Family Tree Maker Arrives in My Mailbox

I got my copy of Family Tree Maker 2008 on Friday. Because I had downloaded the FTM 2008 beta, I first uninstalled the beta as instructed using the control panel before I installed the copy that came in the mail. Then I did a direct import of a copy of my data file from FTM 16.

I got an error message during the import, went back and compacted my data file to correct any indexing errors in my file, then tried the import again. This time the file imported with no errors.

To compact your file in FTM 2006/16, go to Tools > Compact File. It prompts you to back up your file before you compact. Be sure not to skip this important step.

After the import of my data file, the program asked me to register my copy of the file and got this error message:

The email address xxxxx is associated with two or more accounts on Ancestry. Please call our toll free customer service hotline at 877-FTM-2008 (877-386-2008) for help to resolve this issue. Once resolved you can continue your Family Tree Maker registration by clicking the "Back" button below. Live phone support is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time, closed Saturday and Sunday. These hours do not include holidays.

It took 2 phone calls to FTM 2008 tech services for me to get all my old accounts cleaned out before I could register. I have no idea how I got so many accounts, but there was no waiting for telephone support and the techs were courteous and helpful, and I was soon registered.

While I didn't have an "Authentication with the server failed" error, I understand many people have. Tech support said that a patch will be available on Monday 8/27/2007 to fix this problem.
I also asked tech support about the genealogy reports that were missing in the beta. They told me that the reports will be coming in September as the programmers didn't meet the deadline to get them in this release.

If you have problems getting started using Family Tree Maker, try:

• Compacting data file before importing.
• Calling tech support to clean out duplicate accounts
• Making sure your firewall is allowing you to access the internet FireWall help
• Downloading patch to be released Monday

FTM 2008 is a brand new program and there are bound to be a few glitches, but I think this program has a lot of potential.

Now I need to pack for vacation. No computer, no internet for a week. Let's see if I can survive.

Family Tree Maker 2008

Ordering Pension Records from NARA Before the Price Increase

If you have been thinking about ordering US pension & military records from the National Archives, now is the time to do it. Prices will double on October 1, 2007.

Civil War Pension Files

Starting Oct. 1, NARA will charge $75 for a Civil War pension file of up to 100 pages, with for $.65 per additional page (for longer files, staff will contact you with a price quote before filling the order). NARA says the average pension ordered is 106 pages.

If you order today, a Civil War pension file is $37. Civil War pension files are a wonderful genealogy resource and well worth sending for. The ones I have received were a goldmine of information.

You can order pension records online or request order forms. Instructions for ordering Pension Files plus details about what you can expect to receive in these files is available at How to Order Civil War Pension Files


Revolutionary War Pension Files

NARA will charge $50 for pre-Civil War pension files regardless of page count, and $.75 per page to copy other records.

If you are interesting in Revolutionary War pension files, I think it makes more sense to buy a subscription to Footnote.com instead of ordering records from NARA at their new price. Footnote has a partnership with the National Archives to digitize the full Revoultionary pension files and other NARA records. The Footnote records can be downloaded onto your computer, saved and printed.

You also have the advantage of browsing Footnote.com for your ancestor's pension file to make sure you get the right person. I can't be the only person who has sent to NARA and gotten back a file for the wrong person.

At this writing, a monthly subscription to Footnote.com is $7.95 and an annual subscription $59.95, so it is a cheaper alternative than ordering the Revolutionary records from NARA at the new price. See Footnote subscriptions Footnote is adding 2 million records per month, so you have the added benefit of being able to find other records during your subscription time.

In addition to the Revolutionary War pension file of my 5th great-grand uncle, I found some very interesting and unexpected family records at Footnote.


Spanish-American War Pension Files

Some, but not all , of the Spanish-American War (1898) pension files are held at NARA. Others are at the Veteran's Administration. The NARA price increase includes the Spanish-American War pension files held at NARA.

There is more information about ordering Spanish-American War pension files and how to determine which repository is holding your soldier's files at Ordering Spanish American Pension Records



I've got a few Civil War & Spanish American War pension files I have been procrastinating sending for. This price increase has given me the needed push to do it sooner rather than later.

Ancestry Irish Fest

This came in my email today from Ancestry.com and I thought I would pass it on. I like the way that Ancestry.com is now offering a 3 day free access with no credit card required. Yup, that's what it says when you click on Ancestry IrishFest Free Access .

Ancestry.com 3 day Free Access

Can’t make it to Ireland? Irish Fest is coming to you.

IRISH FEST 2007
August 16-19th

The Henry W. Maier Festival Park
200 North Harbor Dr.
Milwaukee, WI 53202


Celebrate your Irish heritage at Irish Fest 2007, the world’s largest Irish festival outside of Ireland. It’s your chance to enjoy Irish music, culture, food and traditions — and visit the Ancestry booth to learn about your ancestors from the Emerald Isle. We’ll answer your questions and give you free access to Irish historical records too.


Can’t make the festival? Celebrate your roots right at
home. Find Irish ancestors at ancestry.com/IrishFest and get three days of free access to all our collections.


You can also browse our selection of Irish family history books at theancestrystore.

You can read more about the Irish Fest at www.irishfest.com/.

Take advantage of Ancestry.com's IrishFest 3 day Free Access You'd be amazed at how much searching you can accomplish in 3 days.

Family Tree Maker 2008 Beta Reports and Books

NOTE: Family Tree Maker 2008 has been released and is no longer in beta or available for download.

**The Genealogy software program Family Tree Maker 2008 is available at The Ancestry Store and is constantly being updated and improved. **


I am still giving the FTM 2008 beta a test drive. I have already talked about my :

• My First Thoughts about FTM 2008


• Additional FTM 2008 Thoughts


• FTM 2008 Websearch and Webclipper.

So far, from what I have seen, I like working in the new FTM 2008. It has many new features, and after getting used to the new layout, I find it is easier to use than the previous versions.

Yesterday I started looking at the books and reports.

Reports and Charts
According to the help section, the charts and reports available are on the FTM 2008 beta are:

• Pedigree Chart,


• Descendant Chart,


• Relationship Chart,


• Individual Report,


• Custom Report,


• LDS Ordinance Report,


• Research Note Report,


• Task List Report,


• Place Usage,


• Media Item Report,


• Photo Album,


• Media Usage Report,


• Source Usage Report,


• Source Bibliography,


• Documented Facts Report,


• Family Group Sheet,


• Kinship Report,


• Marriage Report,


• Parentage Report,


• Outline Descendant Report.


• Workspace Report.

The most interesting new chart to me is the Relationship Chart which shows the connecting people between two related individuals in tree format. It is a great visual chart to send to family members who don't understand relationships such as First cousin 2x Removed in-law. (That is the name of the relationship listed on the first Relationship Chart I created.)

Most reports can be toggled to either show all individuals, immediate family or selected individuals.

The Genealogy Reports, the Register and Ahnentafel Reports, are not in the beta but I have heard they will be added at a later point. Great reporting has always been the hallmark of FTM, so I suspect that the genealogy reports and other reports will continue to be added even after the release. Let the developers of FTM at the email address at Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA know if there are any reports you want to see added.

Reports can be printed, saved, or shared. You can create a report as a PDF, CVS, RTF, HTML or create the report as an image in BMP, EMF, BMP, WMF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF format You can print it, export it, send it to Ancestry or Ancestry Press, or email it from within the program to family, friends or yourself.

I used this email feature to send myself reports to my gmail account to permanently archive them. Having lived through a lot of hurricanes in the last few years, I believe that I can never have to0 many backups in different formats. But the internal email also simplifies mailing reports to family.

Books
When I downloaded the first FTM2008 beta, the program said that books were "coming soon". In the latest beta, the books are through the free AncestryPress which is also in beta. This makes the books in FTM 2008 beta quite different from the books produced from FTM16.

With AncestryPress, you design customized pages online and print them at home. Since these books are so different from previous versions of FTM, you might want to head over to take a look at AncestryPress and give it a try. You don't have to have the FTM2008 beta to try AncestryPress. If you have a tree at the Ancestry.com site, you can create a book at AncestryPress from that. With AncestryPress, you create pages of the book from your own design or one of the design templates provided. You will find individual timelines, family group sheets, military draft cards, census records, and passenger list records templates. Here is a look at the templates. I think the AncestryPress templates will make very attractive books.

There are disadvantages I see to books from Ancestry Press. Because the books are so different from older versions of FTM16, these FTM16 and older books do not transfer to FTM2008. At least, I couldn't get mine to transfer. If you have a lot of complicated books already created in older versions of FTM, this is a consideration. FTM tech support have been telling callers that FTM 16 style books will be available in a later FTM release. To me that means that they will be continuing to work on 2008. Another consideration is that AncestryPress books are designed online so someone with a dial-up connection may have difficulty creating the books.

When you create a book, you upload your tree to the Ancestry Press and you have to unclick the button to keep your tree private. If you forget, you can go back to manage tree to make your tree private. When I unclick the button so that I do not make the tree public, this is the message I get :

When you choose not to share your tree, you potentially miss out on opportunities to collaborate with other members and grow your tree. Even if you don't share your tree, other members can still learn if a specific deceased individual is in your tree, in addition to the birth year and birthplace of the person and your username (but no personal information about you). They can then contact you anonymously through Ancestry's Connection Service to request more information. Keep in mind that members who want to learn from your tree may also have helpful information about your tree to offer you in exchange.

I uploaded my tree from FTM2008 to try out the new books. Each book that was automatically generated contains up to 4 generations. The book starts with a four generation pedigree chart followed by a family group sheet for each family and a timeline for each person. Each person's notes are added to the timeline. The notes section on the timeline wasn't large enough to hold all my notes, so I created a blank page and copied the rest of my notes there. Everything on each page can be edited. Just double click on the item and it can be edited, moved, or deleted. Pages for records can be added to the book.

I decided to try a passenger list record template to add to my book. I pulled the copy of the Ellis Island passenger list and image of the ship from my file (both of which came from my Ancestry.com subscription). Then I copied a sentence from my notes about the immigration.

I could play with the layout and make the images any size. I could choose to position the images any place on the page. I cropped most of the black edges off the passenger lists. I changed the font and made it bold. The template is very flexible.

Because it is in beta, the AncestryPress website lists changes and improvements that are coming soon. These include "photo books, family history books, calendars, project sharing gallery, posters, greeting cards, gift products, professional printing and binding, additional page sizes, more themes and backgrounds, more templates".

Most importantly, the site lists "books from Family Tree Maker® reports and charts" as a coming soon improvement. Right now, each book created in FTM 2008 builds a 4 generation "ancestors of" tree or a combination tree of "ancestors of and descendants of". More generations can be added, but you build the book 4 generations at a time. With this, I can see that while creating multiple books to encompass every one in my tree might give me a lot of flexibility when I distribute books to various family members, it would become very unwieldy if I had a large family tree file. To be fair, Ancestry Press is still in beta, and they say "In the future, we tend to offer users more flexibility in selecting the number of generations that are automatically included in a book."

I think AncestryPress beta has a lot of potential but there is still a lot still marked as coming soon. Things are being added quickly at Ancestry Press, however. Yesterday, I wanted to try a combination tree which was marked as "coming soon" and today it is available.

There is a feedback button available on the upper right corner of your AncestryPress pages. Be sure to use it to give your opinions while Ancestry Press in is beta. Ancestry Press is just beginning so please share your thoughts and suggestions and help them keep making improvements.

Here is a Flash Demo of Ancestry Press which gives a visual tour . Seeing books being created gives a much better idea of how it works than my description.


Family Tree Maker 2008

Pennsylvania Archives

Footnote.com has the complete Pennsylvania Archives online for free access. The free access is on a permanent basis.

The Pennsylvania Archives were originally published as a 10 series of historical records in 135 volumes, more than 100,000 pages, covering the initial colonial settlement through the Civil War. The series contains essential records including military, tax, marriage, and land records, as well as documents from American history covering the Revolutionary War and the Whiskey Rebellion. It is great to have these archives online.

The Pennsylvania Archives show four important historical times:

• Early Pennsylvania settlements, from 1664 to 1780.
• The Revolutionary War (1775–1789).
• The Whiskey Rebellion (1794).
• More Pennsylvania history, through 1880.

If you have Pennsylvania ancestors, especially early Pennsylvania ancestors, it is worthwhile to check these out.

It is difficult to browse the archives since they are only listed as Series 1, Series 2, Volume I, and Volume II, etc. But you can search just within the Pennsylvania Archives.

Footnote.com has some other databases that are always free. You can read about them at Footnote Always Free Databases.

Family Tree Maker 2008 Beta WebSearch

NOTE: Family Tree Maker 2008 has been released and is no longer in beta or available for download.

**The Genealogy software program Family Tree Maker 2008 is available at The Ancestry Store and is constantly being updated and improved. **


A new version of the Family Tree Maker 2008 Public Beta was released on July 25th at Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA. If you have a fast Internet connection, you may want to download the newest beta, give it a test run, and then send your opinions to the email address listed at Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA. This is the genealogy community's chance to let the Family TreeMaker people know your thoughts and suggestions upfront. (Hint: if you have previously downloaded the beta, delete the old beta before downloading the new version) .

FTM has had a complete program rebuild from the ground up. If you have been using FTM for a long while as I have (about 12 years), you will see that the FTM 2008 interface looks completely different. I believe that with version 2008 they are building a strong foundation for the next generation of FTM. Because it is a new program, and not just an add-on upgrade to the old version, some things are done differently than before, so you might consider downloading the beta to check it out.

I've been using the Beta quite a bit and have given my My First Thoughts about FTM 2008 and extensive details about my Additional FTM 2008 Thoughts after using the program for a week.

I like the new FTM 2008. It has many new features, and I find it is easier to use than the previous versions. Now when I go back to FTM16, it seems a bit old-fashioned and clunky-looking in comparison. I especially like the new screens of FTM 2008 which make it easier to see everything in one glance. The index is always in view. The family view now combines the family tree and family group. I like the combined views because it is a time saver not to be constantly clicking back and forth from one screen to another. And it makes it makes it much easier to see everything that I have for a person in my tree with one glance.

One feature of the new FTM 2008 I have been playing with this week is the WebSearch. FTM2008 WebSearch is not focused just on Ancestry.com records. The new webclipper enables the user to incorporate information from any web source into your tree. This FTM2008 WebSearch searches Ancestry.com, RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com as well as Google, Yahoo, MSN and any website you would like to add to your Personal Favorite Sites. I added FamilySearch.org and a few other websites that I access all the time. Adding my favorite websites to the program reminds me to check each of these websites for each person in my tree.


FTM 2008 WebSearch is much more than just an Internet search. The WebSearch actually integrates results into your file - you can merge any data found on any Internet site into your tree with no retyping and, in addition, archive a copy of the web page. I'm not talking about merging other trees into my tree but rather merging actual data into my tree. As more and more important datasets become available on the Internet, the more useful this becomes.

Family Tree Maker’s Web Clipping feature is pretty nifty. You gather data and images from the web and merge to your tree. Highlight the text from the web, a menu appears in FTM, select the fact type and the selected text is copied to the Search result detail pane, ready to merge. If you highlight the place name, it is automatically put into the place field in the program. If you highlight the date, it is automatically put into the date field. No retyping and no typos.

You can do the same with images and pictures on the web. As you move the mouse pointer over an image on the web page, a frame appears around the image. Click the image and it is copied to the Search result detail pane, ready to merge.

Here is an example of an image of my grandfather's naturalization Declaration of Intent that is online at a NJ county library site. Using the webclipper, I was able to click on the image and copy it to FTM 2008. The top arrow is pointing to the webclipper feature. The bottom arrow shows the fact that was automatically added when I highlighted the date that was in text on the previous page and selected the Naturalization Fact.







If you find a matching record at Ancestry.com site, you can merge the facts into your tree by clicking the Merge button. Along with the facts, FTM 2008 links source information to each fact. If the record has an associated image, such as a census image, it is linked to the source and merged into the Media Collection. Data and sourcing is merged into your tree with no retyping of data.

I like FTM2008 but everyone has different needs and wants in a genealogy program . People have different sized family tree files and different computer configurations. People may use different features than I do. For example, I didn't try the merge feature of FTM 2008 since that is something I never use, but if it is important to you, consider downloading the beta to see if it works for you the way you want.

I think it is great that the FTM 2008 beta has been made available for the public to try before they buy. Because this program is different from previous versions, give yourself time to give the program a good workout to see how things function.


Family Tree Maker 2008

Which Day Did your Ancestors Get Married?

I decided to look up the day of the week on which each of my ancestors got married and this has added some interesting background and questions to my family story.

None of my ancestors (at least those for whom I know wedding dates) were married on a Saturday, the day I have always thought of as a traditional day to be married.

My grandparents were married 15 Aug 1906, a Wednesday. My grandfather had his own shoemaker shop in NJ and so I wonder why he would have been married on a workday. I find it an intriguing question.

Europe
My great-grandparents, farmers in Hungary, were married on 19 Jun 1870, a Sunday. Now this makes sense as these farmers worked their fields every day except Sunday, the day they attended church. The only surprise to me is that they were married in June before the harvest was in, but this is probably more a matter of when the priest was available.

My husband's great-grandparents were married in Belfast, Ireland, on 26 Dec 1865, a Tuesday and also Boxing Day. I know that Boxing Day became an official holiday during the reign of Queen Victoria, but I'm not aware if there is any significance to being married on Boxing Day other than it might have been a day off from work for the couple.



Back to the U.S.

My husband's grandparents were married on a Wednesday in 1901 in Pennsylvania. He worked for the railroad.

Another of my great-grandparents were married in Pennsylvania on 21 Apr 1889, a Sunday. My great-grandfather worked in a factory when the work week was 6 days long. Sunday was his only day off from work.

As I kept checking the wedding dates of our U.S ancestors, I find that all in my family tree in the 1800's were married on a Wednesday with the exception of two couples on Tuesday and one on Sunday. None on Saturday.

Were most people married on a Wednesday in the 1800's? Did everyone already know this but me? Or is my family unusual? Did this Victorian poem about weddings really reflect popular thinking of the time?

"Monday for wealth
Tuesday for health
Wednesday-the best day of all!
Thursday for crosses
Friday for losses
Saturday-no luck at all!"

If you want to learn the day on which your ancestors were married so that you too can ponder why your ancestors married on the day they did, you can use the Day of the Week Calculator .


The calculator used the Gregorian calendar so be aware of when the calendar changed from the Julian to Gregorian calendar in the country for which you are performing the calculation.

You may also start wondering as to why your ancestors chose the day they did for a wedding day, how difficult it must have been to get married on a work day and how difficult it may for others to attend the ceremony.

Family Tree Maker 2008 Beta Additional Thoughts

NOTE: Family Tree Maker 2008 has been released and is no longer in beta or available for download.

**The Genealogy software program Family Tree Maker 2008 is available at The Ancestry Store and is constantly being updated and improved. **



I've been playing a lot this week with the new Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA. As with any new program, finding and doing things at first seems a bit awkward, but it didn't take long for me to really appreciate the new program. When you test a beta, even a public beta, you just start using the program without a manual. I think I have discovered a lot using this "click on everything" method of learning. I would consider myself an average user of FTM, not a heavy duty user.

The Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA is available for everyone to download. For those who are hesitant about downloading, I can tell you that downloading the beta does not overwrite your previous versions of FTM. The beta downloads into its own separate folder. And when you delete the beta, which I did just so I could verify this statement, your previous FTM program and file are still there. However, BE SURE TO MAKE A COPY of your data file to use in your beta testing, and read all the warnings on the beta page.

You many want to read My First Thoughts about FTM 2008 before you read my additional thoughts below. I've been playing with the beta for the week since I wrote that article and now I have additional observations.

More Things I like about FTM 2008:

• The screens make it easier to see everything in one glance. The family view now combines the family tree and family group. The person view displays facts, sources, notes, and tasks in one view. I don't have to click on facts, then return to person, then click on notes, then come back to person. I can see it all on one screen. I really like this combined view because not only is it a time saver but it makes it much easier to see what I have and to spot what is missing or incorrect.



• There is a much smarter name index. The index can be sorted by Family Name, Given Name, Birth Date, Marriage Date, or Death Date. You can also choose to show dates (for clarification) in the index or not show dates (to take up less screen space) and easily toggle back and forth between the two. There is also now an index filter so that you can filter the index to just show all ancestors or all descendants of one person. You can also filter the index by an endless combination of facts. For example, I filtered the index to find all those buried in one cemetery. I filtered to find all those who had an unknown in the name field. I filtered to find all my ancestors who had a military fact that contained the words Civil War. You can filter out names as well. I can see where the index filter will be a very, very handy feature.



• I had already mentioned in my First Thoughts that I like the linked sources and citations because I thought it would keep the file to a more manageable size. But I also discovered that because the sources are now linked, the need to copy and paste my sources is much reduced.



• The Place Authority allows me to resolve place names by making sure a place is spelled correctly and used in a consistent format throughout my family tree file. Last week when I first took a look at FTM2008, I had a quibble with the Place Authority because I wanted to be able to add the word "county" to Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, but after using the Place Authority for a bit, I have changed my mind. Using the Place Authority is very worthwhile just to have my names consistent and correct in the file. This consistency allows me to go to the Place Manager where I can see all those in my file who are associated with the same place. The Place Authority Database contains 3 million complete world-wide place names and is constantly updated. It has found counties for me in European and South American countries that I hadn't previously found. The Place Authority is a great feature, and I'm glad I kept playing with it so that I could see the advantages.



• FTM 2008 has a separate Place Description where I can add addresses and townships in addition to the Place Name. I've also been adding the names of the cemeteries to the Place Description.



• There is a global task management. I can enter a "to-do" or task for a person, name it, prioritize it, and even assign a due date. I'm not a due date type of person for my genealogy, but I can see where it would be valuable to get certain tasks done before a research trip or before a family reunion. The due date would be one way to tag them. I can then go to the global task management and sort all my "to-do's" by name or category or due date or prioritization. Or I can view the task list on the Person View.



• I can open the program to be full screen and then go into Tools > Options and then check Use Large Fonts. This combination of bigger screen and large fonts is perfect for me.



• The Person View can show the list of facts, a timeline view or relationships.
  
• The timeline view lists personal, family, and historic events. I really like the time line view that adds the family events. Now only can I use it to make sure my dates make sense (no children born when mother is 3 years old and that sort of thing), but I can also see how family events fit together.
  
• The relationship view that lists family relationships - parents, siblings, children along with the type of relationship.



• I can view all of the images and media for every person from one location. I can link one media file to multiple people and then view all of the people a media file is linked to.



• I can view all of the sources in my tree from one location. And now that I have viewed all my sources from one location, I realize I have some work ahead of me to make my sources consistent and correct. I've been inputting sources since FTM v3 back in 1995 when FTM sourcing was pretty primitive, and was trying to fix these old sources as I found them.



• Sources have full reference notes and flexible citation, along with a place to put a source link, a place to put notes that can then be formatted and privatized, and place to put a copy of the media. When entering sources you will be able to fill in the form once, then select multiple individuals to connect that source information to. If you merge a record from Ancestry, it will add an image copy of the record to the Source Citation Media. Plus the sources can now be rated using standardized rating or your own rating system with a note for rating justification.



• There is a Converts Names Tool which can change all names in your tree to either First Name, Middle, Surname or First Name, Middle, SURNAME. I can see it would be useful to switch to SURNAME for one report, and then back again to Surname for another report. The tool is useful to make sure data files use a consistent format.



• There is a history list displays the changes made to records in the tree for that session.



• There is now a DNA Marker fact. I've been toying with the idea of having DNA testing but haven't done it yet, so I'm not exactly sure how the DNA Marker fact will work or if it will work well but I'm glad they are thinking ahead.



• I can export files to FTM 2008 and Gedcom 5.5 (only) and export reports to Share to Ancestry, to Ancestry Press, or send an email as: pdf, csv, rtf, image, or html. These new formats look like they might be useful for me to send to my family who do not have Family Tree Maker.



• There is plug-in management which I assume means that there will be additions and plug-ins developed to use with FTM2008. I have no idea what will be ready in time for the release, but it is nice to know that they are thinking ahead to improve and add features to FTM.



• At first, I found the new integration search with the web site layout to be too squishy-looking, but I found it is much improved if I move move the bottom panel by clicking on the dotted line to give me more room. Click again to move the bottom panel back up. Even better, I found the option to open in a new browser window to keep the screen from looking too squashed.



• Locations are integrated with Microsoft Virtual Earth in both in 2D (road, aerial, and hybrid views) and in 3D (bird's eye view)

Things I don't like:
To be clear, these are things I don't like in the beta version - the release version will undoubtedly have changes and updates based on our feedback.

• In FTM 16, after I have merged a record from Ancestry.com, the Ancestry record is marked as Merged in the program. I can also chose to mark the record "Done or Ignore", so that I don't repeat searches that I have already done. On FTM beta 2008, I cannot find a way to mark records as Merged, Done, or Ignore. I can merge the record into my program, just not mark it as merged. Having it marked it is a good way to know what searches I have done so I don't repeat my efforts. That leaf which appears on a person's name to show that Ancestry has matching records stays there even after record has been looked at. I would prefer it disappear after records have been checked, then reappear if there are new matching records. I'm not sure if I haven't figure out how to work this, or if this feature is just not there, or if it is a feature that is "coming soon". I did send an email to report this to the email address at Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA and I hope others who find this important will report it as well. Of course, there is no way to know what will be added to the release version of FTM 2008.
  



• The new Place Authority uses today's names and boundaries, but many places in my family file no longer exist or the boundaries have changed. This feature isn't really something I dislike, but it is something to to be aware of. I'll have to give some thought to the best way to record my places where names or boundaries have changed. I can use a combination of Place, Place Description, and Place Notes, but first I'll see how this appears in my reports before I decide on how I want to enter this.
  
  
• Now that I have consistent locations via the Place Authority, I haven't figured out how to delete garbage locations out of my Fast Fields. This feature wasn't in FTM 16 either, as far as I know, but I sure would like it now.

The more I use the Beta and keep experimenting with the features, the more I like FTM 2008. This complete redesign is a huge leap forward. This version of FTM has many new features, better functionality and is easier to use. Every time I open the program I find new features I hadn't noticed before. Many of the new features such as Place Authority, Timeline, Map Integration, Smart Index, Notes Privatization, Source Quality Ratings, Source Management and Media Management are going to be great to use.

I can't wait to get my copy of FTM2008, and start using my real data.

There are still a lot of things I haven't tried and I have a feeling that I have left many stones unturned. My file is small and contains only about 2000 people. I suggest anyone who is interested to download the BETA and make your own decision if this is the right program for you. Others may have different priorities than I do in a genealogy program. Remember this is a beta version, not the release version, and I don't know what will be changed or added before the release. For those who can't download the beta, here is the FTM 2008 What's New that is listed in the program.

Caution: Entering data into the beta should be done only to see how the program handles your information and not for updating your family files. Using a test file has allowed me to try things I might not have otherwise tried for fear of messing up my original data file.

I see using the beta and sending feedback to the email listed on the beta page as a way of having a bit of say in the program. If there is something missing in the beta version that you feel is important, write to the email address on the Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA page. If they didn't want feedback from all of us, they wouldn't have released a public beta and given us the email address.

The release version of Family Tree Maker 2008 is now available.


And I was surprised to see The Official Guide to Family Tree Maker 2008 already available for pre-order at Amazon.





Family Tree Maker 2008

Google Operator "OR"

One of Google operators that can help give better and easier web search results is the OR operator.

The OR operator tells Google to search for either keyword in your query. In other words, only one of the keywords must be present in your search results. OR must be typed in uppercase letters or Google will ignore it.

Here are some ways to use the OR operator in genealogy searching:

• Use OR to search for multiple spellings of a name. There are many surnames in my family tree that I have seen spelled differently from document to document. Instead of doing a search for one surname spelling followed by another search for the second spelling, you can use the OR operator to search for both spellings in just one query. Your search results will list web pages that have either spelling.



sara OR sarah
meyers OR myers
reed OR reid



• Use OR to search for words that have the same meaning.
  

  obit OR obituary OR "death notice"
  

  
  
• Use OR to search for a location and its abbreviation. Some web pages will list one or the other but not both. You can also use the OR to look for webpages that may contain the old-fashioned abbreviation that data transcriptions from years ago may have used.



DE OR Delaware
DE OR Delaware OR Del







• Use OR in combination with quotes to search for the various ways a name may appear on a webpage.

"Patrick Powers" OR "Powers, Patrick" OR "Patrick J. Powers"

You can also use the ¦ symbol in place of the word OR. On my computer keyboard, the ¦ symbol is on the key above the "enter" key (using the shift key). Using the ¦ will give the exact same search results as using the OR. Some people may prefer to use it because it is only one keystroke. NOTE: On some computers the symbol ¦ may appear to be a solid bar; on other computers, the symbol ¦ may have a space in the middle of the bar.

sara ¦ sarah
meyers ¦ myers
DE ¦ Delaware
reid ¦ reed
obit ¦ obituary ¦ "death notice"

For step by step instructions for building a Google genealogy query, go to Learn to Build a Genealogy Query

Family Tree Maker 2008 Beta First Thoughts

NOTE: Family Tree Maker 2008 has been released and is no longer in beta or available for download.

**The Genealogy software program Family Tree Maker 2008 is available at The Ancestry Store and is constantly being updated and improved. **

Because FTM 2008 is such a completely new program with a whole new look and architecture, TGN is releasing a public beta so they can get comments from a large amount of potential users. If you decide to download the beta, be sure to send any comments or problems to the email address found on Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA .

It took a long time for me to download the program, but I understand there is a lot of debugging code still in the software as most beta releases have, so hopefully the program should be streamlined and faster by the time of the final release in mid-August. If you are on dial up or do not want to download at this time, Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA has some screen shots so you can see what the new FTM looks like.


Things I like about the new program:

• Photos and sources are now linked instead of embedded into program. This should keep data files down to a more manageable size.
  
• Sources can now be assigned a quality rating from one to four stars. You can use the built-in standardized rating system based on Elizabeth Shown Mills' excellent book, Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian or you can devise your own source rating method.
  
• Notes can be made private on an individual basis. This is one feature I have really wanted and I have many notes that I will privatize so they don't appear on reports.
  
• Both the pedigree and family group are on the same page, so there is no need to toggle back and forth between screens. Editing is done in the right panel. If you don't like this look, you can configure the family view by dragging or collapsing panes.
  
• Web searches can be performed for each individual person not just on Ancestry.com but on RootsWeb.com , Google, Yahoo and more. The searches are preset with the name and year. You can use the "webclipper" to save text or images found on the Internet to FTM. Also, you can add your favorite websites to be searched.
  
• There are multiple notes for each individual, and notes for each fact and event. The text in notes can be formatted.
  
• Places are integrated with Microsoft Virtual Earth.
  
• Automatically shows relationship of any person in file to home person. I set the home person to me, but you can choose anyone in the file to be the home person.


• The new TimeLine View that lists personal, family, and historic events.

Things I don't like:

• No books YET. The program says Books are "coming soon". Since FTM 2008 is a complete rebuild, it is not surprising that some things are not yet ready.
  
• The Place Authority, which is used to resolve place names by making sure a place is spelled correctly and used in a consistent format throughout your family tree file, doesn't put the word county after county name. And I don't see a way to add it. I prefer Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey. The Place Authority database suggests Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, USA. I can choose to ignore the Place Authority, however. I'll have to think about which notation is really best for me, as I really like the idea of matching my places against the Place Authority database.
  

There are obviously a lot of things I have not yet tried. The program is easy to use, but if you are used to earlier versions of FTM, you will find it quite different at first. I have imported a copy of my data file into the beta and have just being going from screen to screen clicking on everything to see how it works. After a little bit of doing this, the program seems pretty intuitive and very easy to navigate. It's nice to be able to give a program a try before deciding whether to purchase it.

Family Tree Maker 2008