Читать книгу Genealogy For Dummies - Helm April Leigh - Страница 9

If you’re going to be researching using a variety of computers, you may prefer to use an online family tree rather than an application stored on one computer. Several companies have created online family tree applications, including Ancestry.com (http://trees.ancestry.com), My Heritage (www.myheritage.com), and Findmypast (https://www.findmypast.com/family-tree). To give you a taste of what online family trees can offer, we look here at one full-featured application at Ancestry.com. In this application, not only can you enter genealogical information, but you can also upload media files and integrate your data with the content found on the Ancestry.com subscription site through the Hints function.

To get started, try the following:

1. Point your web browser to http://trees.ancestry.com/.

The Ancestry.com online family tree page appears.

2. Near the top of the page, enter your first name and last name, select your gender, age and a person to search for (father or mother), and click Start Your Tree.

A new page appears labeled Father’s Information.

3. Type in as much information as you know and click on the Search for Records button.

The searchable information includes first and last name, birth year and place, and the names of his father and mother. You can choose to enter additional information by selecting grandparent information from the drop-down box. When you click the Search for Records button, a pop-up box appears asking you to provide your email address to register.

4. Enter your email address and click on the Save & View button.

The searchable information includes first and last name, birth year and place, and the names of his father and mother. The resulting page shows the search results for your father, as well as notifies you that your family tree has been saved and login information emailed to you. Certain items are marked with Preview buttons indicating that a subscription is required. Other items have a View button showing that it is free content.

5. Click Trees in the black menu bar.

The menu bar is located at the top of the page next to the Ancestry logo.

6. Click on the [Your Name] Family Tree.

The resulting page shows a three-generation ancestor view with you as the first person at the bottom; see Figure 1-5.

7. Add the name of a family member to the tree by clicking the Add Father link or the Add Mother link.

In the pop-over box that appears, enter the first and middle names, maiden (or last) name, gender, birth date, birthplace, and, if applicable, death date and death place. A pop-over box is similar to a dialog box except that you must complete its fields and click a button to make it disappear. When you begin to enter a location in the Birthplace field, a list of potential matching locations appears beneath the field. You can select from the list to enter the information more quickly. You can also use this list to standardize the location that makes searches easier in the Ancestry.com database.

8. Click Save.

The new individual now appears on the family tree. If there is information on the individual in the Ancestry.com database, a shaky leaf will appear.

9. Click the leaf symbol to see the hint. When you finish reading the hint, click the gray Return to Tree box.

After clicking the leaf symbol, click on the Ancestry hints button in the upper-right corner of the pop-over box (next to the large leaf). Not every individual triggers a hint, so don’t be concerned if you don’t see one. If you follow a hint that leads to part of the paid subscription database, the site prompts you to subscribe to the Ancestry.com site.

FIGURE 1-5: A three-generation ancestor view to fill in with your ancestors.

Giving Your Ancestors Some Privacy

Now that you have started your family tree, you might consider privatizing it – at least until you are comfortable with opening it up to the public. Keep in mind that by default the online family tree on Ancestry.com is set to be viewed by the public. This means that unless you make it private, the content you place there can be searched and read by anyone. To make your online family tree private (meaning that no one can view your tree without your permission), walk through these steps:

1. Click on the Trees menu item on the Ancestry.com page.

A drop-down box appears with the name of your online family tree and the option to Create & Manage Trees. You can find the Trees link in the black navigation bar at the top of the page.

2. Select the Create & Manage Trees option from the drop-down box.

A page appears with a list of online family trees associated with your account.

3. Click the Manage Tree link under the name of your online family tree.

The Tree Settings page opens.

4. Choose Privacy Settings from the menu.

The menu options are located just under the Tree Settings heading. You will find Privacy Settings between the Tree Info and Sharing menu options.

5. Click on the Private Tree radio button and then the Save Changes button.

You also have the option to prevent your tree from being found in searches. That means that no one will know to contact you to request access to see your online family tree.

Beefing Up Your Profile

Just like your ancestors’ lives, your life is a lot more than just names and dates. To get a better picture of you, or your ancestor’s life, you need to include details about important events such as marriages, buying a house, starting a new job, moving to a new town, and so on. To add some facts, try the following:

1. If your family tree isn’t onscreen, place the mouse cursor over the Trees menu item at the top of the Ancestry.com home page. A secondary menu drops down showing the family tree you created. Click the family tree name to display your family tree.

Your family tree is displayed with the Pedigree page.

2. Place the mouse cursor over the name of a person on your family tree and click on the box.

A pop-over box appears with more information about the person on your family tree.

3. Select Profile.

You may encounter a pop-over box with more information about the Facts view. You can click on the Next and Explore Your Family Story buttons if you are interested in reading the hints, otherwise click on the “x” button in the top right corner of the pop-over box. Several tabs are available on the Facts screen: Lifestory, Facts, Gallery, and Hints. The Facts tab, shown in Figure 1-6, shows a summary of facts, sources, and family members associated with the person. The Facts page contains some basic facts that you already entered, such as birth and death.

4. Click the Add a Fact link in the dotted box in the left column of the screen (under the Facts column).

The Add a New Fact or Event pop-over box appears.

5. Select the event type from the drop-down box, as shown in Figure 1-7.

One or more fields appear on the page depending on the event that you selected.

6. Fill out the fields and click Add.

The information that you entered now appears in the Facts column.

FIGURE 1-6: The Facts tab.

FIGURE 1-7: The Add Fact or Event drop-down box.

Citing Your Sources

A source is any material (book, document, record, or periodical, for example) that provides information for your research – for more information on sources see Learning about Sources earlier in this chapter. We strongly encourage you to cite the sources of all facts and information that you enter into profiles on your family tree.

Keeping track of sources helps you remember where you discovered the information and helps other researchers retrace your steps. If you find conflicting information later, returning to the source can help you sort out the reliability of your information.

Follow these steps to cite a source for a fact you’ve added to your tree:

1. Display the profile page for the person you want to cite a source for.

Follow Steps 1 through 3 in the earlier section “Beefing Up Your Profile.”

2. Click the Add Source link.

The link is located in the dotted box in the middle column under Sources. The Create Source Citation Information page appears, as shown in Figure 1-8.

3. Click the Create a New Source link under Step 1 onscreen.

The link appears just below the Select a Source drop-down box. The Create a New Source page appears.

4. Fill out fields for the source of the information.

You don’t have to fill out all fields. The only required field is Title.

5. Near the bottom of the page, click the Create a New Repository link.

A repository is a place that holds the source you’re citing, such as a library or a person’s house, in the case of the location of family photos. The Create a New Repository page appears.

6. Fill out the fields to describe the repository. When you’re finished, click the Save Repository button to save the repository and return to the Create a New Source page.

Note that after you’ve created a repository once, it’s then available for you to use in future citations.

7. Click the Save Source button.

The source title is now reflected in the drop-down box under Step 1 on the Create Source Citation Information page.

8. Complete the fields under the Citation portion of the source (Step 2 on the Create Source Citation Information page).

The Detail field is the only required field in this section.

9. Under Step 3 on the Create Source Citation Information page, select the box next to the fact or event that you want the source to document.

10. Click the Submit button.

FIGURE 1-8: Create Source Citation Information page.

Getting the Full Media Experience

To provide a rich experience for your sources, consider adding media. For example, you can scan a birth record of an ancestor and add the image of the actual record as part of your source citation.

Follow these steps to add media to your Ancestry.com family tree:

1. Display your family tree and open the personal profile to which you want to add media.

2. Click the Gallery tab.

3. Click the Upload Media image in the middle of the screen.

The Upload Media page appears.

4. Click the Content Submission Agreement link.

We think it is always a good idea to read the submission agreement so that you know the terms and limitations of posting content to the Ancestry.com site. Click the back arrow on your web browser to return to the Upload Media screen.

5. Drag the photo that you want to upload onto the dotted box labeled Drag or click here to upload.

Alternatively, you can click on the green Choose Files button that launches a dialog box and select a file. While the files are uploading, the progress bar appears on your screen. After the upload is complete, the photo appears, along with some fields to fill out including Title and Details.

To select multiple files to upload at the same time, hold down the Ctrl key in Windows or the Command key on a Mac.

6. Replace the title of the image in the Title field.

The Title field must be filled in. The default title is the filename of the imported image. The filename isn’t always a descriptive title, so feel free to make the name more meaningful.

7. Change the media type in the drop-down box (under Details).

8. Fill in the Date, Place, and Description fields if you have this information.

9. If you want to attach media to additional people in your family tree, click the Add link and enter the person’s name in the box that appears.

For example, if you want to attach a photo of a family to each of the people in the photo who are included in your family tree, attach the photo to the names of the appropriate individuals.

When you begin typing, the name begins to fill in based on the people in your family tree.

10. Click the Done button.

The photo shows up as a thumbnail image in the Gallery.

You can add the photo to a Fact entry by clicking the Facts link in the menu bar, selecting the fact, and clicking on the Edit link in the upper-right corner of the fact box. Then select the Media link in the left column of the pop-over box. Click the plus button next to the photo to add it to the fact.

Reaching Out to Others

At some point, you might decide to make your research results available to the public. To clarify some information that you put into the database, you might want to create a comment about a particular ancestor.

It’s important to know that comments placed on records of living individuals will not be viewable to the public unless you specifically give permission for others to see living individuals in your tree.

To post a comment:

1. Display your family tree in Pedigree page, and then open the personal profile to which you want to add a comment.

2. Select the Tools drop-down box in the upper-right corner of the screen (between the Search and Edit boxes).

3. Click View Comments.

4. Type your comment in the box and click the Submit button.

Hinting Around about Your Ancestors

A special function in the online family tree is the Ancestry Hint. Ancestry Hints are designed to search through the names that you enter and match them to records available on the Ancestry.com website. Even if you don’t have an Ancestry.com subscription, you can use the Hints to point you to record sets that you may be able to find in other repositories.

To see what Hints might offer for an ancestor, follow these steps:

1. Display your family tree and then open the personal profile for which you want to review Hints.

2. Click the Hints tab.

The Hints page shown in Figure 1-9 appears, listing record sources that contain a potential match with your ancestor:

• The first column is the name of the record source.

• The second column contains information about the particular record containing your ancestor’s name. Note that this column doesn’t provide all the information that might be contained within the record; however, it gives you an idea of the type of information that matched the record with your ancestor.

3. Click the Review Hint button to take a closer look at the record.

If you have a subscription to Ancestry.com, you see more information about the record. If you don’t have a subscription, you see a splash page that advertises membership and explains how to start a free, two-week trial.

4. If the Hint isn’t valid for your ancestor, click the Ignore Hint link.

FIGURE 1-9: The Hints page.

Ignoring the Hint doesn’t delete it from the profile. The Hint is moved to the Ignored Hints page, where you can review it again by clicking the Ignored Hints link.