But as of today (1 March 2024) the profile page looks like this:
I've just highlighted a couple of things here, but you can read more on the MyHeritage blog post.
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It wasn't till after the show that I realised they had signatures on them, the names of those who had signed the Women's Suffrage Petition.
It's the next morning and I'm wondering if these names are real.
First stop the NZ History website to check the database of those who signed the petition.
Remember I said I had two pieces of ticker-tape, one was for Kate Caldwell and one for Anna M Howie. I put Howie into the database and got no Anna's.
So I tried Caldwell and there was Kate.
Kate was to be found on Sheet 336 in Waverley in the Whanganui region.
No biography exists for Kate, so maybe I should work on that.
As always, the original record needed to be seen and right at the bottom of this image you can see Kate's signature.
And what's more it matched my little piece of ticker-tape.
But scanning a little bit further and what's that I see a little further up, but Anna M Howie, in a 'family' of Howie's. But she hadn't come up in my search, had she? Let's just check those Howie's again.
.
There's Ellen, Jane and Helen C, but no Anna listed between Ellen and Jane.
The NZ History website tells me that the database was updated in December 2013 when the sheets were re-digitised by Archives New Zealand, so maybe the Archives New Zealand database might be more complete.
So I searched for Helen Howie in the Collections Search.
And yet again no Anna in the list of the women who signed on Sheet 336.
I know you should always check the original documents, but for some reason I trusted this index more as it was for such an important document.
I now wonder if there are more hidden women on the petition sheets. So if you haven't found your ancestor, make sure you have searched by place names as well and looked at the original sheets.
Also don't forget to check the 1892 petition as well, these are also digitised and indexed on the Archives New Zealand website, but appear as an attached spreadsheet on the NZ History website.
To fix Anna's omission I've sent an item inquiry form to Archives New Zealand with the details and hopefully it will get fixed [UPDATE: It's now fixed on both the Archives New Zealand and NZ History websites - Thanks to the teams for fixing this so quickly].
As always there are more questions, number one being who was Anna M Howie and how was she related to the other Howie women? Then of course there is my other piece of ticker-tape, Kate Caldwell... I haven't forgotten her. I've added them both to the Memories in Time Project tree on Ancestry for further research.
This one sheet of the petition had around 60 women who gave their address as Waverley and I haven't checked for any other sheets from the area. The statistics for the 1891 census suggest that there were only 206 females (excluding Māori) in the Waverley TD (town district) and without doing any in-depth research I'm going to guess that includes children. Does this mean a high proportion of women in this area signed the petition compared to other areas?
So there we have it - Anna M Howie is an Unexpected Hidden Woman of the Women's Suffrage Petition 1893.
How serendipitous was it to have picked up these two pieces of ticker-tape that happened to be on the same sheet of the petition allowing Anna to be found. Thanks Showbiz Christchurch ... the show was fantastic and finding Anna a real bonus.
If you want to know more about The Hidden Women Project
]]>Here's some step by step instructions on how to add a "floating" person to your Ancestry family tree, around whom you can build a "floating" family tree that may or may not eventually be linked into your main tree.
1. Open your existing Ancestry Family Tree and pick the profile of one person in your tree. In my example I have picked Ernest Partridge in The Memories in Time Project Family Tree.
2. Click on Add family.
3. You can click on any family member, but I find it easiest to click on Child.
4. Type in the name of the person you are wanting to add.
5. Choose a gender and ensure you only choose Deceased if they are deceased.
6. As I'm adding a child and in this example the husband has two wives I get to choose which set of parents I want the child to have.
7. Now select the person you have added the the family and click on Edit.
8. Once you have the profile open of the person you have just added, click on Edit at the top right of the screen.
9. Click on Edit relationships.
10. To remove the incorrect parents and click on the cross beside each parent to remove them.
11. Click on Remove
12. Repeat the process for the incorrect mother.
13. You'll now have no parents for your new person and you can click on the x in the top right hand corner to close the window.
Once you have your "floating" person you can start to build their family tree, just as you would your own family tree. This includes being able to link a person to a DNA match you may have.
Note: These screenshots were taken in June 2023 and if you are reading this later they may look a little different to what you are seeing now.
If building online trees for your DNA matches isn't for you, then you might like my DNA Match Chart, which you can download, print and then write on as you grow a family tree. They're a great way to stay organised with your DNA research and laying out multiple charts can help you see where different lines link up.
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I'm going to start a piece of research into a family I know a little about because they are notable. Katherine (Kate) Sheppard is well known in New Zealand for being one of the leaders in the Women's Suffrage movement in the late 19th century.
However, rather than tracing Kate's family history I’m interested in finding out more about her husband, Walter Sheppard.
I can easily find biographies of Kate online because she’s famous. For example, the Ngā Tāngata Taumatu Rau | Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (DNZB) biography.
But Walter’s information in this biography is limited as it should be as the biography isn’t about Walter. We are told he was a grocer and general merchant who married Kate on 21 July 1871 in Christchurch. They had one child, Douglas born 8 October 1880. Later in life the couple spent time in both New Zealand and England and Walter died 24 July 1915 in Bath, England.
Look at all those names and dates! I can easily start building a family tree for Walter and his family, as it must all be true as it’s published information.
Well maybe, but how about we slow down a little and have a little more of a look. What sources are being given for these dates? There needs to be some research to make sure that what we are looking at is factual.
In the case of family stories who in the family knows the story, what family lines did the family story get passed down through (did your cousins get the same version you did?). Is there a big jump in time between what you know and when the family story occurred, for example in my family the story is that a particular branch of the family came over to England with William the Conqueror. I can currently get this line back to c1700... just another 650 years to work out.
In fact this online biography references other books for its sources, so now I need to look to these to find the original sources used or alternatively I can use the clues from this biography and look for the likely sources myself.
So that’s the next step, I’m off to look for the bones of this family tree - birth, marriage and death details to help prove the relationships.
Over the next few days I'm going to be tracing Walter's family tree and sharing some tips and tricks along the way, so watch out for the next blog post.
Memories in Time is excited to be sponsoring Chris Goodyear who is playing Walter Sheppard in the production of That Bloody Woman by Showbiz Christchurch, 5-15 July 2023.
]]>It's always good to see changes to a resource when they add to what we can use for our family history research.
Today those changes are in the New Zealand Historical Indexes for Births and Marriages Online. So here's an update on what you used to be able to search and what you can now search.
The restriction on births used to be that they occurred at least 100 years ago to appear in the online indexes.
Over that period of time, you would often find a birth date on a death index record, which had a different restriction for people that died at least 50 years a go or their date of birth was at least 80 years ago.
This has now been rolled into the birth indexes.
Note also the pre 1875 record searches will search a whole year if a specific date isn't in the database for a birth registration.
Marriages had a restriction of only seeing those that occurred 80 years ago.
Now that restriction has been reduced to 75 years.
I love the "less is best" mentioned, that's the way I always start my research.
If you're wanting some more help finding New Zealand births, deaths and marriages you may find my webinar: The Bones - New Zealand Civil Registration at Legacy Family Tree Webinars helpful.
So grab your Research Planner and make a note of who you need to check when you have time.
If you would like some one on one help with your research, book a free 15min chat with me to see if I can help.
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Any tool that can help us to work with our DNA matches is great and I have to say I'm loving the graphics of this new cM Explainer tool at MyHeritage.
Here's how you can access the tool and use it from different parts of the MyHeritage website.
1. Login to your MyHeritage account.
2. Click on DNA in the top menu.
3. Click on DNA Tools.
4. Look for the cM Explainer and click on Explore.
5. Click on Shared DNA (cM) and enter how many centimorgans (cM) you share with your match.
6. Enter the ages or approximate ages of the people you are comparing. Then click the Submit button.
7. You'll see the possible relationships that you might share with the match. Also highlighted at the top of the screen is the most likely generation that you share common ancestors in.
8. Scroll down a little further and you'll see a screen showing those possible relationships in a diagram.
9. Click on the Show probabilities for MRCA and you'll see the probabilities of the generations that could be the ancestors you share with your match.
10. Of course your relationship may not be a Full relationship, so on the right hand side of the screen you have another option.
11. The dropdown menu gives you two additional options. The first is to show Half relationships.
12. So here's the Half relationships that would also be possible with the amount of shared DNA.
13. You also have the option to see All relationships. I have to say I wish this was the default version so that we don't forget to check for those half relationships.
14. You can also see these new tools from your DNA Matches screen.
15. Click on the Probable relationship (in this example 2nd cousin).
16. You'll get a table that shows the possible relationships that you have and the probabilities of each. You can either click Close or the X at the top right to close the screen.
17. By clicking on Review DNA Match you get to see more details about a match.
18. Scroll down and you will see the Possible Relationships table. But don't miss the option at the bottom to Show more relationships plus diagram.
19. Now you'll potentially see a longer list of matches.
20. Scroll down and you will see a Diagram of possible relationships and just like before you can also see the probabilities of who are your most recent common ancestors are.
21. Don't forget those Half Relationships as well.
As with all statistical calculations you are likely to be in the highest probability areas, but you may also be the probability that is least likely. So explore all the possibilities.
Remember also that your DNA results are just part of working out how you are related, you will also need to do the family research too. At this stage I don't know how Keith is related as his family tree is very bare, but I know what part of my family tree he is in from working through my clusters, so I'm off to contact him now.
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New tools to try at Ancestry (but just remember they are currently in Beta, so you may not have them yet).
1. Click on Discover Your DNA Story
2. Click on Ethnicity estimate
3. Scroll down and you will find a new feature to Compare with matches. Note this is in Beta and you may not have it yet. Click on Compare my DNA.
4. Now you can compare your DNA Ethnicity estimates with other kits shared with you and/or those in your match list.
5. Click on DNA communities
6. Now you can compare your DNA communities. There was an option to jump straight to this table from the DNA Story, just scroll down to the bottom of your communities.
7. Going back to my Ethnicity estimates screen.
8. On both screens you have the option to add a DNA kit shared with you or one that you match too by clicking on Add someone.
9. Enter the name of the match that you want to compare
10. Click on Search. Note you can add up to 10 people.
11. Select the person you want to add, by ticking the box on the left hand side.
12. Click on Save at the bottom of the panel.
13. Click on the thee dots at the top of the match for a dropdown menu.
14. Here you have the option to View Match or Remove the match from comparison.
If you have unique ethnicities or communities then this tool may help you with working out where some of your DNA matches come from. Of course you need to know where that piece of you came from first.
As always if you need some help with your DNA...
PS. I'm playing with a new tool (Tango) to take screenshots.
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It's been five years since the General Register Office in England added the maiden name to the English and Welsh births (1837-1910). I wrote about using these indexes here to solve mysteries.
A line that I had done a little work on was Walter Baxter born 1858, Bothwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland, younger brother of my ancestor Thomas Baxter.
When I was last looking at this branch of the family it was because of finding an Euphemia Gibb Baxter in New Zealand. Euphemia Gibb is the mother of Thomas Baxter (and Walter of course) and so I was pretty sure it couldn't be a co-incidence to have that combination of names.
In trying to trace Euphemia Baxter I had written a couple of notes in my family tree program (Brother's Keeper), that she may be the daughter of Walter Gibb.
Purchasing her birth certificate proved that and also gave me her mothers name and the date of her parents marriage.
And that's as far as I ventured on this part of the family tree.
So let's have a look with the new search facilities and find out more about the family.
After logging into ScotlandsPeople I selected a search of the Statutory registers and within that collection a search of the Births.
In the search screen I entered a Surname of Baxter and a Mother's maiden name of Mongomerie and clicked on Search and these were my results.
You can tell from the green button beside Euphemia's line that I've already bought that certificate - so handy to prevent duplicate purchases.
But it looks like I've also found an elder brother for Euphemia, John Montgomerie Baxter born in 1884.
Looking at what I now have, Walter and Isabella married in 1881 in Larkhall, Lanarkshire. They have John in 1884 and Euphemia in 1891 - that seems a big gap between marriage and children's births. Montgomerie also appears to be a name that could be spelt in multiple ways. So let's try that search with Montgomery as the Mother's maiden name.
Those top few look like possibilities. James born in 1882 in Larkhall, follows on from his parent's marriage in Larkhall in 1881. Then three births in Dalziel which is where John and Euphemia's births were registered, so also good possibilities.
Note: The bottom list of names (that I've privatised as they may still be alive) have no mother's maiden names as they are considered "modern day birth records".
So to summarise, so far I have children: James (1882), John Montgomerie (1884), Margaret Kerr (1886), Euphemia Gibb (1891), Finlay McDonald (1893) and Donald McKillop (1896).
At this stage some census research is well worth it. Children, John, Finlay and Donald don't appear in either the 1891 or 1901 census records and sadly I was able to find their deaths in the death indexes.
Using the Search options for the mother's maiden name made this easier (as is also something you can do in the birth search).
The 1901 census also showed another son, John Baxter, born c1899 in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland, that I hadn't found previously.
So, it's back to searching again.. .does research ever end?
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Ancestry's explanation for Unassigned matches is:
Leah Larkin has more details on her blog post: AncestryDNA's SideView Assigns Matches to Parent Sides.
I have a total of 20,844 DNA Matches, so these 4,871 Unassigned matches represent 23% of my matches (it will be really interesting to gather some statistics on this).
Because I have my DNA linked to a family tree, 59 of these Unassigned matches share Common Ancestors based on their family tree being compared to my family tree (just over 1.2% for those who like statistics).
Now that 1.2% statistic is based on those that have Common Ancestors. That's not to say that other Unassigned matches don't have family trees, it's just that they don't have a Common Ancestor on their tree. And no.. I haven't counted how many have public, private and unlinked trees.
But is that enough to prove they are related on that side of my family... keep reading...
Of the 4871 Unassigned matches, 83 share more than 20cM with me (1.7%). So the majority of these matches share DNA less than 20cM and let's face it I may not have gone down that far to work with smaller matches unless I had a specific project I was working on.
In my last blog post I noted that these aren't necessarily unassigned for all the related kits I manage. This was the example I used in that blog post.
That brings me to my next question - if my match shows as unassigned to me, do I show as unassigned to them? I'm trying to find out by sending messages to some of my Unassigned and Common Ancestor matches.
Update: For one of my Unassigned Matches I'm also showing as Unassigned for her.
When the groups (coloured dots) were introduced I set up one dot for Paternal and one dot for Maternal matches and used these for matches that I couldn't quite work out where they fitted in, but based on a shared match with my maternal aunt they were likely maternal (which left the other matches to be paternal).
With the introduction of Parent 1 and Parent 2 to the mix, I don't need these groups/dot's for the same use. So I'm going to use them to keep track of my Unassigned matches and which possible parent they could match to.
I'm calling them 00 P1 - Unassigned Poss and 00 P2 - Unassigned Poss (you can read about why I use numbers here). P1 and P2 for Parent 1 and Parent 2 and poss and it's just a possiblity they are linked to Parent 1 or Parent 2 (but I don't have the proof yet).
When I'm looking at a shared match and I can see that other matches are one particular parent but some matches are unassigned I can use one of these two new groups on the unassigned match.
I can then still add them to the cluster that the rest of the matches are in.
You might be asking why didn't I just make them Parent 2 based on their shared matches. Well I'm not doing any investigation of these matches when I'm clustering, so I don't know enough about them yet. And as previously discussed this is in Beta, so things could change and I don't want to rush in and then find I've made a big mess of my matches.
As an aside, I have to say it would make it a lot easier to do this if the group filter was working on the shared match, but it was showing as greyed out for me today as I was taking these screen shots.
If there is an update, I now have the ability in the future to combine a parent side with the group and see if any of the previously unassigned matches are now linked to a specific parent.
Well that's a good question. The ability to see our matches by parent is only in Beta testing. Things might change in the next wee while.
There's also the potential for updates that might affect our Unassigned matches. The last update was April 2022 (see the Ancestry article). By sorting my unassigned matches by date I can see that many are within the last couple of months so would not have been through that April 2022 update. At this stage we have no information about how often updates will be run.
My feeling is to not rush in. Explore the matches that have Parents allocated and maybe use my system above for those Unassigned matches.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
A big thank you to a friend who shared her DNA matches with me ages ago and (fortunately for this blog post) which we never got around to grouping. This gave me nice clean screen shots for this blog post (of course now we need to go work out those new clusters).
You can book a one-on-one session Understand Your DNA Results mentoring session with me here
Note the price is in New Zealand dollars.
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If you read my blog, I'd predicted this may happen back in May as it made sense with how the technology behind the scenes was working.
Just as the original SideView release on our DNA Story was exciting, this is even more so for someone who cannot test their parents.
Clicking on the new By parent menu option show the screen below. Note I had already worked out which side was Maternal and which was Paternal. If you weren't able to determine this yours will just say Parent 1 and Parent 2. Certainly the names in trees and the common communities shown here confirm that I got my Maternal and Paternal allocations correct based on my previous family history research.
Click on the All Matches option to go back to your Shared Match list.
Below the amount of DNA you share you will see the additional information of whether a person matches you on Both Sides, Parent 1's side or Parent 2's side.
If you have labelled your parents already in the DNA Story (the original release area for SideView), then those labels will be carried through to your Shared Matches.
By clicking on the Groups menu item, you'll get a drop down menu that has expanded to include By Parent options.
By choosing one option or the other you can see the matches by parent.
This can be especially useful if you have one parent from an endogamous population and one not as often the matches to the second parent are obscured by the number of close matches for the parent from the endogamous population.
If you have looked at the menu, you might be asking what is "Unassigned"?
Here's an example of the top unassigned match for my brother.
I'm going to quote from Ancestry here as to why a match may be Unassigned.
You may know where some of your Unassigned matches fit in you tree from your previous research.
In this case this match also has a Common Ancestor based on both the matches research and mine and also a bunch of shared DNA matches that confirm the paper research. So I can go in and Edit the Relationship to show which side they appear on.
This will then be noted with a little information tag (an "i" in a circle), so that I know when I look at this again, that I had labeled this relationship - good to know what I've defined compared to the system.
Unassigned Matches - across multiple tests
For those that are curious as this is a decent match, my brother shares that 105cM across 8 segments with a 35cM longest segment and unweighted is also 105cM. I on the other hand only share 12cM across 3 segments, longest segment 9cM and unweighted is 24cM. But most interestingly my maternal aunt shares 175Cm across 9 segments, longest segment 38cM and unweighted of 175cM. We are all unassigned for this match.
So would all my unassigned matches be unassigned across the kits I manage.
No!
I have unassigned matches that have been linked to the correct parent on my brother's kit and he shares less cM with me.
Some thinking and discussion to be had on these matches in the future. Not to mention more motivation to test other family members.
In 2021 Ancestry gave us the ability to define a relationship with a match (I wrote about it here)
Here's a match that I worked out the relationship to.
You'll note the little information tag for this match. When I click on that I get this popup notification.
If I click on the update label, the underlying information is that this match is on Parent 2's side and it will then update all the Parent 2's to Paternal, both in my matches and on the DNA Story SideView.
Yes you can. Click on the Groups menu button and below the by parent matches that the system has defined you will find the Custom Label matches.
As you can see the menu gives you the option to select your custom labeled maternal, paternal and both side matches.
If you got one of your labels incorrect, you can correct them, just the way you could previously, by clicking on the match and then on the Edit Relationship button.
Then you can change the side of your family if required or reset to default relationship.
From my time working with these parent allocations, I can see already that overall my groups (colour dots) appears to be pretty good. But stay tuned for another blog post on using the By Parent and Groups
Now it's your turn to explore and let me know what you find in the comments or send me a message.
9 Oct 2022
My android Ancestry updated a couple of day ago and I now have the By Parent filter on my Ancestry app.
6 Oct 2022
My images are from the desktop version. I can't see these on my mobile app (Android version) unless I go via the DNA Story link in the bottom menu. Once you have brought up the DNA Story, scroll down to find Ethnicity Inheritance (with the SideView coloured circles).
Click on View Breakdown and then scroll to the bottom of this screen and you should have a link to Matches split by parent.
The screen will show you the By Parent summary and you can click on All Matches to see the individual matches by parent in your match list.
A count of matches by parent on the Groups dropdown menu (and yes I know I can see it on the By parent summary screen). For those with parents from undertested populations or a mix of parents from populations that do and don't have Endogamy, knowing what quantity of parent matches you have can be useful. This would also show if there are Endogamous matches on both sides, by showing high parent counts.
If you would like some one on one help with your DNA book a free 15min chat with me to see if I can help.
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To add to this I also have my aunt's test results and she shares 175cM, 9 segments (unweighted 175cM, longest segment 38cM). 51% probability of being a 2C1R.
I'm confident with the combination of matches that our paper family history matches our DNA connection.
Excuse me now as I go to look at our shared matches to work out how they all fit in our family tree.
Ancestry currently can't tell which of your DNA comes from you mother and which from your father. That means that Parent 1 or Parent 2 could be either and this can differ between DNA testers.
If you are able to work out which is which (and see my last blog post to show how I did this) you can now label each parent as maternal and paternal and here's how.
1. On the Sideview page, click on "Edit parents" ad the top right of the Detailed comparison.
2. In the window that opens on the right hand side you get the choice of Maternal, Paternal or Not sure.
I'm going to choose Maternal here as I'm pretty sure based on the Germanic Europe ethnicity that this has to be my Mum's side of the family.
3. Because I picked Maternal, I then was given an image that shows the labelling for both parents. If you are happy with your choice click on "Sounds good" (shouldn't that really be "Looks good"?)
4. Your Detailed Comparison will now look like this with Maternal and Paternal labels.
A couple of notes:
1. You can "Edit parents" after you have labelled them, however if you then choose Not Sure for both parents it will revert back to your originally labelling , rather than deleting the naming of Maternal or Paternal (a bug perhaps?).
2. In your original choice, if you choose "Not sure" for Parent 1 then you will get the chance to label Parent 2. I'm still not sure why this is even an option, it you don't know one parent then you won't know the other and if overall you're not sure, then why start labelling them at all, shouldn't they just remain Parent 1 and Parent 2?
3. It should be noted if you have worked out that Parent 1 on your DNA is Maternal then that doesn't mean that Parent 1 on a siblings DNA or any other kit if you have access to will be Maternal; each DNA kit is treated individually.
I still think this has made the DNA Story portion of Ancestry's offerings much more interesting and look forward to seeing where this technology will go next.... maybe into our Shared Matches...
If you would like some one on one help with your DNA book a 15min chat with me to see if I can help.
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This year for ANZAC day I wanted to remember my 2 x great uncle, Adam Urquhart.
I knew from family members that he had served in World War I and when I downloaded his Military file from Archives New Zealand I was able to see how determined he was to serve - three attempts to enlist in World War I (the first two dismissed due to medical issues) and then lowering his age by 10 years in World War II in an attempt to enlist then too (he did get in, but did not go overseas).
His determination is amazing, but then again this is also the uncle that emigrated from one side of the world to the other all by himself... but that's another story to tell.
So on this ANZAC Day, I remember you Adam Urquhart.
Journaling:
Adam was living in Matiere, New Zealand when he enlisted for World War I in July 1917 at 34 years old.
Born in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland to Adam Urquhart and Mary Yeats he had emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1900’s.
This wasn’t his first attempt to join the war effort. He had tried in Cambridge in 1915 and in Hamilton in June 1916 both times being declared medically unfit.
He was 5 ft 7 ½ in, with dark brown hair and blue eyes and on his third attempt was accepted into .
Arriving in Liverpool on the Maunganui on 8 January 1918 he was posted as a Private to the 4th Otago Reserves Battalion and proceeded into Europe in April 1918. Four months later on 25 August in France, he received a gunshot wound to the chest. It was nearly a month before he was removed from the Dangerously Ill list to the Seriously Ill List, but shrapnel remained in his chest.
The early part of 1919 was spent convalescing in the UK, but he does appear to go missing for a couple of weeks in May from Codford (maybe a trip to Scotland to see family?) for which he forfeited 28 days’ pay. He embarked for New Zealand on the Briton on 17 June 1919 and was discharged on 28 April 1920.
World War II saw him again enlist. He may have thought that reducing his age by 10 years would allow him to see active service (but this was picked up on), but it was his medical examination that ruled him out. His service was in two parts, August 1940 to March 1942 and July 1942 to his discharge on 9 June 1944. He was appointed a Temp. Sergeant in charge of Camp Details in 1941.
A later medical examination in 1944 where Adam said he was 50, has the doctor note that he was a “Healthy man for age which is correctly 61 years”.
Adam died 17 April 1947 in Featherston.
This scrapbook page was created with the Time For Remembrance Page Kit by Lauren Bavin Designs.
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So let's see how this works, when you first open your Ancestry DNA Story, you'll get a couple of update notices, including this one.
And this one, which is introducing an Ethnicity Estimate update.
Once you get past these screens, scroll down on the right hand side to get to the Ethnicity Inheritance panel.
Click on the View Breakdown and you will see this screen:
Here my ethnicity is split between the two parts of my chromosome that I inherited from my parents on the left and the different regions grouped together to make me. You can click on the region names to see this highlighted in the circle images.
Scroll down a bit further and you will get the detailed view.
There is nothing here to indicate which parent is which, but having the breakdown may help you to identify which is which based on your known family history.
So looking at the above, one parent gives me my Germanic Europe ethnicity and I know which parent this is based on my research... thanks Mum.
So looking at these Ethnicity Estimates broadly I'm able to work out which parent is which and this is so exciting for someone who can't test their parents.
Now I know you're maybe looking at those percentages and maybe thinking they don't match. Well there's reasons for that and you'll need to standby for the next blog post on that.
New blog post on how to label each parent as maternal or paternal.
So how does this work. Here's some screenshots from my first try.
I've chosen to add another photo to Ernest Partridge on The Memories in Time Project team.
Click on the green plus button at the bottom of the screen to add a new photo.
Click on the Scan Photos option. Note this is currently in BETA on my device and is currently being rolled out to members, so you may not have it yet.
If this is the first time you are using this tool, you'll find some tips on getting the best result.
I took my photo down to my white kitchen table where I had nice light. As you can see the photo is on a card mount.
As you can see the instructions are to "Tap and hold to take photo". So I did just that.
You'll get a quick flick of the image being cropped (yes it took several goes to get these screen shots). I haven't had a chance to work out if there is an option to not crop the image. Remember the name of the photographer on a mount can be really important to help date the photo.
You can then add details to the image. I removed the date, which was the date I scanned it and not the date the photo was taken (which I don't know).
Here's the image in my gallery now.
This is so easy to use and add images to your gallery.
I have a few more things I want to try and I'll let you know how they go in future blog posts.
NOTE: This is currently being rolled out, so you may not have it yet... I know it's hard to be patient sometime.
]]>Click through to your DNA Matches screen and you may be seeing the “Do you recognize them?” options on the right-hand side of your screen (if you haven't got them yet... they're coming).
Here's the steps for confirming a relationship.
1. I'm using my brother as an example and because I knew that my match was my brother, I just clicked on the Yes button. If I wasn’t sure I could click on the Learn more button and go to the usual View Match screen.
2. Select which side of the family the match is from. With my brother this is "Both sides" as we share both parents.
3. After choosing "Both sides" I got a list of options for what our relationship may be. In this case the list was very short as the only option was for my match to be my brother.
4. Once I clicked on the Brother option, I then was asked to confirm I was sure.
5. Once my brother was confirmed the screen reverted to giving me the View Match button.
6. If you need to change the relationship, you will need to View the match where you will find the ability to edit the relationship.
The both option also allows you to give relationships to people that may match you on both sides of the family but at this stage you can only assign one relationship. I’d go with the closest relationship and make sure I added notes for other relationships.
Watch for the “Show more possible relationships” at the bottom of the relationship list.
I've chosen a couple of close matches here, so my list of possible relationships has been short. Here's an example of a relation that I share 154cM with.
If you get started on assigning a relationship and then want to get out, there is both a back button and also an exit "x" at the top right of the window. You can also choose the "I'm not sure" option at the bottom of the screen.
By assigning relationships to your shared matches, it makes it easy to quickly scan your matches to see which ones you still need to investigate further.
You can click on the Groups button and choose to look at your matches by Mother's side and Father's side.
That can be really useful if you have the same surname on both sides of the family and you want to just work on one side of the family at the time.
Hopefully this is a step toward automating which side of our family new matches are on, especially for us that don't have parents to test.
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For the month of May we'll be posting a daily memory prompt to help you start the memories flowing.
Grab a notebook and pen or start a word processor document and just start writing.
Do you have to use the exact prompt... No... just use it as a starting point for whatever or wherever your story wants to take you.
Later in the month we'll look at ways we can share these with the family.
And if you need some extra motivation, just think about what you wish you knew about those ancestors you've been chasing.
You'll find the prompts on:
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Now you have the speed option of putting shared DNA Matches into custom groups (note this is just being tested, so there may still be changes).
If you haven't used these before, or maybe you have and things have got a little mixed up you may want to read my blog post on 5 Tips for Using Ancestry DNA Custom Groups first
When you are viewing your matches on the right-hand side you will see a plus button. Clicking on this will give you an "Add to group" option.
Note the blue boxes are to preserve privacy.
Click on the button and you will be shown a list of your groups. However, unless you know exactly who the DNA match is then you will be unlikely to know which group to add them to from this screen, so click on the View match button.
This match had an extensive family tree and I was able to work out which line they were likely to match in my family tree and when I clicked on the Shared Matches option, they also shared matches in this line.
See that little pencil over by the custom group dots on the right-hand side of the match, we're going to click on that.
This will open up the list of Custom Groups on the right-hand side, but at the same time it will add a check box down the left-hand side beside each of the matches.
You can choose all the matches in the list by clicking on the check box and then choose which custom groups you want to add them to from the right-hand side list of custom groups.
This means you can tag them all to a custom group in one process (of course you may want to look at each match a little closer to determine which of multiple lines they may match on).
Once you have your matches in custom groups you can be more focused with your research and you work on one group at a time.
That's when I start using my DNA Match Chart to keep track of my matches as I try to grow quick and dirty trees to find our common ancestors.
If all this grouping just seems a little confusing, I offer a Understand Your DNA Results Workshop, where I'll meet with you and we'll work on this together. You'll even get a recording at the end of the session so that you can refer to it as you work with your matches in the future.
If you're looking at my numbers for my custom groups and thinking they don't look the same as my original blog post... well, I feel a new blog post coming on extending your DNA custom group numbering.
]]>There are so many talks that it can feel overwhelming. Here's a list (yes it's 18 pages long) that will give you a guide of the talks that are available.
You can download and print the list and then you can highlight the ones that you want to watch or just use it as a guide to the range of talks available.
From there go on to the Rootstech site, login and search for the talks.
There's a couple of ways you can do that. You can click on the Sessions button on the top line of the menu and then use the search box to search for the session name or speaker name.
If that doesn't work try the menu up the top right corner and search the speakers.
From the session screen you'll see a plus button that allows you to add a session to your playlist.
You can access your playlist from the top menu and then choose what you want to watch.
When you are on the session screen, take a look around.
Of course there is the ability to watch the session. If you like the session you can show that by clicking on the thumbs up at the bottom right corner or you can share it with your friends.
Many sessions also have a handout (just scroll down to find it) under Downloadable Resources.
You can also join the Chat Room to leave a message or ask a question of the speaker (this is only available over Rootstech weekend).
If you liked the speaker you can click on their name to find out more about them and also see if they have other talks available.
Don't forget to check out the Expo Hall. Just like if you were at the conference in person, you can browse the stalls of the the different exhibitors. Many have special offers and also some wonderful volunteers ready to answer questions.
Don't worry if your playlist ends up so long you can't get it through them all over the weekend. The sessions are going to be available for the next year.
Don't miss the very cool colouring pages on the home page (scroll down to find them).
]]>Rootstech Connect kicked off today and this global conference offers a wide range of webinars and also the chance to link up with other family historians.
With over 500,000 people registered from over 200 countries (including over 2000 from New Zealand) it's a truly international conference. Have you registered yet : www.rootstech.org
The great news is even though the live event is only for three days, the talks will be available for much longer. It's a bit like on demand TV. You can even create a playlist of the talks you want to watch.
However if you want to catch up with the speakers, this weekend is your chance and each speaker will have a chat room for each of their talks.
I've got three talks available:
Final Resting Place in New Zealand - How can you find the final resting place for your ancestors and what sort of information might you be able to add to your family history? Explore the main sources for finding the final resting place of our ancestors in New Zealand.
They Came on Boats: 19th and 20th Century Immigration to New Zealand - Our ancestors came by boat to New Zealand in the 19th and 20th centuries. If they don’t appear on the FamilySearch Archives New Zealand Passenger Lists collection, how else can we find how they got here?
Tracing ANZACs and Their Families - World War I Australian and New Zealand Army Corps military records can tell us more than just about our ancestors’ service during the war. Learn how they can be used in your family history research to extend your family history research beyond military service.
Each session has a downloadable handout as well.
Just like an in person conference there's also an Expo Hall where you can talk to the exhibitors and see what they have on offer (and there's even special Rootstech deals).
If you've been working on your FamilySearch tree, join Relatives at Rootstech and see how many cousins (close and distant) you have attending.
I've made contact with a couple so far on different lines that are new matches. So send those messages.
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2020 - The year started off with a hiss and a roar. I was merrily writing blog posts to go along with each of the different Plan to Publish steps.
If you missed the earlier posts, here are the links:
Plan to Publish
Finding time for family history
02 Structure - Plan to Publish
03 Contact - Plan to Publish
What happened you might ask after Part 3... well the world changed a little and my focus shifted to producing online content and sorting all my family history paperwork (but that's a different story) and my blog posts got put on hold.
However Plan to Publish did continue and read on to find out what we're doing to start 2021.
All 12 parts of Plan to Publish are available in the shop and are free for you to download.
The Ted Gilberd Literary Trust's aim is to encourage and promote the writing of family history in New Zealand.
With their support a Plan to Publish webinar was recorded in February 2021 and is now freely available.
The Facebook group continues working together to answer each other's queries and encourage our writing and sharing efforts.
Scrapbooking my immigration pages is ongoing. My plan is completed and I have three and a half pages done. Filing all my family history paperwork has helped with this to find the information I need for each of the pages.
My in-laws family history, this is actively being updated at the moment. I'll be doing the editing/formatting of this once the updating is finished. Our family reunion has been delayed.
Friends play an important part in our life and as a family historian it's really important to consider researching them, as you never know what you might find out if you look sideways in your research.
If you were to look at the photos on your phone, on your Facebook feed or in your albums, how many photos of these photos have friends in them? You have photos of your friends in your photo collection, now then think of the reverse... they have photos of you (maybe try not to think about how many of those photos might be embarrassing). Wouldn’t be great to share some of these photos back with each other.
Growing up, who did you go to school with? Do you have your school photos named? Is there a school alumni group that you can join? Have there been school reunions? What stories of our days at school can our friends tell and we tell them? Remind me again how you got that nickname...
What about your neighbours? We move into a neighbourhood, we grow up with our neighbours and their families, then we move. What stories could your neighbours tell of your family?
From school did you go on to further study? Are you still in contact with friends you made during university study?
Did any of your friends influence some of the decisions that you made in your life. For example, did you go flatting with friends in an area that wasn’t where you normally lived? Did that move then mean you met a different set of people than those that you grew up with?
How did you meet your partner? Was this through friends? Who were the best men and bridesmaids at your wedding and do you keep in contact?
We’re not normally very good at taking photos at work, with our workmates (maybe you should take some today), but beyond photos who did you work with? What stories can they tell about you or at the very least your working life? That also includes places that you have volunteered for. Did a friend encourage you to join a committee?
Outside of work what clubs and groups have you been part of. I was talking with a friend this week about whether clubs have archives of their photos and memorabilia. Can you contact the group to find information about when you were part of that group? Do they have photo collections?
Some of our friends become more like family, the siblings we never had. Did you call a family friend of your parents Aunt or Uncle? Make sure you record that somewhere in your story so that you don’t confuse your future descendants, who go looking for a relationship that doesn’t exist.
So far I’ve been talking about preserving our friendship stories here, but now take that back a generation or two. Who did your ancestors go to school with, work with, form friendships with? Maybe researching these people can add to your family history,
I wonder how many of those unnamed photos in your collection are not family, but just friends. Start with the photos of the last couple of generations, those that someone alive may recognise. Is there a local community group or Facebook group that you can share a copy of the photo with, who then may be able to help you identify the people in the photos? I’m sure their families would love to have a copy of the photo, just as much as I would like additional photos of my family. It’s worthwhile scanning those unknown photos and sharing them widely.
Friendship is an important part of our history, just as it was for our ancestors. Make sure your friends are part of your story.
I'm grateful for the genealogy friends that I have online and IRL I’m looking forward to catching up with some of them at the Auckland Family History Expo next week (8-9 August 2020) and the Christchurch Family History Expo the following week (14-15 August 2020).
We'll be talking more about Looking Sideways in our research tomorrow on Ancestry AU - Family History Fridays. Look forward to catching up with new and old friends there.
Featured Photo by: Brodie Vissers, Burst.
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When I look at my family tree it shows that my ancestors come from only a few different areas of the world.
However their descendants went a little bit further afield.
When we are researching this is mainly by person, which is great if we are concentrating on one line of our family tree, but what other ways could we research our family history?
What if we want to research by location?
If you use Ancestry to host your family tree and research, then you can search your tree by person, but you can’t search your tree by location. If you have your family tree also on a computer program then you may be able to search by location (I know I can in Brother’s Keeper) and get family associated with that location.
Yes, hints will tell if there are new records for a person within the record collections on Ancestry, but again these are person specific and within a long list of hints you have to remember to go back to a person again to see the latest hints.
So the cunning plan is to use the Ancestry Tree Tags and set up some custom tags for locations.
Ancestry Tree Tags are found on the profile page for a person in your family tree. You'll find the blue icon under the birth and death dates. Click on this to add one. There are a number of pre-definied tree tags, but we're going to create a Custom Tag.
For George Urquhart, I set up one for Canada Ontario. I’ll then add other areas in Canada as I find relatives linked to those areas. I will also set one up for Scotland Aberdeenshire and tag George with it.
I've started with the country name and then the county/state name, as that way they will sort alphabetically by the larger area first.
When I search my family tree I can then filter by the custom tags to get a list of all the relatives in that location.
You can only filter by one tag at a time, but it's a great place to start.
At this stage there is no easy way to print a list of all of the family linked to a location, but at least I can find them.
Now when a new record collection arrives for Ontario, Canada, on Ancestry (or elsewhere), I can search these collections for the family members by location and look for the hints that match the collection.
Likewise if I am travelling to a location to visit relatives, archives, libraries, cemeteries etc, I can filter a list and know who I need to research.
So have a go and add some custom tags for your locations.
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If you're interested in more tools for tracking your research, have a look at our guide on Using Spreadsheets for Tracking Research.
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This week Ancestry are starting a new feature on their Facebook page called Family History Fridays, in which Michelle Patient and I will be talking and teaching every fortnight.
This will be available to you at home via Facebook Live at 2pm NZT and 12 PM AEST. If you can't make it at 2pm then don't panic as the sessions will be recorded and available on the Ancestry AUS Facebook page.
If you like the Ancestry AUS Facebook page you can even get reminders sent to you so that you don't miss out.
If you are in New Zealand then you may need to make sure that you are liking the correct Ancestry Facebook page to take part as currently New Zealand Facebook users don't default to the correct page.
So on Facebook, search for Ancestry. If the page looks like the one below then you need to make a small change to get to the AncestryAUS page.
Click on the button with the three dots (beside the Share button) and choose Switch Region.
When you see the next screen change the region to Australia then click on Save Preference.
Your Ancestry page will look something like this (depending on when you read this the image may change, but just check the URL is the same).
Now you can Like the Ancestry Australia page and get all the updates of what is happening.
Ancestry also has a blog, where they do updates of new resources, special events and where you can find out more about researching.
There are a couple of ways that you can access blogs.
The first is by visiting the blog and seeing if there are new posts. This can take time and you may find that there isn't a new post when you visit and yet 5mins later the blogger may post something new. It's also easy to forget about a blog.
The other way (and my preference) is to set up a blog reader that keeps track of all the blogs you want to hear from. I chose Feedly as my blog reader and there is a blog post here about setting Feedly up. I love that I can have it on my computer and on my phone.
Here's a couple of Ancestry blogs that you may want to follow (you can follow them all):
Australia
https://blogs.ancestry.com.au/ancestry/
UK
https://blogs.ancestry.co.uk/ancestry/
USA
https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/
Enjoy some reading and hopefully we'll see you on Friday.
PS Don't forget to add to your blog reader:
Memories in Time blog
https://memoriesintime.co.nz/blogs/news
Genie tips from The Patient Genie
https://genietips.blogspot.com/
Credits
Cat Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst
Fiona's new photo by her lovely daughter.
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Google’s dictionary defines a webinar as:
Watching a webinar is a bit like watching TV or YouTube, but in this case you are seeing the computer screen of the speaker (and sometimes the speaker themselves).
A number of genealogists and companies offer webinars. Some are free, some are charged for and some are via a subscription.
Webinars can be live streamed or they can be a recording that you can watch at a later date (especially if when it was first streamed it was in the wrong time zone).
How can I take part?
There are several ways that you can view a webinar. Some of the most commonly used platforms (how the webinar is delivered on the internet) are GoToWebinar or GoToMeeting and Zoom.
For the example below I’m going to show you how to join a webinar on Zoom.
Your first step is to find a webinar that you want to attend (more about that in the next blog post) and register to attend (sign up for it), this may include a charge to attend.
After you have registered, you will be sent a link to the webinar that you will be able to use at the time of the webinar.
Speaking of times, it always pays to check what timezone your webinar is being broadcast from and you may have to convert the time to your local time to check that it is not in the middle of your night (I might be guilty of watching a webinar on my phone in bed and in the middle of the night. Headphones stopped me annoying my husband, but I don’t think he appreciated the glow of the phone light and the rustle of the paper as I tried to take notes).
This is a great website to convert your times at: Time and Date
Watching the Webinar
On the day and just before the time of your webinar, click the link provided.
Some software may need to be downloaded to your computer to support the webinar, so it pays to be a little early the first time you go to a webinar. Install this as asked and follow on screen instructions.
Once you are in the webinar and depending on the software used you will see the screen of the presenter or even the presenter themselves. Sometimes you even see the other attendees.
You will often find that you have been muted by the host. This is to stop lots of noise when you first enter the webinar (sometimes this is called entering the room).
The host will start the webinar and request that the presenter share their screen. At this stage you can then sit back, watch, listen and learn from your presenter just as if you were in a lecture theatre with them.
In Zoom there are some controls that will let you communicate with others and also change how the screen appears:
Screen Controls – control if you want Speaker View (you just see the speaker and their screen) or Gallery View (you can see the attendees, including the speaker). We suggest Speaker View is the best way to watch a webinar, as then it’s just like you are in the room with the speaker.
Sound & Video Controls – These are like on/off switches, which you can operate. Your host can also control the mute and video controls for all in the room if required to make the presentation the best it can be for all those attending.
Video - it’s up to you if you want the other attendees to see you. Not having the video on won’t affect how you view the presentation (but does allow you to wear no makeup and pyjamas while you watch).
Sound - when you enter the room you will often find yourself muted. It’s best to stay this way unless you have a question to ask, otherwise the other attendees can hear everything that is happening around you eg phone ringing, family members etc. If you do want to talk then you will potentially need an external microphone and headphones to get the best quality.
Chat – click on this to open the chat box. Here you can make comments about the presentation content and ask questions.
Just like in real life, if the presentation is live, the presenter will often answer questions at the end of the presentation. Some webinars will let you unmute yourself to ask questions and others will require you to add your questions or comments via the chat. The chat is a great way to ask questions, as you can do this as the presentation progresses and you don’t have to remember them for the end. By letting the host know via the chat first, they can direct you to ask the question when it is appropriate, by unmuting your microphone or the host will then ask them on your behalf. You may find that you can help to answer other attendees questions to.
Leave Meeting – at the end of the meeting the host will close the meeting room and stop the presentation. However if you need to leave early you can by clicking on the Leave Meeting at the bottom right of the screen. If the meeting is still going and you want to come back, then you can click on the link in your meeting invite to join in again. If you don’t have your video going, you can of course just leave your computer screen going and take a break and no-one will know.
We’ll be posting some sources for family history webinars in the next couple days. Enjoy the freedom of learning in your own time and your own home.
UPDATE: Some advice from Michelle Patient if you have a problem with your sound on joining a webinar.
The great thing about this marathon is that it doesn't matter where you live in the world there will be a selection of webinars that are at the perfect time for you to watch. The topics cover researching countries around the world, DNA and great tips on how to research as well.
The webinar schedule is available here and for those of us in New Zealand, we've converted the times and you can download a free schedule here.
Have a look at the schedule and work out which webinars you just have to see.
For those of you crazy enough to have a go at the whole marathon, then we have a couple of tips for you.
Now if that need for sleep does catch up on you, then the great news is that the webinars are free to view for the week following the marathon and then available after that for subscribers.
Have fun and enjoy the chance to hear from fabulous speakers.
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Writing your book doesn't have to be done alone. Getting other family members to write their contribution to the book is a great way of sharing the task.
For the update of our family history my mother-in-law's working on finding contact details for those involved in the last book. She's emailing, ringing and meeting up with family members. The plan is to include two further generations (actually three when their children are also listed in their biographies) in this update, so there are lots of people to find.
While she does the finding, we're working on the tech side of this to set up communication systems eg a new email address to share information through.
Because we already have a family history published we've got great examples of the sort of information we will be publishing about each family. If we were starting from scratch, being able to send a sample paragraph would be useful.
Likewise having a set of questions to prompt memories is useful, especially if you're visiting family members. To help with this there is a new guide in store: Family Memories - Keeping in Touch.
For my immigration book, I have most of the information from my research, however it's worth contacting other family members, as you never know who might have the diary from a voyage or other memorabilia.
We have some more thoughts about Contact in our free guide.
Download the Plan to Publish 03 guide for free.
We've also set up a Plan to Publish - Your Family History Facebook group where you can join like minded family historians. We hope that by declaring what you plan to do and working with others we can share our ideas, struggles and keep each other on track.
Find us on Pinterest.
Plan to Publish is a 12 step programme to publishing your family history by the end of the year.
What sort of family history is totally up to you, but the aim is to get some of your research off the shelves and out of the computer and to create something to share with your family.
Blog Posts on other steps can be found here:
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The next thing it's past midnight and your download folder looks like this.
Well the good news is that it doesn't. You can change the settings and be asked where you want to save your downloads each time.
Here's how:
1. Open Google Chrome and click on the three vertical dots at the top right hand side of the screen to drop down the "Customize and control Google Chrome" menu. Click on Settings.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Advanced.
3. Under the Downloads section you can turn on the option to "Ask where to save each file before downloading".
1. Open Microsoft Edge and click on the three dots in the top right corner. Choose Settings from the drop down menu.
2. In the right hand side menu click on the Downloads option and turn on the switch - Ask me what to do with each download.
Such an easy step to make your Family History filing so much easier and stop the Download Blackhole.
If you want more tips on organising your Family History, sign up for our mailing list and get our free guide to "Organising Your Family History".
Updated 21 Sep 2021 to include Microsoft Edge Settings.
Photo: Kitty Cat Helps At Work
Photo by: Patchanu Noree
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I think of the structure for my book as the skeleton that the flesh of the story is going to be attached to.
With my two books that I'm working on, I'm really lucky that the reprint of the family history already has an established structure, we're just updating it.
However for some of my clients we are starting from scratch. The best way I've found to get started is to take a descendant report from our family history software and use this as the structure for the family narrative.
For those that only have their tree online e.g. at Ancestry, then there is an intermediate step of transferring your tree via a GEDCOM file to family history software and then creating your reports. If that seems to difficult, talk to us about helping you to convert your family tree.
For the second book I am working on, about the ships my family came to New Zealand on, because this is going to be a photo book, I'm using the My Story - Planner and Template to plan the books structure.
We have some more thoughts about Structure in our free guide.
Download the Plan to Publish 02 guide for free (you get all the guides together).
We've also set up a Plan to Publish - Your Family History Facebook group where you can join like minded family historians. We hope that by declaring what you plan to do and working with others we can share our ideas, struggles and keep each other on track.
Find us on Pinterest.
Plan to Publish is a 12 step programme to publishing your family history by the end of the year.
What sort of family history is totally up to you, but the aim is to get some of your research off the shelves and out of the computer and to create something to share with your family.
Blog Posts on other steps can be found here:
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We’re almost through the month and did you make plans to spend more time on your family history… and have you?
That’s the thing with time, it can quickly get away on you.
In the Plan to Publish - Your Family History programme, 01 Plan was the first step in working towards publication of our family history. However one thing we didn’t discuss this month was planning your time. If one of your goals for the year was to take some of your research from notes to publication then you need time to do this.
If you play a sport then you make time to play sport, including attending practices as well as competing. If you sign up to a night class, you make time to go to the night class. The thing with family history is often you don’t have to leave the house to actually work on it and so it’s easy to get distracted with other things around the home.
So why not think of your family history time as if you were attending a class. Will it be a daytime class or a night time class? What weekday suits or is the weekend better? A night class is usually a couple of hours, can you put aside a couple of hours once a week or do you need to break it down into a couple of bites of time? Don’t forget night classes are only in term time, so you can have holidays.
Then there’s the interruptions. If you “attend” class at home will you be interrupted? Can you escape to a room with all your family history material or would it be easier to head to the library or coffee shop?
The great thing about classes is they can also have field trips, so maybe take your session to a library or coffee shop, or even to the home of a friend who likes family history. Then you can both work on your family history together.
We run “Your Place” workshops in Christchurch, where a small group of family history enthusiasts meet every couple of months for a morning of working on our family trees and mentoring one on one with a tutor. We've also had Your Place Workshops on DNA, Memories and Organising Your Photos. Contact us if you are interested in finding out more.
If you’re not in Christchurch but you’re interested in a Your Place workshop at Your Place then why not contact us about hosting a virtual Your Place workshop.
But right now, get your calendar out and plan your family history time. Tell the family that you are going to your family history class and make some time just for you and the ancestors.