FindFamilyCrest.com

Welcome to Discovering Family History, the latest magazine from the publishers of Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy and History Magazine. via Family Research

Since this is my first post to the Ancestry blog, let me start out by introducing myself.  My name is David Graham and I’m the product manager responsible for the community areas of the website, which include the different tools you use to connect with each other and to help each other on Ancestry.com.

My first exposure to family history years ago was helping my grandmother do data entry as she moved from a paper tree to a digital one.  As I’ve gotten more involved in family history and interacted with more people in the family history community I have found that the interest and passion is definitely contagious!  I’m always amazed and inspired by how helpful the family history community is, whether it is reaching out on the Message Boards, sharing research, or just sharing research tips and tricks.

I just wanted to quickly let everyone know about a new feature we’ve introduced on the Message Boards.  We now automatically recognize last names included in message board posts and offer special links to additional surname resources.

These links will look different than direct hyperlinks that members may include in their posts, and will not interfere with any hyperlinks in the message.  When you move your mouse over the linked last name you will get links to the surname message board for that last name and to a special page offering family history facts and resources for the surname.

Here’s what it looks like:

We hope that giving quick links to these resources makes it easier to find all the valuable information available to help you research your family history.  If you have any specific feedback about this new feature please email it to feedback @ ancestry.com.  We hope to be able to make improvements based on your feedback.  I also hope we can continue to do more to improve your experience connecting with each other and working together in this great online community.

"If you hadn't had these documents to bring all this to light, you'd be looking all day in the service records"

Hollis Gentry first visited the National Archives at age 13 and began her near-obsession with genealogical research two decades ago as a college student trying to identify a distant ancestor. via ScrippsNews

Over the past year, we’ve taken a close look at the Ancestry search process and asked our customers what issues they face when trying to find content on our site. Based on this feedback, we’ve been working on some new search features that we believe will make searching for records about your ancestors easier, faster and more effective.

We’ve made a New Year’s Resolution at Ancestry to do a better job of involving our customers in product enhancements early on so we can respond to feedback and make products that really meet your needs. That’s why, even though we were hoping to roll out the new search system earlier this year, we decided that it was absolutely critical that we invite some of you to try it out and give us direct feedback based on the new system before we launched it. So we invited a few lucky customers to take the new search for a spin and tell us what they think. We’ve been soaking up the feedback and we’re still busy making changes to improve the system based on that feedback. That said, it’s getting pretty close to time to launch it to a wider audience.

So, before long, we plan to begin a beta (fancy word for a preview) period of the new search on Ancestry, so you can all try it out. It will be what we call an “opt-in” beta, meaning that you can choose whether or not you’d like to try out the new search. If you decide you want to try it, you’ll be able to easily switch back to the existing search functionality at any time during the beta period by clicking on a “Switch Back” button on any of the search pages. We hope you’ll give us some good feedback on the new search during this beta period so we can continue to improve it.

If you’d like to take a quick tour of the new features and be one of the first to hear about the new search beta when it launches, visit: http://search.ancestry.com/search/SignUp.aspx

Kendall

P.S. – Here’s a quote from one of our early testers: “It was the best item I have personally ever tested for [Ancestry]. I am really excited to see this new enhancement become available on their site. So look forward to exciting things from Ancestry.”

I am seeking information regarding Eli Reynolds I believe he was from Rhode Island. via Cousinconnect.com

You may have noticed that the “New content has been added to your family tree” emails haven’t been coming to your inbox lately. These are on hold while we’re ramping up new capacity for the trees service. The pause happens because we’re replicating the live data to an additional service system so we can handle more requests. This “replica” is like a big gas tank, and it is going to take about a week to fill it up. Once it is full we’ll be back to sending the “new content” emails, and the service overall should be much snappier.

On occasion I come across enhancement requests or questions about features that are currently in Family Tree Maker 2008. Here is a short list of some of those items.

Support for all media files

Users can link to any type of media by selecting “All Files” under the “Files of type” drop-down. The default is set to image files, but any type of media can be linked.

Address report

An address report can be created following these steps:

• Open the “Custom Report”
• Click the “Reset” button
• Click the “Items to include” button
• Click the blue + button. The Select Fact window opens.
• Choose “Address” from the Facts list and click OK.
• In the “Included facts” list, highlight a fact, such as birth, and click the red X button.
• Click OK.
• 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.
• To choose a group of descendants, click an ancestor’s name in the “Name” list
• Click “Descendants.” The list on the right side of the window now includes a list of that ancestor’s descendants.
• Click OK. The report opens.

Add a new Source-Citation

In addition to adding source-citations to facts in the People workspace, you can create new source-citations in the Sources workspace as well by clicking the ‘Add’ button in the upper right section of the ‘Sources’ workspace.

Place Warnings

Users can choose to have Family Tree Maker 2008 ignore the place warnings and remove the question marks in the Places panel.

This can be done under “Tools - Options - Warnings” and then uncheck the “Show unrecognized place name indicators” box.

Font size

Fonts can be set to display larger by clicking the “Use large fonts” box in the General Options window.

Convert names

Names can be converted in Family Tree Maker 2008 to all be mixed-case or mixed-case with capitalized surnames. This option can be found under the “Tools – Convert Names…” section.

"It makes it difficult to organize family reunions."

Members of a large Acadian family from New Brunswick say they have earned a place in the record books as the family with the most siblings over the age of 65. via MyTELUS

Researching a family history can take years and involve significant amounts of travel. via Port Clinton News Herald

I would like to contact anyone who is researching David Suley who lived in Ontario, Canada from about 1880. via Cousinconnect.com