Attending Genealogical Conferences and Events

By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

If you’ve never attended a genealogical conference or event before, it may be because you’ve been intimidated by the prospect. After all, aren’t genealogical conferences for professionals, or people who make genealogy their life’s work? Actually, that’s not accurate. There are genealogy conferences, expos, retreats, seminars, and workshops for every skill level and every interest level. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert (or somewhere in between), you can find an event to suit your needs.

So what can you gain from attending a genealogical event? You can hone your research skills; you can try out new genealogy software programs; you can network with other family historians; you can learn about the latest and greatest innovations in the field of family history. Another bonus of attending conferences and events is that you often get free stuff. Once I got a free copy of Legacy Family Tree by attending the ICAPGen conference. Most events also provide a conference syllabus at no extra charge. These are packed with useful charts, outlines, and articles from the conference speakers. This way, instead of furiously scribbling down notes you can just absorb what the speakers are saying, because the information you need is already in the syllabus.

Many conferences are hosted by genealogical societies; others are hosted by archives or libraries. Some events have become very well-known in the genealogical world, and are attended by hundreds. The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, held every year in January and sponsored by the Utah Genealogical Association, is one of these. Classes at the week-long institute cover all kinds of topics: source-citation and documentation; organization; American land and court records; U.S. military records; successfully finding immigrant ancestors’ origins; illegitimacy in Europe; and Scottish research, just to name a few. The annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies is also a prominent genealogical event; it is held in a different American city every fall. The National Genealogical Society Conference, one of the most prestigious because of its backing organization, also moves around every year. NGSC workshops cover everything from Italian to Scandinavian ancestry, and there are also “consult-an-expert” sessions where you can collaborate with others and get research guidance on difficult projects.

If you prefer something more low-key, however, you don’t have to travel across the country to attend a high-profile conference. You can learn new things by attending your local genealogical society’s conference, or by attending the conference of your nearest genealogical library or archive. Get online and find a genealogical event that will serve you.

How to View an Ancestor’s Descendancy

The ability to view the descendants of an ancestor is a powerful and valuable feature of OneGreatFamily. A descendancy view can help researchers identify collateral lines to research or can lead to the discovery of living relatives who have descended from a common ancestor.

Viewing the descendants of any ancestor is easy using Genealogy Browser™:

1. Launch Genealogy Browser and find the desired ancestor in the pedigree (Starfield View)
2. Select the desired ancestor within the pedigree (Starfield View) by double clicking on the box with the individual’s name to put them into the selected individual box in the handprint view.

1. Click on the descendancy icon in the toolbar OR select Starfield-Show Descendancy from the View menu within Genealogy Browser (see images below).

1. The descendants of the selected ancestor will now appear to the left of the pedigree (Starfield View). Navigating and viewing collateral lines in the Starfield View may be slower depending on the number of descendants shown.

When you choose to view the Descendancy of an ancestor, the Starfield view will look like this:

To no longer view the Descendancy, just click the Descendants View button on the Tool Bar:

We hope you will find OneGreatFamily a useful tool to trace the descendants of your ancestors.

Where Can I Store Multimedia In Genealogy Browser™?

Share & Store Photos, Video, And More About Your Ancestors

OneGreatFamily allows you to go beyond just names and events and allows you to share photos, scanned documents, videos, and more. Finding a picture of a distant ancestor can sometimes feel like discovering gold. Pictures, audio clips, and movies make for a very rich family history experience.

Instructions for Uploading Multimedia:

From the Individual Details window, open the Multimedia window by clicking the Multimedia icon (). You will be presented with a list of media (or a blank list if media has not yet been added for this individual). You can upload, view, rename, or remove media associated with individuals.

The buttons in the upper-right corner of the Multimedia window (shown below) allows you to add, display, rename, or remove multimedia files.

Media List

Multimedia files can include pictures, audio, text, and movies in the following formats:

• Images: .jpg, .bmp, .tif, .gif
• Audio: .mp3, .wav, .au, .rm
• Video: .avi, .asf, .mpe, .mpeg
• Text: .rtf, .html, .txt

View

View the selected media file in the associated program. This requires that you have software on your computer capable of viewing the file type. Most files can be viewed by software included with your operating system, though you may need to update to the latest version of the software (Windows Media Player, for example), depending on how the media was created by the person uploading the file.

Add Media File

Add a new media file associated with the individual. This option will open a window for finding the file on your computer. Once this file is chosen and uploaded, a copy of the file resides on OneGreatFamily and does not affect the file on your computer.

Rename

Change the title of the selected media file.

Delete

Remove the selected media file from OneGreatFamily. (This will not affect a media file on your own computer.)

We hope you will find OneGreatFamily’s Multimedia section to be useful. Sharing photos, documents and scanned videos is one of the best ways to collaborate on OneGreatFamily with Distant Cousins. Upload and share today!

How To Evaluate Conflicting Genealogy Information

Information To Read Before You Access Conflicts in Your OneGreatFamily Tree

“I have three different birth dates for my grandfather. He told me when he was born; I have a delayed birth certificate; and a baptismal record for him. Each has a different birth year—now what?”

Conflicting sources are a continual problem when doing genealogical research. How do you know which one is accurate? Sometimes an error is so blatant that you can immediately determine which is the more accurate document. But often it is not that cut and dried. When we do find conflicting information, we should evaluate the sources by using a scientific approach.

Each document should be evaluated on the following criteria:

1. Is the document an original or a copy?

An original is the first copy of any document. A photocopy of the original is usually considered an original. Each time a document is hand copied the chance of error is greater. Be especially aware of compiled indexes. Historically these where hand-created, and often error prone.

2. Is the information primary evidence or secondary evidence?

Primary evidence is the testimony (oral or written) given by an eyewitness or recorded by mechanical device present at the event. Secondary evidence is information that is either not the result of personal observation or is collected significantly after the fact. A vital record, such as a birth certificate, would usually be considered a primary source. The parent giving you information about their children would usually be a primary source. There are always exceptions that you need to consider. Is the parent elderly and is his/her memory questionable? In this case they might need to be considered a secondary source. Other examples of secondary sources are tombstones and census records.

3. Does the document contain direct or circumstantial evidence of the information you are seeking?

Direct evidence is information that directly answers a question. Circumstantial evidence gives a logical inference from which an answer might be derived. For example, if you are looking for the birth date of your ancestor, Ohso Elusive – and you find a church baptismal record that says he was born on January 12, 1876, the document directly answers your question. Ohso was born on Jan. 12, 1876. If, on the other hand, you find a death certificate that says Ohso Elusive died March 15, 1948 at the age of 72, you have a document that gives you direct evidence of his death date but circumstantial evidence of his birth date

Naturally, the ideal document would be an original record from a primary source with direct evidence, but genealogists usually are not that lucky. After evaluating each of the conflicting documents using the scientific approach, the document that comes closest to the ideal is probably your most accurate. Of course we could still have erroneous information so, if and when you locate additional records, you should always compare them to your current information and evaluate the information once more.

Using a scientific approach to our research gives us the greatest chance of accuracy, which should be the goal of every genealogist.

OneGreatFamily makes it easy to find differences between your information and that entered by others. The system marks differences in information as conflicts. You can turn on or off the identification of conflicts in the Genealogy Browser by toggling the appropriate button in the tool bar: The first () shows conflicts in information, like perhaps a difference in a birth place or a death date. The second () shows conflicts in relationships, like perhaps not showing a 2nd wife or listing an additional child. When trying to decide between the alternatives, you can now apply these principals of documentation quality in deciding which you believe to be correct.

Standardizing Places May Result In More Success At OneGreatFamily

One of the features of Genealogy Browser is the ability to automate place standardization when you are entering data about your ancestors. However, the system is not foolproof, and so automatic place standardization in some circumstances won’t occur.

This can really hinder your efforts at OneGreatFamily because non-standardized place names may cause individuals not to match, blocking a merge that could bring more leads to your attention.

For example, I was researching an ancestor of mine when I found that my father had abbreviated some places when he entered the data, causing them not to match.  For example, he listed my great-, great-, great-, great-grandmother as being born in Hull, Ykshire,, England.  In doing some research, I have confirmed that this was actually Hull, Yorkshire, England.

There are several reasons why Genealogy Browser may not be able standardize a place automatically.  Keep these in mind when you are entering or editing your family tree information:

• Don’t use abbreviations in the place of city names.  For example, use “Salt Lake City” instead of “SLC”, use “New York” instead of “NY” or “NYC” and use “Baltimore” instead of “Balt.”

• CA can be interpreted as either Canada or California and DE can either be Denmark or Delaware.  So please, even if you are sure you are using a standardized abbreviation, please spell it out.

• There will always be 4 elements separated by 3 commas in every place name, as shown here: city, county, state, and country.  Genealogy Browser will automatically try to break down each location appropriately.  You should double-check that it does it correctly.

• Don’t write in the actual street address in the place box. You can put addresses or buildings in the notes section.

• If you don’t know, leave it blank.  Often people will put “???” or “unknown” or “unk.” You should avoid doing this because the site will search for matches to fill blanks for you.

• Make sure and always enter the country. It may be obvious to you and others which country it is, but not to the OneGreatFamily system. The more information the better when entering information.

We have a tool to help if you have any questions on whether you’re entering the place correctly. To the right of the birth, death, and other places, you’ll see this pencil icon. Click on that icon and Genealogy Browser will show you how it breaks down the current entry into city, county, state, and country. Look in there to make sure your places are correct so you can have your records standardized with the rest of OneGreatFamily’s records.

By cleaning up your place names, you will increase the likelihood of OneGreatFamily finding additional ancestor leads for you, which means you could see more ancestors added to your family tree.

3 Concepts That Explain How OneGreatFamily Is Different From Other Genealogy Services

There are some key differences between OneGreatFamily and other genealogy services that you need to understand to take full advantage of what we have to offer. Though OneGreatFamily is not a new service, it is quite revolutionary to the genealogy community. We have come up with 3 main principles that explain what exactly makes us so unique and how our cutting-edge, yet simple, approach to genealogy can greatly help you in building your family tree.

Concept 1 – OneGreatFamily is a Single Family Tree

OneGreatFamily is a single, global family tree which everyone helps to build. It’s not just a collection of individual trees that people work on alone. This means that when ANYONE works on OneGreatFamily, they are also working on your tree, and when you work on your tree, you are collaborating with others to explore their family trees.

As OneGreatFamily members add to the global family tree, the system searches to see if any of the names submitted could be your ancestors. Even if we find some of your ancestors today, we may find more in a week, a month, or a year. Just think; while you’re concentrating on a maternal line, OneGreatFamily may identify a breakthrough on your paternal side! Your next step forward could come when you are sleeping, making dinner, or enjoying an evening out with friends, all thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of OneGreatFamily members.

Concept 2 – OneGreatFamily Searches and Sifts For You

OneGreatFamily automatically does all the “search and sift” work for you. Let’s face it, most traditional genealogy websites are based on “search and sift”, where you initiate a search and then have to start sifting through the tens of thousands of matches you get back. Obviously, most of these possible matches will be wrong and a few may clearly be right. The rest have to be sorted and checked.

OneGreatFamily does all this tedious work for you. We compare all the people you enter against every person entered in the OneGreatFamily database. Then, we sift the results and alert you of possible matches. These are referred to as “Hints”. Instead of endlessly sifting through obviously incorrect search results, OneGreatFamily focuses your attention and effort on likely matches.

Concept 3 – OneGreatFamily Handles Different Opinions

OneGreatFamily easily handles differences of opinion. Sometimes genealogists disagree. Perhaps there is documentation supporting multiple dates for the same event or even regarding parentage.

Because of its collaborative foundation, OneGreatFamily is built to handle these situations. These discrepancies are called “conflicts”. OneGreatFamily will never force you to accept someone else’s information, nor someone else to accept yours.

There are two primary types of conflicts: informational and relational. Informational conflicts occur when a fact is in dispute, perhaps a birth date or a marriage location. Relational conflicts occur when a family relationship is in question. In resolving both types of conflicts, you will be presented with your information and the conflicting information. You will then be given a choice to 1) accept the alternate information presented, 2) clear the conflict, which means you are satisfied with your information and no longer want to consider any alternative information, or 3) cancel for now, which will allow you to postpone making a choice until you can find more information.

Dive into OneGreatFamily and see what we can do for your family tree.

People From All Over The World Are Building The OneGreatFamily Tree

The OneGreatFamily Tree is a powerful genealogy database that is shared and built by people like you from all over the world. Everyone’s genealogy ties into the OneGreatFamily Tree. Once you have submitted what information you have about your ancestors, there is more to do at OneGreatFamily:

1. Discover what has been done on your family tree already: Every single name, date, place, picture, biography and video clip has been submitted by people like you. In fact, the OneGreatFamily Tree started without a single name. Users in over 170 countries have submitted over 250 million names . . . and we’ve only just begun! So what does a “shared” worldwide database mean to you? It means someone else may have already entered dozens or even hundreds of your ancestors!

1. Start researching where others left off: Spend some time searching for your ancestors at OneGreatFamily and pay special attention to new information that is added to your pedigree over time. This will help you know what research others have already done or are doing on your family tree. You can then spend your time conducting new research or simply verifying information that others have provided.

1. Meet and collaborate with family: OneGreatFamily allows people around the world to work on one common family tree. This means others can be researching and improving information on your ancestors. Wouldn’t you like to meet and collaborate with these genealogical cousins? You can! OneGreatFamily provides collaboration features that allow you to work with other researchers and family members.

1. Search millions of names: At OneGreatFamily, you can search millions of names in the OneGreatFamily Tree and in the Social Security Death Index. When you find an individual that you would like to learn more about, simply click on them to view detailed information that we store in our databases.

1. See your entire pedigree at once: OneGreatFamily provides you with powerful software for viewing, organizing, and saving your family tree. As your family tree continues to grow, you can easily see what you have accomplished and where OneGreatFamily has helped. OneGreatFamily does what no other family tree software can do by letting you see your entire family tree at one time! You can zoom in to see more detail and zoom out to get a view of your family tree.

1. Automatically find your ancestors: Create your family tree and watch it grow automatically over time. OneGreatFamily searches for ALL of your ancestors, ALL the time. Automatic processes continually review the ever-growing OneGreatFamily Tree. If two individuals are identical, they are automatically identified as being the same. If the individuals appear to be the same person but have different relationships, birth data, or death data, you will be able to manually determine if they are the same and merge the records together.

1. Connect to the original online family tree: We connect you to the largest family tree online so you can see how you are related to the rest of humanity! Start by creating your family tree at OneGreatFamily or by submitting a family tree you have already created. If anyone else has been working on your family tree, OneGreatFamily will automatically identify common ancestors and tie your family’s branch into the largest single family tree available.

As OneGreatFamily continues to grow, we are committed to the success of each of our members in furthering genealogy research and connecting to work that has already been completed in OneGreatFamily. Our hope is that everyone who visits OneGreatFamily will come to appreciate the unique services provided to the genealogical community.

Adding Notes To Your Genealogy Browser Is Important To Your Research

As you continue your research, you may want to make notes on the ancestors you are searching for. Once someone is added to your tree, either by yourself or by OneGreatFamily, it is easy to add notes to the individual. To do that, first launch Genealogy Browser. You can edit anyone by right-clicking on the ancestor’s name in either Handprint or Starfield, then choosing the Edit option on the menu. That will open the “Details For:” dialog. On this details box, you will see small square boxes along the right-hand side. The notes icon looks like a piece of paper that has a pushpin stuck in it:

After clicking on the notes icon, a new box will appear:

You will now be able to add notes for your ancestor. The type of notes you are able to enter depends on the information you already have entered for this particular ancestor. If you have entered nothing about their death date or place, then you will not have the option to put notes under the category for “death”. You can however, put these notes under “individual notes” until you find their death information, and then just move the notes to the correct location.

 

Adding Documentation To OneGreatFamily Is Vital To Your Record Keeping

One of our subscribers recently asked us, “If all of the information on OneGreatFamily.com is submitted by other users, how can I be sure that it is correct?”

As experienced genealogists know, you should never take anyone else’s work as being correct. Instead, you need to verify the information using sound genealogical techniques.

That is why we like to think of OneGreatFamily as a great source for research leads. It is almost always easier to substantiate a lead then it is to discover missing data. OneGreatFamily can be a rich source of research leads based on the submissions of other genealogists.

Perhaps you are at a brick wall on a great-, great-, great-grandfather. In OneGreatFamily a user has entered a name for that ancestor. Fantastic —now you have a lead to substantiate. You can collaborate with that submitter. Or you can go research the provided name.

Many genealogists use OneGreatFamily primarily for the research leads it provides.

Another question we often get is, “How can you be sure your automated match/merge technology won’t mess up my genealogy research?” There are two parts to the answer to that question. First, our automated merging technology never changes your data. Our technology is sophisticated enough to keep everybody’s data unchanged even when we merge ancestors together. We could merge 50 people into one and it wouldn’t change your data.

Second, we have patent-pending software that merges the right ancestors into your family tree. OneGreatFamily’s software ensures that only high-quality matches are combined to your family tree. In one test, we pitted OneGreatFamily’s merging process against a panel of genealogists. OneGreatFamily was less likely to match people incorrectly than the panel of professional genealogists.

Because we are merging ancestors together, we encourage all of our subscribers to use the citation and collaboration features in Genealogy Browser™.

You can help improve the quality of the database by citing your sources for the data that you submit to OneGreatFamily. When you include citations in your family tree, you improve the credibility of your family history, and you can help others find their genealogy as well. When you take the time to find sources for your genealogy, you are less likely to jump to wrong conclusions. You can ensure that you are passing along accurate information.

Documenting your sources also saves you time because you don’t get lost researching the wrong line, and you don’t have to go back again to find things that you have already researched.

In Genealogy Browser, you can include sources and citations for any ancestor or family on your tree. The citations you include with your ancestors’ records become available to other OneGreatFamily subscribers to help with the collaborative effort.

When another user has not included citations with the ancestors that he or she submitted, you can still find out where that user obtained the information by using OneGreatFamily’s Collaborate feature. Collaborating with other users allows you to see who else is working on your genealogy. For every family and individual, you can find out who submitted the information and contact that user. Collaboration at OneGreatFamily allows you to contact the individual with the common ancestor and ask where the information came from. With this unique OneGreatFamily feature, you can find sources to support your genealogical data.

Our program’s one-of-a-kind merging feature, combined with the power of citation and collaboration, gives you access to easy, fun, and accurate genealogy.

Can I Trust OneGreatFamily With My Genealogy?

OneGreatfamily Does Not Sell Your Information

Even with all the benefits an online genealogy service can provide, most researchers are still hesitant to subscribe because it is a decision filled with questions and uncertainty about trust and credibility. OneGreatFamily’s business is focused on facilitating genealogy growth and discoveries by providing personalized access to the world’s largest human family tree.

Trust is an important concept whenever you provide any information to any commercial entity. Trust is often more difficult to earn for companies that do online business. Some considerations include how your information will be used and the business model of the company receiving your information. At OneGreatFamily, we build a foundation of trust by working and researching together.

OneGreatFamily takes your family tree research seriously. OneGreatFamily always provides you with access to any information you submit to OneGreatFamily, even if you are not currently subscribing to the service.

OneGreatFamily will never sell your information on CD-ROM or prevent you from updating your family tree at your convenience. As explained in previous articles, OneGreatFamily sells access to a Genealogy System rather than selling genealogical data.

At OneGreatFamily we make sure our subscribers and guests are getting what they expect from an online genealogy service. Our online services are easy to use, produce fast results, save you time and money, are convenient, and generate constant growth. We help you to uncover the information you need in the quickest and most economical way. OneGreatFamily is a service that was created to help genealogists get through their “brick walls” and move forward with the help of others from around the world. With OneGreatFamily you are able to see others who are researching your family lines, perform live collaboration with others, match and merge information, and verify and expand your family tree.

OneGreatFamily is one of the few success stories of online subscription services. With a growing subscription base, the company has created a solid foundation on which it will build for years to come. We hope that by using OneGreatFamily you have discovered the real value of genealogy, which is finding out about the people and places which made you who you are!

The Privacy Of OneGreatFamily Members

Some customers have a hard time understanding what OneGreatFamily is and what is included in a subscription to OneGreatFamily. Some people erroneously believe OneGreatFamily is in the business of selling family tree data.

Some of this confusion is created by competitors that charge fees to access their family tree collections or that sell family tree data that has been freely submitted back to customers on CD-ROMs. OneGreatFamily does not engage in either practice.

Can I Trust OneGreatFamily With My Genealogy?

Even with all the benefits an online genealogy service can provide, most researchers are still hesitant to subscribe because it is a decision filled with questions and uncertainty about trust and credibility. Trust is an important concept whenever you provide any information to any commercial entity.

OneGreatFamily takes your family tree research seriously. OneGreatFamily always provides you with access to any information you submit to OneGreatFamily, even if you are not currently subscribing to the service.  So even after you subscription ends, you can still log in with the same user ID and Password.  You can still use Genealogy Browser and Family Dashboard. The only restriction at that time is that you can’t access other’s information.  But you retain full control over the data you provided.

OneGreatFamily will never sell your information on CD-ROM or prevent you from updating your family tree at your convenience. As explained in previous articles, OneGreatFamily sells access to a Genealogy System rather than selling genealogical data.

OneGreatFamily continues to make improvements to its online service and to the overall health of the company. OneGreatFamily is one of the few success stories of online subscription services. With a growing subscription base, the company has created a solid foundation on which it will build for years to come.