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Family History Session 3 From Link into Learning Family History Storing Your Family Information Today's session is about keeping your family history safe. Rather than maintain your records on bits of paper, in a notebook or on record cards you might like to consider storing them in a database or an on-line system. This has the advantage of being able to print out your family tree easily when things change. Don't panic if you are new to computers, all the programs make entering data and displaying your family history really easy. Here we will look at a web site that is free! But there are many other programs you can use or buy. Each program will be slightly different and offer you different features. If you are thinking of buying one you should find out all you can about it to make sure it suites your needs. Exercises Today you have two tasks. For both of them you will enter the same family history; first onto paper then into a web site. If you do not have much family information to hand don't worry; you start this tree with you! IMPORTANT: if you intend to store data about a living person you must seek their permission first. If this is a problem for this exercise then just make up some names. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 1 of 9 Family History What is a GEDCOM File GEDCOM is an acronym for Genealogical Data Communication; it's a method of formatting the text of your family data so that different software programs and operating systems can read and understand it. GEDCOM is a text file format developed by the projects and planning division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This format was developed so that a common standard of communication could exist between the Church and submitters of genealogical data. This has now evolved into the de-facto standard for data exchange between most genealogy software programs and systems. A GEDCOM file is a series of text lines (usually using the ASCII character set) each holding a specific piece of data relevant to your family file. The lines are numbered to show the hierarchy among the data, and are tagged to show the type of data. Example of Part of a GEDCOM File 0 HEAD 1 SOUR PAF 2 NAME Personal Ancestral File 2 VERS 5.2.18.0 1 DATE 27 Jan 2004 2 TIME 17:34:02 1 FILE law.ged 1 GEDC 2 VERS 5.5 2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED 1 CHAR UTF-8 1 LANG English 1 SUBM @SUB1@ 0 @SUB1@ SUBM 1 NAME Debbie Law 1 ADDR Bolventor 2 CONT Cornwall 2 CTRY United Kingdom 1 EMAIL debbie@oldfrog.com 0 @I1@ INDI 1 NAME Debra Ann /Law/ 2 SURN Law 2 GIVN Debra Ann 1 SEX F 1 BIRT 2 DATE 12 Nov 1959 2 PLAC Romsey, Hampshire, Uk 1 _UID 2C8F36FD5FB0A543AE04528AA3BCEEC7874C 1 FAMC @F1@ 1 CHAN 2 DATE 27 Jan 2004 3 TIME 17:26:54 It's quite possible to construct a GEDCOM file manually (using a word processor), but the process could be painstaking and error-prone. A better way is to get a program to generate it for you. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 2 of 9 Family History What to Do Now! Here are some options that may help you in your search for your family history. Take a more in-depth course At times Cornwall Adult Education run Family & Local History courses at their centres. Contact the Education Help Line on Truro 01872 322032 for more information. Other courses may be available in your area, contact your local library which should have information on courses running in your area. Join a society Even if you have no ancestors in Cornwall, think about joining the Cornwall Family History Society. Cornwall Family History Society 5 Victoria Square Truro TR1 2RS Telephone 01872 264044 www.cornwallfhs.com You are likely to meet like minded people and maybe learn from their experience. You can also take advantage of their library in Truro. Membership is £12 a year. Read a good book At the end of these notes is a small selection of the many books about genealogy on the market. If you are thinking of researching your family history seriously you might like to consider buying one of these or seeing if your local library can get you a copy. With the limited time on this course we have only looked at a few sources of family history information. By reading a book on the subject you will be introduced to many more sources and you will be able to learn from some experts! Practice you computer skills Now you have seen how easy it is to search on-line and store data on your computer you might want to buy a program that does all sorts of fancy things for you. Included below is a selection of programs that were available in January 2004. Devon Record Office On-line Family History Courses http://www.devon.gov.uk/dro/coursesframe.html These courses are normally held at Exeter, but the Devon Record Office is in the process of making some of the course notes available through this website. The courses held at Exeter have a substantial practical content, involving the use of microfiche, microfilm, and displays of published books, journals and magazines as well as original documents; this cannot be reproduced with the on-line courses. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 3 of 9 Family History Cornwall County Council www.cornwall.gov.uk/history/famhist/ab-le03.htm Cornwall County Council provides a family history section on their web site BBC History Trail www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory The BBC web site offers lots of information on researching your family tree. Follow the links on this web page to find out how to get started in your family history research. Local places to visit These places may help your research. The Cornwall Record Office Old County Hall Truro Cornwall TR1 3AY United Kingdom Tel: 01872 323129 Email cro@cornwall.gov.uk Cornwall Registration Service The Register Office, Lyndhurst St Nicholas Street, Bodmin, PL31 1AG Tel 01208 73677 Email bodminregistrars@cornwall.gov.uk Royal Cornwall Museum River Street Truro, Cornwall TR1 2SJ Telephone: 01872 272205 www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk/mda_information.html Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 4 of 9 Family History Selected references for further reading The reviews given here are edited from the on-line store amazon.co.uk. All these books should be available through your local library. Getting Started in Family History (Pocket Guides to Family History) The National Archives; ISBN: 1873162871. Price £4. This very readable guide from the UK Public Records Office will whet your appetite for the other books in the series. It's just the thing for anyone who would like to start family history research but is daunted by the prospect. The style is simple and clear, with a very useful reference section at the back. Excellent value. The Genealogist's Internet Peter Christian. The National Archives; ISBN: 1903365465. Price £11. It's hard to imagine a more compendious or useful book for the intelligent beginner or the established Family Historian with ambitions to extend his or her knowledge through the enormous (but potentially bewildering) resources of the web. The author is a Fellow of London's Society of Genealogists but does not blind with science: the book is a well-paced primer, but completely un-patronising. It will prove enlightening even to hardened net-users, and it contains a huge number of tips about exploring British Genealogy online that will be indispensable to Family Historians all over the world. Tracing Your Family History S.Colwell. Hodder Headline plc; ISBN 0-340-85973-5. Price £10. "An excellent introductory text-book by the Family and Local History Specialist Reader Adviser at the Public Record Office, Kew, in the long-established and well-respected "Teach Yourself" series. It is, for an introductory text, very comprehensive." The Dictionary of Genealogy Terrick V.H. Fitzhugh. A & C Black; ISBN: 0713648597. Price 25. If you are researching your Family History you will find this book of great value. It clearly gives information in alphabetical form including an extensive glossary of terms the researcher may encounter and details of sources etc. Also included are photographs of relevant documents to make recognition easier. There are also interesting notes and tables. All this making the book an essential for all serious family historians whether professional or amateur. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 5 of 9 Family History A Dictionary of English Surnames P.H. Reaney. Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0198600925. Price £11. "This paperback is brilliant value at 18 names per penny, and my heavily used copy is dog-eared, battered and always within reach like favourite books should be. It lists surnames and variants, dates and sources of first mentions, origins and meanings. The Introduction about types of names, their historical roots and how and why they vary is a book in itself. There are 10 pages of obscure reference sources which take me into another world. An Appendix tells how to plot the distribution of surnames and locate their home". The Oxford Guide to Family History D. Hey. Oxford Paperbacks; ISBN: 0192803131. Price £13. "The Oxford Guide to Family History is not just another guide to the mechanics of constructing a family tree. David Hey shows how to go beyond this and discover the reality of the lives of your ancestors. Who were they? Where did they live? How did they earn their living? Practical guidance is given on the basics of research - how to get started, where to find records - and there are many illustrations." Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History M.D. Herber. Sutton Publishing Ltd: ISBN 0-7509-148-1 Price £20. "No other publication gives such comprehensive and up-to-date guidance on tracing British ancestry and researching family history. Illustrated throughout with more than ninety examples of the major types of records, and with detailed lists of further reading." The Family Tree Detective C.D. Rogers. Manchester Univ. Press; ISBN 0 7190 1846 3. Price £12. An excellent detailed guide to basic UK genealogy. From the publisher's blurb: "A problemsolving manual rather than a simple "how-to" guide. The Family Tree Detective explains what to do when the usual methods fail and provides invaluable assistance for those without access to London's vast resources of genealogical information." Basic Sources for Family History A. Todd. Allen & Todd ISBN 0 948781 05 X. Price £6. A very good, and exceptionally cheap, introductory guide covering the use of civil registration records, and census records in very useful detail. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 6 of 9 Family History The Good Web Guide Introduction to Genealogy Elaine Collins. The Good Web Guide; ISBN: 1903282330. Price £5. The Good Web Guide team bring you a completely revised edition of this best selling book to keep you up to date with the best family history sites on the Internet. With tens of thousands of genealogy sites available, this handsomely produced guide presents the top 100 for British users, as well as offering essential information to anyone interested in uncovering their family line. There are some very good and unusual sites included in the listings and many would help both a novice researcher and the more dedicated family historian who is looking to provide their tree with the finishing touches that make it stand out in a crowd. Includes free on-line updates for a year and free subscription to the Good Web Guide Genealogy Channel. Computer Aided Genealogy Nigel Bayley. Federation of Family History Societies; ISBN: 1 861500076. Price £3. A guide to using Computer Software for Family History. This book was recently reviewed in Family Tree Magazine by David Hawgood "I recommend it to anyone considering buying a genealogy package, and also anyone who has used one package for a few years and wants to know what developments have been made in genealogy software". Local History – A Handbook for Beginners Philip Riden. Merton Priory Press; ISBN: 1 898937 27 3. Price £10. This study aims to equip the amateur researcher with the skill and knowledge required to make the best use of archival records in the pursuit of their local research, taking full account of the varying circumstances facing the local historian in different parts of the UK, for example the relative richness of records in the South-East as compared to Wales and the North. Beginning with a brief summary of the evolution of local history as a pursuit since the 16th century, the author goes on to give advice about making a start on research in a local studies library; using the resources of a local record office; the importance of maps; the evidence of landscape and buildings to supplement work on documents; the scope for local history at the Public Record Office and other national institutions. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 7 of 9 Family History Software Below is a list of some of the genealogy programs available. Most of these programs can be bought at www.amazon.co.uk or from other places on the web. Please make sure that you get the UK versions, as many of these programs are also sold in the US. Note also some of these products have not been reviewed; the text here comes straight from their advertising blurb. Any reviews or comments I have found I have put in italics. Family Tree Maker V11 Family Tree Maker has a very easy to use interface showing the Husband and wife's details with offspring, with the ability to click on parents or offspring to change the current person's family details. It has the ability to store such details as Adoption information, Medical data, Notes, Address and unlimited events. You can conduct a search for a match on any field and it will match on partial information e.g. part of a name or date. The trees produced are very stylish with the ability to change the box style, chart border style, font name and size. A good page overlap is allowed which make it easier to produce large charts and paste them together. Price: £28. Suits the beginner, is simple to use and has excellent charts, but designed for the American market. Family Historian Family Historian is a new UK program that has comprehensive features. Superb Diagrams, including Family Historian’s Unique ‘All Relatives’ Diagram. All the standard diagrams are provided, plus you can design your own, based on templates. The ‘All Relatives’ type of diagram really does allow you to view all your relatives (including in laws) in a way that’s easy to understand. Relatives of the same type (e.g. all first cousins, all second cousins, etc) end up in the same row; so you can read off how people are related, from the (optional) row labels. Price: £ 50 Family Historian is a rarity in having a UK author. It is a comprehensive program suited to an experienced genealogist. Roots Magic UK Edition This package has a good range of reports and charts. It suits family historians that have a lot of people to record. It has excellent search facilities and good source referencing. With this version you can chart relationships, link images to sources and produce enhanced web pages. The UK edition includes a searchable index to millions of people in the Census and other Genealogy resources, Bartholomew's UK Atlas 1898 and a UK spell check dictionary. It also Includes £250 worth of vouchers off the British Data Archive Census CD Sets. Price: £35. It suits large projects or those gathering data from online resources such as Family Search. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 8 of 9 Family History Create your Family Tree This Deluxe pack contains: the Master Genealogist Silver UK Edition - an easy to use, professional family tree project manager. Price: £10. Printing name lists and family charts are easy enough and can be customised to suit your own requirements. The narrative print out selections are very good. Free updates are available from "whollygenes.com". Overall I am quite impressed with the program and would recommend it to any one just starting Heritage Family Tree Deluxe Wide range of charts and reports plus vintage photos. Price: £40 Heritage Family Tree is an easy program to understand, and there are lots of places to store notes, pictures and record sources. It has a rather good function for photos whereby you can store several photos for the same person and view them as a continuous presentation (slide show) - like a mini film. On the downside, Heritage Family Tree doesn't offer flexibility in displaying the actual tree itself. A person's ancestors are shown with a direct line only - no siblings at each level (no chance to display all relatives) and on A4 size paper only. Descendants are displayed in much the same way, with a basic style that doesn't include many options other than to include photos or notes. None of the printout versions allow you to change the style of the tree very much. Generations Grande Suite This product includes 31 CDs. With over 350 million names and references, four complete software programs and the exclusive Internet Centre - an entire collection of Internet tools ready to help you quickly research, share and discover you family heritage online. In addition, Generations Grande Suite contains a free 3 billion name search from Heritage Quest, exclusive multimedia tutorials on genealogy research, SnapShot Express photo restoration and document enhancement software, MasterCook Heritage Edition to save your family's special recipes, iCollect an off-line web browser, automatic web authoring, a 1,000+ Family Tree Graphics Pack, a free copy of the book "Netting Your Ancestors", and critically acclaimed features of EasyTree and EasyChart. Price £50 The software is well written and includes a lot of tools and reporting functions. The bulk of the supplied data on many CD's however is of limited value and should be seen a padding. Custodian 3 Custodian is not a family tree program, but a series of databases with pre-defined forms, specially designed to store genealogical information. It is a powerful tool to aid research. This custom designed genealogy database will take all your data and index it. This new version has been completely re-written from scratch and contains many new features like a name & place index, charts, import/export wizards, new data forms, an advanced SQL feature, built in help files and more... Price: £47. Personal Ancestral File Download from www.familysearch.org. Personal Ancestral File is a tool to help you record, manage, and share your genealogical information. With this program, you can create and store family information about thousands of individuals. Price FREE. Family History Handouts – Session 3 October 2004 Page 9 of 9