De-lightful and De-lovely

By now you are probably aware that changes are coming to the Ancestry.com website. From Ancestry's perspective these are their priorities:

Isn't it great that they finally listened to their users? I mean, haven't we all been asking for a more "beautiful" and "delightful" site? I can't wait! [eyeroll] And "usable"? Shouldn't that be a given? Apparently Ancestry programmers need to be told specifically that the site needs to be usable.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks the design team's goals are a joke. Here a few comments from a Facebook thread on Ancestry's fan page:

• Too bad "functional" isn't one of the goals.
• I´d really rather see that they fixed the problems, first, before creating, possibly, more.
• how about not seizing up every few minutes, or being down entirely a lot; that would be an awesome change....

The comments on Ancestry's blog post are worth reading too. Here are a couple of examples:

• Don’t forget that Function is the first and foremost need of the customers. All the pretty bells and whistles in the world won’t make up for the issues that customers have been encountering for several years now (system instability, phantom hints, poor messaging system, duplicate databases, etc.) Make sure those things are fixed before ever rolling this out
• FUNCTION is the most important issue. Let’s not put lipstick on a pig.

Right now the media gallery is not functional in beta but there are plans, big plans, for a complete makeover.

"The Media Gallery makes it easier for you to manage all your media – records, videos, photos, stories – in one place to enhance the story of your family."

Um, that is different from the current media gallery how?
For years the most requested feature has been the ability to change the order of photos on a profile. If that isn't part of the coming changes the entire update will be a giant fail. All the emphasis has been on storytelling and the easiest way to tell a story is by putting photos in chronological order. As it is now the only way to do that is to upload and attach photos in reverse chronological order.
Yesterday a new site glitch made an appearance.

That's a sign that Ancestry's programmers are doing something. They've never been able to add anything without breaking things in the process.
Are you a beta tester? What's your opinion so far?


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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

No Leeway, The Photos

Here, finally, are the photos from the tree that contains this profile.
The tree has 705 photos. The photos below are 561 of them.
The "maybe" images should be yellow on a white background. I have no idea why the colors have changed. Also, most of the image files are much smaller here. On Ancestry.com they are wasting much more space.

Title: Yes
Uploaded 1 time.

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Title: Maybe
Uploaded 6 times.

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Title: no
Uploaded 17 times.

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Title: maybe
Uploaded 35 times.

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Title: yes
Uploaded 58 times.

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Title: Maybe
Uploaded 105 times.

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Title: no
Uploaded 113 times.

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Title: No
Uploaded 226 times.

Thanks to Kristin for the link ;-)

If you have a profile or photo to suggest please send a link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.

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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?


PREVIOUS POST: Bang Your Head
NEXT POST: Dead End Street

Jung Would Have a Field Day

Any psychiatrists out there?
I would love to hear theories on this tree owner's thought process.
The photos are attached to:
Anna Jungmayr
Birth 1608 in Germany
Death 1670 in Germany
The flag, titled german flag, was originally uploaded by another tree owner. All the others were uploaded by this tree owner and are untitled. Seven of his photos are attached to five other trees. Here are just some of the photos attached to Anna's profile:

If you have a photo or profile to suggest please send a link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.


PREVIOUS POST: Moore or Less
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King Charlie II

I took a closer look at a few of the trees that has this image attached.

Title of photo: line leads to Charlemeagne
Uploaded to: Henry Cooke (1690-1772)
Attached to: Over 100 other trees

One tree has Charlemagne and Henry Cooke but they are not connected. At least two others do not have Charlemagne, or Charlemeagne, in them at all.
The tree it was originally uploaded to has at least four profiles for the emperor including one that shows he died in 1914.
*head/desk*


Thanks again to Kristin for the link ;-)
If you have a photo or profile to suggest please email the link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.

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NEXT POST: No Leeway
RELATED POST: King Charlie

Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Title of photo: D of J of A
This image was uploaded 2753 times to a single tree.
Two THOUSAND, seven HUNDRED and fifty-three!!!

Thanks to Kristin for the link to this tree ;-)

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NEXT POST: I'm Older Than My Grandpa

Keeping Up With the Joneses

Here's one way I find potential blog fodder. I search Ancestry.com for public tree photos for a common surname and look for flags or coats of arms images. Within minutes I will have found a tree full of zombies, premature births, and other illogical profiles. It never fails. Inevitably it will also be a tree that is wasting space with useless iconography that has been uploaded hundreds of times.
Today I searched for Jones and Johnson. For each name I clicked the first flag in the search results and ended up in the same tree. Here is just one page from that tree's media gallery:

Over 40,000 images and I would bet about 30,000 of those could be narrowed down to 50 if the tree owner would just attach more than one profile to each image.
For those of you who noticed the page number, no, I didn't click through all 735 pages to get to this one. I chose a random page. You can do this quickly in any media gallery with three easy steps.
1. Click to page 2 in the media gallery.
2. Go to the address bar and change the last number (which should be a 2 if you followed step #1) to whatever page you want to jump to.
3. Hit enter.
If you want to take a look through a media gallery on a public tree go to any page on that tree. You'll see the address starts with http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/ followed by a number. That is the tree's id number. Delete everything following that id number and add /media. Hit enter and you'll be taken to that tree's media gallery.
You've probably already guessed that my next post will be a profile from the tree that goes with the above media gallery ;-)


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King Charlie

NEW RULE: You cannot claim an ancestor until you can spell their name properly.

Title of photo: line leads to Charlemeagne
Uploaded to: Henry Cooke (1690-1772)
Attached to: Over 100 other trees

 

Thanks to Kristin for the link ;-)
If you have a photo or profile to suggest please email the link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.


PREVIOUS POST: How is this useful?
NEXT POST: Keeping Up With the Joneses
RELATED POST: King Charlie II

How is this useful?

I have not resized these photos but the tree owner might want to consider doing just that. Of course these are not the only miniature images on this tree, they are just examples. There are lots of original documents on this tree that are completely useless.

Thanks to Janet for the link to this media gallery ;-)
If you have a photo or a profile to suggest please send a link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.

PREVIOUS POST: Civil War Zombie Corps 5
NEXT POST: King Charlie

Uh, no you don't.

I opened tree hints one day this week to find this as the very first hint. Taunting me. Begging to be mocked. I think the universe is telling me I need to get back to writing on a regular schedule. So here we go.

Title: I Have My Family Tree Back to Adam and Eve
Attached to: One tree but the images were just uploaded this week.
Uploaded: 220 times in 48 hours to 220 different profiles.

Here are just two examples of profiles that have the image attached:

Martha Effie Davis Hooper
Birth 9 November 1905 in Hardy, Sharp, Arkansas, USA alt birth Illinois Marriage in Sharp, Arkansas, United States
Death 9/3/1997 in Henegar, De Kalb, AL Burial: 6 SEP 1997 Baker Cemetery,Hardy,Shap Co.,Arkansas

Diluglic - Dilulius I Van Commeria King of Troy King of Cimmerians, Roy des Cimmériens
Birth 490BC or 725Bc or 710BC in Georgia
Death 625 B.C. in SIMMERIA, BLACK SEA REGION, ANCIENT TURKEY, GREEK KINGDOMS

Doing a Google search to find the source of the image brings up three articles all titled, "I Have My Family Tree Back to Adam and Eve." Apparently the tree owner featured above didn't bother to read the articles.

"I Have My Family Tree Back to Adam and Eve"
"I Have My Family Tree Back to Adam and Eve" Part 2
Both written by Nathan W. Murphy for the FamilySearch Blog.
I Have My Family Tree Back to Adam and Eve
 From Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, directing readers to Mr. Murphy's article.

If you have a photo or profile to suggest please send me a link at buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.

PREVIOUS POST: Complete Nonsense
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The Impossible Dream

Each of these was uploaded by a different user.
All of the trees extend down to living people.
Excuse me while I pour myself a very strong drink.

Title: adam eve
Uploaded to: Adam of Eden
Birth in Garden of Eden
Death in Olaha,Shinehah,East of Eden
Attached to: 3 other trees

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Title: Adam and Eve
Uploaded to: Adam (eth-Ha-adam)
Birth 4004 bc in Garden of Eden
Death 3074 in Canaan
Attached to: 5 other trees

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Title: Adam and Eve 117th GGGF GGGM
Uploaded to: Adam First Man
Birth in Eden
Death in Olaha,Shinehah
Attached to: 6 other trees

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Title: Adam&Eve
Uploaded to: 'Ha'adham (ADAM)
Birth abt. 4004 BC (1-931 AM) in Garden Of Eden
Death 3074 bc in Olaha,Shinehah
Attached to: 29 other trees

❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇

Title: Adam of Eden the First Man and Eve in eden
Uploaded to: 13 profiles on this tree
4 for Adam of Eden the First Man ^
4 for Adam of Eden the First Man *
5 for Adam of Eden the First Man # 
Attached to: 1 other tree

❇ ❇ ❇ ❇ ❇

Title: Adam and Eve
Uploaded to: 11 profiles on this tree. All 11 are for...
First Man Adam
Birth 4026 B.C.. in Garden of Eden
Death 3096 B.C. in Olaha, Shinehah
Attached to: 138 other trees

If you have a photo or profile to suggest please send a link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.


PREVIOUS POST: Case Study #1 - Hammack & Mott
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Case Study #1: Hammack & Mott

I've been wanting write a post about the research process for a while now. Even if you aren't a Hammack or a Mott I hope you'll find some helpful hints here. I'm actually not a Mott either but we'll get to that later. Here are the main characters in this story:

Sophia Ann "Annie" Hammack, my father's maternal grandmother
John Franklin Hammack and Martha Cornelia Mott, Annie's parents

Martha Cornelia Mott's name will change a couple of times during the course of this post.

Talking to Dad

The names of my father's maternal aunts and uncles were known to me, I had met them all. For anything beyond that I had to ask Dad what he remembered. His maternal grandmother's name was Annie Hammack and this case study is about her line. According to Dad the names of Annie's parents, his great-grandparents, were John Franklin Hammack & Martha Cornelia Mott. He never met them but he did have a memory of meeting one of Annie's sisters and thought her name might be Carrie. So with that I was off to try and find out something about his maternal grandmother's family.

Annie Hammack Loftice with my baby brother and me.

I had no problem finding Annie with her husband and children in U.S. censuses but finding anything prior to her marriage was my first road block. Annie was born in Missouri so there wasn't an immigration issue.

By Any Other Name

Most of my great-grandparents applied for Social Security. I had a list of applications to order. Ordering all of them was out of the question financially so I prioritized the list. Annie was not at the top. I had names for her parents and that would be the primary reason for ordering the application. As I was running out of alternate spellings and different searches to try I started moving her up the list.
Dad seemed sure of the names but I was stuck so I crossed my fingers and ordered her SS-5. A few weeks later I found out that Dad was right with one small, but very important, omission.

After the jump: The answer, more questions and contact from distant family.

Angel Baby

This tree's photo gallery has 364 pages. I have no doubt that if I had gone past page 15 I would have found more. Just like images of flags and faux coats of arms, angel photos are a sure sign of a tree copied from other trees.

Title: Four different titles
Gods'little angel-baby-boy
Gods'little angel-baby- boy
Gods'little angel-baby-girl
Gods'little angel-baby
Uploaded: 11 times

Title: ANGEL BABY GIRL
Uploaded: Twice

Title: BABY BOY ANGEL
Uploaded: Once

Title: BABY GIRLS DEATH
Uploaded: Once

Title: Called to Heaven as a Child
Uploaded: Once

Title: Baby Boy Angel
Uploaded: Once

Thanks to Kristin for the link to one of these photos ;-)
If you have a photo or profile to suggest please send a link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.


PREVIOUS POST: Consider the Source
NEXT POST: Coming Monday

African American, The Photos

None of these photos are titled. They were all uploaded to a profile with the name "African American" and dates from the 17th and 18th centuries. That profile will be featured here on Monday. They have all been uploaded numerous times to this tree to various other profiles. The first two have been attached to one other tree. Thankfully the others have not been attached to other trees.

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Kimberly Guilfoyle, 6 Jul 2010
Photo credit: Brian Bedder, Getty Images North America

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Venus Williams

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Venus Williams
Photo credit: AP

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If you have a photo or profile to suggest please send a link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com.


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