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I’ve been working on my family tree more than usual over the past year. I thought I’d share some tips that I have found helpful.
IOS
If you are using an iPad to work on your Family Tree, use keyboard shortcuts to speed data entry. Examples:
Xus = United States
Xmi = Michigan, United States
Xde = Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States
Set up your keyboard shortcuts here:
Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement
ANCESTRY
* Use Web Links on profile page to link to an online obituary or to a grave memorial
* Use a tag for a specific To Do task. For example, I subscribe to newspapers.com infrequently. I use a custom tag called “o” to identify which profiles to do obituary searches for in future. When I have a newspapers.com subscription, I do a tree search for the custom tag “o” to see a list of required searches.
* Use the custom tag “obit” to easily identify profiles which have an obituary in the gallery tab.
* Use a custom tag to identify some of the profiles where you maintain the same profile on another site. I use the tag FS for Family Search and put the FS url in Notes.
FAMILY SEARCH
The “View My Relationship” menu item on a profile page the Family Search community tree can help establish your link with DNA relatives when the relative has a tree that is not well-developed on Ancestry or elsewhere but appears more developed on the community tree at Family Search.
You have to be signed in at Family Search and have set Permissions in your Account Settings to allow Relationship Viewing. The relationship shown would be the relationship between the root person in your tree (listed in your Account tab under Family Tree Starting Person”) and the person whose profile you clicked the “View My Relationship” menu item.
The “View My Relationship” menu item is on the top right side of any profile, just above the horizontal blue line.
FINDAGRAVE
* If a woman has adult children when she is widowed and then remarries, the surname in her obituary will be that of her second husband, but she may be buried with her first husband under his surname. If both surnames are shown as the last name field (e.g. Smith / Jones) the grave will pop up in search results using either surname in search.
* If you do not want to manage certain memorials any more, you can transfer management of them to Findagrave. I usually go the memorial and click on “View source” which moves the screen to the bottom of the page. Then I click on “Transfer management” and type 8 in the Grave ID box that appears. Then click the button that says “Transfer this memorial”.
* Use Web Links on profile page to link to an online obituary or to a grave memorial
Online obituaries generally don't last forever, so I would not use Web Links for that. I would create a source citation manually, reference the website/date/etc, include the URL, but copy and paste the obituary so when the URL no longer works, you still have a copy of the obituary. Honestly, I don't see the point of Web Links. If it's a valid source of information, create a source citation, that's what they're for.
Online obituaries generally don't last forever, so I would not use Web Links for that. I would create a source citation manually, reference the website/date/etc, include the URL, but copy and paste the obituary so when the URL no longer works, you still have a copy of the obituary. Honestly, I don't see the point of Web Links. If it's a valid source of information, create a source citation, that's what they're for.
Agree. I just copy/paste obits into a note in ancestry. These notes generally have enough information to give the source, too.
I love some of the old small town newspaper stories. They often report who is visiting relatives. I was able to prove a sibling relationship based on the newspaper's list of relatives attending a baptism in a country church. The article was in old script German, which was a challenge but worth the effort. I also found newspaper accounts of my great-uncles' Irish gang activities in St. Louis around 1900 -- intimidating voters at the polls.
My wife is the "old school" geneologist. She had to go out to libraries, courthouses, etc., searching for all the birth and death certificates and census records, plus requesting information from state archives. She was doing it way long before all you had to do was check a web site. But today she uses Ancestry, my heritage, find a grave, and a couple more. She also works a lot through findagrave and raogk.com (random acts of geneological kindness) helping others get the information, or pictures, they request from our area. But she says she does like newspaper.com.
I love some of the old small town newspaper stories. They often report who is visiting relatives.
Yes, small town newspapers can be a treasure trove for doing genealogy. I actually feel sorry for people who had ancestors or family who lived in big anonymous cities. You probably won't find much.
My Dad's family has lived for the past 160 years in a tiny town in rural Iowa. Iowa probably has the best digitalized newspaper collection in the country--and it's all absolutely free. All of the small town newspapers in the counties where my Dad's family have lived have been digitalized from about 1850 (the first issues) to December 31, 2020. They update at the end of the year.
Since this is small town Iowa, when someone dies they usually get a huge 1000+ word obituary. They just go on and on... They're like mini-biographies full of details. I probably have full obituaries for every single family member for the past 150 years.
It's still like that today. Every time I go back to that area of Iowa I also laugh when I listen to one of the local radio stations. You know you're in small town USA when they read the obituaries over the radio about 3 or 4 times a day. Everyone in the area knows almost everyone (and their business), so when someone dies it's big local news. You don't want to miss the funeral.
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