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 OneGreatFamily Update - September 29, 2003

In This Issue:
See more ancestral information at OneGreatFamily!


New at OneGreatFamily: Group and Society Discounts
  Discount Subscriptions Available for Genealogy Societies and Organizations
Q&A: OneGreatFamily Solves Genealogy Challenges
  What genealogical challenges are solved by OneGreatFamily?
Technical Support: Fixing Common Data Errors
  How do I fix errors in data submitted to OneGreatFamily?
One Great Genealogy Site Award
  StateGenSites
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Last Week at OneGreatFamily . . .

Site Activity Summary

  • 235,632 new individual merges!
  • 81,060 new individual hints!
  • 82,649 new family merges!
  • 33,252 new family hints!
  • 147 average individual merges per group
  • 50 average individual hints per group
  • 47 average family merges per group
  • 9 average family hints per group

    If you didn't receive a GenMail telling you about new merges in your family tree, your tree wasn't affected by this activity. You may want to add new individuals or information to your family tree to improve the likelihood of matches and merges taking place.
    OneGreatFamily wants to hear from you. Please send us your success stories and your recommendations for new features.

    Submit your story
    Send us your wish list

    Which of the following best describes your interest in genealogy?

    Discovering as many ancestors as I can find
    Documenting the lives of my ancestors
    Sharing family history discoveries with others
    Answering specific questions about my ancestors
    Tracing a specific ancestral line
    Finding unknown relatives or family members
    Verifying family lore or the research of others
    Doing something worthwhile with my time
    Creating family ties between the present and the past
    None of the above



  •  New at OneGreatFamily: Group and Society Discounts

    Discount Subscriptions Available for Genealogy Societies and Organizations

    OneGreatFamily is pleased to help support societies and genealogy organizations by providing group discounts to its service. This discounted service can be used as a promotional tool or simply as a way to lower research costs within your organization. Members of your organization can gain access to the only service on the Internet that actively searches for ALL of the ancestors in any tree family tree on an ongoing basis.

    The following schedule includes the subscription rates for discounted annual subscriptions:

    Subscribers/SubscriptionsDiscounted PriceSavings Percentage
    5-9 $6513%
    10-19 $5033%
    20 or More $4047%

    The process of purchasing group subscriptions is simple. First, visit and complete our group subscription request form. Please include the number of subscriptions you wish to order for your organization in the Special Requests field.

    After submitting the form, a representative of OneGreatFamily will contact you to arrange payment. After payment is made, OneGreatFamily will provide you with electronic certificates for the number of subscriptions you purchased.

    Visit OneGreatFamily to request subscriptions for your genealogy society or organization
    Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to support our continued growth and improvements


     Q&A: OneGreatFamily Solves Genealogy Challenges

    What genealogical challenges are solved by OneGreatFamily?

    by Jim Ericson - Marketing VP

    OneGreatFamily recently asked users which genealogy challenge is best addressed by OneGreatFamily. The top response (over 40% of all responses) was that the biggest challenge addressed by OneGreatFamily is "finding others who may be researching common ancestors."

    Other popular responses included "the ability to see the size and shape of a family tree" (18%) and "finding new relevant information based on current research" (16%). The two responses that mentioned wasting time, either by searching through billions of irrelevant records or by duplicating research that has already been done, received 15% of responses.

    How does OneGreatFamily solve the challenge of knowing who else is researching your family tree? The answer is actually a little more complicated than you might think.

    First, OneGreatFamily uses matching and merging to tie family trees with shared lines together in a meaningful way. This process removes duplication from the OneGreatFamily database, which allows you to see all the available information for each person in your family tree and to see each person or group that has provided information for each person. You no longer have to review dozens or hundreds of duplicate records for the same family members. The merging process also provides you with certainty that you are meeting and collaborating with others who are researching your ancestors.

    After the family trees have been tied together, you can access the information others have provided for YOUR ancestors. This is done by checking your family tree for new information. Any individuals who are added to your family tree will appear in gray boxes. You can also review hints and conflicts that appear in your family tree. Hints are indicated by lightbulbs and conflicts are indicated by lightning bolts. You can review past newsletters or our online help files to learn more about these features.

    As you review hints and conflicts, you can also see the other groups in OneGreatFamily that provided the additional information. You can then collaborate with these groups using the collaborate feature in Genealogy BrowserTM. This process allows you to contact and communicate with other members of OneGreatFamily via email. OneGreatFamily automatically references the individual in the family tree on whom you wish to collaborate in your email message.

    Several people have been surprised over the years to find that other members of OneGreatFamily have duplicated or extended research they had already done. The ability to find and collaborate with other researchers can create relationships with distant cousins and provide a wealth of genealogical information that may be hard to find otherwise.

    By combining duplicate research, OneGreatFamily also makes information available on collateral genealogical lines. A collateral line is a line that includes the descendants of a sibling of your ancestor. Collateral lines provide valuable clues to fill in gaps or answer questions related to your direct line. They also let you see how you are related to your distant cousins and others with whom you collaborate on OneGreatFamily.

    The ability to meet and collaborate with others who are researching your family tree is one of the core benefits provided by OneGreatFamily. OneGreatFamily is the ONLY genealogy service designed to let you see everyone else who is researching your family tree and to let you see how you are related to the rest of humanity.

    Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to enjoy unlimited access to OneGreatFamily
    Visit OneGreatFamily to meet others who are researching your family tree


     Technical Support: Fixing Common Data Errors

    How do I fix errors in data submitted to OneGreatFamily?

    Sometimes users submit data to OneGreatFamily that has errors in it. OneGreatFamily is good at showing where these errors exist and therefore makes it easy to know where to go to fix them. Here are some tips for fixing certain types of erroneous data:

    Multiple Children Listings-
    In order to merge two children, just follow these easy steps: 1) Click on the "Family Info" button that appears in the Handprint View of Genealogy Browser between the two parents' names. This will open the "Family Information" box. 2) Identify the duplicate children in the list of children. 3) Click on the two duplicate entries to highlight the names in blue. 4) After selecting the two duplicate entries (if there are more than two duplicate children, you will need to repeat this process), press the "Merge" button to the right of the names list.
    Multiple Spouse Listings-
    Just follow these few steps in order to merge duplicate spouses: 1. Open the "Details For Individual" box for the individual with duplicate spouses. (Press "Click To Edit" in the Handprint View to open the "Details For Individual" box.) 2) Click on the "Spouses" tab. 3) Select the duplicate spouse entries to be merged. Click once on the first wife and click once on the second wife while holding down the control key on your keyboard. 4) Press the "Merge" button to the right of the names.
    Correcting "loops" in Your Data-
    A data loop is a part of a line in your family tree that is incorrectly displayed to show individuals as their own ancestor (such as an individual being listed as his own parent.). If you believe that you have a data loop in your family tree, please follow the steps below to fix it.

    Note: Use the "Common Ancestors" feature to help identify data loops in your family tree. You can turn this feature on by clicking on the "Common Ancestor Connections" icon (blue line) in the toolbar of Genealogy Browser. Once your common ancestors blue indicator lines are turned on in the Starfield, your will notice any loops in your family tree because a blue line will connect horizontally across a branch of your tree.
    1. Find out where the connection is incorrect:
      Follow the potentially looped line back to identify the individual who has incorrect data is listed. If an individual born in 1560 has a father listed who was born in 1602, this is probably were the problem starts. If an individual is listed as his own parent or grandparent, this is where the problem starts. The family in which a child and parent do not fall in proper order is the "looped family."
    2. Analyze the problem:
      Open each of the records that are connected to the "looped family." Check to see if the parent or child that appears to be incorrect actually just has incorrect birth dates listed. There may be conflicts for birth information. If there are, look to see if a correct year is listed.

      Look at the "looped family." Check to see how the birth dates of the father, mother, and children relate to each other. The father and mother may have odd data, such as the father born in 1717 and the mother born in 1930, but the children may all be in the proper family. You can tell this by checking the children's range of dates. If the children were born in 1953, 1956, 1957, and 1959, they are probably listed correctly together and with their correct mother; however, they are listed with an incorrect father. Sometimes incorrect children can be listed in a family that is otherwise listed correctly.
    3. Edit the incorrect data:
      If you need to change a date or written information for a person, then just open their "Details For" box and use the Backspace key on your keyboard to remove the erroneous data. Then enter the correct information. If an individual is listed in the wrong spot, remove the record from the family by right-clicking on the indivdual who needs to be removed and selecting (Remove Individual Del) ; do NOT simply edit the individual and remove the information.

      If you need to remove an incorrect link, then maneuver a child in the "looped family" into the "Individual" box, and use the right mouse button to click on the individual that needs to be removed.

      As in the birth dates example in step 2 (above), if only the father is incorrect, you only need to select and remove him from the family.

      Sometimes, one child will belong to the wrong family. If both parents and all but one of the children in the family are correct with respect to each other, then you can simply remove the child who doesn't belong. Select the child that does not belong in the family. Right-click on the individual record, select "Remove Individual Del" and read and follow the pop-up boxes. You will want to remove the individual from the family in which they do not belong, either as a parent or a child.
    We hope these tips will help you fix common data errors that may appear from time to time in your family tree.

    Send your technical support question to our team
    Login to OneGreatFamily to review the data in your family tree.


     StateGenSites

    StateGenSites

    StateGenSites is one of the largest directories for U.S.genealogy, categorizing links by state. Click on a state to find information on vital records, historical societies, cemeteries, census, obituaries, adoption support and other state links.

    Visit StateGenSites today.
    See past award recipients
    Recommend the next One Great Genealogy Site award recipient


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