the fun out of watching the numbers go up if you can't create new memorials. Even a person with 10 recent death memorials in a month would be suspect to me. And if someone continued to ignore the rules, just ban them entirely.

I absolutely DO value FindAGrave volunteers who respond to requests for photos. Not all of us live near enough to obtain them ourselves. And taking large numbers of photos of actual headstones in one cemetery visit is very different than scraping obits as soon as they're published. In these cases, the volunteers are providing a huge and invaluable service giving their time - and it is very much appreciated. I've been fortunate enough to have someone do this for me on one occasion, and I was beyond grateful. Or having someone willing to go look for and potentially locate a grave is a generous service done by some. But simply scraping recent obits to create memorials for the thrill of the numbers is not a service - it is an unforgiveable transgression and violation of the privacy of mourning families. In fact, it could contribute to their distress during such a difficult time.

The Community Rules on FindAGrave say in part "...Ancestry prohibits users of the Services from engaging in any activity that Ancestry, in its sole discretion, determines to be offensive, interferes with the rights of others, or causes harm to any person or entity. Ancestry can’t be responsible for the content our users create and share in the community..." They've basically given free reign to the users by saying they can't be responsible for their actions. How exactly do they monitor when turning a blind eye to the problem very well may be causing harm or distress to families? You think a huge, for-profit company is going to find anything objectionable about volunteers doing free work? Though they supposedly made changes to help combat this issue, it certainly doesn't appear there's anyone watching or even attempting to enforce them. And why would they if they can take the attitude they aren't responsible? Why don't they just come out and say it? They don't really CARE, they just want to give the illusion they do. As long as the site is making money from ads, why would they want to make any substantial change to the practice? 

Please consider sharing this post and Daniel's podcast.The more light we shine on this problem, the better the chance of eventual change. FindAGrave is absolutely a genealogically useful site - it can also be a source of distress and discomfort. The site would be just as beneficial if there were an appropriate waiting period to create memorials. I use FindAGrave many times each week, and will continue to do so...but it in no way means I condone the actions of those who are completely insensitive to loss and grief, and who clearly have no respect at all for an appropriate period of mourning. Grief is different for everyone and there is no one size fits all length of time a family mourns. But the genealogy community could establish guidelines for allowing families at least some time to grieve. I personally believe there should be simple enforced precautions put in place to show respect for families who've recently lost a loved one (especially in the face of horrific tragedy). If families choose to post information on the site quickly, it is their absolute right. Don't take away those rights just to make money or to increase memorial counts.

Image by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay