Individuals of Unusual Size -- Part Two

Because I live in the Mesa Temple District, we have had access to New FamilySearch for almost a year and a half. It was recently announced that Temple Districts in Utah and Idaho would start to be added to the New FamilySearch network. Because we were instructed to combine records and dispute incorrect information, many of us spent considerable time working through our online files and disputing and combining. It is evident that this strategy did not do what we expected it to do. First and foremost, it did not correct any of the online information submitted by others. What this activity did do, was to crash the system and make a mess of a lot of files.

As a result, I stopped disputing information and stopped combining individuals. In fact, I began taking off all my disputes. Over the past year or so, the system had definitely settled down. However, with the introduction of hundreds (dare I say thousands) of my relatives in Utah and Idaho, I suspect that we are in for another round of disputes and combining. This is likely to happen unless the Utah and Idaho folks can learn from our mistakes.

Some of the users of New FamilySearch likely never see an Individual of Unusual Size (IOUS). I happen to have a whole pedigree chart full of them. In researching the issue, I believe that the instructions contained on Document ID: 104186 in the New FamilySearch Help Center summarizes what should be the correct approach to the entire problem and particularly to the IOUS.

The Document states:

STEPS FOR CORRECTING IOUS

1. Separate out those records that clearly have been incorrectly combined. (Please do not separate records from an individual’s combined record simply because you think some of the information is incorrect. If the records are about the same individual, leave the records combined. If you separate the records, temple ordinances and research might be duplicated.)
2. Once they are separated out, a note could be added to each asking that they not be combined again, but do not combine them together and dispute.
3. Carefully check your records against those of the "correct" individual to make sure there are no errors. Do not just assume there are no errors.
4. If you find a submitter that you can communicate with, do so. If the person is a legacy contributor, you will not be able to communicate.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help from others when you have a particularly difficult IOUS problem.

REMEMBER: To separate records, click on either Summary or Detail at the bottom left of the Pedigree with Details page. At the very bottom, click on Combined Records to see the individual records that have been combined. On the left, all of the combinations of births, deaths, parents, spouses, and even those who "died before age 8" are shown.

As soon as the incorrect record has been separated, the erroneous information on the left will also be gone. If it is not gone, another record has the erroneous information also. Since patrons cannot access children as they separate records, it is important to be aware that you may be separating out children that belong to this family and have been attached to the wrong spouse or parent.

I would recommend this procedural approach to the entire database, not just to those IOUS files. It is a good idea also to refrain from adding any more information to New FamilySearch until you are absolutely sure your information is not already somewhere in the database. Please consider using one of the semi-automated programs that assist with finding information in the file, such as FamilyInsight, Ancestral Quest or RootsMagic.

More later

Place Names -- U.S. vs. United States

Regularizing place names has become an issue with the introduction of huge international databases like New FamilySearch (NFS). One of the obvious issues is whether to use the designation "USA" or "United States" or nothing. NFS has a "Standardized Place Names" function built into the program. Anytime a place name is edited or added the program suggests a standardized place name. This list of standardized places is also available separately and outside the program in the FamilySearch Labs Website. The program is called Standard Finder and it is a simple look up program with some very useful added features, that gives the standardized place name for any location typed into the find box.

If Standard Finder is able to locate the place, there is a Resources tab that will look for the place in Google Earth, Google Maps and ArcReader. The maps have clickable links to the holding of the Family History Library Catalog.

Other programs use different standards. RootsMagic has one of the most elaborate geographic database programs. The program not only links to standard place names but also geo locates any place name in the database by latitude and longitude. Ancestral Quest allows some editing of place names, but is not nearly as versatile. Legacy Family Tree is somewhere in between.

None of these standardized programs deals with the idea that an event should be placed at the location that existed as of the time the event occurred. This rule preserves the historical names rather than the modern name. One reason for preserving historical names is to reflect the possible jurisdictional location of the original records. If you arbitrarily select the "standard" name, the original location and its historical context will be lost.

This is a subject that needs more development and discussion.

Beyond PAF -- lineage linked database programs

Because of the backing by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) Personal Ancestral File (PAF) has become the dominant platform for storing genealogical data. The utility of PAF has been guaranteed by the implementation of the Genealogical Data Communications Standard or GEDCOM. GEDCOM is an Extensible Markup Language or XML. If you would like to see what kind of information is stored in a PAF GEDCOM file, try opening a file with a word processor or text editor. For example, a .ged file will readily open in Microsoft Word or most any other word processing program. PAF normally stores its file in a .paf format, a file format specific to PAF, howver, any file in PAF can be exported into the GEDCOM format through the export function in the program.

Because the information stored in the PAF program can be exported to a GEDCOM or .ged file, that information can be shared with any other program using the same standard file format. Many other third party programs use the GEDCOM standard. To name a few, RootsMagic, Ancestral Quest, Legacy, Family Tree Maker, Reunion for the Macintosh, Family Origins, MacFamilyTree and many more.

As the GEDCOM standard was developed, the standard was designed to recognize a large number of data types. However, not all of these data types were used by PAF. Other programs used more or less of the data types in their particular implementation of the GEDCOM standard. As a result, transferring data between programs may or may not include all of the fields in any particular program. For example a Legacy file exported to a GEDCOM and then imported into PAF will contain only the data that the two programs recognize in common.

Some programs avoid this problem with importing PAF files by allowing the user to import a PAF file directly without converting it to a GEDCOM file. For example, Legacy Family Tree will import files directly from PAF and from Ancestral Quest.

The purpose for this discussion is to illustrate that nearly all of the currently available genealogical database programs will import the information from PAF, either directly or through a GEDCOM file. If you chose to move your information from your existing PAF file to some other program, you can likely do so without losing any of your PAF data. However, once you begin to enter new information into the new program, it may be that some of that data would be lost if you again try to transfer the information back into PAF format.

PAF has not been updated since version 5.2.18 as of August 2002. There are currently no plans to update the program. You may wish to begin looking at using an alternative before the current PAF program no longer works with the current operating systems of the computer. This has already happened with the Macintosh version of the program. The old program of Personal Ancestral File for the Macintosh version 2.3.1 will no longer run on the newer Macintosh computers.

New FamilySearch Affiliate RootsMagic

New FamilySearch has recently made public an affiliate program allowing third-party software developers to write programs that work in conjunction with New FamilySearch. There has been some measure of uncertainty as to whether or not The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS) was going to continue to support its free software program Personal Ancestral File (PAF). The PAF program has not been updated since version 5.2. With the introduction of New FamilySearch affiliates, it certainly appears that there are no plans to upgrade PAF, although there continues to be substantial support for the product.

One of the recommended products in the affiliate program is RootsMagic. I usually purchase and install all of the serious genealogy software on my computer and use it to determine if it is truly useful or not. I am pleased to report that nearly all the software I use is very useful and RootsMagic is no exception. It comes particularly highly recommended for its implementation of citations.

In looking into the history of the product, quoting directly from the RootsMagic Web site:

Founded in 1986, RootsMagic, Inc. is a publisher of family oriented software, with headquarters in Springville, Utah. RootsMagic’s product line includes its flagship genealogy software RootsMagic, Family Reunion Organizer, and Daily Journal which is sold under the Broderbund label. In addition, RootsMagic, Inc. also hosts Family-Reunion.com, the world’s most popular family reunion planning website.

The current version of RootsMagic available is 3.2.6. The features of the program implementing its connection to New FamilySearch are not available in the currently sold version of the program but are planned for version 4.0. At a recent genealogy conference at which the RootsMagic company representatives were present, I asked them about introduction of Version 4.0 and they did not yet have a release date. In going to their Web site, it still appears that Version 4.0 is yet to be released. At the computer conference, RootsMagic was selling Version 3.0 with a free upgrade to Version 4.0 when it is released.

Like many of the more useful genealogical database programs, RootsMagic offers a free Demo version of their program. I would strongly suggest that you demo any program you are interested in purchasing, before you put all of you information into the program. If you are presently using PAF, you may wish to consider RootsMagic as one of your choices.

FamilySearch Affiliates and Product Certification

Recently, the start-up page for New Family Search included a heading called "More Great Products." The button says, "Click here for free, trial, and other products for new FamilySearch." Clicking on the button, takes you to a page entitled "FamilySearch Affiliates and Product Certification."

Presently, the only products listed are Ancestral Quest, Charting Companion, Family Insight, Generation Maps, Get My Ancestors, Grow Branch and RootsMagic 4. In the case of RootsMagic 4, if you click on the link, you will soon find that RootMagic 4 is not yet available, but if you buy RootsMagic 3, you will get a free upgrade. Ancestral Quest version 12.1 is presently available however, as are the remaining products.

Notably missing from this listing, as yet, are Legacy Family Tree software and Family Tree Maker 2009. Since the roll out of New Family Search is still in progress and Utah and Idaho are still not on the system, and the program is presently limited to member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons) it is likely that additional programs will not appear until the final version of New Family Search (Family Tree) is introduced to the whole genealogical community including those who are not members of the LDS Church

Stay tuned for more developments.