Using a Desktop Database Program along with Family Tree

I thank Renee Zamora, blogger and RootsMagic employee, for sharing her May 15, 2013 post from "Renee's Genealogy Blog":

Do I Still Need a Desktop Genealogy Program or is Family Tree Enough?
If you're a family history consultant then you have probably came across this question. "Why do we need a desktop program?  Can't we just use the FamilySearch Family Tree instead?" At RootsTech 2013 I attended an Unconferencing session hosted by Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch API Program Manager. This same question was asked of the Tree Share Panelists: Bruce Buzbee (RootsMagic), Luc Comeau (Legacy Family Tree), Gaylon Findlay (Ancestral Quest), and Dovy Pukstys (RealTime Collaboration/AncestorSync)
I am going to try and recap their thoughts and my own as to why we still need a desktop program.
1. In theory it would be lovely to work only on the web, but Family Tree does not have the power that a desktop program can give you. The same features in a desktop program would be too costly to recreate on the web.
2. People want to keep some things private, especially if it can be embarrassing or hurtful to other family members. They don't want to share certain things until they are ready to do so. Information that is private can be vital in how you come to conclusions in your research. There is more security having your database under your total control on the desktop than the web will ever be. The Family Tree is also not intended as a place to record information on living individuals. Being able to have both the living and the dead in one family database seems to eliminate a potential hassle and security concerns.
3. Custom reporting is a big reason for maintaining your own database with a desktop program. Analytical reporting and queries on the desktop would be very expensive in a web application. The bandwidth needed would be very costly. Online applications will not have the processing power that is available on a PC. They just cannot compete with your computer resources. The reports from a desktop program look more professional than the website versions. You can also save reports made on the desktop as RTF files and massage them exactly the way you want in Word. This gives you a lot of control and a great advantage.
4. In a desktop program you can have more than one database. You can have a database with proven research and another with those that are not. In the research process you can come across individuals that may be part of a family. In the desktop program you can continue to do more research and prove your conclusions before you add them to the Family Tree. If instead you added your assumptions to Family Tree while building your case, others that have access could change your findings. It's also easier to sift, sort and compare electronically people in your database than online.
5. The web vs. the desktop has two different purposes and usually two different audiences. The web is used to attract people to genealogy, to share with others and get them interested. When people really start researching their family history you will find they start using a desktop. They have to because the web is a box and doesn't fit everyone and doesn't have all the power as the desktop computer. The desktop is where the real success and real concrete evidence is finalized for a real researcher.
6. There are a lot of people that still are not online. When you put your family history online you can only share it with family members that are online. There is a need to be able to share in other ways. You could create Shareable CDs or books with your family history to share with others. These types of options will not be available with online applications.
7. Desktop programs allow you to organize and analyze your data in a particular way. You can create special groups of people based on specific search criteria.  For example: finding everyone living during the 1940 US Federal Census. Then you can focus your research efforts on those individuals for that data set.
8. Life gets busy; people tend to work on their family history in little pockets of time. Desktop programs have To-Do Lists and Research Logs that help you manage and track your research efforts. They help you keep records on your thought process and what records you have searched. You can record which records you want to look at in the future as the impressions come to you. These are great tools in breaking down brick walls and furthering your research.  You're not spinning you wheels trying to remember where you left off each time you get back to your family history.  In the long run this makes a person much more productive with the little time they do have to devote on their genealogy.
9. With a desktop program you can get very comfortable knowing its not changing on you. With a website the company can change things really quickly and you have no control over that. Everyone that uses the website is forced to change.  With a desktop program you can stay with an older version if desired and not be forced to change. The desktop programs interface between New FamilySearch and Family Tree is likely to stay very similar to each other. If you were only using the websites you suddenly experienced a whole new learning curve.
10. One great customizing tool in the desktop program is color-coding. You can select a specific person and color his ancestors. If your 2nd cousin color-coded it would be different lines. A community environment doesn't give you that customization.
11. The desktop program have internal record numbers (RINs). People get used to memorizing people in their file by record numbers. On the web that would be very hard to wrap your head around the numbering systems.
12. From a web developer KISS is the entire world. Keep it Simple... the most successful websites are the simplest ones. Desktop can go as complex and customizable as desired. The web treats everyone as one person. It's hard to give that customization. The web mimics what the desktop has already done. People will continue to use desktop programs because the developers innovate in the way genealogist care about. Web guys innovate in ways that will bring more users, but not necessarily better research.
13. If you have your data in a desktop program and something happens to you it's still on your computer and someone can find it. If all your data is sitting up on a company's website and that website disappears you don't have your data. Your data is actually safer in your procession because you can make sure you've got backups.  You make sure that as media type's change you take your data and migrate it and use different formats. So if one of them happens to go down or disappears you still got the data in a format. To keep your data on a website or in a single cloud it's at your own risk.
14. How many people that only used New FamilySearch have now lost data, with the migration to Family Tree? Not everything has been transferred over. What do they have as a reference to make sure the records are now correct?  Do they need to manually retype all the changes in again? Each time you retype data you add the element of human error while doing so.  In a desktop program you can compare your data with what is on the Family Tree. Then send an exact copy of what is in your database if changes are needed. Are you confident that Family Tree will not be replaced in the future with something else?
15. As a genealogist I have experienced where I needed to go back several years of research to an old backup to see what it was at that period in time. You can't get that picture in a website, because it is always changing. By making backups routinely you have a historical snapshot of what the state was at that point in time.
16. If you only keep your family history on Family Tree you are missing out on finding potential researchers working on your lines. The more places you share your research on the web the greater potential you have of finding other family members. Desktop programs allow you to create GEDCOMs to share your data on other websites. You can upload your database to Ancestry.com, WorldConnect, Geni, and MyHeritage, to name a few. You can also create your own websites with desktops programs and host them yourself. These in turn can be searchable in Google were other researchers can find you.
17. Maintaining your own database is the only way you can be sure your data or some portion of it has not been lost, corrupted mechanically or merged improperly.  Some temple ordinances have been lost or have choked in the pipeline.  If you have your own records on what has been done previously you can help FamilySearch find the missing ordinances and restore them.  If you are dependent on FamilySearch maintaining those records you have nothing to fall back on.
18. When you use a desktop program to interface with Family Tree you will stay connected as long as you don't close the program. On the Family Tree you will be periodically logged out if you are inactive for even a short period of time.  Anyone that does research will need to step away for a few minutes to consult other resources, their research logs, or just analysis their findings.  Having to continually log back into Family Tree is very time consuming and frustrating and doesn't make for a good experience.
19. In a Desktop program you can choose colors, fonts, display styles for names, dates and places. You can set up your database to show in the way that will best assist you in your tasks.  An online application does not have that ability.
20. Desktop programs provide a variety of "Dashboard" features for tracking your temple submissions and their progress. It's easier to determine who still needs their ordinances done and which have been completed. You can manage your temple cards and record which family members you have assigned them to.
21. Desktop programs can help keep you in touch with living family members that are not interested right now in family history. It can be a great tool in planning family reunions.  You can determine very easily all the living descendants of a common ancestor. Most programs include a way to record contact information. You can also generate calendars showing family members birthdays and other special events.
The Family Tree is a great tool, but it is just not there yet to replace the desktop programs.  Maybe in another 10 years the technology, bandwidth and computing power will evolve enough for it to do so.  For now, there is still a great need for the desktop programs. Family Tree and the desktop programs actually need each other.  The Family Tree helps by getting new people interested in working on their family history.  It's a starting point for them.  The desktop programs in turn receive new customers when the Family Tree users realize they need more features to help them manage their research efforts. This in turns helps them come to better conclusions in their research that then can be added back to the Family Tree.
FamilySearch is doing a wonderful job by allowing third party affiliates (genealogy software programs) to interact with the Family Tree through their API. It bridges and brings the online experience within the desktop experience. You can have the best of both worlds together.  To learn more about the third party affiliate programs certified to sync with Family Tree check out the following link: https://familysearch.org/products

How Do I Edit and Manage Photos?

When my husband and I attended the Family History Expo in Colorado Springs in August, I attended a class taught by James Tanner about Family Tree, the new product for our genealogy at FamilySearch.org. A light bulb came on in my head. I decided that Family Tree would be the best place for me to store (and archive) the Family History research I've performed in the last 15 years. Because of the new developments on the Family Tree, we are now able to upload a maximum of 5,000 photos to our personal account and can attach photos to the appropriate individuals in the Family Tree.   

If the photos we want to upload are not already online or in digital format, it's necessary for us to scan those photos into a digital format. I've resumed  my activity of staffing the Family History Center each Wednesday 5:00-7:00pm so I can help our Consultants and Patrons learn how to scan and edit our family photos and upload them to the Family Tree. 

I encourage our Consultants to get familiar with Family Tree and start sharing (and storing) our old family photos so we can collaborate with others. 

I regularly follow the posts that James Tanner publishes on his "Genealogy's Star" blog. I've learned so much from his teaching. Today he posted an article called "Update on Photo Management Software for Genealogists".  Since I use Picasa for my photo editing software and have been teaching it in the Family History Center, I'm sharing what James posted about it in his blog. 

At the entry level, there is Google's Picasa. This program is up to Version 3.9 and is a free download from Google. The program will automatically begin searching your computer's hard drive and any attached hard drives for images. It does not make a copy of the images and it does not share any of the images with the online world. It merely makes a thumbnail version index of each image and leaves the original image exactly where you had it on your hard drive. You then have a visual index of every image on or connected to your computer. Using Picasa you can move an image to a different file, rename images, rename file folders and find the original image on your computer. The program will also do some basic photo editing. There are many more functions of the program including tagging people in the photos and adding metadata tags to the images.

Tag the Sources in Family Tree

The Logan FamilySearch Library newsletter this week offers good advice about tagging our sources on the Family Tree. 

Question: It is disheartening to spend a lot of time adding sources to your family in Family Tree only to have another person come along and change the data .  How can we make the sources more visible.  Many people don't bother to scroll down the page to see the sources. 

Answer: Try these suggestions:

• Be sure you tag each source to the specific events it reverences.  That will put the source right up by the event when someone clicks on it to change it. (After attaching a source to a person, click on the source, click Tag and check the boxes of those events it references.)
• A history of changes is available.  On the right hand of the person page is the box labeled "Latest Changes".  If the change was incorrect you can reverse the change.  Be sure to enter the reason  and reference the documentation.
• There is a "Watch" star at the top of the person page  Click it to places the person on a watch list.  You will receive an e-mail when changes occur on this person.
• If the person's information is changed again without supporting sources, send the person doing the changes an e-mail politely asking the reason for the change.  Their answer may explain things you do not know or start a discussion to arrive at the correct answer.  If their e-mail answer is not forthcoming there is a button in the "Tools Box" labeled "Report Abuse".

Training available for Family Tree

The easiest way to find the videos and other helps about the Family Tree is to go to  https://familysearch.org/tree-training. 

Or you can go to https://familysearch.org/  and click on Get Help > Product Support > Family Tree > More Training videos. 

Once you get to the site, be sure to create a bookmark for it so you can find it again quickly. (In Chrome, you can do this by clicking on the lock icon in the address box and dragging it onto the bookmark bar.)

Family Tree available to the Public

FamilySearch Has Launched Family Tree

FamilySearch has now launched Family Tree, the first in a series of exciting services planned for release in 2013 at FamilySearch.org to enrich patron experiences. Family Tree, is a free, online family history tree service. Family Tree brings collaborative web tools together with FamilySearch resources to create an engaging way to discover, preserve, grow, and share your family history as a family community online. Family Tree is now available at FamilySearch.org (Look for the Family Tree tab).

Users of Family Tree can:

· Organize family information into a genealogy tree

· Edit and delete incorrect data, including relationships

· Connect and collaborate with others on shared family lines

· Provide sources and link to online information that shows where you found family information

FamilySearch has created a training website to educate and help new patrons make the most out of Family Tree. The site includes quick instructional videos, a reference guide, webinars, practice exercises, and much more.

Development on Family Tree is aggressive and exciting new features will continue to be added in the next few months. Some of these new features will include:

· Additional features to reduce merging of non-duplicate records

· Ability to add photos and stories

· The migration from new.FamilySearch.org of individual and family notes as well as user-entered sources

· The ability to print pedigree charts, family group records, and other reports

Give Family Tree a try today.

Thanks, The Family Tree Team

Family Tree Training Site

If you're like me and struggle to stay current on all the changes and features available at FamilySearch on the Family Tree, you'll want to check out all the helpful videos at this site: https://familysearch.org/tree-training

FamilySearch Family Tree Tips

Published in the Logan Utah Family Search Library newsletter 26 Dec 2012  Vol 13, Issue 51

Source: submitted by Ann A.  to FHCNET mailing list, Oct 27, 2012 

I have a few tips for using FamilySearch Family Tree, things I have picked up as I have used Family Tree in the last few months. I  wonder if anyone would like to add to my list.

 1. If you want to use a book from books.familysearch.org as a source for someone in your Family Tree, be aware that the URL in the top of your browser is very temporary. You should be able to find a permanent link, however. Right now I see 'Copy Link' in the top right corner by the title of the book I just accessed. When you click on 'Copy Link' it opens the permanent link that you can copy by using Ctrl-C. Then you can paste it into the web page field of the source you are creating. 

2. Use the little 'Copy' button located beside 'My Source Box' on the landing pages of the sources you find in familysearch.org. This copies what has been indexed so you can paste the indexed data into the notes field in your source. It does not pick up household information on census records, however. 

3. If you find a source attached to one of your Family Tree ancestors that is not in your Source Box and you want to attach it to a relationship or to someone else, click on the title of the source you want, click on 'view' then add it to your Source Box as you would any other source you find on familysearch.org. The entire source, including notes will be copied and you will still be able to tell to whom and to which relationships it has already been attached. 

4. The link to the Family Tree Training materials, including the webinars on Editing Relationships, Sourcing and Merging is familysearch.org/tree-training. You have to be signed in to access them. 

5. Be sure to attach sources to your husband-wife AND parent-child relationships to prevent others from coming in behind you and deleting correct relationship data.

6. Record Seek is a useful tool for creating sources you find on websites other than familysearch.org and putting them in your Source Box. Go to  recordseek.com and drag the green 'RecordIt' button to your browser bookmark bar. When you have a landing page for a source in findagrave.com or even ancestry or whatever, click on the 'Record It' button you added to your browser bookmark bar and it will copy the URL, citation and a title into the proper source fields. I have used it mostly in Chrome but it should work in Firefox too. It does not work with Internet Explorer9.

Try FamilySearch Family Tree

Family Tree is an upgrade from new.FamilySearch that combines the best features and data from new.FamilySearch and adds powerful tools for data accuracy, usability and collaboration. Many tools in nFS have now been disabled as the transition is made (separate, combine, possible duplicates, etc.). Now is the time to make the switch, if you haven't already. Although change is sometimes difficult, I think you'll be pleased once you give it a try! If you have questions you'll find excellent online training at this link. 

Source: Logan Utah Family History Center Newsletter, Nov 7, 2012, Vol 13, Issue 44

Family Tree Revolutionary?

Genealogist and blogger James Tanner offers a very good article on his Genealogy's Star blog about why Family Tree is revolutionary. You can read it here. 

Family Tree Updates

Today on his Genealogy's Star blog, James Tanner provides us with a very good update on FamilySearch Family Tree.

Editing Comes to Family Tree

FamilySearch Sign In

When  you sign in to FamilySearch, you now have the option to stay signed in for 2 weeks.  If you click the checkbox, you also get a warning to avoid using this option if you are on a shared or public computer.

Big News Family Editing Comes to FamilySearch Family Tree

 

FamilySearch is a moving target. No matter what you knew about it yesterday, you  need to look at it today to see what is going on. Here is a summary of the different parts of FamilySearch and the latest news:   

Family Tree is part of the biggest change being made to the FamilySearch.org website. Good news and waiting. Family Tree is the replacement for New.FamilySearch.org.  There are a series of incremental changes going on nearly constantly. For example, today I found that 

• marriage dates can be edited or deleted. 
• Family relationships can also be edited, such as biological, adopted, step etc. 
• You can also change the parents of a child. 
• You can also add a source directly to a marriage and a child relationship. 
• In short, all of the incorrect family relationships in New.FamilySearch.org can now be edited in Family Tree. 
• You can also add people to the database. 

I hope you realize how big this really is!!!  Get to work and correct your family!  This program isopen to anyone who wants to register (or who has already registered) by clicking on the Help menu and reading the instructions concerning how to sign into the program. 
  

Source: James Tanner, Genealogy's Star  

Family Tree Available to All

James Tanner, in his "Genealogy's Star" blog today, tells us: 
Family Tree is available through a link on the FamilySearch.org website, but you have to initiate the link before it will appear. The instructions for gaining access to the program on a PDF file called Gaining Access to the FamilySearch Family Tree (pdf). Here are the instructions: 


1. Go to http://www.familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab.
2. Enter the required information in the fields provided.
Important: When you enter your user name and password, enter the same user name and password that you use on familysearch.org and new.familysearch.org. This lets you see your FamilySearch Family Tree and all of your changes as they appear in new.familysearch.org in the FamilySearch Family Tree.
3. Click Register.
The FamilySearch Family Tree appears. You are in the main position on the screen. To get to the FamilySearch Family Tree from now on, go to www.familysearch.org, and sign in. The link to the Family Tree appears in the upper-left corner of the screen, next to the FamilySearch logo. 

FamilySearch Blog: Sources for our Family Tree

Family Tree Update

May 22, 2012 By Matt Wright Leave a Comment

 

 

The Family Tree team has been really busy fixing defects and preparing for the release of several new features to help you better manage the relationships between individuals. Before we can turn those features on, we’ve got to finish the non-trivial task of moving all 1.25 billion relationships into the Family Tree. Yes, that’s over a billion! We have about 130 million left.

We invite you to begin using the Family Tree feature and let us know what you think. (If you need to know how to use this feature, click here.)

On Monday we pushed out a new release of the Source Box to the Family Tree. Let me highlight the new features as well as some upcoming features.

• Folders. You can now use folders to organize the sources in your Source Box. Folders are listed alphabetically, with the number of sources in each folder shown in parentheses.
• All Sources folder. The default folder in the Source Box is the All Sources folder. The All Sources folder shows every source in your Source Box, even the ones that you moved into folders. In a few weeks, the Source Box will have a column that indicates which folder a source is in.
• Attached link. The Source Box now indicates which sources are attached to the ancestor that you are working on. If the source is attached to the ancestor, it has an icon that looks like two interlinked ovals.
• Attach. When your Source Box is open, you can attach any source in it to the ancestor that you have been working on. Simply click the title of the source that you want to attach. If the source has not been attached to the ancestor you are working on, you see an Attach link. Click it to attach it to that ancestor. We are interested in your feedback on attaching sources. Do you like this change? Opening the source before attaching it lets you see the citation and notes, which can help you decide whether to attach it.
• Remove. Many of you asked for a way to remove a source from your Source Box and leave it attached to the ancestors that you attached it to. Now you can. Click the title of any source, and you can remove it from your Source Box. Now you might ask, “If I remove a source, how do I put it back into my Source Box if I need it again?” We will soon introduce a new feature that lets you add any source, no matter who created it, to your Source Box. With this new feature, you can add a source you created back into your Source Box. You can also add anyone else’s sources to your Source Box.

In about a month, we will introduce an easy way to capture data from any website, create a source, and add it to your Source Box without using copy and paste.

Source: FamilySearch Blog: https://familysearch.org/blog/family-tree-update/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FamilySearchBlog+%28FamilySearch+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

The following article was posted on the Family Search blog today. It's very important so I'm re-posting it here. 

Family Tree Access

April 27, 2012 By dgreen 3 Comments

Early Access to the Family Tree

As a family history consultant, you should be aware of the new Family Tree on FamilySearch.org that we will be releasing to the public in the next few months. At this time we would like to invite you to use it before it releases to the general public. We need your participation to help us make it better.

Please keep in mind that features and menus may change at this stage of development, as your experience using the program also likely will.

Once the features and functions are in place, the Family Tree will replace new.familysearch.org and will be freely and publicly available to all people around the world.

The Family Tree will let you:

• Connect and collaborate with others who share an interest in a common ancestral line.
• Add, edit, and delete relationships between individuals in the Family Tree. –Coming soon!
• Discuss and source vital family tree information to improve conclusions over time.
• Add specific ancestors to a personal “Watch List” to receive notifications whenever information about those ancestors is added or changed.
• Try out new features and functionality as they are added over the coming months.

Get started today! Please follow the instructions below to activate your account and help pioneer this new approach to family history.

First-Time Account Activation for Access to the Family Tree

To activate your current FamilySearch Account for access to the Family Tree, just sign in on the special access page. Go to http://familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab to sign in using your normal user name and password. This will be the only time you will need to access this page.

The first time you sign in, you will be automatically redirected to your family tree section on the main FamilySearch.org website. That’s right. You will now be able to access your family tree information right on FamilySearch.org!

All of the information from new.familysearch.org has been conveniently added to the Family Tree, and any changes you make in either system will be available in both systems. Your family tree and other features can be accessed when you click on the Family Tree tab at the top left of the web page.

Once you activate your account, you can then access the Family Tree anytime you sign in to the FamilySearch.org website. Be sure to always sign in. If you are not signed in, the Family Tree link will not appear on the site.

Got a Question?

If you need help, contact Support at 1-866-506-1830 or support@familysearch.org. Please note that help for this program is currently limited to assisting you to access the Family Tree.

A complete user guide for the Family Tree is available online to help you get started. Additional support materials are being added regularly. Any time you need this information, just click the Help link on familysearch.org.

Your Feedback Is Important

During these initial stages of the Family Tree, your experiences, insights, and ideas will help us to refine the process. Please take the time to share your thoughts by clicking the orange Feedback tab found on the top right of the web pages. You’ll also be able to view the comments made by others.

We hope that you enjoy exploring the Family Tree and that you find much joy as you discover more about your family history. We look forward to you learning and championing this amazing new feature as it comes online.