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 OneGreatFamily Update - October 3, 2003

In This Issue:
See how you are related to your famous relatives!


New at OneGreatFamily: Welcome to Family History Month
  OneGreatFamily to Celebrate Family History Month
Q&A: OneGreatFamily - A House With Many Rooms
  What's so important about tying family trees together in OneGreatFamily?
Technical Support: Seeing Your Entire Family Tree
  How do I see more generations in my family tree at OneGreatFamily?
One Great Genealogy Site Award
  Families Reunited
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Last Week at OneGreatFamily . . .

Site Activity Summary

  • 83,522 new individual merges!
  • 30,190 new individual hints!
  • 28,051 new family merges!
  • 8,443new family hints!
  • 91 average individual merges per group
  • 26 average individual hints per group
  • 30 average family merges per group
  • 3 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: Welcome to Family History Month

    OneGreatFamily to Celebrate Family History Month

    October is Family History Month, a month to celebrate our ancestors and the stories of our families. OneGreatFamily wants to help you make the most of this month. Get started by submitting or creating your family tree on OneGreatFamily.

    OneGreatFamily will then match against nearly 60 million names that have already been submitted to our service. When a match is found, your family tree will be merged with others and become part of the larger OneGreatFamily database.

    If you have already submitted your family tree, now is the time to see if your family tree has grown, to verify new information that has been made available through OneGreatFamily, or to add more ancestors to your family tree to provide more potential connections for others.

    Look for some key enhancements this month that will improve your experience on OneGreatFamily as well. If you haven't had a chance, you may also consider inviting others who are interested in genealogy to become part of your experience at OneGreatFamily.

    Visit OneGreatFamily to get involved with Family History Month
    Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to support our continued growth and improvements


     Q&A: OneGreatFamily - A House with Many Rooms

    What's so important about tying family trees together in OneGreatFamily?

    by Jim Ericson - Marketing VP

    Many people have asked why it is so important to OneGreatFamily to tie family trees together into one shared database. The key benefit of tying everyone together as OneGreatFamily is rooted in belonging. Through OneGreatFamily, everyone can see that they belong to a large human family and how they are related to others.

    The concept of belonging to a family is important to nearly all cultures and people. Being part of a family usually denotes entitlement to a certain level of love and protection. Children in a family can often look to parents and siblings for support. In turn, parents can often depend on children and other progenitors for assistance as they grow older. The basic necessities of life, such as love, food, and shelter, are typically provided for within a family. OneGreatFamily is extending the concept of family beyond two or three generations by bringing the entire human family together "under one roof."

    Tying families together and bringing the human family together "under one roof" helps ensure everyone gets their own "room," so that nobody is left out in the cold. The desire to belong to a family unit remains a powerful force in today's society.

    OneGreatFamily seeks to harness this desire to belong and understand one's relationship to the human family. Tying the human family together creates some other, less obvious benefits as well:
    • OneGreatFamily removes the "clutter" of duplicate records
      When family trees are connected, OneGreatFamily removes any duplication. Once two records are merged, all pertinent information (including conflicting information and other variances) for that individual can be accessed through a common record. The continuous removal of duplication saves you time when researching your family tree. OneGreatFamily doesn't require you to wade through millions of records to find your ancestors. Further, once your ancestor is found, you will have access to ALL of the information related to that person available through OneGreatFamily.
    • You can see who else is researching your family lines
      Tying family trees together allows you to see who else is researching your ancestors and to collaborate with others. Through the process of collaboration new relationships are discovered and friendships are forged.
    • You can see how you are related to other researchers
    • OneGreatFamily can take users beyond meeting and collaborating to see how they are actually related. You can click on a common ancestor and view his or her descendants to see where family lines have crossed and diverged over time. Discovering how you are related to others is a fun and exciting process that is made simple by OneGreatFamily.
    • You can find valuable information in collateral lines
    • No other service provides as much information as OneGreatFamily on collateral lines. Collateral lines are the lines of descendancy of your cousins. With each passing generation, these cousins become more "distant;" however, following the collateral lines from common ancestors can help fill in gaps of your direct ancestral lines.
    • You see how you are related to "famous" cousins
    • I was surprised to discover that my wife and I are ninth cousins. Similarly, I have discovered I'm a seventh cousin to the president of OneGreatFamily and an eighth cousin once removed to President George Walker Bush. How did I learn this? I took the time to trace the descendants of some of my ancestors. Once you understand the power of collateral lines, you quickly gain interest in who else has descended from your ancestors. Andrew Newcomb wasn't just my eighth-great grandfather. He was also the ninth-great grandfather of President Bush. Who would have known? (I'm not going to get into whether or not the relationship is an asset, but we ARE family.)
    • You realize that we are ALL part of OneGreatFamily
    • Working in OneGreatFamily can be awe inspiring as you realize how related you are to the rest of humanity. The poet John Donne's words ring true that "no man is an island." We are truly all part of OneGreatFamily . . . a family that is being brought together under one roof. Please take the time to make sure each of your ancestors has a room in the home we are building for the human family tree.
    Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to enjoy unlimited access to OneGreatFamily
    Visit OneGreatFamily to see how your family tree is part of OneGreatFamily


     Technical Support: Seeing Your Entire Family Tree

    I'm sure I have more ancestors on OneGreatFamily, but all of my lines seem to stop at the seventh generation. What can I do?

    As a member of OneGreatFamily, you can change your user preferences to display up to 512 generations of a family tree at once. Many subscribers are surprised to discover thousands of previously "hidden" ancestors on OneGreatFamily after changing this preference.

    To change this preference, follow these simple instructions:
    1. Log into OneGreatFamily
    2. Choose your group and launch Genealogy BrowserTM
    3. Select "User Preferences..." from the File Menu
    4. Select "Settings" and increase the Max Generations setting to a higher value - up to 512! (You will want to be careful with this setting, since each generation will take more time to display.)
    5. Click the "OK" button
    6. Make sure the temporarily limit Starfield icon (located in the toolbar in Genealogy Browser above the Starfield) is not selected.
    After changing this preference, you may have to wait some time for the Starfield to build. The time you will wait depends on the number of generations you choose to display and the amount information available at OneGreatFamily.

    Everyone can see the size and shape of their family tree on OneGreatFamily; however, only subscribers will be able to see the names of anyone who has been added to their family trees through the matching and merging process.

    Send your technical support question to our team
    Visit OneGreatFamily to view your entire family tree today!


     Families Reunited

    Families Reunited

    Families Reunited is the number one site to help reunite people with members of their family with whom they have lost contact, or have yet to meet. OneGreatFamily is pleased to announce its affiliation with Families Reunited.

    Do you have relatives whom you have never met or have lost contact with? Have you ever wondered where they are? Just think, you might have a whole new family you never knew you had. If you are looking for members of your family, Families Reunited can help you to find your relatives using advanced database searching and video messaging to member profiles.

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


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    Learn more about this FREE opportunity
    Refer a new subscriber to OneGreatFamily today.



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