Online Family Trees Versus Personal Software Family Trees -- Lesson # 8 Assignment Genealogy 1000 Salt Lake Community College

Discuss the benefits and the drawbacks of Online Family Trees like Family Tree and Ancestry Tree and Personal Family Tree Software like Roots Magic, Ancestral Quest or Legacy. Can we use just one or the other? Why or why not?

Re: Online Family Trees. I have quite a bit of experience with FamilySearch Family Tree and its predecessor New Family Search. I have IOUS’s in my ancestry, individuals of unusual size, and this has been very frustrating. There have been some “pedigree wars” with one branch of my family, where someone would change Henry Rollins to John Porter Rollins and then someone else would change it back and then the other person or persons would reverse the change and back and forth. It has been actually kind of funny, like the good fairies in Sleeping Beauty changing Aurora’s dress from pink to blue and back again. Even with all the frustration I have experienced with these FamilySearch products I am thankful that we have them available. They are constantly getting better and are great for collaborating with others.

 I also have limited experience with family trees on Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com. I think I would like to discuss MyHeritage.com for this assignment.

A year ago I attended RootsTech and we were offered a free six-month membership My Heritage in exchange for submitting a GEDCOM file. So I submitted my father’s large GEDCOM file and got my free membership. I renewed the subscription after the six-months, so I have had it about a year. The motto of My Heritage is “Do your genealogy while you sleep” because the program is constantly comparing your tree to other trees and advising you when there are record matches or new information. I get frequent emails advising of new matches. My father had over 400 first cousins (because of polygamy) and this generation has mostly died off. Many of the matches are advising me of obituaries or Find a Grave or Billion Grave records matching the names in my father’s GEDCOM. So My Heritage has essentially updated the GEDCOM file. I still need to enter the information, the sources and citations into my own record, however.

I think that online trees are wonderful for preliminary research. They are a good first place to look. The family trees are particularly valuable if they have sources. Just last Sunday my daughter-in-law asked me how to research one of her ancestors.  All she knew was the name. So we looked online. Searches on both FamilySearch Family Tree and in Ancestry.com Family Tree led us to several census records, a civil war record and a photograph. So now she knows a lot more about this individual and she has leads to research and to verify in Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and Virginia

Re: Personal Family Tree Software. I have had the most experience with Legacy because I won the software a few years ago on a radio show. I recently purchased the updated version Legacy 8.0. It has many nice features. When I was doing the assignment about using census records as sources I went to Legacy to print out blank census forms and used them to complete the assignment. It was very handy. However, Legacy is probably more complicated to use than some of the others. I have had some experience with Ancestral Quest and probably it is the best for those people who are transitioning from using PAF (Personal Ancestral File). And I have been learning RootsMagic in this class, of course.

I definitely believe that we need to use both online family trees and personal software. I cringed when I heard about someone who threw away all their personal family records because “now it is all on New Family Search!”  Things do not stay the same at the FamilySearch family trees. Others can and do make changes and sometimes things are lost. Never put any information or photos or stories or documents on FamilySearch without keeping your own files. The other online trees are not subject to being changed as much by others, but these other web sites might not be permanent and data could also be lost. Another drawback to online trees might be the loss of privacy. And someone could copy your information and publish it as their own work. Do not put anything on the Internet if you do not want to give away the rights to it. You will have to weigh the benefits of sharing against the possibility of plagiarism. And in the interest of accuracy you might not want to “publish” information on the Internet until you are sure it is reasonably correct information. It is very valuable to keep your records in personal software on your computer, so you can work with it and use it to help you as you make discoveries and develop conclusions.

Puzzilla - a Great Software Program

I learned about Puzzilla at RootsTech. It works with FamilySearch Family Tree. It is awesome for descendancy research. It is completely free. I tried it out today.

You can try it too at https://puzzilla.org/.


For more information in video form go to Introduction to Puzzilla


and Finding Ancestors on Collateral Lines in FamilySearch

Attendance Statistics from RootsTech

This is my fourth year of attending RootsTech, 2011, 2012, 2013 and now 2014. It has certainly grown during these four years. The first year I thought it was the largest genealogy conference I had ever known. According to statistics on the Ancestry Insider Blog there were 3200 registered in 2011. In 2012 there were 4000. In 2013 there were 6700. This year the conference was moved to the main part of the Salt Palace where the rooms were larger and there were 8000 registered for a four-day event. A Youth Event was added on the Saturday of the Conference last year and this year in 2014 there were 4000 who attended! Some of the RootsTech sessions were also streamed live online. Last year there was a total of 20,800 comprised of registrants, youth and those who viewed some sessions online. This year the total was about 30,000. 

It is a privilege for me to be able to attend these wonderful sessions and to gain so much knowledge about family history. Therefore, I want to blog about my adventures at RootsTech and share what I have learned. I hope it is interesting to my readers.

RootsTech 2014 Set your Indexing Sails

I enjoyed this segment from the Thursday morning general session of Roots Tech February 6, 2014. Captain Jack Starling teaches about indexing obituaries. Click on the link to view the video.

Post by FamilySearch Indexing.

Salt Lake Community College Genealogy 1000 Computer & Internet Tools for Genealogy

This semester (Spring 2014) I am taking the course Genealogy 1000 Computer & Internet Tools for Genealogy at Salt Lake Community College. It is an online class and I am auditing the class as a senior. I am doing the assignments and being graded, but I will not receive any college credit. (I already have my B.S. degree from Utah State University.) The instructor is Janet Hovorka who is well qualified. 
Here is my first assignment a post to the discussion "Getting to Know You."
I took the Genealogy 1000 class Fall semester 2011. I wanted to continue with the next genealogy class in the series and registered for Genealogy 1010. Unfortunately the class was cancelled because not enough students were registered. Then my life got very busy and now I want to continue my genealogy education. Since the SLCC  Genealogy courses have changed and many things on the Internet and with software have changed I am choosing to repeat Genealogy 1000. My immediate family history goals are to organize and digitize my files and to update four generations of my family history. I am a senior auditing this class, but I am not retired. My family owns a goat dairy Drake Family Farms in West Jordan Utah. We sell goat milk, yogurt, cheese and goat milk soap. My husband and I have eight children, 21 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Langley Allgood Bailey cousin of George Allgood

This post was written as an email to the Drake Extended Family about our common Allgood ancestors.

I have learned some interesting things since I wrote the email about our pioneer ancestor George Allgood.

Leighanne forwarded the email to Patricia, daughter of Paulette Fefita, daughter of Ruth Allgood Larsen. She lives in Denver and her kids are going on trek this year. They were quite excited to learn about their pioneer ancestor and Patricia sent me an email to find out how they are related to George Allgood.

Patricia and I exchanged several emails. Then her kids went to a trek fireside and as soon as they got in the car after the fireside they asked her if we were related to an Agnes Allgood who was in the ill-fated handcart companies of 1856.

This is what I have found out so far. I did not find an Agnes Allgood. But I did find Langley Allgood Bailey age 18 who was in the Edward Martin Handcart Company of 1856 with his father John Bailey 49, his mother Jane Allgood Bailey 45, and his brothers John 15, Thomas 11 or 12, David 5. I have established that Jane Allgood Bailey is the sister of the John Allgood who is George’s father. Their parents are Langley Allgood and Elizabeth Wakefield. So GeorgeAllgood and Langley Allgood Bailey are first cousins. Obviously Langley Allgood Bailey was named after his maternal grandfather.

The Bailey family apparently settled in Nephi, Juab County and Moroni, Sanpete County. There are at least two Jane Allgoods. One is Jane Allgood Bailey and the other is her niece Jane or Sarah Jane Allgood the sister of George. She lived in Coalville and Emily knew her as Aunt Jane. I do not remember her married surname.

Langley Allgood Bailey wrote a journal and there are excerpts at the Mormon Migration web site Mormon Migration  and the Overland Travels  site Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel. To find them type Langley Allgood Bailey into the search boxes and then look at the lists of references that will come up.

I think the younger members of our family who are going on trek would be interested in the experiences of Langley Allgood Bailey on the trail.

I am interested in his entire journal. He later returned to Great Britain as a missionary. If he visited family during his mission and wrote about them, there could be some important genealogical clues. The next thing to do is to get access to the journal and to read it.

The Journal of Langley Allgood Bailey

How about  if we have a “Family Book Club” and we all read Langley Allgood Bailey’s journal together?  

George Allgood 1846-1909 Mormon Pioneer

This posting was written for the Drake Extended Family about our common ancestor George Allgood.

With Pioneer Day being next week, July 24th, I thought some of you might like to know more about George Allgood who was an official Mormon pioneer (came to Utah before the transcontinental railroad was completed). He is the pioneer that Grandma Emily Allgood Drake used to obtain membership in the Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP).

The year was 1864. He was 18 years old and came from England with his mother and his brother and sister. For details go to Mormon Migration and type George Allgood into the search box. You will learn the name of the ship and other interesting details. There are links to personal journals written by other passengers.

Then go to Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel type in George Allgood 1846 -1909 (dates optional) and you will learn that he was in the Joseph S. Rawlins Company. The wagon train started in Wyoming, Nebraska not to be confused with the state or territory of Wyoming.

There are some interesting experiences related in the journals. Here are just a few details.

In 1864 the Civil War was raging. So this group of immigrants had to contend with the war in addition to all the other hardships. 

The ship struck an iceberg at one point. The reason the ship went so far north was to avoid Confederate ships. Actually their ship was sunk by the Confederates on its return voyage to England.

They went up the Hudson River to Albany and then on to Buffalo and into Canada coming back into the U.S. through Michigan, traveling on many boats and trains.

The steamboat that took them up the Missouri River had been attacked by rebel "gorillas" a fortnight before they traveled on it. It must have been a time of anxiety.

They were surprised somewhat by the appearance of the teamsters who had come from Utah with their ox teams and wagons to take them to Utah. They had wide brimmed hats and bullwhips. (Maybe it was like seeing cowboys for the first time.) 

There was some trouble with Indians and with the U.S. Army trying to confiscate some of the oxen. 

In another source I have learned that they were participants in the Perpetual Immigration Fund. 

I encourage you to read the journals and letters of the Allgood family's fellow travelers.

And of course, you can also use these two web sites to locate information about your other Mormon Pioneer ancestors.

Happy Pioneer Day!!!

Love, Aunt Jeanette