FindFamilyCrest.com

Our new collection of California Voter Registrations unlock more than 30 million names of Californians who registered to vote between 1900 and 1944. The collection reveals the political preferences of California residents - including several celebrities and political figures - who voted during the first half of the 20th century.

In 1942, actor and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan was registered to vote as a Democrat and remained a registered party member until at least 1954. It wasn’t until later that he changed his party affiliation to Republican.

Ronald Reagan’s 1942 Voter Registration List

Lucille Ball is registered as a Communist in 1936 and 1938, and was later asked to testify before Congress during McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts.

Lucille Ball’s 1936 Voter Registration List

In 1944, Ozzy and Harriett Nelson are both registered as Republicans. Harriett was employed as an “actress;” Ozzy as an “orchestra leader.”

Ozzy and Harriett’s 1944 Voter Registration List

Walt Disney is found alongside brothers Robert and Roy in a 1924 voter registration list. Walt and Robert were both registered Republican, while Roy “declined statement.” In 1940, Walt’s wife Lillian changed her party affiliation to Democrat, while Walt remained Republican.

Walt Disney’s 1924 Voter Registration List

Walt Disney’s 1940 Voter Registration List

Visit the California Voter Registration Lists on Ancestry.com, or read the press release to learn more.

This week I’d like to offer a few tips for creating family tree posters. You can use AncestryPress to create a standard tree poster including 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 generations or a combination tree poster including 4, 5 or 7 generations (a 6-generation combination tree poster is coming soon).

Creating a poster is a pretty simple process, but here’s a quick overview:

1. Choose a poster type: Click “Get Started” from the AncestryPress home page or “Start a New Project” from the My Projects page. Select “Family Tree Poster” and then choose a poster type: standard or combination. A standard family tree is a pedigree chart starting with an individual. A combination tree has a bowtie shape: it starts with a couple and shows their children and ancestors on both sides. You’ll see the prices for the various poster sizes, but you won’t be asked for a credit card number until you’ve finished your poster and clicked the “Order” button.
   

1. Choose your options: Select the number of generations you want to include and the online family tree you want to use to create your poster. Then enter the name of the starting person for your poster. This person could be anyone in the tree—it doesn’t have to be the same as the starting person for the online tree. Type in the first few letters of the person’s name and wait for a list of names to appear. If you have a large tree, it may take a few seconds for the system to find people matching the letters you entered. Select the correct person from the list of names.
   

1. Create your poster: In the “Name Your Product” field, enter a working title for your poster. This title will not actually appear on the printed poster, so don’t spend too much time thinking about it. Then click the “Create” button. In a moment, your family tree poster will appear in a new window.
   

1. Edit your poster: Click the Backgrounds icon at the top of the page to select the background you like best (there are currently 16 options). Add photos and embellishments by dragging them from the content wells on the left onto your poster. Images attached to your online tree will automatically appear in the “My Photos” content well. You can also upload images directly to AncestryPress.
   

1. Preview and print your poster: When you’ve finished editing your poster, click the “Preview/Print” button to preview your poster and, if you wish, print a proof page. Please note that printing on 8 ½ x 11-inch paper will not give you an accurate preview because the poster templates are designed for a much larger format. When you’re ready to purchase a professionally printed poster, click the “Order” button in the top right corner. If you’re ordering multiple copies, you’ll automatically receive a volume discount (no coupon code needed).

Before we leave our discussion of family tree posters, I’d like to call your attention to one feature of AncestryPress that I absolutely love: the Zoom tool. You can use it to edit book pages, too, but it’s particularly useful for editing posters. It really comes in handy if you want to read and edit text—especially on the right-hand side of the poster, where the fonts are smaller.

Click the Zoom icon in the top left corner to get a close-up view of any area of your poster. (NOTE: Please don’t draw any conclusions about the quality of the printed posters from these grainy screen shots. The posters are printed at high resolution and the text comes out very sharp and clear.)

Click to enlarge image

When you click Zoom, a little box appears just under the Zoom icon. This box is a miniature version of your poster. You can navigate to a different area of the page by moving the red tray to the corresponding area of the box.

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To zoom in even further, slide the cursor on the Zoom icon to the right (toward the plus sign).

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Thanks for your comments in response to last week’s blog. I can’t address all of them, but I would like to answer Jackie’s question about a larger format for the family history books. We are working on a larger book (roughly 13 x 10 inches) that will be available in early April—just in time for Mothers Day.

Finally, I’d like to remind our readers that this blog is dedicated to a discussion of Ancestry’s self-publishing application, AncestryPress. Of course I’m always interested in what our customers have to say about other Ancestry products and services, but I want to make sure your comments get channeled to the appropriate forum so that the right product mangers can benefit from your feedback.

We currently have Ancestry blogs focused on seven topics:

• Ancestry.com Site
• Content
• Family Trees
• Searching for Records
• Company News
• AncestryPress
• Family Tree Maker

In addition, if you click the Community tab on Ancestry.com, you’ll find thousands of message boards where you can post requests for assistance with research questions.

I’ve chosen to write today’s Family Tree Maker blog entry on surname tips.

Multi-Word Surnames
As a general rule Family Tree Maker 2008 assumes the last word entered in the name field is the individual’s surname. However, it also recognizes many common surname prefixes. The development team has provided me with a list of those recognized prefixes. They include the following:

o’, d’, van, von, ver, st., saint, der, de, la, del, della, las, te, ten, ter, le, du, des, da, dos, da, le, detto, di, dit, du, in’t, lo, ‘t, te, tan, uit, den, uyt, vulgo

There are also instances where the prefix is not in Family Tree Maker’s recognized list. Additionally, an individual may have two surnames (Aguirre Chanquin). To ensure that muli-word surnames are not indexed incorrectly, users can insert a backward slash (\) before and after the surname.

“Maria Graciela \Aguirre Chanquin\”

The backslashes can also be used for individuals that do not have a surname.

“Running Bear\ \”

Please note that once entered, the backslashes do not appear. They are merely used to initially assign names appropriately as given names or surnames.

Hyphenated Surnames
A user may want to record legal name changes like hyphenated surnames. This can be done by following these steps:

1. Click the PEOPLE button on the main toolbar.
2. Click the PERSON tab for the individual for whom you want to add information.
3. Click the FACTS button, if necessary.
4. Right-click the Individual & Shared Facts workspace and choose ADD FACT. The Add Fact window opens.
5. Click “Also Known As” in the FACTS list and click OK.
6. In the right-hand editing panel, enter any dates associated with the name change in the DATE field (the default field); in the DESCRIPTION field, enter the alternate name. Users may also wan to add source information for the name change.

Surname Variations
The “Also Known As” field in the FACTS list is also an appropriate place to enter surname variations.

Surname Report
Users that want to create a report of all individuals with the same surname can follow these steps:

1. Open the CUSTOM REPORT (located on the Publish workspace under Person Reports)
2. Click the RESET button in the reports toolbar to clear any previous report settings.
3. In INDIVIDUALS TO INCLUDE, click SELECTED INDIVIDUALS. The Filter Individuals window opens. No individuals should be included in the report at this point; if there are, click Exclude All to clear the report.
4. Click FILTER IN. The Filter Individuals by Criteria window opens.
5. Click VITAL FACTS, if necessary.
6. Choose “Name” from the SEARCH WHERE drop-down list.
7. Choose “Contains” from the next drop-down list.
8. In the VALUE field, enter a surname
9. Click OK. The Filter Individuals window now shows all the individuals who have that surname. You can filter the list further if necessary.
10. Click OK on the Filter Individuals window. The report is generated.

Hello all…I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that your year is off to a great start! Although you haven’t heard from me in a few weeks, the AncestryPress team has been busy putting the finishing touches on some of the items on your wish list. We launched several new features this morning that I think you’ll be very excited about. Some of them will make it easier for you to create a family history book, while others will improve the appearance of the final product. In addition, we’re now offering family tree posters that display NINE generations. (If you don’t have quite that much data, don’t worry — we plan to make 7- and 8-generation posters available by the end of the month.)

To start with, we’ve delivered the two book building features users have requested the most: print preview and automatic page numbering. The print preview function is pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll let you check that out on your own.

Page numbering: The page numbering is easy too, but I’ll walk you through it just for fun. Click the “Pages” icon in the top navigation and select “Page Numbers” from the drop-down menu. You’ll see a pop-up box like the one in the example below. Check the box labeled “Show Page Numbers,” set the page number position and then click “Apply” to see how the number appears on the page. If you like how it looks, hit “OK.”

Click to enlarge image

Grid: When I started using AncestryPress, I liked the freestyle format of the application, but I sometimes found it difficult to align elements on a page. I also worried about putting text and images too close to the edge of the page because I wasn’t sure how much space I was supposed to leave for the binding. Our new grid feature gets rid of all that guesswork. Just click “Show Grid” in the top navigation and you’ll see gridlines across the whole page, rulers on the top and one side and a red line on the other side that gives you a boundary for the “gutter.” In the example below, you can see the gridlines as well as a couple of new content types we’ve just added: flags and maps.

Click to enlarge image

Highlighters: You can also see that we’ve changed the directory structure for the content wells on the left side of the application. Embellishments are now part of the “Other Content” section, which is organized into folders so that you can easily find specific types of content. One of the content folders contains highlighters that you can use to highlight your family members’ names in census records, passenger lists, etc. Just pick the color you want, drag the highlighter onto the page and position it over the name(s) you want to highlight. You can expand and crop the highlighter to make it as wide, narrow, tall or short as you wish.

Click to enlarge image

Text rotation: You can now rotate a text box the same way you rotate an image — by grabbing the circular arrow icon on the top left corner of the box or image.

Click to enlarge image

Drop shadow: Finally, we’ve added a drop shadow feature that lets you create the illusion of depth. It’s a subtle effect that you can use in lieu of a putting a border or frame around an image — or in addition to a border or frame. Just highlight the image and then click the drop shadow icon on the image editing toolbar (fifth from right…next to the flip icon).

Click to enlarge image

We’ll be releasing additional new features — as well as new templates, backgrounds and embellishments — on a regular basis throughout the year, so please check back often.

The Family Tree Maker team is working very hard and is dedicating a lot of resources to the next Family Tree Maker update. Internal testing for this patch is currently taking place. We will also likely allow some volunteer users to test the update before it is released publicly. If you are interested in being considered for an open spot in the volunteer testing, please fill out the following form here. I believe we’re several weeks out before the volunteer testing will start. 

I am hopeful that this next update will include the addition of the book building feature. The ability to upload to AncestryPress will still be available, but the added book building features will likely be closer to what users have seen in previous version of Family Tree Maker.  The patch should also include additional performance fixes.  

I have had some people ask me for the best place to report bugs in the program. Your best option is to report it in the Family Tree Maker Feedback Form found at: http://ftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ftm.cfg/php/enduser/ask_feedback.php

Please select the “Bug Report” category and describe the steps that were taken to produce the bug. I also encourage users to include their email address. A developer may want to contact you if they are unaware of the bug or are unable to recreate it in their or our QA tester’s environment. Feedback from the Feedback Form is organized and distributed on a weekly basis.

Ancestry.com has recently introduced a new Learning Center to help those researching family history find answers and advice. Our new Learning Center offers an abundance of resources for beginners to seasoned genealogists - including video tutorials, articles and how-to guides, genealogy communities, family history project ideas, and more.

The tutorials, narrated by Ancestry.com’s Chief Family Historian Megan Smolenyak, cover a series of family history topics such as DNA Research, Brick Walls, Family Trees, War Records, and a host of other subjects. Ancestry.com will continue to add tutorials on differing topics. A newly-organized library helps users easily search and navigate through online editions of the Ancestry Weekly Journal, Ancestry Monthly, Ancestry Magazine, video, and newsletter archives.

The new-and-improved Learning Center is still in its early stages and will continue to receive updates, but we’d love for you to check out the new features and give us your thoughts!