Family Tree Maker 2012 About to Ship

The 20% pre-sale discount for Family Tree Maker 2012 ends Wednesday, September 28, at about 10:00 AM MST and, shortly after, Ancestry will begin shipping the pre-orders.   Yes, the much anticipated FTM 2012 with TreeSnyc will start to ship tomorrow.

  

If you are planning to order FTM 2012, you can still get the pre-sale price until the morning of Sept 28.  And you can receive an additional 20% discount if you use the coupon code G5JXTRY at checkout in the box marked Redeem Coupons for additional savings.  If you miss the pre-sale discount, you can still use the coupon code for a 20% discount.

There are a number of FTM 2012 versions:

• Family Tree Maker 2012

• FTM 2012 Upgrade 
For those who already own an earlier version

• FTM 2012 Complete
Family Tree Maker 2012 program plus:
• Printed version of the The Companion Guide to Family Tree Maker 2012
• The Family History Toolkit on DVD,
• Photo Explosion Album

The FTM 2012 for Mac pre-sale will be available sometime mid to late October and the ship date is mid to late November.


FTM 2012 Blog Posts:

1. Questions and Answers About FTM 2012
2. Family Tree Maker 2012 List of Improvements
3. Differences Between the FTM 2012 Tree and Ancesty Member Tree

FTM 2012 TreeSync - Differences between Desktop and Online Trees

Ancestry.com has released the following FAQ about Family Tree Maker 2012 's TreeSync.

Differences Between Desktop and Online Trees

Most content in trees is uploaded and/or synced seamlessly between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry. However, because Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker trees are in different formats, there are a few differences you should be aware of.

• Facts
  In general fact dates, names, places, and descriptions (including custom and alternate facts) are the same in Family Tree Maker and Ancestry trees. However, you may find that some fact types are labelled differently. For example, the Physical Description fact in Family Tree Maker is the Description fact in Ancestry trees.

• Media items
• The caption of a media item in Family Tree Maker is the same as the Picture name field on Ancestry.
• Audio and video items are not transferred between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.
• Media items attached to relationships in Family Tree Maker are not uploaded to Ancestry.com.
• Records you've found on Ancestry.com and merged into Family Tree Maker won't be re-uploaded to Ancestry.
• Documents in Family Tree Maker will be uploaded to an Ancestry tree only if they are in one of these formats: .pdf, .doc, .txt, .rtf, and .htm.
• Photos uploaded to Ancestry Member Trees cannot exceed 15MB, so a photo in your desktop tree that exceed this size limit will be resized when it is copied to Ancestry - your original file will not be affected. Images need to be in one of these formats: .jpeg, .bmp, .png, .gif, and .tiff.

• Notes
  In Family Tree Maker you can create a variety of notes: person, research, fact, relationship, media, and source citation. When you upload a tree to Ancestry only person notes will be included; they can only be viewed by people you have invited to your online tree.

• Places
  If you have entered shortened display names for locations or custom GPS coordinates in Family Tree Maker, they will not be included in your Ancestry tree.

• Publications
  Saved reports, charts, and books cannot be transferred from Family Tree Maker to Ancestry.

• Relationships
  In Family Tree Maker only you can view information you've entered for a living individual. In your Ancestry tree, anyone who is invited to your tree can view information about living individuals.

• Sources
  • Sources created in Family Tree Maker using source templates will transfer to Ancestry, but you cannot edit these sources online.
  • Media items attached to source citations in Family Tree Maker will be uploaded; media items attached to sources in Family Tree Maker will not be uploaded.

• Stories
  • A story created on Ancestry.com will become a .htm file in Family Tree Maker, which can be viewed in a Web browser. You can edit the text in a word-processing program.
  • Smart Stories created in Family Tree Maker will become .rtf text files in Ancestry. The story can't be viewed within your Ancestry tree but the document can be downloaded. (Smart Stories are uploaded only if they are attached to individuals.)

Get 20% off Family Tree Maker 2012 with pre-sale purchase

Family Tree Maker 2012 List of Improvements

Family Tree Maker 2012 List of Improvements

Family Tree Maker 2012 will be released the last week of September and the new features have been announced.  The biggie, the feature that many have been waiting for, is the new TreeSync which links the FTM desktop tree and online Ancestry Member Tree together.  But FTM 2012 is also introducing other new features.  Here is a list of all:


TreeSync™
Now you can work on your family tree anywhere with the new TreeSync feature. When you link your desktop and online trees together, you can update either tree and then synchronize those changes into the other tree — manually or automatically with your Internet connection. Syncing your Family Tree Maker tree and online Ancestry tree has many benefits:

• Access and update your tree anytime, anywhere. With an Internet connection, you can continue your research wherever you are.  This means that you could transcribe information from a book while at the library or transcribe facts from an out-of-town interview with Aunt Sally right into your online Ancestry.com Member Tree using your laptop or smart phone or ipad .  Next time you have an internet connection,  it would sync with your Family Tree Maker database on your home computer.  Or now you could take a photo at a cemetery and attach it to your online Ancestry Member tree, and with an internet connection, it will sync it to your Family Tree Maker database on your computer.  And, conversely, while you are out researching, your know your online tree will always be up to date and the same as your tree on your home computer.
• Share your tree online. Family and friends can view your tree (and even work with you) without any software or an Ancestry subscription.
• Collaborate with the largest family history community in the world. If you share your tree publicly, other Ancestry members who are researching the same family lines can find you.
• If you already have a tree in FTM 2012 and a Member Tree online at Ancestry, there is no longer a need to do double entries .

Improved Smart Stories™
When Family Tree Maker creates a Smart Story for you, the story now includes facts about the individual and his or her spouse and children. Previously a generated Smart Story included information about the individual only.

New Combined Family View
The family group view has a new “blended families” option that displays all of a couple’s children in one location. An icon next the child’s name lets you see at a glance whether he or she is the child of the father, mother, or both parents.

Simplified Interface for Upgraders
When you install Family Tree Maker 2012, the software detects whether you are upgrading from a previous version of Family Tree Maker (version 16 or earlier). If you are, Family Tree Maker displays a simplified user interface that looks more like older versions of Family Tree Maker.

Customized Fact Sentences
When you create an Ahnentafel, descendant report, or Smart Story, Family Tree Maker generates descriptive sentences for each fact or event. Now you can change the wording to customize these sentences and the data included in the sentences.

Reports

• Improved Notes Report - The Notes Report lets you display person, research, relationship, or fact notes you’ve entered for individuals in your tree. The  old Research Notes Report is changed to Notes Report with options to include other types of notes 
• New Index of Individuals Report - The Index of Individuals Report lists every individual in your tree and their birth, marriage, and death dates.

Charts

• Generation Labels - Now you can display generation labels (such as parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents) in charts to highlight the relationship between the primary person in the chart and other family members.
• Additional Options in Descendant Chart - You can create a descendant chart that shows the relationship between two people whom you select. You can limit descendant chart to the direct line between two people.
• Adding Text to a Chart - In addition to adding your own images to a chart, you can now personalize your charts even more by adding your own text—creating a chart that is completely unique.

New and Updated Tutorials
You can learn to do more - like creating trees and using Ancestry.com features - with new and improved tutorials accessible in the software.

Gedcom
You can now include media links in the GEDCOM 5.5 export.


Get 20% off Family Tree Maker 2012 with pre-sale purchase.  Enter the coupon code G5JXTRY at checkout in the box marked Redeem Coupons for double savings - an additional 20% discount.

Family Tree Maker 2012 Now Available for Pre-Sale

Family Tree Maker 2012, which is now available for pre-sale, includes a most requested and anticipated FTM feature - an automatic synchronize between your Family Tree Maker database on your computer and your Ancestry Online Family Member Tree.

Once you link your desktop and online trees together, you can update either tree and then synchronize those changes into the other tree - manually or automatically -  using your internet connection. 

Syncing your Family Tree Maker tree and online Ancestry tree has many advantages:

• You can access and update your tree anytime, anywhere. While on the Internet, you can continue your research wherever you are using your laptop, your iPhone, or iPad.
• You can share your tree online. The family and friends that you invite to your tree can view and collaborate on the tree without any software or an Ancestry subscription.  If one of your relatives makes an addition to your tree, it will automatically update in your FTM 2012 tree.
• If you already have a tree in FTM 2012 and a tree online at Ancestry, there is no longer a need to do double entries to keep both trees up to date. Now update one tree and automatically update the other with Tree Sync.

The Sync works automatically at the open or close of the program, or you can manually request a sync using the Sync Now button.

When you create your family tree at online at the ancestry site, you have 3 privacy options:

• You can make your tree public
• You can make your tree private yet still in the Ancestry search engine
• You can make your tree completely private and not included in the Ancestry search engine.

I had a chance to review FTM 2012 during the Public Beta, and can say that the sync worked beautifully for me.  I uploaded my Family Tree Maker 2012 tree to a new Ancestry Member Tree.  My tree in FTM 2012 had media files -  census and other documents downloaded from Ancestry - attached to both persons and facts and they appeared in my new Ancestry Member Tree which was now linked  to my FTM 2012 tree.   I added people and attached documents to my online Ancestry Member Tree and it synced to my desktop tree in FTM 2012.  I added people to my desktop FTM 2012 and these additions synced to my online Ancestry Member Tree.   Basically, my tree was now residing in multiple locations, and I could update either location and keep the trees synced.

I'm really looking forward to receiving my copy FTM 2012.  I can see the advantages of having my tree online for family collaboration. 

Ancestry.com is offering a  20% pre-sale discount of Family Tree Maker 2012 .

Enter the coupon code G5JXTRY at checkout in the box marked Redeem Coupons for double savings.

The release date is the last week of September 2012.

Family Tree Maker 2012


FTM 2012 Blog Posts:

• Family Tree Maker List of Improvements
• FTM 2012 TreeSync - Differences between Desktop and Online Trees

Genealogy Webinars

Webinars (WEB semINARS) are online seminars, and genealogy webinars have become incredibly popular. It's easy to see why. You can learn from some of the biggest names in Genealogy while attending in the comfort of your home.

Legacy Family Tree is one of the leading webinar providers. You can attend their FREE live events or view the archived presentations. . Some of the biggest names in genealogy have presented in the Legacy Webinars including Thomas MacEntee, Karen Clifford, Lisa Alzo, DearMYRTLE, and Maureen Taylor.

Here are some of the upcoming webinars that you can sign up for and they are all FREE

• Google Images and Beyond
• Organizing for Success
• Newspapers for Genealogists: Using GenealogyBank.com to document every day of your ancestors' lives
• Best Internet Resources for African American Genealogy.
• Watch Geoff Live: Adding a Census Record.
• Facebook for Genealogists.
• Researching Your Connecticut Ancestors.
• Uncovering your Irish Family History.

Archived Webinars are also available at Legacy Family Tree.  Scroll down to find the archived webinars

FREE Sons of American Revolution Records for July 4

In honor of Independence Day,  Ancestry.com launched the Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970, a collection of more than one million applications from men with a direct link to either a supporter or participant in the fight for United States independence during the 18th century.   This collection is FREE through July 4th.

Like its well-known sister organization, The Daughters of the American Revolution, also available through Ancestry.com, the Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications contain  handwritten historical information that can take a family back through two centuries of history.

The applications contain references to Revolutionary War pension files, documented family and local histories, family Bible records, deeds, court documents, census records and typically include a short summary of the ancestor's service.

In celebration of America's Independence, Ancestry.com invites the public to discover proof of their own link to the founders of freedom by searching in the Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 for free during a long weekend of access, Thursday, June 30th through Monday, July 4th. To begin searching users can visit Free Sons of American Revolution.

I have one ancestor, John Fertig, who was in the Chester Co, PA militia during the Revolutionary War. Searching for him in this database, I got 725 hits and found the names of previously unknown-to-me distant cousins with their lineage on these applications.  I'm still examining the records to see what else I can find.

I also have a 5th great uncle who was denied a Revoltionary War pension, yet his descendants were accepted into the Sons of the Revolution.  Interesting.

Google's +1 Button

Google's has just introduced the new "+1"  button which is similar to Facebook's "like".   You can click on +1 buttons across the web to recommend content, blog posts,  web pages, and news articles to others.  Google says the +1 will be an element in its search results.   Clicking on the +1 when you find good genealogy content in turn could make Google search results even more helpful for all.

It's an interesting concept which could make Google ancestor searching much more personalized and relevant.

Look for the +1 button on blog posts right underneath where it says ""Posted by".  You'll find the +1 button at the end of the line of other "share buttons".  Click on the +1 the way you would a Facebook "like" to let others know what blog posts and websites you think are useful or informative.

Not every website has a +1 button, but many blogs do.  And I have also seen the  +1 in the Google search results. 

Whether or not you are interested in clicking on +1 buttons, at least when you see one now, you will know what it is. 

Using Google's Recipe View for Family History

Google has a new feature to help find recipes online called Recipe View. 
I don't like to just find names and dates of my ancestors.  I like to write about my family history and the various cultures of my ancestors.

Cooking, to me, is a big part of culture, and because of this, I've always included family recipes in the stories of my ancestors.  Unfortunately, although I know what dishes my grandmothers and great-grandmothers cooked, none of these recipes were ever written down. 

Google Recipe View can now help me find recipes close to my family recipes.  If I know my Hungarian grandmother cooked goulash with paprika and poppy seeds but without ketchup (which a lot of online recipes seem to include - ugh!), Recipe View helps me find a recipe meeting my criteria.  It not only allows me to choose the ingredients in the recipe, but it allows me to choose ingredients I know are NOT in the recipe by clicking on the "Yes" or "No" ingredient check boxes in the left column.

Google Recipe View helps me choose a recipe among the search results by showing clearly marked ingredients and pictures without having to go into each website to check out the ingredients of the recipe.

To get to Recipe View, click on the Recipes link in the left-hand panel when searching for a recipe. You can search for specific recipes such as Goulash or Schnitzel or can search for more open-ended topics that feature a holiday or event, such as German Christmas recipes or St. Patrick's Day in Ireland recipes or Easter Bread or even Bastille Day recipes.

You filter search results based on your ideal ingredients, cooking time and calorie count using the recipe tools on the left hand side of the page.  For cultural recipes, I don't use the cooking time or calorie count check boxes.  I don't think my ancestors worried about these either.

Sometimes, I have found it helps to add the word authentic to the recipe name when searching to better find a historical recipe.  You can try searching for specific recipes such as Authentic French Crepes or Authentic German Sauerbraten or Authentic New England Clam Chowder

For genealogy webmasters and bloggers: Recipe View is based on data from rich snippets markup. If you publish recipes of your ancestors, you can add markup to your web pages so that your content can appear with this improved presentation in regular Google results as well as in Recipe View. This will help those genealogists like me searching for recipes that our ancestors used to make.

How to Find Easter Dates

Easter in 2011 falls on April 24, as late in the calendar year as I ever remember.  It actually hasn't been this late in my lifetime - the last time it fell on April 24 was 1943.

It won't fall on April 24th again until the year 2095; although in the year 2038, Easter will be on April 25.

Easter Sunday can come as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.   Here are Easter dates from 1999 until 2019:

• April 4, 1999 
• April 23, 2000 
• April 15, 2001 
• March 31, 2002 
• April 20, 2003 
• April 11, 2004 
• March 27, 2005 
• April 16, 2006 
• April 8, 2007 
• March 23, 2008 
• April 12, 2009 
• April 4, 2010  
• April 24, 2011 
• April 8, 2012 
• March 31, 2013 
• April 20, 2014 
• April 5, 2015 
• March 27, 2016 
• April 16, 2017 
• April 1, 2018 
• April 21, 2019

Why is it helpful for those researching their ancestors to know the Easter date of a particular year? 

In my family, Easter always seemed to be a family picture day wearing new Easter finery.  I have a slew of old family photos marked Easter 1955 and Easter 1939, etc. and I want to add metadata with the actual date to the scans of the photos.

I also have found a newspaper article about an ancestor that printed his wedding announcement by saying "After Easter services, the wedding ceremony was performed".  The newspaper has a publication date, of course, but it didn't date the wedding date except to say it was on Easter Sunday. Newspaper wedding announcements can appear weeks after the actual service is performed, so all the newspaper told me was the year and that the wedding was on Easter.

You can find Easter dates by using the Easter Date Calculator to help date old photos and historic newspaper articles

Ashley Judd’s Civil War Ancestor–WDYTYA

Ashley Judd’s appeared on Who Do You Think You Are? Friday, April 8, the last episode of Season 2.

Part of the episode focused on her Civil War ancestor, Elijah Hensley, her great-great-grandfather. Elijah Hensley was just 15 when he joined 39th Kentucky Infantry, Company I, a Union regiment.

Ashley Judd scrolled through microfilm at the Kentucky State Archives and found his muster roll pages.  Interestingly enough, Muster Rolls  are available online at Ancestry.com and are free this week (until April 14.)

Here is Elijah Hensley’s muster roll.  It is several pages long and gives his physical description (5’ 7”, grey eyes, light hair, and fair complexion) , his capture by rebels, his leg amputation on 10/2/1864, his hospital stay, his recovery at home, and his discharge due to disability.

Ashley had tears in her eyes thinking of her ancestor as a 15 year old kid on the battlefield having his leg amputated without anesthesia and without sanitation. I had tears as well thinking of any 15 year old going though that horror especially after the amputation tools were shown.

Ashley said she wanted not just the records but also the stories behind them, and talked to Dr. Brian McKnight, a Civil War historian. After her talk with him, he sent her an envelope that contained a photo of Elijah Hensley along with a transcription of a testimonial describing him as doing Master's work in the Methodist church as well as being a farmer in Inez, Kentucky. 

The photo and testimonial were part of Elijah’s Civil War pension file available for Union soldiers at the National Archives.  Civil War pension records are well worth sending for as it is the pension files that have a lot of the stories behind the records.

If you want to find your own Civil War story, Ancestry.com has made its records free this week only for the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.

Not sure how if you have a Civil War ancestor? Download this guide to find your Civil War ancestor or follow this guide to determine if your ancestor was in the Civil War

Order your ancestor’s Civil War pension file online from the National Archives (NARA) and include the name, state, regiment, and especially the application number and the certificate number from the Civil War Pension Index Card, as NARA will not do research.