Gift shopping can be difficult, especially for older adults. Not only do they simply buy items they need for themselves, most people seem to be trying to declutter after years of accumulating stuff. That leaves me trying to think of clutter-free yet useful gifts on a budget, and -- as you know -- that is HARD. Gifts for genealogists, however, are plentiful. Family history gifts come in a range of prices, making them affordable no matter what your budget. Many people consider the resources and tools for genealogy to be a luxury and are less willing to buy them for themselves, so if you have … [Read More...]
The Latest Posts
Taking a Research Break
Or, How Less Family History Research Can be a Gift to Your Descendants I read in the newspaper this morning that Roy Clark died yesterday. You might be wondering what the death of an entertainer has to do with family history unless I am related to him (I'm not). Bear with me. When I was growing up, my brother and I spent a week or two each summer at my grandparents' house in Alabama. Each Saturday evening we ate in front of the television, a small color set that received three channels, watching "Hee Haw" (on which Roy Clark and Roy Acuff were regulars) and "The Lawrence Welk Show" … [Read More...]
Getting Started with AncestryDNA
This is going to be a short post, but I wanted to be sure that if you have tested at AncestryDNA that you have a chance to download this guide. Blaine Bettinger of The Genetic Genealogist has put together an easy to follow 6 part series in his awesome Facebook group Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques on how to go from "new match" to "known cousin" with AncestryDNA results. He combined all the posts in one PDF download that he has graciously allowed others to make available for download. Click the image to visit the Facebook group, or click here to download the 9 page file … [Read More...]
How to Customize Facts in Family Tree Maker
In my last post, I showed you how to add facts in Family Tree Maker. In this post, I'm going to show you how to customize facts in Family Tree Maker by changing some of the options in the default facts. This can be helpful if you don't like the wording in your reports, or if you want to add or remove information from the sentences generated. As I mentioned in my previous post, Fact Sentences are only used in Ahnentafel reports, descendant reports, or Smart Stories; in all other places the fact will be presented in data format. As always, backup your data before making changes. To find … [Read More...]
How to Add Custom Facts to Family Tree Maker
In the "Family Tree Maker - Mac Version" Facebook group, there was a conversation recently about Family Tree Maker's DNA Markers fact. Several people didn't realize that the fact was available, and others pointed out that it was of marginal use because of its format (I agree with this assessment). I like to add custom facts to Family Tree Maker to suit my personal research workflow, and I had done this with DNA information. Although I am not using the DNA Markers fact (I find DNA markers are too complex to be handled effectively inside of FTM so I use Genome Mate Pro—which is not for … [Read More...]