Heartland Genealogy

Ancestry recently made some changes to their Ethnicity display. I first became aware of this change during a webinar. I was reminded of this change this morning when I read " Ancestry Updates DNA Ethnicity Presentation " on The Genes Blog. Thus, I decided to check out my Ethnicity screen. The 'new' part of the presentation is the time line. As I began clicking thru the time line, it showed the migration from Europe to the United States. I still need to learn about these maps and how they can help me with my paper research!

My first 'research logs' were paper based and I was fairly consistent about keeping those records. However, when I started using software to manage my family tree, my diligence in recording what sources I had used began to slip. My software of the time, The Master Genealogist, had the ability to maintain a research log but I incorporated that tool into my research process. Recently, webinars and blogs that I follow have emphasized the need to maintain an accurate log of sources used. Knowing that I was lacking in this area, I decided to try the tools within RootsMagic to see if I could improve my research process. I first tried this logging process while on a trip to the Midwest Genealogy Library. I transferred data from my TODO spreadsheet into tasks on RootsMagic. During my visit to the library, I was able to mark the task completed and transfer it to the Research Log. With the Research Log window open, I then entered the bibliographic information and transcribed dat...

Historically, I have published most of my genealogy research under 'Heartland Genealogy'. When RM introduced TreeShare, I was having trouble getting a new tree established with that name. Thus, my TreeShare name is currently called 'Crawford-Briles'. For the sake of consistency, I would like my old tree name back. Thus, I asked the Facebook community if it was possible to change the name. So, I'm going to try to change the name of my tree. I have closed my tree in RM and backed it up. Dropbox is in the process of syncing both the file and the backup. On Ancestry, I opened Tree Settings and changed the name of the tree. I then re-opened RootsMagic. In RootsMagic, my file is called Crawford-Briles. Hopefully, it will still link to my renamed tree on Ancestry - Heartland Genealogy. To test that, I clicked on the TreeShare icon. Thankfully, it is telling me it is connected to my Heartland Genealogy Tree.

Due to my tree not showing in a search on Ancestry, I'm learning more and more about how TreeShare works. One of my observations is that I often have a 'note' at the bottom of my sources on Ancestry. One of those notes was a 'burial' note. Most of the time, they are titled, 'residence note'. Pictured is such a note on the record for George Mentzer in my Crawford-Briles tree.

After working thru my 'study' of what happens to sources with TreeShare, I wondered whether an image gets downloaded multiple times when attaching a census source to individuals of a family. In my previous post, TreeShare and Sources , I looked at the 1900 census for Paul Emory Mentzer. In that census, Paul was listed as a 4 year old son of Charles Mentzer. Prior to accepting any Ancestry hints for the 1900 census for Charles Mentzer, I had one source attached to that event.

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to handle Ancestry hints, TreeShare and sources. I have a fairly well sourced database that includes a lot of census research. Some of that census research dates back to the microfilm days. I tried to use the standards of the time to write citations for the data. My original citations would have been written in PAF as a NOTE. Some of those citations still exist in my current data. When I transferred from PAF to The Master Genealogist, I tried to go back thru my file and convert those NOTEs to facts. In the process, I also started using one of the citations templates provided by TMG: Richard Lackey's Cite Your Sources (c1980). Since the Master Genealogist community promoted the use of Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence! Citation Analysis for the Family Historian , I switched to that set of templates for my sources. When my data was transferred from TMG to RootsMagic, I also participated in Thomas McEntee's Genealogy Do-Over ...

The verdict is in!   I need to accept hints on Ancestry in order for my tree to become searchable. Ironically, my DNA 'shared matches' list was working even though I was accepting the hints on RootsMagic and not on Ancestry! Not only do I have shared Ancestry hints and circles but the list of hints and circles has been growing. Thus, I didn't think there was an issue with the way I was using RootsMagic! Now, that I'm aware of the issue, I'm going to change my workflow. Accept valid hint on Ancestry Use RootsMagic to source that hint and manually add the image (as I was doing prior to TreeShare) Ignore pink sources and media on TreeShare  In the meantime, I'm going back thru my 5 generation pedigree and Clicking confirmed sources and changing them to undecided within RootsMagic Accepting those sources on Ancestry  Now, I wait for Ancestry indexing to pick up my tree. I would like to thank the RootsMagic community (both Facebook and Roo...