High Cheekbones and Straight Black Hair

For many years a colleague of mine thought I was half Hungarian, half Japanese. Why? Because I resemble another friend of hers who is half Hungarian, half Japanese. You can see from my family's DNA results that there is no way I am half Hungarian or half Japanese.
Some of you seem to think certain physical traits can be assigned to a specific ethnicity. Like everyone with high cheekbones and/or straight black hair has Native American ancestry. That photo of your ancestor is not definitive proof that he/she was Native American.
Does this person "look Indian" to you?

Behind the scenes on Cecil B. DeMille's Unconquered, 1947. [Tumblr]

That is William Henry Pratt, a.k.a. Boris Karloff. He was born in London, England and is of Anglo-Indian descent, not Native American.
What about the iconic "Crying Indian"?

That is Espera Oscar de Corti, a.k.a. Iron Eyes Cody. He was born in Louisiana to Sicilian immigrants. He has no Native American ancestry whatsoever.
Your family photo is proof of nothing. Stop making assumptions based on looks. You just look foolish and sound racist.

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Facebook Hijackers

Some people use Facebook groups and pages as their own personal photo albums, with no regard to the participation of every other user. In most cases these people will inundate a wall without stating a purpose. Do they want these pictures identified? Are they photos of their own family or were they found at an antique store? No one will ever know because not only do they usually post and run, they post only the photos and nothing else. If you criticize someone for posting two dozen photos in the span of an hour the Pollyannas (every group has them) will whine that you're the Grinch or Satan because you're against "sharing." Hijacking a group or page has nothing to do with sharing. It's narcissistic and self-centered. That or they have something to gain from a rise in the number of carpal tunnel cases.
Apparently some people do not realize that they can create a public photo album on their own page and share the link.

1. Go to the Photos tab on your own Facebook page and click "+ Create Album."

2. There are options to caption photos, write something about the album and set the privacy when you create the album. If you forget to do that or you want to change any of those things on an existing album click the "Edit" button for the album.

3. The Facebook prompt to "Say something about this album..." is actually a space to type something about the album. Use it!

4. (Still the image above.) Set the privacy to "Public." Be sure to click "Done" when you have finished editing (after Step 5) to save all the changes you made.

5. There are spaces under each photo to write your own caption. Use them!

Whether you want to share a single photo or an album, write something. Why are you posting? No one, except maybe your friends and family, will click through the album if you just title it "My Family" or don't write anything at all. Do you know where and/or when the photos were taken? Do you know any of the people in the photos? If you want to find out those things then ask. If you are just looking for compliments and likes try not ticking off dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of people in the process. Especially if you ever plan to ask for research help in said group. If you annoy people they will remember your name and scroll past anytime you post in the future.


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RELATED POST: Pet Peeves

Pet Peeve: Ancestry Search Sliders

I posted this issue on Ancestry.com's Facebook page the day the sliders were introduced and it was acknowledged by one of Ancestry's genealogists. Of course, like all reported issues, she said that it would be passed on to the appropriate department. Unfortunately my psychic ability was failing me and I didn't think of getting a screen cap. Since I have been banned from the page all my comments and posts there are unavailable. Disappointing. Here's the problem...

[Above] On the left is the view from a search results page. If you were to hover over the surname slider on Ancestry.com you would find it's set to "exact, sounds like and similar." Open up the full "Edit Search" box and you'll see the view on the right. It shows the surname search set to "default settings" which should be the broadest search possible.

[Below] Move the slider to "Broad" and click the "Update" button. How does that appear in the search box? "Restrict to exact, Soundex, phonetic, similar." Ummm...

Okay. Let's try editing the surname search in the edit box rather than with the sliders.

[Above] Well that's an improvement. (Is the sarcasm coming through?) I couldn't find one setting that appeared the same way in both boxes. Ugh!

The programmers added the sliders when the "old" search was retired over 7 months ago and they have known about the problem since then. Apparently they have no intention of fixing it. Instead they are working on adding features we don't need. Like this one:

The filmstrip icon is shown above on a census record but is available on other collections as well. Click it and this appears:

If you hover over an image on the filmstrip a thumbnail about twice the size of the filmstrip image pops up. Even in the larger pop-up most, maybe even all, records are completely illegible. So how is this helpful? We can already skip to whatever page we want by changing the page number and using the 'enter' key. So Ancestry's programmers are replacing the out-of-date, slowing-down-the-page, old search code with newer, we-don't-need-this, slowing-down-the-page, useless feature code. Meanwhile features we've been asking for, e.g. ability to organize photos and DNA comparison tools, are nowhere to be found. Well done, Ancestry.


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Pet Peeves: WDYTYA? Edition

These Who Do You Think You Are? pet peeves are not about the show itself but rather the "Me! Me! Me!" fans. I know, you're shocked.


I love you. Now change.

The show is amazing but they should change it and feature regular people. They should listen to ME since my idea is so original.

I'd volunteer.

After the show is completely revamped they will need people to feature so why not ME? The producers will have to beg people to participate just to fill a single season so they will appreciate ME offering to be the recipient of free research, free travel, and national exposure. Look at ME being completely selfless.

Everyone would want to watch ME.

Once this show happens there is no question that they would pick ME. An episode about ME would be just as interesting as Gwenyth Paltrow's or Tim McGraw's and would definitely draw the same number of viewers.

Behind my brick wall is an amazing story.

No one knows what is behind that brick wall but it would definitely make for the most amazing television show you have ever seen. The research blocks couldn't possibly be because the family has been peasant farmers for 10 generations. Doesn't matter, a show about ME would be completely fascinating.


This is what goes through my head when I read comments from WDYTYA? fans. I really should stop reading them.


Related Material: Interview with Lisa Kudrow (Aug 2014)
                             Interview with Dan Bucatinsky

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Kan u hep me fine my famly?

Usually in genealogy we say that spelling doesn't count. That applies to searches and records created before the advent of Social Security, not to Facebook and message board posts. If you want to be taken seriously, in life not just in the genealogy world, learn to proofread. Spelling, grammar, capitalization (especially of surnames)...it all matters.

This is especially important if you're posting on a page/group/message board where the language used is not one you are fluent in. If you don't use an online translator before you post another user will use one after. They may be able to help you break down a brick wall but if you can't write a coherent post you won't be able to communicate with them.

If you are posting, or reading posts, on Facebook I would recommend not using the Bing translator that automatically appears on some Facebook posts. If there are minor misspellings Google Translate will suggest possibilities. I pasted the title of this post into Google Translate and while it detected the sentence as Norwegian it also asked if I meant, "Can u help me find my family?" Bing, on the other hand, detected English and the translation was the exact same thing I pasted in to be translated. I have also seen the "see translation" option under Facebook comments that were entirely in well written English.
One last tip, no online translator is perfect. If you are going to publish something in another language try to find an actual person to proofread your work. Otherwise you could end up with something like this.

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Not in Line for the Throne

This screen cap below was posted, by the tree owner, to a genealogy Facebook page last month. I have cropped the image to remove the tree owner's Ancestry.com username. She posted to ask about how to enter names from eras before surnames were common because, "I have many of the European Royalty in my line."
I just want to point out one thing but I'll let you take a look first in case you'd like to guess what the 'one thing' is.

Think you've got it? Here is that comment that I restrained myself from making on Facebook:

"The great-grandfather of the husband of your 14th great-grand aunt is not in YOUR line!"

It's easy to get sidetracked by a tangential family when there's a story or a mystery. If you don't keep track of where your family stops and the other family begins or you'll wind up researching the neighbor of the nephew of the great-grandfather of your 4th cousin's brother-in-law. If that's what you want to do, great but that wouldn't even be a collateral line, much less your line.
I will never understand the desperate need to be connected to royalty. And why does that desperation go hand in hand with fake coats of arms?


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Pet Peeves

On Facebook, anytime someone uses the word loose instead of lose or uses the wrong their, they're or there I have to stop myself from deleting them from my friend list. From the number of memes I've seen about spelling and grammatical pet peeves I am not alone. A lot of my genealogical pet peeves have been covered in previous posts about clickophile trees but here are a few that haven't been mentioned yet.

✿ The Family Name
It's not a "sir name" or a "sir-name." The word is surname.

✿ Ancestory
This is especially puzzling on the Ancestry.com Facebook page. How do they not see the correct spelling plastered all over the page?

✿ WWII vs. WW11
One is World War Two. The other is World War ELEVEN.

✿ The words ancestor, decedent, and descendant are not interchangeable.
An ancestor is "a person from whom one is descended; forebear; progenitor."
A decedent is "a deceased person."
A person "that is descended from a specific ancestor; an offspring" is a descendant.

✿ "Thanks in advance" or "TIA"
Translation: "I expect someone will help me (for free) and when they do I cannot be bothered to spend a few seconds of my own precious time to thank them personally."
Not everyone is bothered by this but it really rubs me the wrong way. If you are asking someone to help you acknowledge their comment/answer. First of all, it's polite. Second, it tells the person who helping that you saw their answer and they didn't waste their time. If it's on Facebook it only takes a second to 'like' a comment yet some people can't even manage to do that.

✿ The English Only Crowd
"Those records are in German. Why doesn't [whatever website they're complaining about] translate them? I don't know German." You've just told the world that you're either too dumb or too stubborn to learn. Part of learning about your heritage is learning the language(s) of your ancestors. You don't need to be able to read War and Peace in another language but will it kill you to learn the months, numbers and a few genealogically important words? You're not even required to memorize them, you can have a cheat sheet on your computer. To find a cheat sheet just Google 'genealogy word list' and the language you need. If you have gotten far enough back in your tree that the records are in a now defunct language or you can't read the language because of the script check the Learning Center on FamilySearch.

✿ Name Droppers
Name droppers are those people who post nothing more than a name on genealogy Facebook pages. There seem to be a couple of reasons for these posts. Some think Facebook is a search engine. Others do not know the difference between a Facebook fan page for a website and the actual website. Still others think there could be only one person in the world with that name. Can you think of other reasons, logical or not, for posting a name and nothing else?

✿ My family is more interesting than anything you have to say.
Some people think nothing of posting 20 photos in a row on a Facebook business page or in a Facebook group. Pages and groups are used by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people. I've landed on pages and wondered if there was a Facebook glitch that took me to someone's personal page. While you may find your photos fascinating other people may have a question they'd like answered and you've just pushed their post really far down the page. You don't have to post them all at once or your can put them all in an album on your personal page, make the album public and post a link to it on the page you're visiting. Don't forget to include something about the album. Why are you sharing it? What are the surnames of the people in the album? Were all of the photos taken in the same place?

✿ "People should ask before attaching my photos!"
Some people think everyone should play by their personal unwritten rules. Isn't everyone on Ancestry.com psychic? You are playing in Ancestry.com's sandbox. Their terms of service state:

"Portions of the Website allow you and other Users to contribute material to be displayed on the Website ("User Provided Content"). For User Provided Content, Ancestry is merely hosting and providing access.
...
By submitting User Provided Content to Ancestry, you grant Ancestry, its parent company and all of its affiliates, a transferable license to use, host, sublicense and distribute your submission to the extent and in the form or context we deem appropriate on or through any media or medium and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed or discovered." [emphasis mine]

Don't like their rules? You can always send a suggestion about a change to their terms of service or a feature you'd like to see added. Until your suggestion is implemented either don't upload photos or upload them to a private tree. But don't upload them and then complain when other people attach them without asking permission. You gave them permission when you uploaded the items to Ancestry.com.

✿ People who exclaim, "This is a scam!"
Subscriptions to most online websites renew automatically. It is not a scam or a rip-off. In the case of Ancestry.com it's not even in tiny legalese.

Thanks to Katie for the screen cap!

✿ The "Ancestry.com is expensive" Crowd
I think I vented enough about the "Ancestry.com is expensive" comments here.

✿ Those who need a dentist not a genealogist.
They claim to want assistance but getting the information you need to help them is like pulling teeth. The conversation usually goes something like this:

 Patient: Can someone help me find my great-grandmother?
 Dentist: What do you know? Her name? Date of birth?
 Patient: She died when I was little and my mother hasn't told me very much.
 Dentist: What did she tell you?
 Patient: She told me... [proceeds to tell a long story with no dates, places or names].
 Dentist: You'll need to give us names, dates and places, something specific, before anyone can help you.
 Patient: She was born in Alabama or North Carolina. Maybe Tennessee.

That tooth is never getting pulled. This could go on indefinitely but usually ends when the person attempting to help just gives up. For tips on how to ask for help check out these two blog posts: Asking For Help and Help Me Help You.


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