The recording of today's webinar "Comparing the Genealogy Giants: Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast and MyHeritage” by Sunny Morton is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

Should you use Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com or MyHeritage.com? Or should you be using more than one site to accomplish your family history goals? Learn how these genealogy giants compare for historical records, online trees, DNA tools and access options. This overview of each site's strengths and weaknesses will help you know which to use now and which to keep in mind when  your research interests or budget change.

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 34 minute recording of "Comparing the Genealogy Giants: Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast and MyHeritage” is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership. 

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 654 classes, 879 hours of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 2,968 pages)
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• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
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• Monthly membership: $9.95/month

Click here to subscribe.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

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The recording of today's MyHeritage Webinars webinar "Understanding DNA Matching Technology” by Ran Snir and Regev Schweiger is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free.

Webinar Description

DNA Matching technology is a hot topic in genealogy today. It is an affordable and increasingly reliable method for discovering relatives you never knew you had. DNA Matching technology can indicate possible relationships between you and your DNA Matches, and allow you to learn more from family trees with people who share your DNA. It also allows you to contact those people and collaborate to expand your family history research. In this webinar, you will learn everything you need to know to make the most of DNA Matching technology. 

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 27 minute recording of "Understanding DNA Matching Technology” is now available to view in our webinar library for free. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership. 

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 652 classes, 876 hours of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 2,963 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year
• Monthly membership: $9.95/month

Click here to subscribe.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2018 webinar brochure here.

See you online!

Should you use Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com or MyHeritage.com? Or should you be using more than one site to accomplish your family history goals? Learn how these genealogy giants compare for historical records, online trees, DNA tools and access options. This overview of each site's strengths and weaknesses will help you know which to use now and which to keep in mind when your research interests or budget change.

Join us and Sunny Morton for the live webinar Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 2pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Before joining, please visit www.java.com to ensure you have the latest version of Java which our webinar software requires. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

Or register for multiple webinars at once by clicking here.

Not sure if you already registered?

Login to view your registration status for this webinar (available for annual or monthly webinar subscribers).

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
7. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
8. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Document Workflow (Intermediate)

Several people have asked me what process I follow when I find a new document.  I follow the same sequence for every document so that I don’t miss anything.

• Before I do anything else, I create a source citation for the document because I am going to need it in several places. I put this citation on the Source Clipboard (For more on creating citations in Legacy see Geoff Rasmussen's Webinar Sources and Citations Made Simple, Standard, and Powerful in the Legacy library.)
• Document received in the mail - I scan the document and save it to my hard drive. I copy and paste the citation from the Source Clipboard (from the Preview panel) to the metadata of the image (in the comments) and I also attach the citation to the bottom of the image (photo editing software). If I share the image with anyone they will have the complete citation
• Digital image of a document that I took (or someone else took on my behalf) - I do the same as above but without having to scan the image
• Online image that I found - I download the image and then do the same as I would for a document that I had scanned 
• I transcribe and/or abstract the document. I use the software program Transcript to make it a bit easier
• I extract every piece of evidence into Legacy and attach a source citation to each entry
• I then link the document image to the appropriate place in Legacy (usually an event)
• I add the abstract to the notes of whatever field I am working with
• I add the citation and the abstract to my To-Do task and then close it out

The only paper copies of documents I have are ones that I received by mail and family artifacts. I keep those in binders/sheet protectors. If I took a digital image, or if I downloaded the image from the internet, I do not print out a paper copy. If I need to enhance the image to make it more readable, I save the image in its original state and then make the enhancements to a copy. I have a consistent file naming system for both my paper and electronic files so that I can find anything in seconds.

My workflow may not work for you; however, it is important that you do have a consistent workflow so that you don't accidentally miss something.

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

DNA Ethnicity Reports

I receive a lot of emails and see a lot of Facebook posts from people wondering why their ethnicity varies so much from company to company. Here are some general principles that you need to keep in mind:

• Different companies use different reference populations
• Different companies divide up the world a little differently
• All of the companies periodically update their algorithms so your percentages will change
• Once you get back to the 3rd great-grandparents, their DNA starts dropping off the further you go back. You can see a chart showing this. Scroll down to the grandparents chart. This is STATISTICAL data. Real life data will be more pronounced
• If you have tested your brothers and sisters they will, most likely, have different percentages than you because they have different DNA than you do (this one throws people too so I though I would mention it)

My paper research has my mother's family in central Europe to the late 1500's on all lines that I have been able to carry back. All of my dad's lines migrated across the pond prior to 1750ish. Best I can tell I am looking at England, Wales, and Ireland (Again, on the lines that I have been able to carry back that far). Here are my results from the different companies. The first thing you should notice is the different geographical areas so it is pretty much impossible for these to match exactly.

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Looking at your ethnicity is fun but don't think it is written in stone. Genealogists should be more concerned with the cousin matches which will help you extend your family tree and break down brick walls.

Want to see another ethnicity report comparison? Check out the YouTube video Marian Pierre-Louis made comparing her ethnicity across MyHeritage, AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

DNA Matching technology is a hot topic in genealogy today. It is an affordable and increasingly reliable method for discovering relatives you never knew you had. DNA Matching technology can indicate possible relationships between you and your DNA Matches, and allow you to learn more from family trees with people who share your DNA. It also allows you to contact those people and collaborate to expand your family history research. In this webinar, you will learn everything you need to know to make the most of DNA Matching technology. 

Join us and MyHeritage's Ran Snir for the live webinar Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 2pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

Or register for multiple webinars at once by clicking here.

Not sure if you already registered?

Login to view your registration status for this webinar (available for annual or monthly webinar subscribers).

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
7. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
8. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The best way to explain how linking and unlinking people in your file will save you a lot of time and aggravation is to give you a couple of scenarios. Let's say you find a marriage record for your ancestor John Doe. He married Jane White. It just so happens you know who Jane White is and you already have her in your file as the daughter of Jacob White and Margaret Smith. You don't want to enter Jane White again because that will create a duplicate. Instead you are going to link to the Jane White that you already have.

Click to enlarge

 
The Name List will pop up and you will highlight Jane White and then click the Select button at the top.

Click to enlarge

 
Depending on how you have your options set up you may or may not automatically get the Marriage screen where you can add their marriage details (Options > Customize > Data Entry > Option 2.1 > "Jump to marriage info when adding a spouse").  You will then see that Jane has been linked to her husband John.  Also notice that all of the people linked to Jane (her parents) remain linked in their proper places.

Click image to enlarge

 
This time let's go in reverse. Let's say you have John Doe married to Jane White but you discover this is an error. He wasn't married to Jane White but rather he was married to Jane Black. If Jane has no other connection to you you might just delete her but what if you think she might fit in your family in another way. You will want to unlink her so that she and the other people connected to her stay in your file. You are going to RIGHT click Jane and then you will see the menu you need.

Click image to enlarge

 
You will get a confirmation dialog box and then you will see Jane only linked to the other members of her family.

Click image to enlarge

You can also unlink people by using the EDIT tab on the Toolbar.

Click image to enlarge

And you can use keyboard shortcuts to link people. L+H = Link Husband, L+W = Link Wife, L+S = Link Son, and L+D = Link Daughter.

Here is another scenario. Let's say you run across someone in your research who you are pretty sure is related to your family but you just don't know how. You can add this person as an unlinked individual in your file. This is a great tool because you can work with this person just like anyone else. You can add known relationships, events, sources, etc. When you figure out how they fit in all you have to do is link them into the correct relationship and then all the information you entered on that person will be retained. To add an unlinked person you will use the Add tab on the main toolbar.

Click image to enlarge

And here is your new unlinked person ready to work with.

Click image to enlarge

Sometimes you will have unlinked people floating around in your file that you didn't know about. This can happen when you delete people because some of the people that were attached to that person could now be unlinked. You might also see this when you import a file from somewhere else. Legacy has a way to check for unlinked people and isolated trees that aren't attached to your main tree. An isolated tree is simply an unlinked person who has family linked to them. Go to VIEW > TREES.

Click image to enlarge

Make sure you click the REFRESH button over on the right so that Legacy will make a fresh scan of your file.

Click image to enlarge

You can see the main tree that has 163 people, one isolated tree that has 6 people, and 7 unlinked individuals. It is a good idea to look at this from time to time to keep up with what is going on in your file.

View a compilation of all Legacy 101 articles. 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This Friday enjoy "No More Blank Pages: 10 Simple Writing Tips for Family Historians" by Lisa Alzo. If you're not a member,  remember the webinar previews are always free.

No More Blank Pages: 10 Simple Writing Tips for Family Historians

Are you excited about the idea of getting your family history down in writing? Maybe you have self-doubts and fears about how to get started, what to write, and how to put it all together in a compelling way? If you are struggling with a blank page, this webinar will provide ten simple tips to find your writing focus and let the words flow! 

About the Presenter

I am the administrator of the Glaentzer One-Name Study with the Guild of One-Name Studies. It is a rare surname so it is a great name for this sort of project. The name originates in Germany but I have known lines migrating out to Italy, France, the Netherlands, and even to the United States.

I was talking about my project with Kirsty Gray. She is based in England and is an expert with One-Name and One-Place Studies. She is also one of our Legacy Webinar presenters. 

Kirsty found an entry for a Glaentzer on the FreeBMD website. I hadn't thought to look there because I had no indication from my research that any Glaentzers had immigrated to England or Wales. This is the first place Kirsty would think to check because she is based in the UK. There is a single entry in the death indexes for a George Glaentzer who died in 1860 (there was a second entry for the same record under the name Georg).

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Kirsty ordered the death certificate and emailed it to me. She also pointed me to the official UK vitals website that includes wills and probate. There is a single Glaentzer entry, George. There was something in the index that immediately caught my eye..

"...Francis Glaentzer the Brother and one of the Next of Kin of the said Deceased now residing at Ancona in Italy..."

George Glaentzer entry in the index (last entry on the page)
George Glaentzer entry in the index, continued (first entry on the page)

Bingo! Francis is the Italian line. I checked my file and sure enough I found George (Georg) and his brother Francis (Franz Joseph). They are my half 1st cousins, 5 times removed. Every Glaentzer is related to me somehow which is another perk when working with a rare surname. Franz was known to have immigrated to Ancona, Italy and his line is still there today. I am in contact with his living descendants. I was able to show that the UK George is one and the same as the German Georg in my file. I didn't have death information on German Georg nor did I know that he had immigrated to England like his brother had immigrated to France. I ordered and received Georg's probate file from the website Kirsty led me to. I also signed up for a free trial to The British Newspaper Archive and found Georg's obituary.

So what did I learn? I learned some vital statistics and immigration information about Georg as well as where he fits into my family and into my One-Name Study. However, the most interesting thing I learned is that he was a "mad hatter" and had committed suicide. You can read more about what that is here.

I also learned that I can text message people in England and that the Windows shortcut for £ is ALT-0163.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

The recording of today's webinar "Finding Jamestown Ancestors” by KC Reid is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

Explore numerous sources that can further genealogical research to help individuals identify a qualifying ancestor in order to join the Jamestown Society. In addition to sources, KC touches on planning your research, sources to help you find sources, and common research pitfalls in genealogical research and how to avoid them. Building from the criteria for qualifying ancestors, KC provides some historical and social context about the first landing ancestors - did you know it included free Africans and a Persian? After giving a live online demonstration on tools that can aid in finding resources and genealogical information relevant for discovering Jamestown ancestry, KC shows how to find the original source documents, and provides several websites that organize the information by person rather than by chronology or other methods common to historical information. She provides an overview of many published works that are helpful in Jamestown genealogical research, including several that may help link families from the early 1900s back to the qualifying period, and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of each. An anthropologist by training, KC highlights information available from archaeological digs from the 1930s onward and the surprising insight they can provide to those researching their Jamestown ancestry. Similarly, she provides insight into the corporate culture of the Virginia Company of London to illustrate the kind of information that may be found in the business records.

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 15 minute recording of "Finding Jamestown Ancestors” is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. Or watch it at your convenience with an annual or monthly webinar membership. 

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 651 classes, 876 hours of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 2,959 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year (currently 50% off until August 20, 2017)
• Monthly membership: $9.95/month

Click here to subscribe.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2018 webinar brochure here.

See you online!