Who Do You Think You Are? Reruns on MSNBC

MSNBC has begun re-airing the run of NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are" series on Friday evenings at 10pm ET through June 11th.

If you missed any of the original WDYTYA episodes or if you want to review any of the genealogy search techniques shown in the shows, now you can.

How Do I Find My Ancestors?

You may be asking yourself, "How do I find my ancestors?" after viewing the compelling new TV show, Who Do You Think You Are?.   The TV show tells the stories of the family history of celebrities, and unearths connections to the California Gold Rush, Salem witch trials, slave auctions, the Civil War, and other unique slices of American history. 

This show personalizes the family history of celebrities and turns it into a gripping narrative entwined with the history of the country.  The celebrities reflect who we all are -  a microcosm of the United States multi-ethnicity.  All families have a unique story, not just celebrities.  After all, before they were celebrities, they were regular people from regular families.

If you are interested in tracing your own family tree and discovering your own unique family story, it's easy to get started.  Begin with yourself and work backwards as they do in the TV show.

Start your private family tree online to enter what you already know about yourself, your parents, your grandparents, and as far back as you know.  Invite your parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins and other family members to contribute what they know to add to your online tree - fill in names and dates, tell stories and upload photos.  Ancestry.com will use what you enter to try and find more about your family in the world's largest online collection of historical records and family trees.

Talk to the older people in your family.  You may be surprised what they know but never talked about because they thought no one was interested.  Here are some suggested questions to ask them to get the ball rolling.

After these first steps, learn the additional steps for building your family tree at the Ancestry.com  Learning Center. And here are further resources for how to begin your genealogy search.

Your family story is waiting to be found.   "To know who you are you, you have to know where you came from."  Your journey can be as exciting, as emotional, and as surprising as the stories on the TV show because it is your personal family history.  The excitement and surprises happen as you uncover that story

Who Do You Think You Are? success in the UK

The idea for the new US television show on NBC Who Do You Think You Are? originated from a phenomenally successful show in the UK, which has traced the roots of over 50 celebrities in the last 6 years. During the last season, more than 5 million viewers tuned in to watch the UK show. 

Nearly 12,000 Brits attended the Who Do You Think You Are? Live conference in February 2009. Of those, 84 percent say they started researching their family history since 2004 when the show began.  The show has generated a surge of family history interest in the UK and, hopefully, the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are? will result in the same enthusiasm.

I'll be watching Friday night.  Let's hope the show will become as popular in the US as it is in the UK

"Who Do You Think You Are?" Episode Schedule

Update: NBC has renewed Who Do You Think You Are for 2010/2011.  They also announced a new schedule for the remainder of this season: 

 

• April 9: Sarah Jessica Parker (Repeat) 
• April 16: No episode 
• April 23: Susan Sarandon 
• April 30: Spike Lee

 

Here is the current schedule for the Who Do You Think You Are? episodes according to NBC:

• March 5 - Sarah Jessica Parker
• March 12 - Emmitt Smith
• March 19 - Lisa Kudrow  
• March 26 - Matthew Broderick
• April 2 - Brooke Shields
• April 9 - Susan Sarandon  
• April 23 - Spike Lee  

   

Who Do You Think You Are? in the News

 

  In the coming weeks, Who Do You Think You Are? is going to be spotlighted in several major media outlets. Among them, Oprah will designate an entire hour to family history next Tuesday!

 

Here's a list of a few shows to watch for (all dates/times are subject to change):

 

• Wednesday, March 3
• Today Show (NBC) 8-9 am
• The View (ABC - check your local TV listings)
• The Joy Behar Show (HLN - Headline News) 9 pm ET
• Friday, March 5
  
  • Today Show (NBC) 10-11 am
• Monday, March 8
  
  • Martha Stewart (check your local TV listings)
• Tuesday, March 9
  
  • Oprah (check your local TV listings)
  • Craig Ferguson (CBS late night)
• Friday, March 19
  
  • Bonnie Hunt (check your local TV listings)

 

Tune into NBC this Friday night, March 5th at 8/7c to find out how Sarah Jessica Parker is connected to the Salem Witch Trials.  Was her ancestor an accused or an accuser?  We'll find out on Friday.

Free Online Backup Storage for Your Genealogy Files

Google recently announced that any file type can now be uploaded to Google Docs storage. Google gives 1 GB of storage for free and more storage if you pay.  A single file upload is limited to 250 MB.  Google says  “This makes it easy to backup more of your key files online, from large graphics and raw photos to unedited home videos taken on your smartphone.”    Look for a “bubble notification” when signing in to know when this feature becomes available to you.

I created a folder in Google Docs called Genealogy Backup and began uploading to see if I found Google Docs a viable backup storage solution for my genealogy files.

I uploaded my genealogy files .ftm, ftmb, and .ged files to my Genealogy Backup folder.  All uploaded successfully and once uploaded I then had the options to download these files or to share them.

I next uploaded multiple pdf files - all the reports that I had saved which were produced by my genealogy program.  These also uploaded successfully and  not only can I download and share these pdf reports, I can also read them online and print them.

I then tried my media file which includes all my downloaded census and other record images.  I wish I could have uploaded the folder as a whole, but Google Docs made me upload them by record by record.  I could select multiple records to upload at a time, but when I tried to select all, Google Docs gave me an error message and told me to select less records to upload.  Uploading all these record images took quite a bit of time and used up a lot of my free storage space - not very practical.  I hope Google will soon allow uploading a whole folder at one time.

Overall, I am pleased to have another free place to backup my genealogy files, but I'll just be uploading my ftm genealogy files and not the individual record images.  The upload is manual and not automatic like the backup service Mozy (Mozy not only gives 2 GB storage for free, but does the back up automatically).

Here is my Genealogy Files Backup Plan.  I used to copy my files to CD's, but now copy to a flash drive.  With Google Docs, I like the idea of also having my files saved somewhere away from my house in case of a real disaster where both the computer AND flash drive were both destroyed.  I think saving to the Google Docs cloud makes a lot of sense.

The best discovery with uploading genealogy files to Google Docs is that I can now easily share my genealogy with family members by uploading and sharing my reports.  All free.

My genealogy files are small and Google Docs suits my needs for a secondary genealogy backup storage.  If Google Docs doesn't have enough online storage for your needs, Mozy offers 2 GB storage for free and has automatic backup. Microsoft SkyDrive offers 25 GB of free storage with a manual backup and ADrive offers 50 GB of free storage with manual backup. Or you can always email yourself genealogy files using your gmail account.  Gmail offers more storage than Google Docs and the amount is constantly being increased.  I suspect at some point in the future Google Docs will follow suit.

Additional Google Search Options

Google just added additional search filters to its Search Options.  You can find the Search Options side bar by clicking Show options on the blue bar above your search results on the Google Search Results Page (the page of results you get after you have entered a query into the Google search box).

Search Options helps the user filter search results by different criteria without opening a new page. Generally, Google gives what it considers the most relevant results first, but Search Options allows you to change the filter to meet your own needs.  Previously using Search Options, you could search withing a date range, get related search results, and get a Google translation.



You now have the following additional choices to further filter your Google search results:

• Visited pages  or Not yet visited  lets you search specifically for webpages you already viewed or not viewed. You can imagine how helpful it will be to select sites that you have Not yet visited  when searching for genealogy websites so that you don't keep checking out the same sites over and over.  This feature relies on your Google Web History so make sure you are logged into your Google account when surfing genealogy sites. 

• Fewer shopping sites or More shopping sites  could be useful when genealogy surfing if your search results keep giving book results at Amazon or memorabilia at eBay. Don't want those results?  Now you can choose Fewer shopping sites. 

• Blogs  This option will restrict results to just blogs. Blogs have been added as a search filter in addition to the filters for Images, Videos, News, Updates. Books, and Forums.

If you haven't tried doing your Google searches using Show Options located on the upper blue bar on your Google search results page, try it the next time you do a genealogy search.  I found these filters to really help filter and narrow down my search results.

A Look at Ancestry's Improved Search

Ancestry.com has made a huge improvement to its search wildcard functionality.

Previously, you had to enter the first three characters of a name and then the wild cards * or a ?.   Now you can use a wildcard for the first, second or third letter in a name.

The changes to the use of wildcards are:

• You can put a wildcard in any character position including the first, second,  or third character, such as *son or ?atthew,  J?nes or Sm?th.
• Either the first or last character must be a non-wildcard character. For example, Han* and *son are okay, but not *anso* 
• Names must contain at least three non-wildcard characters. For example, Ha*n is okay, but not H*n 

Wildcards at Ancestry.com work only with exact matches, not soundex matches (searches that look for sound-a-like names).

Why are wild cards necessary when doing a genealogy search?  Even though you know a surname should be spelled, it doesn't mean that the clerk who wrote the original records spelled it correctly and this can make it difficult to find a record.  For example, even on my own birth certificate, my mother's maiden name is spelled incorrectly and I have given up trying to get it corrected.  Using a wildcard helps search for spelling variations. 

I have also found that some official records will record a nickname for a first name.  John* will find both John and Johnny. However, if a first name is recorded as an initial, the new wildcard search will not help since you still need 3 letters to search.  If this is a possibility, (for example, many first names in the Social Security Death Index are just first initials), it is best to search with the first name blank.

Hint:  Start a search at Ancestry.com without wildcards.  Only after your first search doesn't produce results, should you try a search with wild cards.  If a wild card search doesn't work, next try searching with only a last name in case the record is recorded with just an initial for a first name.

What is the difference between the two wildcards?

• The ? matches one and only one character.
• The *  matches zero or more characters.

• M?yer will find Mayer and Meyer but not Myer, but M*yer will find Myer, Meyer and Mayer.
• M*yer* will find Myer, Meyer, Mayer, Myers, Meyers, Mayers, Myerson, etc.

No longer will I have to make different search queries using the multiple Myer/Myers/Meyer/Meyers variations because of Ancestry's previous wildcard limitation in the first 3 letters. This is my gggrandfather's surname and I have seen his name spelled all of these different ways from document to document. 

This change will really help with Mc and Mac names also.  Now that we can put wild cards in the second position, it can be used to find both names in one search.   Search for M*Carthy to find McCarthy and MacCarthy.

The wild cards work on first names.

• Jo*n will find names recorded as John or Jon.  Unless you specify gender in your search, Jo*n will also find Joan.
• Jo*n* will find John or Jon or Jonathan as well as Johnny or Jonie.

Previously, we had to use a soundex search to look for name variations which often produced too many false results.  This new functionality will be a big time saver.

Look for Ancestry.com to continue to improve its search this year with additional tweaks.

Google Picasa Desktop Face Recognition

Google has released Picasa 3.5, the newest version of their free photo editing software for Mac or PC.

Picasa 3.5 has many new features, but the one that will appeal to genealogists is that the incoporation of face recognition software which can help name the unknown people in old family photos. It also automatically organizes the photos into albums for each person.

Previously, to use Google's face recognition software, your photos had to be uploaded to Google Picasa Web Albums online. Now it can be done on your own computer.

Picasa uses name tags to power the face recognition software. The use of name tags then automatically organizes your photos by the people in them.

When you first launch Picasa 3.5, it will start scanning the photos in your computer's collection to create groups of similar faces using the same face recognition software that the Google Web Albums use. It puts all these groups into the "Unnamed People" album, where you can easily add a name tag to a set of faces by clicking "Add a name" and typing the person's name.

After you add a name tag, all pictures that Picasa has identified as that person are automatically added to a new album of their name. As Picasa scans more faces, it will suggest pictures that it thinks match faces already in your people albums. These suggestions are shown with an orange question mark next to the person's album. All Google suggestions can be confirmed or not. The face recognition is a tool, but it doesn't take the place of personal judgment.

With photos that contain multiple people, Picasa takes a thumbnail of each person to be tagged. For someone with old family photos, this is a very helpful way to find and organize all the photos.
It really didn't take me that long to name tag all the photos on my computer since Google grabs so many photos of the same person at one time. This allowed me to type the name once for a large batch of photos.

Once you have added name tags to your photos, you can do creative things with your photos in the new people albums. All the photos of one person, even if they appear in a group photo, appear in a album for that person. But you could also find all of the photos with the same two people in them. You can create customizable face collages and make time-lapse movies.

Since name tags now work on both Picasa and Picasa Web Albums, you can share name tags between the two. If you've added name tags in Picasa Web Albums, go to Tools > Download Name Tags from Picasa Web Albums in Picasa to import all the names you've added online. I found this saved me a lot of time.

It works the other way as well: if you're using name tags in Picasa Web Albums, any name tags you add in Picasa are automatically uploaded to Picasa Web Albums when you upload tagged photos, but you can keep all name tag info on your computer if you choose.

How Google Picasa Software Can Help Genealogists

FTM 2009 Error Message when Un-Installing

Now that I am running Family Tree Maker 2010 on my computer, I decided to uninstall Family Tree Maker 2009 to free up some space on my hard drive. FTM 2010 does not install over FTM 2009, rather it creates a separate folder taking up extra space.

I am running Windows XP. When I went to the Add/Delete Programs in my Control Panel and tried to delete FTM 2009, I got the error message "Error Reading Setup Initialization File". Uh-oh. Since I am trying to delete this file, I am not sure why I would get a setup error.


I went to the Knowledge Base for FTM and searched for "Error Reading Setup Initialization File". Nothing there. Not for installing or un-installing.

I searched Google. Everything I read about this message pointed to a problem with a download. But I hadn't downloaded FTM2009. I installed it from a disk. And I was trying to uninstall.

Not knowing what else to do, I put the FTM 2009 disk into my CD drive and clicked to install (even though it was already installed). thinking perhaps I could re-install that might help me get a successful delete. A few minutes after inserting the disk, I got the option to install or delete the program. I chose to delete the program, and it was then successfully deleted from my computer with no error messages.

If you run into the error message "Error Reading Setup Initialization File" when trying to uninstall an older version of FTM using the Add/Delete on the Control Panel, try using the FTM disk to install, and then choose "uninstall" from the list of options.

Collaborate on Picasa Web Albums

Google has just introduced Collaborative Picasa Web Albums. Now, every album on Picasa Web Albums is potentially collaborative, meaning multiple people can add photos to the same album.

This is a great way for cousins, siblings and other family members to share ancestor and old family photos.

Plus, the more photos that are placed in one web album, the better job Picasa can do with its photo recognition. This can help families better identify people in those shoe boxes of old photos.

Picasa Web Album contributors' photos will be attributed to the contributor, and they can rotate, delete, and add captions to the pictures they've uploaded.

To make your own Picasa Web Album collaborative:

• Click the "Share" button in Picasa Web Albums
• Select the people you want to share with
• Select the "Let people I share with contribute photos" check box.

Those whom you have invited to collaborate will receive an email with an invitation to contribute photos. When your family members visit your collaborative album, they just need to sign in and click the "Add Photos" button to start uploading their photos.