In the genealogy conference I attended last Saturday, Ron Tanner stressed the importance of providing sources to validate the data being entered. As important as that is, however, it is interesting to note that, according to an unnamed source Ron read, two-thirds of the world's population has no documentation at all.
On another note, to access the Family Tree system on Family Search, go to the following URL:
http://familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab. You can also get information about Family Tree on the familysearch.org website by clicking on Help.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
2012 Ogden Family History Conference
Today I attended the 2012 Ogden Family History Conference. There are several things I learned.
First, Ron Tanner (Product Manager for the Family Search Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) gave the keynote speech. I always enjoy listening to him. I am also not surprised that the Church has the same software development headaches as the rest of us. You see, I heard him speak at the same conference in 2010 where he announced they expected to complete the migration from new.familysearch.org to the new and better system by the second quarter of 2011. Now, they are planning to make the change by the second quarter of 2013.
They have made tremendous strides toward that goal and expect to force people to make the switch to Family Tree by closing down new.familysearch.org sometime in early 2013. The main problem with the new.familysearch.org system is that people have not yet adopted the mindset of "our" pedigree vs. "my" pedigree. This closed mindset has caused the database to be horribly messed up. Call me if you want more details as to why, but suffice it to say that the big problem has been that the system did not merge data on and individual but, rather, created a combined individual in order to let everyone "own" their own copy of the data.
He demonstrated many of the features of the new Family Tree system. The sub-beta version is available now on the family history site and they plan on fully releasing the beta version in October.
One of the advantages of attending the conference is the ability to buy software at bargain prices. Consequently, I purchased a copy of RootsMagic 5, Legacy Family Tree 7.5, Ancestral Quest 14, Family Atlas, and Personal Historian 2.
The first three are competitors to Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker software. There are three reasons I bought the software.
First, they are registered affiliate developers with the Church. Consequently, they directly interface with the family history database of the Church's Family Tree system. Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker does not. The main advantage of this is that the Church has no plan to export data via GEDCOM files or any other format. They are leaving that to third-party vendors.
Second, There are some features each program has that others do not or that treat the features a little differently.
Finally, I want to provide you with data and reports on my website that interface well with the major vendors that you may be using and as well as reviews to help you determine which software to use. By the way, the company that sells Ancestral Quest 14 is the one that built PAF. Ancestral Quest 14 is PAF on steroids.
First, Ron Tanner (Product Manager for the Family Search Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) gave the keynote speech. I always enjoy listening to him. I am also not surprised that the Church has the same software development headaches as the rest of us. You see, I heard him speak at the same conference in 2010 where he announced they expected to complete the migration from new.familysearch.org to the new and better system by the second quarter of 2011. Now, they are planning to make the change by the second quarter of 2013.
They have made tremendous strides toward that goal and expect to force people to make the switch to Family Tree by closing down new.familysearch.org sometime in early 2013. The main problem with the new.familysearch.org system is that people have not yet adopted the mindset of "our" pedigree vs. "my" pedigree. This closed mindset has caused the database to be horribly messed up. Call me if you want more details as to why, but suffice it to say that the big problem has been that the system did not merge data on and individual but, rather, created a combined individual in order to let everyone "own" their own copy of the data.
He demonstrated many of the features of the new Family Tree system. The sub-beta version is available now on the family history site and they plan on fully releasing the beta version in October.
One of the advantages of attending the conference is the ability to buy software at bargain prices. Consequently, I purchased a copy of RootsMagic 5, Legacy Family Tree 7.5, Ancestral Quest 14, Family Atlas, and Personal Historian 2.
The first three are competitors to Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker software. There are three reasons I bought the software.
First, they are registered affiliate developers with the Church. Consequently, they directly interface with the family history database of the Church's Family Tree system. Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker does not. The main advantage of this is that the Church has no plan to export data via GEDCOM files or any other format. They are leaving that to third-party vendors.
Second, There are some features each program has that others do not or that treat the features a little differently.
Finally, I want to provide you with data and reports on my website that interface well with the major vendors that you may be using and as well as reviews to help you determine which software to use. By the way, the company that sells Ancestral Quest 14 is the one that built PAF. Ancestral Quest 14 is PAF on steroids.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
New Reports
I have added new reports to the "Facts" page. These are name indexes for the Stillman Family Line and the Reid and Shipley Family Lines.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Welcome!
Welcome to the Stillman Family Blog. This blog is centered around the genealogy research efforts for the Stillman family line and related family lines. Feel free to post your observations, questions, requests, info, etc.
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