Genealogy Videos Galore

Years ago I started creating genealogy related playlists on YouTube. 

I update them about twice a year. 

There are so many free tutorials available. 

Take advantage of them!

To go to the playlists click HERE.

What's Happening?

Sorry that there is no crazy tree today. THIS is what I've been working on this week. Please bookmark and share! I love that there's such a wide variety of videos available online. If I haven't found your favorite genealogy video or YouTube channel yet let me know so I can add it to the bunch.

Here are some interesting links that have crossed my path this week...

Kerry over at Clue Wagon has made Family Tree Magazine's list of 40 Best Blogs! Check out the May/June issue for the list. Kerry's posts never fail to make me lau-SQUIRREL!

Get the handouts from this year's Who Do You Think You Are? Live.

WDYTYA? is coming back to American television! Between that and Family Tree, Christopher Guest's new show on HBO, I just might get cable.

The Ginger Jewish Genealogist has found the most depressing death certificate I've ever seen.

FamilySearch has revamped their website and it has some people concerned. (I haven't had a chance to explore the new site.)

Rootsonomy now has a researcher in Ireland! They haven't updated their web page yet but they made the announcement yesterday on their Facebook page. "Cost for Irish lookups is $20. Records will be emailed to you within a couple days. To submit your request, click the button "Request Research or a Lookup" on this Facebook page." Lookups are limited to these records:
• Births, marriages, deaths for 32 counties, Jan 1864 to Dec 1921
• Births, marriages, deaths for 26 counties, Jan 1922 to Mar 2013
• non-Catholic marriages, April 1845 to 2013
• Catholic marriages, April 1864 to 2013

I'll leave you with this great graphic from got genealogy?

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AncestryDNA Site Tools

The DNA site is still in the BETA phase. If you think of something that can be improved or a feature that you'd like added be sure to use the feedback button on your DNA page. Hopefully they'll add features that many people have asked for. A surname search, a username search, the ability to find common matches with another user, and the ability to find matches that match each other are just a few suggestions I've made.

Top right: Feedback button
Bottom left: Full Results button

Here's a look at the features as they are today...

FULL RESULTS

Of course the pie chart is the most obvious part of the results. Under the chart you'll see a "Full Results" button. On the full results page there are tabs for each ethnicity where you'll find out information about each ethnicity in your results including: Modern Day Location, About Your Region, Migrations into this region, and Migrations from this region. To the right of that is a list of your closest matches with that ethnicity in their results.

If you have more than four regions in your results the page is esthetically unappealing but the function is there.
In the "About Your Region" section you may find some helpful information but you will need to get past pointless filler statements like, "This is where Shakespeare wrote his plays and poems. It's home to the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood." In what way is that is helpful?

PEDIGREE AND SURNAMES

The 10-generation tree is probably the first thing you'll look at on your match's profile. If the tree is public you'll see the tree and on the left side of the page will be a list of surnames from their direct line. If you share surnames there will be a a separate list of those above the surname list.

This does not mean you are related through those surnames. This is not a "You are Related Here" sign but rather a "You May Want to Look Here First" sign. The common surnames are hints. If you click on a surname in that box you'll see, side by side, lists of people with that surname from your tree and your match's tree. The lists will only include people in the direct lines.
You should also look through the complete surname list below the box. The matches in the "shared surnames" box are exact matches only. While your great-great-grandmother might have been a Smith one of her brothers may have decided to use Smyth.

MAP AND LOCATIONS

The shaky leaf shows on the map.

The further back you go in time the less likely it is your family moved around a lot. Many families stayed in one place for decades. Because of that you may be able to find family connections if you find a relative of your match living in the same place at the same time as one of your ancestors.
In the case above the match has a shaky leaf hint. That shows on the map. Even if there wasn't a shaky leaf hint there would still be other hints. I could look at the "shared birth locations" on the left or the green markers on the map to try and find some common ground. Literally.
Just like the surname box you can click on a location in the "shared birth locations" box and see a list of people with that birth location from both trees.

NOTES

Surnames, maps and hints are only viewable by opening up the profile page. Notes on the other hand can be viewed on the results page by hovering over the note icon. The note will show only after you've written a note.
I can only tell you how I use notes. You may find other uses. When I've determined where the link is I put that in a note along with my relationship to the match. For those I haven't figured out I write a list of surnames in the note. Surnames that match those in my tree and surnames that I've seen on the trees of other matches. Then I can view the notes and open, in a new window, only those matches with a certain surname so I can compare their trees.
I haven't used the map feature yet, except to see how it functions. I will probably add any location details that I think are important to the notes as well.

Top arrow: Send message button
Bottom arrow: Add a note here

MESSAGES

Use the "send message" button on the match profile and a link to your match profile will be included in the message so the person you're messaging won't need to sift through their matches to find you. This link will not appear if you message them from their main Ancestry.com profile or from their tree.

After the jump, the various sorting options for your matches.

Learning New Tricks

Updated 27 Apr 2013

Ancestry.com has been putting out really informative tutorials on the regular basis. Unfortunately their YouTube channel is a bit of a maze if you're trying to find a past one. If you can remember a word in the title you can just use their channel's search box but if you can't, well...
I've created a YouTube channel and organized playlists so we can easily find what we need. Another reason I did this is because Ancestry.com's videos are not the only genealogy videos on YouTube. I'm adding others as I find them. Playlist topics are:

 ✿ African-American Genealogy
 ✿ American Indian Genealogy
 ✿ Apps & Technology for Genealogy
 ✿ Archives, Libraries & Museums
 ✿ Becoming a Genealogist
 ✿ BMD: Birth & Baptism
 ✿ BMD: Marriage & Divorce
 ✿ BMD: Death & Burial
 ✿ Brick Wall Busters
 ✿ Census: U.S.
 ✿ Census: Non-U.S.
 ✿ Countries: Australia & New Zealand
 ✿ Countries Canada
 ✿ Countries: Central & South America
 ✿ Countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden
 ✿ Countries: Eastern Europe
 ✿ Countries: Great Britain
 ✿ Countries: Ireland
 ✿ Countries: Western Europe
 ✿ Countries: Other
 ✿ Digitization and Indexing
 ✿ DNA
 ✿ FamilySearch
 ✿ Genealogy 101
 ✿ Genealogical Societies & Conferences
 ✿ Google for Genealogy
 ✿ Immigration, Naturalization & Travel
 ✿ Interviews & Interviewing
 ✿ Jewish Genealogy
 ✿ Land Records, Maps and Location Research
 ✿ Military: Personnel - U.S.
 ✿ Military: Personnel - Other
 ✿ Military: Revolutionary War
 ✿ Military: American Civil War
 ✿ Military: Spanish-American War
 ✿ Military: World War I
 ✿ Military: World War II
 ✿ Military: Other Wars & Conflicts
 ✿ Miscellaneous
 ✿ Names (maiden, common, ethnic, etc.)
 ✿ News and Newspapers
 ✿ Organizing Your Genealogy Research
 ✿ Photos, Photography & Preservation
 ✿ Search Tips for Genealogy
 ✿ Software for Genealogy: Family Tree Maker 2012
 ✿ Software for Genealogy: Other
 ✿ States: Midwest
 ✿ States: Northeast
 ✿ States: Southeast
 ✿ States: Southwest
 ✿ States: West
 ✿ Websites other than Ancestry
 ✿ WDYTYA? and Other Fun Stuff

FamilySearch has a few tutorials but most of theirs are slideshows that are only available through their website's Learning Center. The wonderful thing about the FamilySearch tutorials is the number of countries, languages, and subjects they cover. Everything from lessons in Spanish about German research to learning how to read Scandinavian Gothic handwritten records. You can find tutorials by country, language, skill level, subject or format (audio, video, interactive slides or video and slides). There are some 5 minute tutorials on their YouTube channel as well as some short videos about different archives around the country. I've added some of those to the playlists.
The company that sells Legacy Family Tree software also provides video lectures. Their videos on YouTube are usually just 15 minute previews of videos that are available to purchase. Most Legacy Family Tree webinars are free for 10 days after the live event. I've included some of the previews for more popular topics in the playlists. Details about purchasing are below the video. Even if you don't purchase the video the preview can be helpful in other ways. It can help you decide between speakers at an upcoming conference or you may want to sign up for the next Legacy event that includes that speaker.
These are just a few of the channels represented in my playlists:

 ✿ AncestryAU
 ✿ AncestryCa
 ✿ AncestryCom
 ✿ ancestryuk
 ✿ Archivescom
 ✿ FamilySearch
 ✿ Genealogy Gems
 ✿ legacyfamilytree
 ✿ LibraryOfCongress
 ✿ NGSGenealogy
 ✿ SIArchives
 ✿ usnationalarchives

If you come across a channel I haven't found yet please post a link to one of their videos in the comments. Thanks!

Bookmark this page for the BUWTBlog channel playlists:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BUWTBlog/videos?flow=grid&view=1


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Public vs. Private

As genealogists, most of us want to share our information. Sometimes I think it's just because we're excited at the prospect of someone else being interested! Unfortunately it's easy to become disillusioned when someone copies your hard work onto a junk tree. We post our trees to Ancestry.com, or some other genealogy site, hoping to find family and instead we find name collectors and people whose trees have gone off the rails.
The cold, hard truth is, if you don't want anyone to misuse your photos or documentation, don't share them. EVER. Cynical? Maybe but once a single copy of your research or photos has left your hands you have no control over where it is posted. So if it will upset you to see a photo from your tree attached to someone you’ve never heard of, don't post it publicly online. If you still want to have a tree online one option on Ancestry.com is to make your tree private. Your tree will show up in searches as will items attached to your tree but someone would have to contact you to get the details. If you don’t want to share at all there's an additional box to check in the private tree option: "Also prevent your tree from being found in searches." No one will contact you to ask how you're related to John Smith because they won't know there's a John Smith in your tree.
Having said all that, I have a public tree. If you've been reading this blog for a while you know it's not because I haven't had items "stolen" yet. (That tree has not been fixed by the way.) I did consider making my tree private after that happened but then what? Does the error-ridden tree that includes some of my information get copied by others? Do I let my photos, at least one of which is attached to the wrong person, exist on this horrible tree and keep the correct info hidden? I decided instead to keep my tree public. When I notice errors being made in someone else’s tree I write a story stating the differences. For anyone who connects, or has connected, to that person on my tree the story should pop up as a hint. If they choose to ignore it well,...I can always use their tree for a future blog post. [insert evil laugh]
I’m not saying everyone should have a public tree. There are numerous reasons to have a private tree. Here's a few just off the top of my head but I'm sure there are many more:

1. The family skeletons are fairly recent and your family isn’t ready to make them dance yet. Illegitimate children, murder, incest...you want to include it but also want your family to continue speaking to you.
2. Family members may be more willing to write stories about their childhood or memories of a person or place if they know the only people reading it are family.
3. A relative has given you access to their research provided you don’t post it publicly online.
4. You want to make sure someone is related before allowing them access to your tree.
5. It’s the only way to make sure people ask before taking your photos, documents, stories, etc..
6. There is a lot in your tree that you are unsure about. Keeping it private keeps others from copying information that may turn out to be incorrect.
7. Despite repeated messages saying, "This is not the family you're looking for", one person keeps adding your family to their tree. (Was I the only one that went back and read that as Obi-Wan?)

All valid. Even if the reason was, "The government is tracking me so I can't let my tree show up in a search." Paranoid? Yes but it's their tree and their decision to make.
There have been a number of online posts lately complaining that someone didn’t ask before attaching items from a public tree. Considering the amount of activity in my “Recent Member Connect Activity” I’m glad people don’t ask. Do people really want to spend half their day answering messages and checking other trees to make sure the person asking is related? If you want people to ask, make your tree private. If your tree is public, what happens if you say no? The other person can just download your item and upload it their tree as their own. Besides, you already gave permission when you agreed to the terms and conditions for Ancestry.com.
"But...but...copyright!" So you took that photo of your great-great-grandfather? And I don’t mean you "took it" from Grandma’s photo album but that you physically held the camera and pressed the button. No? You may have the photo in your hand but if you weren’t the one holding the camera when it was taken you probably don’t own the copyright. (There are a few exceptions. You can read more about it here.) If you were the person holding the camera then you can only take action if someone downloads the photo and uploads it as their own. Want to argue that someone attaching your upload to their tree is a violation of your copyright? An argument can also be made that by uploading your photo to a site that had sharing capabilities, is in fact known for it's sharing capabilities, with no privacy settings on your tree, you wanted to share the photo and were not concerned about copyright. Did you seriously think no one would attach it to their tree?
"But...but...I paid for that record that I scanned! Copyright!" You do not own the copyright on a scanned document. You had no hand in the creation of that document, which is where the copyright would be. Creating a scan of that document does not equal copyright. If you paid for the record and think others should pay to get their own copy don’t post it on a public tree.
"But...but...they copied Grandma's profile!" "Grandma's profile" has a list of facts (i.e. birth date, place of marriage, etc.). Facts (dates and places) are not subject to copyright. If you write a story about Grandma's life, whether it's one paragraph or ten pages, you own the copyright to that. But anyone can pull the facts out of it for use on their tree. If they publish your story verbatim without your permission then you would have a case. That is unless your story is just a list of facts with a few prepositions thrown in.
One concern for both public and private online trees is, "What happens to it when I'm gone?" If your tree is public the information will be shared long after you're gone. Trees are not removed when the owner dies but you might want to make it easy for someone in your family to pick up where you left off. Write your username and password down and keep it with your important papers. If your tree is private it's even more important that you do this. If you don't share your username and password or specifically ask for your files (paper, digital and genealogy software) to be passed to someone in your family your research could die with you.
Sorry to be so morbid but who knows the reality of this more than a genealogist?

NOTE: Many of you have probably noticed that I have not addressed the fact that those with private trees can attach items from public trees. I know that's a sore point with a lot of people. Honestly, it doesn't bother me. If you want to complain about that issue you are welcome to do that in the comments or you can write a post on your own blog ;-)

UPDATE:




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NEW POST: Wynne or Lose

Hints Are NOT Facts

Fact = Truth
Hint = Clue

On Ancestry.com the shaky leaves are hints
but most of the problems that are featured on this blog
are the result of people
unquestioningly accepting that shaking leaf as fact.

"God grant me the serenity to accept only the hints I can prove,
ignore the tempting hints I can't,
and the wisdom to know the difference."
- Liz Rochefort

I think these two videos should be required watching for every Ancestry.com subscriber.
EVERY subscriber.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Marilyn for pointing out that the hints are facts. They just might not be facts about YOUR ancestor.








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NEW POST: They told 2 friends and so on...

Media de Familia

Most of us have family photos and have scanned in quite a few. It makes them easy to share and add to our online trees. How excited do you get when you find that someone has uploaded a photo of an ancestor you've never seen before? Now imagine someone 50 or 100 years from now finding a video of their ancestor or hearing their voice.
Did your family have a VHS camera or an 8mm camera? Did a past family researcher get excited at the prospect of recording family interviews when cassette recorders were invented? Or maybe family members exchanged cassettes instead of letters. Transfer that media now!

Ysidro Dimas, my great-grandfather
VHS transferred to DVD

Do a search for your city and "8mm to DVD" or "cassette to CD" or whatever your media is. There may be somewhere cheaper that would involve shipping your media but saving a few dollars is not worth the added chance of your items being lost in the mail. Take the items to a store yourself and make sure they don't have to sit in a hot car while you run other errands. They've made it this far, don't let them melt now.
Once your media is transferred you can edit clips and put them on YouTube or vimeo. Both have a variety of privacy options if you aren't comfortable putting them on public display. If your tree is on Ancestry.com you cannot upload a pre-recorded video but you can write a story that includes a link to the video.
Surprise your family with some very personal Christmas presents or combine video and photos for a family reunion event.

William Gillespie, my great-grandfather
8mm film transferred to DVD

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