Who are you really related to?

I frequently receive notifications from the large online genealogy family tree programs that they have found record hints for me. In most cases, these hints are listed as being for a specific person. Some of these hints have lately been giving me some pause for reflection on who I am really related to. For example, a recent hint was like the following:

Great-great-grandfather's half brother's wife's first husband's daughter's husband

Technically, I can follow the lines on my family tree and see this person. I am certainly not discounting the value of record hints. They are extremely valuable. But am I related to my Grandfather's half sister's son-in-law?

Relationships are culturally determined. From time to time, I talk to people who did not know their parents or any of the "blood" relationships. I grew up in a family where we associated with my mother's relatives but had little or no contact with my father's relatives. As I became more and more involved in genealogical research, these dynamics became more of an issue with me. Why did we have a relationship with some "relatives" and not with others? As I learned more, I discovered the existence of possible family conflicts and other situations that probably influenced the interaction between family members. Now, as I grow older, I see the same types of situations develop in the families I associate with.

But these social and culturally based relationships or the lack of a relationship are only part of the story. We now have the ability through the electronic family tree programs to specify our social relationships to a degree that was likely impossible only a few years ago. I am literally deluged with possible family relationships through the online family trees and DNA testing. My multiple DNA tests have also markedly redefined who I am "related" to. In my case, for example, I now have 138 DNA matches from MyHeritage.com and 401 DNA matches from Ancestry.com. Out of the list from Ancestry.com, I only recognize one or at the most, three people that I have ever met or had any contact with. Many of the people listed as DNA matches have not linked a family tree to their DNA results and have no family history research interests or even any public family history content information and so I am unlikely to ever discover who they are and how we might be related. The fact that someone is a third or fourth cousin does not help me a lot.

When a DNA test or a family tree match tell you that someone is a "close" relative what does that mean? If you happen to be a person who falls into the category of adopted or abandoned at birth, DNA testing may help to establish some familial relationships. But for most of us who are swimming if a larger pool of relatives, the apparent relationships established by sharing family tree data or by DNA are puzzling rather than helpful. Should I contact these people and try to establish some sort of social or cultural family relationship?

In my own case, my social relationships with family members extends to my own children and grandchildren, some of the siblings of my family and my wife's family. and their descendants. Your own family relationships may extend further or be more limited. But as a genealogist, I have had contact with a pool of more remotely connected relatives. I have found valuable genealogical contacts with people who are not blood relatives at all. In one case, I had an extensive correspondence that included visits with the daughter of the first husband of the second wife of one of my great-uncles. We shared a mutual interest in preserving photos and artifacts from my great-uncle and his immediate family.

How you define these relationships and what you do about the definitions is highly personal but no matter how those relationships are defined today, they are likely to begin changing and be different in the future due to the notices that keep coming from DNA test results and family tree matches.

Cost for storage per Terabyte

What does it cost now to store 1 Terabyte of information? What would it have costs in the past? What is the optimal size hard drive available today?

10 Terabyte hard drives are beginning to be sold on Amazon.com. It seems to me that the average genealogists would not likely fill up a ten Terabyte hard drive in an entire lifetime unless they were collectors of movies and books and music to a marked degree. The push for larger and larger capacity hard drives comes from gamers and others with voracious data appetites. Of course, as is illustrated above, the server farms that support the internet also gobble up huge numbers of hard drives. For example, an online backup service might need to purchase thousands of hard drives every year.

Over the past few years, the cost of hard drive storage has fallen from around $500,000 per gigabyte in 1981 to less than $0.03 today. See "Hard Drive Cost Per Gigabyte." At the 1981 price of memory, a 1 Terabyte hard drive would have cost $500 million dollars. Actually, the technology did not exist to manufacture a 1 Terabyte hard drive. Likewise in 1981, a 10 Terabyte hard drive would have cost (assuming its existence) $5 billion. So today, a 10 Terabyte hard drive costs about $400 or about $40 per Terabyte. If we compare that with 8 Terabyte hard drives, the cost drops to $170 or about $21.25 a Terabyte. A 4 Terabyte hard drive is currently selling for about $100 or $25 a Terabyte. From this, the least expensive hard drive looking at the cost per Terabyte is the 4 Terabyte drive but not by much.

If you look at the overall numbers, you can see the dramatic impact of the advances in technology encapsulated in the cost of hard drive storage; from millions of dollars to less than a hundred. I think there are few better examples of the need that we have to back up our data. The cost of backing up everything we do on a computer is ridiculously small compared to the time it would take to recreate lost files and information.

Web Indexing from FamilySearch

FamilySearch.org has been digitizing millions of microfilm records for the past few years. In order to make these digitized microfilm records more available to researchers, the records need to be indexed. As a result, FamilySearch has provided a way for hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world to participate in this indexing program. Until recently, indexing could only be done on a desktop computer. For the past few years, FamilySearch has been trying to provide a web-based indexing solution. Web-based indexing is now a reality.

Access to the web-based Indexing program is through FamilySearch.org.

One of the missionary volunteers at the Brigham Young University Family History Library has prepared a short video that provides an excellent, updated introduction to Web Indexing.

(NEW) FamilySearch WEB Indexing (June 2017) - Judy Sharp

Choosing among the millions: apps and programs

Current statistics show the growth of the Apple App Store since its inception in 2008.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263795/number-of-available-apps-in-the-apple-app-store/

The Statista.com website indicates that there are over 2.2 million apps or programs for the iOS operating system. This number is exceeded by the number of apps for Android devices. The Google Play Store has over 2.8 million apps. Here is a chart showing the number of apps in the largest online app stores, including Google Play, Apple App Store, Windows Store, Amazon Appstore, and Blackberry world.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/

How do you choose when there is essentially an unlimited number of choices? That is an interesting question and one that actually confronts the genealogical researcher while doing research every day. Unfortunately, there is no one out there in the vast online world providing us with the total number of valuable genealogy-related websites. Altogether, there are over a billion websites on the internet.

http://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/

This web page link is to the InternatLiveStats.com website that has an active counter representing the number of online websites in the world. By the way, the first website went online in 1991. I can remember looking at the World Wide Web when there was a total of six websites.

Part of the reason that I have continued writing this blog is that the available topics are infinite as far as my personal ability to write is concerned. True, I do have common themes that have developed over the years, but the number of new websites and the existence of valuable genealogical websites just keeps growing and growing.

As genealogists, we are still people. For example, there are hundreds of restaurants where I live in Provo, Utah. But my wife and I have probably only been to less than ten. We just do not go out to eat very often, particularly when we are close to home. Likewise, even though there are millions of apps and millions of places to look for genealogical data online, I use the same familiar apps and familiar research sites all the time.

Right now, I have 120 apps on my iPhone. Of those 120 apps, I use about 44. The rest are like books on the shelf that I never get around to reading. Every so often, I deleted all the apps that I haven't used for awhile.

What is the point? We live in a world of genealogical abundance that is so enormous to be beyond comprehension. Notwithstanding this wealth of information, we use only a small fraction of the available number of websites and conclude that we have "looked everywhere" for information about our ancestors. Hmm. Everywhere? Of course, a huge percentage of the websites fall into categories that I am never, ever going to look at or even try to look at.  But that leaves what? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Additional websites that likely have valuable information about my ancestors.

Rather than be discouraged about these numbers, we should be happy that we have such unlimited resources. I find new, helpful websites regularly. I find more information about my research nearly every time I look. Life is good. This is the best time possible to be doing genealogy. So far.

What is a Digital Genealogical Workflow? Part Two

As I work, I move from computer to computer. However, the process of converting all of the paper-based records into digital format is only partially computerized. For example, when I order microfilm at the Brigham Young University Family History Library, I still have to fill out a two-part paper form. The student employee at the Library then keys in the information on the paper and I am given one of the two parts as a "receipt" for my order. Theoretically, I am supposed to be informed when the microfilm arrives in the Library, but that almost never happens. I have to check from time to time to see if the films I ordered are now "available" and I can order more films.

We are constantly caught in a wide variety of similar issues. As I have written about recently, some of my major breakthroughs in research have come from reading the book shelves in the Family History Library. No, not all the books are digitized and no they are not likely to be digitized as long as the United States has a copyright law. Notwithstanding these paper issues, much of my workflow has been digitized.

I am going to write about my own personal research process. I realize that I have written previously on this subject but my methodology keeps evolving and I am doing things differently than I did just a few months ago. I begin formulating a research objective by closely examining the information contained in my online family trees. For serious and complex research objectives, I cannot rely completely on my memory; I have to create a research outline. I use an online word processing program for this step such as Google Docs. By using Google Docs, I can access any of my notes from any computer including my iPhone and my laptop.

There is a simple reason why I use Google Docs or Dropbox or the equivalent. Many of the so-called note taking or research assistance programs are not free and not completely available on all of the computers I use. For example, I am frequently using a computer at the Brigham Young University Family History Library. Almost all of their computers are older PCs hooked up to the internet through the BYU network. Of course, I cannot put my own programs on their computers and I see no reason to lug my own computer into the Library and work on WiFi. But I do carry my own computer to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City because I am usually there for an entire day at a time and I like the convenience of having my own computer to work on. Also, by using internet-based programs, I can access all my notes and documents on my iPhone or an iPad. Since my wife is frequently working on presentations, research and helping others also, we move between different devices all the time.

Some of the basic digital techniques that move me from using paper notes include screenshots (frequently featured in my blog posts) and photos taken with my digital camera. Here is a screenshot of some of the photos I took recently at the Family History Library in Salt Lake.

These images were taken with my iPhone. I have set up a Google Photos connection and all of these photos are "backed up" on my Google Photos account for free. When I get home from the Library, they are already available on my computer at home or at the BYU Family History Library or wherever I happen to need them. Here is a closeup of one of the pages so you can see that I can certainly use these images later.

Of course, the images are not "archive" quality. They are electronic notes. It takes me a few seconds to have all this information rather than laboriously copying parts of the information by hand onto paper.

Now, some of these notes are not pertinent to my research. Some come out too blurry or whatever to use. But those that I do use are helpful. I do not usually spend the time in the Library analyzing these digital pages. But sometimes that is necessary. Because I am working on a computer linked to the internet, I have all my research and access to all of my online family trees. This constitutes a massive amount of information and by having it all digitally available, I save the huge amounts of time it takes to manage the paper records, notes etc.

In the next installment, I will focus on orgnizing and accessing the digitial notes.

Please see the following for part one of this series.

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/07/what-is-digital-genealogical-workflow.html

AncestorCloud rebrands as Trace and acquires Genealogists.com

I received an email from my friend Wesley Eames who started AncestorCloud in 2015 that they were rebranding the company as "Trace" and had acquired Genealogists.com. They will be closing down AncestorCloud and moving their services to Trace.com.

Genealogists.com claims the title of the world's largest family history research firm with over 4000 professional genealogists worldwide.

Here are some more of the details of the changes from a news release dated July 7, 2017.

AncestorCloud rebrands to Trace and announces the acquisition of Genealogists.com. 

Trace adds additional genealogy expertise to its technology products and services. 

July 7, 2017 (Provo, Utah) - Trace, a technology company making family history more accessible, announced the acquisition of Genealogists.com, the world’s largest family history research firm. Genealogists.com has developed a network of thousands of expert researchers worldwide who perform genealogical projects for the lowest price and highest quality. The addition of Genealogists.com will increase Trace’s network of professional researchers to over 4,000, bringing unmatched expertise to Trace’s products and services. 

Trace is the new brand for AncestorCloud, a company which started by offering cloud storage and sharing for genealogy documents and evolved into a marketplace to buy and sell genealogy services at an affordable price. The rebrand allows the company to expand into new businesses and have a company identity more in line with the value offered. The marketplace technology that exists on AncestorCloud.com will be moved to Genealogists.com to further scale the business. 

Trace will continue to provide Genealogists.com clients with custom research services while accelerating its technological capabilities and providing the business with expertise in marketing, sales, customer experience, and investor relations. “Trace will be the innovative catalyst needed to sustain Genealogists.com phenomenal growth in the U.S. and overseas,” says James Heddell, Genealogists.com’s founder. 

Wesley Eames, Trace CEO, explains “With an ever-increasing global interest in family discovery, the demand for custom researching grows annually. We’re confident this acquisition will help us make family history an easy, affordable, and quality experience. Genealogists and non-genealogists alike are seeking this information.” 

The acquisition was completed on April 7, 2017, growing the number of employees and contractors from six in February to seventeen today. James Heddell has been named Head of Research for Trace, and will continue to manage operations for Genealogists.com. Genealogists.com team members will remain in their current locations across the United States and Canada. Trace will keep its headquarters in Provo, Utah. 

About TraceStarted in 2014 by Wesley Eames, Trace (formerly AncestorCloud) is a technology company making family history more accessible. To date, Trace has developed a cloud storage and sharing solution for genealogy records, built a marketplace for finding affordable genealogy services, and created a packaged research product featuring a custom heirloom book. With this acquisition, Trace will bring
new technological capabilities to the custom research market. 

About Genealogists.comStarted in 2012 by James Heddell, Genealogists.com has created the world’s largest network of professional genealogists, including hundreds of DNA experts, forensic genealogists/scientists, private investigators, historians, religious scholars, clergy, and university professors. With researchers located onsite throughout the world, Genealogists.com provides its clients with localized experience and unmatched access to records.

The Congregational Library and Archives: Opening a window to early Colonial History

I ran across this website the other day and finding it highlighted the fact that, as genealogists, we will never really run out of new places to look and new collections to explore. Quoting from the Website for the Congregational Libray and Archives:

The Congregational Library holds some 225,000 items, both archival and published, covering Congregational Christian history and a broad array of related topics. 

Our rare book section includes an unusually rich and complete representation of English and first-generation Puritan works, including an original copy of the Cambridge Platform of 1649. The Library’s archive of colonial-era church records is also extensive, containing many sets of seventeenth-century documents as well as full collections from large and historically significant modern churches like Boston’s Old South, established in 1669, and Park Street Church, formed in 1809. Many are available in digital form as part of our Hidden Histories collections, and accessible on our website. 

The Congregational Library also has a large sermon collection, some 15,000 individual pieces, covering the period from the late 1600s to the twentieth century, in both manuscript and printed form. 

As the designated archive of the Congregational Christian churches (up through 1957), the Library holds all the major institutional records of the denomination, as well as some 1500 different periodicals representing its longstanding interest in social reform, missionary work, and education. The Congregational Library also holds rare newspapers from the Christian Connection, a denomination that merged with the Congregational churches in 1931.

If your ancestors came from New England, there is a good possibility that some of them were Congregationalists. Again, quoting from the website:

Who are the Congregationalists?
The Congregational tradition dates back to sixteenth-century England, where Protestant reformers formed the ideal of independent local churches free from liturgical ceremony and hierarchical control by the Church of England. These reformers, also known as Puritans, emigrated to New England in the mid-1600s, to establish a "godly commonwealth" of locally governed church with simple forms of worship, governed by the people of the congregation. As a Protestant denomination built on strong community bonds, the Congregational churches went on to exercise a broad influence on American culture, both in the world of ideas and in efforts for social reform. 

These churches exist today within the United Church of Christ, and in two continuing bodies, the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.

Many of my own ancestors were probably Congregationalists,  especially those who are descendants of the Mayflower passengers. There is an extensive collection of digital images on this website of records that are likely unavailable anywhere else.