Family History Tracing

Possible Site for German Genealogy Help: GedBas

2012-05-23T22:16:00.001-07:00

While on my hunt for information pertaining to my HOFENGARTNER line I was given an email address to contact for further information. After I got that email address I decided to do a little digging before I sent off any requests for help.

I wanted to make sure that who/what I was sending a request to (plus money) if the information from the forum post was correct was reliable. Having just an email address to send a request for genealogy data did not sit well at first.

Thats were I found this website: GedBas.de

It was linked to a whole bunch of PDF's listing German Surnames. At first I thought I would have had to go through each PDF to see if I had any other family listed on that site. But after Google Translate did its magic I saw the link to Gedbas.de

The site is very basic but it gets the point across, you click "New Search" on the left hand side, and it loads up a query page. You put in the information (SURNAME) or other info (PLACE/FIRST NAME) and click "Search". If they have information in their database about what you are searching for they will provide you with an AL number to request further information from them. Additionally they provide you with any other names that are associated with the AL number.

The one for HOPFENGARTNER has about 15 names associated with it (with me knowing about 8 of them) I am hoping that it will lead to the parents of Lorenz and possible the names of his wife parents (Maria Zucker).

They website also lists a lot of other database's that I have not looked into yet (Tombstones, Cards, ect) Maybe in a follow up I will address them.

Success with a Forum Post: Hopfengartner

2012-05-21T18:35:00.002-07:00

Continuing on my search for my HOPFENGARTNER line I decided to post a message on Ancestry.com forums for Bavaria, Germany requesting help in locating possible military records for my Lorenz HOPFENGARTNER.

After one day I received an initial email giving me some ideas and hope that I would find a connection. At first I had to figure out the possible religion of my line, which more then likely was Lutheran. I talked to my grandmother and she said that when she was a child she went to a Lutheran school.

So we have the religion, but now we had to break it down to possible districts in Nuremberg. Feeling lost, I received another email stating that the poster is contacting someone who has done some research on HOPFENGARTNER.

Next day I received and email with a instructions on how to to gain some files on the HOPFENGARTNERS. They provided me with a AL number for the files and told me I could get them either digital or paper. I am going for paper copy, that way I can then digitize them self when they arrive. It will take about 2 weeks I am thinking after emailing them, and will cost about 15-30 Euro (per what the poster said).

The email was to sga @ vsff.de. It looks to be a Genealogy Society in Germany. I did some more searching on thier website and found another database (probably the initial database that I requested information from). I have never seen this info before but it looks to be good for German Genealogy (probably localized, but I have not gotten that in depth into it just yet) - maybe another post for that one.

So once again folks don't forget to make that forum post, you never know what you might uncover about your family (or how quickly in some instances). -As a note most of my previous forum posts took a little time (months) to get any hits. So I was pretty lucky with this one if I do say so myself.

Obituary Sunday: Sigmund Perutz (1837-1890)

2012-05-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

Sigmund Perutz was the son of Josef Perutz and Charlotte Alschul born on 18 Dec 1837 in the Czech Republic. The main thing I remember about him was the story that two brothers married two sisters. Sigmund Perutz married Mathtilda Weiner and his brother (Leopold Perutz) married Clara Weiner.

Sigmund is my 3rd Great Grandfather. (Father to Richard Perutz). Sigmund died 22 Feb 1890 in Prague, Czech Republic.

I am sure it says alot more up there but my German is not that good. If it has any valuable information that would be useful and you can translate please leave a comment. Thank you.

Lorenz Hopfengartner Update 2

2012-05-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

So I was doing a little more digging and found a Public Tree on Ancestry.com referencing a Lorenz Hopfengartner and Maria Zacker (same line as mine). But I don't have an Ancestry.com subscription. I used Ancestry Library through the military.

Ancestry Library does not provide access to the Public Tree's, so I sent out a couple of requests on Twitter and Google+ asking for help in looking at this tree.

About 30 minutes after I made the post on Google+ I got a response back from Carol Stevens giving me a suggestion and also offering to help look at the tree for me.

She responded about 10 minutes later with some information but nothing that I didn't already have in my tree. I was hoping that I might have found someone else doing research on the same branch of my family (Hopfengartner). So that turned out to be a dead end, but I was sure thankful for the quick turn around by Carol.

Second I made a post over on Ancestry.com about looking up military records for Nuremberg, Germany in 1840-1860 time frame. I also received a response on this, but at the moment it actually brought more questions then answers to this.

First off I don't have a clue what religion they are, I would have assumed that they were Catholic, but the post responder said most likely Lutheran. Next they asked which section/area of Nuremberg that my line was from. All I know is that they were from Nuremberg. I have nothing more at this time to go on.

I think I can order some microfilms from Family History Centers but it looks like a lot of them to try and figure out where my family was. Maybe there are some cemeteries over there that I might be able to narrow down my search?

Running out of my known options, besides physically going there to Germany and looking around.

More on Lorenz Hopfengartner

2012-05-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

After a little more digging I found a few more items on Lorenz Hopfengartner, not sure if its all the same person.

Translated: (Google Translate)

Cessation of tradesmen privileges
Nachbeschriebene tradesmen privileges were renbecause of undelivered proof of the execution of these inventions in Bay due to the 3point 4 of the highest Regulation of 10 February 1842, the Gewerbsprivtlegien gone onas, and indeed

one that the Lorenz Hopfengärtner in Nuremberg declared in m 21January 1847 Ver ltehene and m 17 to April 1S47 auö written four yearsGewerbsprtvilegium n he invented new combustion method with stone and brown coal

Link to Book

Second book

This looks to be just a notice of rank.

Well I will keep searching for more info on the family. From prior info it looks like Lorenz might have had money at sometime in their life but lost it. This has not been verified as of yet.

Possible info on Lorenz Hopfengartner

2012-05-17T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here is another piece of the puzzle, I am kind of sure its for my family as its in Germany, and has his name. Besides that I have tried a rough translation on it from Google so its not totally accurate. I believe it also states that this is from Nuremberg, Germany which is where Adam Max was born.

This was taken from the book which lists it as written/compiled for 1842 which was the year of Adam's birth also.

Königlich Bayerisches Intelligenzblatt für Mittelfranken

Royal Bavarian Intelligence Bulletin Middle Franconia

The translation goes something like this.....

The Jnsvektions Bezirkcn namely in were Promoted Jnspektions Bczirke
The Landwehrreg imente Nuremberg to Lieutenant Colonel by the highest resolution offormer major Karl Christian Wilhelm Clericus to
captains of the former top lieutenant John Gg Wilh Benkher John Adam Feldkixchner Carl Christian Auernheimer Christian Friedrich Ran

urd to the upper left eutenants the previous sub-lieutenant Carl Boller Wilhelm Friedrich Gießmann Paul Christian Roesslearning Gottlieb Kleemann Adolph White George BestelmeierJohann Heinrich Better Carl Prinoth and Andreas Ott

sublieutenants, the former Junker Jvbann George Lanzin Lorenzn Hopfengärtner Eugene Mennecken Johann Drevkorn and CarlJrmifch the Corporal Johann Georg Hofmsnn and Johan Martin

of the Grenadier Johann Heinrich Baumbach
the hunters Theodore Pressler and Lorenz Haußrr as auditor of the k lawyer Krafft Dr George Steinmetz

Brick Wall: Adam Max Hopfengartner

2012-05-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

A while back I posted a Spotlight post about Adam Max Hopfengarter showing what I have discovered about that part of the family. Fast forward to today and I have not made any real headway on this line of the family.

I did find a little bit more about his home that was turned into a nursing home today, which is a PDF document that I am in the process of translating via Google Translate (I am sure that there are better/quicker/easier ways) but I wanted to get a jump on it and see what it says. Additionally it also provided a new photo of Adam's wife.

I am still searching for documentation of his birth or anything about his parents. FamilySearch has his birth as 1842 to to Lorenz Hopfengartner and Maria Zacker, on secondary site it is stated as December 25, 1842 in Nuremberg, Germany.

We know that he was married 30 May 1971 in Westfalen, Prussia per his FamilySearch to Wilhelmine Huettemann (another brick wall for another day). Additionally we know that he had 8 children, ran a successful company with stock options, and passed away 25 Oct 1918.

I have searched on FamilySearch for anything Hopfengartner in Germany for the time period of his birth or his parents name but have come up empty. I have also searched anything on Google for the names of his parents. And while I know that I am only doing internet types searches I am limited because I live in San Diego.

If there are microfilms that I should get, or other websites that might be of benefit please let me know.

Obituary Sunday: John Churay (1906-1992)

2012-05-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

John Churay was the son of Steve Churay and Teresa Benjak Churay, born Feb 17, 1906 in Charleroi, PA. He is connected to me through his mother, and once again I do not know much about this side of the family except for what I have heard or found out in my research.

He married Elizabeth Kondis on 12 September 1932 in Mckessport, PA. John passed away on 31 Mar 1992 in Glassport, PA.

Obituary Sunday: Theresa Churay (1880-1958)

2012-05-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

Teresa Benjak (Benak) Churay born to Pavol (listed her as Steve) Benjak and Maria Lisciski on September 25, 1880 in Slovakia. She is one of the sisters to my main line (Anna Benjak Kondrc). Teresa passed away on March, 22, 1959 in Glassport, PA.

She married Steven Churay (Curaj) on an unknown date possibly before moving to America. Teresa arrived in America in 1905 on the SS Hain arriving in New York from Bremen with the destination of Charleroi, PA to be with her husband.

I don't know much else about her besides what is written above and what little fragments that I have gathered in searching for my family.

DNA Day and not a peep?

2012-04-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

I may have missed something but usually by now we all would have heard of the great sales from companies like 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA. I know that I am missing a few but these two are the big players during DNA day.

DNA day is 20 April 2012, just 3 days away, and was wondering what everyone might do this year. Will you get another test done? Or will this be your first time trying DNA testing? Which company will you go with and why?

For starters, I decided to get the ball running on my DNA genealogy last year. Last April my brother sent me the link with 23andMe sale. The sale required a monthly fee of 9$ for 1 year. I was able to get mine, my parents, and one of my brothers setup on 23andMe. For the first month I used 23andMe a lot, after that not so much.. I am not sure if its 23andMe or DNA genealogy in general as this was my first foray into genetic genealogy.

Don't get me wrong it was great to get my feet wet in this area, and I learned a thing or two, but I think I was expecting more. I was able to find out my Haplogroups, which will be useful someday, but the whole idea of connecting with relatives was just not there for me, it showed 100s of connection but either they never responded or we could never make a match. As I said earlier I think I was expecting magic to happen in this, maybe it has for others, but mostly not any real matches found.

Lackawanna Public Access Update

2012-04-09T23:59:00.000-07:00

With the release of the 1940 census it has gotten me back into researching my family, and one of the first places I had decided to check out was the Lackawanna Public Access, which provide marriage records from 1885-Present, and other index's.

My main focus was the marriage records for a large portion of my family lived in Lackawanna County (Scranton and Dunmore) to be exact. Over the years I had made trips to the Scranton Electrical building to do hands on research for the marriage records, now with it being Internet accessible I did not have to worry about taking time out when I visit family back on the east coast.

The website itself is pretty strait forward, once you get past the fact you have to use IE. The records are in alphabetical order and multiple files can be accessed at once. They are opened in a separate window, and you can save them as PDF files.

I was not really expecting that many of my lookup's would pan out but I decided to use Family Tree Builder and sort the list based on date of birth. From there I started at 1770 (so the person would be about 15 at marriage) And from there I just picked the names in the list that lived in the Lackawanna County Area and searched for them.

Overall I found 22 marriage records which added a minimum of 44 names to the database (based off spouse's parents names) For the most part 90% of the records had the parents names for both parties. Also included on the marriage records were place of birth, age, and current residence.

Once they get the wills online I will be back there searching for them (I can hope right). If anyone does have Lackawanna County relatives don't forget that you can also search Land Deeds over at LackawannaCounty.org

One week down with 1940 Census, where do you stand?

2012-04-09T21:09:00.001-07:00

I really meant to start digging deep into the 1940 census, but kept getting distracted by the fact that it was hard to figure out who/what/where/when. I had a basic idea for my main lines, and even found one or two of them, but I was still at a loss for who was alive in the US and where. Here are my main lines of my family that are in the US that I know for a fact around the 1940's.

Kondrc: PA, Decker: PA, Jackson:PA, Toomey: PA, Gerrity: PA.

But what about the other surnames in my tree. And how far back did I have them. With my main lines how well documented were they? I was missing ED numbers anywhere that would have been useful. So every time I thought of looking through the images I was distracted to fill in prior Census reports. Which would then lead me to other names that were not up to par.

Over all I have probably fixed about 100 people so far (I know not a lot) with a lot more to go. I figured this out the other day when I used Russ Worthington's post about preparing for the 1940. I guess I just did not realize how far I was not prepared for it.

This in itself is not a big deal, the 1940 census is not going away, and when I am ready maybe most of the census will be indexed (I can dream right?).

So its back to going over each person in my database one at a time, and connecting the dots to the information that I have collected and really getting a good metric for where I am with everyone. I am noticing a lot of easy mistakes that have been fixed, and finding other information to supplement my research for the 1940 census.

Overall I think this has been a very productive week since the release of the 1940 census, and has gotten me back on the wagon for researching again. I sort of fell off the tracks for the past few months.

Updated Brick Wall: Gerrity Sister's.

2012-04-06T12:05:00.002-07:00

A few months ago I posted about a brick wall that I hit with my Gerrity Family who came from Ireland. At the time I was able to only see them in America, and from a marriage record know that the mother and father was Patrick Gerrity and Jane Gerrity.

I had rough dates based of Census reports for their Birth dates, and Immigration. I also had pictures of two out of the three girls tombstones. But nothing was adding up. I could not find them on any immigration records, and the ones I did find in Mayo, Ireland had birth dates that did not match.

The birth dates for all three put them about 5-10 years older then was listed any where. About the only that the did match was that they had a mother named Patrick Gerrity and a mother named Jane Sheridan. I tried searching all of Mayo in the 1900 census reports and I believe that is the only one's that will fit into this puzzle.

I posted some questions online at Ancestry message boards, first response :

I suspect this is your family, since the names agree and the girls all became younger when they emigrated (a common phenomenon--both my grandmothers did too).

The second response was sent via message on Ancestry, and gave a little more information:

The dates and ages of birth are often way out,often can be up to 10yrs difference.

Patrick Geraghty and Jane Sheridan are in 1911 census Cushalogurt Kilmeena.If you google this looks like someone maybe yourself has already found this.The children are listed on Family search,but there is another child also called Ellen she was born 1882.

1911 census says Patrick and Jane married 52 years i cant find a marriage for them,11 children 7 still alive,which will be the ones listed i would think plus Ellen.

Jane the daughter is in 1911 with her husband John Barrett and family.

The griffiths val show a number of Geraghty living in Cushalogurt so without marriage record hard to say for sure,most likely Patrick!

There was one family called Sheridan in same townland in griffiths but none in 1901 census.

Were you prepared for the 1940 Census?

2012-04-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I saw a post over at Family Tree User by Russ Worthington about preparing for the 1940 census. In a nutshell he explained how to create a custom report listing everyone that was born circa 1900 and was alive past 1940.

In the initial list I started with 2500 names once again, when I filtered out anyone who died before 1940 my list dropped to about 500 names. I then applied the filter for anyone born 1880 (Russ had it set for 1900) but I wanted a bigger net cast out. This left me with a list of about 300 which is way more manageable.

Once this was setup, I had one concern how can I remove everyone that is not in the United States during that period and what would I use as a filter for that. Thanks to another post by Russ, he was using residence for each Census year. So he would have say 1880 - Drinker Street, Dumore PA, ED 22. That way you can filter out based on residence facts.

This is a very good idea and I am going to implement it. But I ran into another problem. The lack of citations in my records. I knew this would end up hurting in the long run, I have all the documents collected but I have never connected them to the actual database.

I have a shared folder that is also replicated to Dropbox that has a folder for each surname, and then each individual has a folder inside their surname. So I have tons of census records, photo's, obituaries, tombstones, but most are not linked. Let alone no real citations.

So now I am going to go step by step through my database, add all the media, add all the sources, ect. This should not take long right? Only 2400 or so names to do, and I know this is a small database compared to some. Lesson learned this time.

In the end I am still sort of prepared for the 1940 census, and well hopefully when the 1950 census is out I will be well prepared.

Brick Wall: Jane Price Decker

2012-04-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

My newest brick wall is Jane Price Decker. She is my 2nd great grandmother on my father's side. I know anlot about her so far but it only starts at the 1870 census when she is married to Andrew Decker.

Based off Census records for Avoca, PA
Name: Jane Price
DOB: April 1844/1845
POB: Wales
Immigration: 1851 (48 yrs in America based off 1900)

I have not been able to find anyone in immigration records coming to the United States for that time period. I have seen a Jane Price with a possible brother named Daniel Price in Dunmore, PA area which is pretty close. The age listed on that Census would put her birth also at 1844 and also from Wales.

That could very well be her, but I have nothing to get her out of America at this time. If anyone has any idea's or thoughts on were to look next that would be great.

Merging database's between Genealogy Programs and other fun

2012-04-05T18:47:00.001-07:00

I purchased a copy of Family Tree Maker 2012 shortly after it was released and imported my current database into GEDCOM from Family Tree Builder. Working with a fresh copy on Family Tree Maker I went to work to see what hints might be available for my tree.

At the time I also decided to start the Ancestry.com trial so I was able to test drive updating the hints online and syncing it back down to my computer with Family Tree Maker 2012. Fast forward to a few days ago (right before the release of the 1940 census) to be exact.

I was planning to start making new updates with Family Tree Maker but during the time between the release of FTM 2012 and this week I have been updating Family Tree Builder, and Family Tree Maker on an uneven schedule to say the least. When I took the time to look at it FTM had 2449 names in the database, and FTB had 2339.

I initially opened up FTM 2012 after doing some research and decided to merge a GEDCOM from the FTB database into my FTM database. This did not go well as it left with a lot of duplicates and now my database was at 2800. It created over 400 duplicates, which could have been based on my merge settings, but it was taking forever to get back to square one. I even tried the reverse and created a GEDCOM from FTM and merged into FTB. Family Tree Builder lets you see the duplicates but does nothing to get rid of them.

So far I was not heading in a good direction, because I still had another issue to contend. I could see in Family Tree Builder what were the newest names in the database (based off REF ID), but I also have to go back and see what was the last time certain files were updated (concerned with post release of FTM). In FTB.

On the other side in FTM I could setup a REF ID for each name, but I soon noticed that it was not in any specific order. Newer names in the database were all over the place. I don't even want to try and look to find last modified dates in FTM.

I would like to keep both database's current but have not figured out the perfect plan to do this. If anyone has any suggestions to make this as easy as possible that would be great. In the mean time I am slowing verifying all information from FTB has been ported over to FTM 2012, which then I will create a new GEDCOM and import back to FTB as my new starting database for FTB.

MyHeritage adds DNA testing

2012-02-16T22:41:00.000-08:00

MyHeritage today announced that they have teamed up with Family Tree DNA to bring you DNA testing. Currently they are offering discounts on purchases till March 31st. Additionally they have connected the Family Projects from FamilyTree DNA once you bought a package. DNA markers from Family Tree DNA can also be imported into Family Tree Builder from MyHeritage as a bonus.

About a year ago I purchased 23andMe and have been fine with that, but was curious to see if I could import my data from 23andMe. From the DNA FAQ on MyHeritage it states that it is not possible at the time but that they are working on it. As I was searching the internet I did find information that you can import your RAW data from 23andMe to Family Tree DNA for a fee.

Obituary Sunday: Friedrich Perutz 1918

2012-02-12T19:45:00.000-08:00

Friedrich Perutz was a distant relative on my mother side. He was related to the great grandfather of my mother. He was born in 1868 in Prague, and passed away on 1 April 1918 in Prague. From the above I believe he also worked in the Bruders Perutz Textile Company out of Prague.

He was married to Ida Elias, and the had Felix Perutz, Lilly Perutz, and Edith Perutz.

New Online Resource: LackawannaCounty Online Access

2012-02-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

About a year ago I made a post on Ancestry.com forums asking about a marriage date for a distant relative. Two weeks ago I received an email that a reply was posted to that message with a date for the marriage along with the parents names. I did not think to much of it at the time, figured that they kind person went to the courthouse.

I would usually go to PAGENWEB for Lackawanna County but that only had records till about 1920 that were listed. One day I decided to poke around the Ancestry.com forums for Lackawanna County and thats were I found this little gem.

Lackawanna County Public Access is available on with Internet Explorer but it contains Marriage Records from 1885-Present, Marriage Index 1885-Present, Wills Index 1878-Present, and I believe Birth/Death Records.

I have only had the time to search the marriage license's at this time.

LackwannaCounty.org Announcement

On initial install i had an error reporting that "Setup.exe" could not be found. Look on your desktop for the LHA install file and it will install fine. Besides that have fun and see what you can find for your families

Ancestry Hints: Media Questions.

2011-12-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

I have been using the Ancestry.com trial period for about 10 days out of the 14 mostly for the Ancestry hints. As stated earlier I have full access to AncestryLibrary edition from my house but that does not work with hints. My use of the trial period was to test out the Ancestry hints and then download them to my FTM 2012.

Also as stated in an earlier post I had about 500 hints for about 2600 individuals in my tree. There would probably be more but I have noticed that they dont "get" hints unless I view them in the web view, or possibly in FTM 2012. I have not had the time to click on every person in my tree in either formats to see if there are any hints available.

Back to the main point of this was talking about Media connected to the hints. With each hint there is usually a type of media that is associated with it. For example if you get a hint for the 1930 census record for an individual then that means he/she was found in the census.

My question as I have not been able to figure this out, or maybe its a settings issue is this. If you select a hint and state that its valid, and update you tree with the sources. I know that the source is added to your person in the tree, but does the media also get attached, is it downloaded?

Now using FTM 2012 if you have connected hints and then did a sync with Ancestry.com does that download the source media or does it just provide a link to that media that would be disconnected if you did not have access to Ancestry.com on a paid account?

Is there a way to match all sources with the documents/pictures ect, and then download them all to your hard drive? I would rather have all the documents locally on my drive that I can then connect or just have to reference later on.

Share posts with Google+

2011-12-12T16:01:00.000-08:00

Today it was announced over at Blogger Buzz that they have now allowed direct sharing of posts to Google+ from Blogger.

To share a post with Google+ all you have to do is:

1. Make sure you Google Profile is linked with your Blogger account.

After publishing your post you will be presented with a a share box asking if you would like to share it with Google+. The share box will contain a snippit of your post and then you can share it with your circles.

Update: I had to manually share this post, but you should check under your Settings, Posts/Comments and make sure Sharing is set to YES. Mine was defaulted to No.

Vote for my Daughters School

2011-12-08T23:51:00.001-08:00

This is the last day to vote folks so I am posting this everywhere. My daughters school is in a competition to win 50k from Clorox for the Clorox Power a Bright Future.

Her school (DISCOVERY, SAN MARCOS) is currently in first place at 122,000 votes, but second place is catching up. Second place got some 10k votes today. And with only 1 day left I am doing everything I can to get the word out there to vote for my daughters school.

Sorry if you are getting spammed on Twitter or Facebook or Google+ this will be the last day (Friday) to vote so you should not hear anything except when my daughter's school wins of course.

Two ways to vote:

Text to vote: Text clorox3742 to 44144 (SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW PLEASE)

Second way to vote is via the website, its a little hard to login, and requires registration, do not use your Facebook account to setup the registration. No emails are sent to your email account to "verify" or activate. You just put in your email address, phone number (I used my work :), and your email address.

http://www.powerabrightfuture.com/gallery/detail/?nid=725

That link will bring you strait to DISCOVERY, SAN MARCOS link to vote.

Thanks everyone.....

Ancestry Trial and Hints

2011-12-08T23:04:00.001-08:00

I decided to give Ancestry.com the trial period and see what I could find out. Currently showing 500 hints in a database of 2300 people. Not sure if that is good or bad, or if it has had the chance to find hints on everybody in the database.

Overall I made a lot of connections to Ancestry Tree's and a few census records here and there. Add in a few SSDI's and we would be good. I think I spent about 2 hours on it today, and I knocked it down from 500 to about 484. Somewhere along the way I think I gained more hints, so I would guess that I hit about 50 hints today to be on the safe side.

Most of the hints were accurate with about 3 that were off. I did notice that it doubled a family in my tree, think that is mostly my mistake when verifying the data. I am thinking its going to take a lot longer then the trial period to get through my 500 or so hints, but it will be worth it in the long run. I have it setup to do monthly world access if I do need it to go past the 14 days.

The only real question that I have is that if you do use the "hints" and it find say a census record does it download the media that is connected to it or is it only attached via the online tree? If it does not get downloaded I think that it would not be all the useful. I like to be able to look at documents later on. And if I have to back track through Ancestry.com to find out where I got some sort of information for one of my ancestors I may get tired quickly.

If I am doing it wrong and there is a way to have the media downloaded please let me know so I can make the necessary changes.

Ancestry.com: Login with Facebook

2011-12-08T16:33:00.001-08:00

Not sure if this is something new, as it is the first time I have seen it when logging into Ancestry.com. I decided to set it up and give it a try. When I logged in via Facebook, I had to login also at Ancestry.com to link up the two accounts.

I guess this could be easier in the long run to minimize username/passwords to remember. From what it says when linking that no information will be shared between Ancestry and Facebook. I am not sure how this can or will be used in the future but wanted to let everyone know that its possibly new.

Ancestry Hints in FTM 2012

2011-12-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to figure out if there is an easy way to locate "hints" in FTM 2012, so far all I can see is that you have to look at each person to see if there are any hints. If you upload your tree to Ancestry and use it there, it will provide a page for all of your hints.

One thing I noticed about the Ancestry Tree is that you have to view your tree for it to discover hints. I am not sure if that is the way it is supposed to occur or not. I thought that once uploaded it would basically do the searching for you and provide the list. I had to view each member of my tree (2255 people) to find out that I have at current 419 hints. I probably missed a few of my family members doing the search this way but its a way to get it work.

I was hoping that in FTM 2012 there would be a similar page, or tab that you could see all the hints for everyone in your database. I have been using Family Tree Builder from MyHeritage, and I like the Smart Matching. Once you add someone to your database it automatically checks to see if there is a match and provides the little icon, but FTB also has the "Smart Matching" tab so you can see all your matches at once and not have to go person to person to check if you have a match.

I would not think that it would be that hard to implement this, and would love to have it added to FTM 2012. On a side note I also heard that your "hints" might not match up between the online tree and your FTM 2012 tree, which makes it all the more confusing to me. If anyone can confirm this or let me know if I am wrong that would be great.