Trying out FamilySearch's Family Tree

Note: I work for WikiTree, but this blog is my personal space and any opinions expressed here are not the official opinions of WikiTree. I am not paid to blog here. Obviously I have a bit of a bias caused by my undying love for WikiTree, but I have tried to keep an open mind when trying out new things.

After hearing a whole lot about Family Tree while at RootsTech, I decided to try it out. I figured I at least should have more experience with which to answer people who ask me "Why should I use WikiTree when Family Tree does the same thing?" (Spoiler alert: The answer is "Because they don't do the same thing.")

One of my great grandparents was already in the tree, so I started by adding just enough of my tree to connect to him.

Positive first impressions at this point include the fact that a whole line of my tree, from my great grandfather all the way back to my immigrant ancestor, was already on the site. Also, the graphical tree that you can drag around and expand pieces of is really nice.

Negative first impressions include the fact that the immigrant ancestor had all kinds of incorrect parents and spouses attached to him, and there are duplicates coming out of my ears. (To be fair, that family was just as bad on WikiTree before I got my hands on it. But people keep talking about how Family Tree is "source-based", and therefore more accurate, and I'm just not seeing it.) Also, I don't really like how couples are grouped into one box in the pedigree chart. It means that when I look at my pedigree, only half of it is used, because the other half is reserved for my husband.

So, I started merging duplicates. It's what I do best, after all! Right away I ran into problems. Some of my 2x great grandparents' daughters were duplicated, with one copy of each being male. I quickly learned that you can't merge a male and a female. You also can't change the gender. Or delete a person. So, all you can do is disconnect the incorrect person from the tree, and leave it to float around forever, with no accurate information in it. I don't much like the thought of that.

The processes of editing and merging are pretty nice. When editing, you're asked to provide a reason why you think your info is true, which I quite like. When merging, you select data to save from the person that will be deleted, and it slides over to the other side, clearly showing you what will be kept. There's an annoying issue where some people cannot be merged, but apparently that will become less common when New FamilySearch is gone. In the meantime, it means there are duplicates out there that we can't do anything about.

Overall, I think once the kinks are worked out Family Tree will be a pretty good collaborative tree. But keep in mind that that's all it is. There is nothing but the bare bones here. There are no biographies. There are no pages for cemeteries, towns, buildings, etc. Right now, it appears that you can't even add photos. This is strictly names, dates, places, and relationships.

So, while I will try to improve the pages for my ancestors on Family Tree, because I hate to see mistakes in my tree anywhere, it's not something that will absorb a lot of my time. For me, there's a lot more to genealogy than raw data, so I prefer sites/apps that allow for that richer content.

Giving Bloglovin' a try!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm trying out various Google Reader alternatives as I prepare for its untimely demise. Bloglovin' seems to be popular amongst the bloggers I follow, so I've signed up there. It seems promising so far!

Going to Rootstech!

It's time for Rootstech!! It starts tomorrow, and I'm currently in Salt Lake City, excited for a few days of all genealogy all the time! I'll be working at the WikiTree booth, along with WikiTreer-in-Chief Chris Whitten, and two of the site's power users, Ed Burke and Mike Gabbard.

If you're at Rootstech, come by the WikiTree booth and say hello! :)

The Never-Ending Search for Sarah Jane Elson's Marriage Record

You may have heard me complain about Sarah Jane Elson. My matrilineal great-great-great-great grandmother is both my favourite and my least favourite person to research. I'm rather obsessed with my maternal line, and the fact that Sarah Jane has been a brick wall for me for the last year has been very frustrating. It's really taught me how little I know about genealogical research. In all my other lines, I've been able to get by with the basic census records and vital records, mostly available for free online. Rarely have I ever had to look at a microfilm. But with Sarah Jane, it's become apparent that I need to expand my research horizons.

Some googling led me to learn that marriages in Ontario between 1858 and 1869 are recorded in county marriage registers. It's quite likely that Sarah Jane Elson and Henry Prince were married during this time. (It was definitely after 1852 and before 1861. They had their first child in 1861, when Sarah Jane was about 22.) These records are available to order to any FamilySearch Centre. So, for the first time, I have a reason to go to a FamilySearch Centre! How exciting! I'm kind of embarassed as a genealogist that I haven't been yet. :)

So I'm going to order the microfilm for the Middlesex County marriage registers. Sarah Jane shows up in censuses in that county both before and after marrying Henry, so it's pretty likely that that's where they would have been married.

It's only $8 (plus possible taxes) for me to get these microfilm records for at least two months, which is pretty awesome. And now that I'm working irregular hours, rather than business hours, I'll probably have more chances to get to the FamilySearch Centre during its very limited hours.

Once my order arrives, and I get a chance to take a look, I'll write more about my visit to the FamilySearch Centre, and about my continued search for this elusive marriage record! Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday - Emmeline Cockroft

Emmeline Cockroft (abt. 1883 - 1921) was the first wife of my great grandfather, Herbert Jackson. After her death, Herbert married my great grandmother, Janet Aspinall.

A jump across the pond!

I have been able to trace another branch of my family back to Europe! That's always so exciting! For a long time now, my 4x great grandparents, Henry Prince and Sarah Jane Elson, have been a big brick wall for me. Alas, Sarah Jane's origins remain elusive, but I've made a lot of progress on Henry!

Previously, I only had records from after Henry and Sarah Jane were married. I did have an 1852 census record that looked promising, but I couldn't be sure that it was him. He was the right age, and had parents named Joseph and Elizabeth, but those are pretty common names, so I wasn't confident.

Then, in response to one of my usual queries looking for their marriage record, someone posted a transcription of an 1841 England census record. There were enough common family members for me to be sure that this one matched the 1852 record. But again, that didn't tell me if these records were for my Henry Prince.

To try to fill in the gap, I went to the library to use Ancestry Library Edition to check the 1861 Canadian census. I found this record. It shows Henry Prince married to Sarah, proving that this is my Henry. But again, no sure way to connect it to the earlier records.

At this point, I made a very smart decision: I went back over what I had! Always a good idea! And that's when I found the answer. In the 1881 census, there's another Prince living with Henry, Sarah Jane, and their children: James. He's 33, exactly the right age to be Henry's brother James from the 1852 census. With everything else lining up so nicely, this was the bit of evidence that brought my confidence to the point where I strongly believe that the Henry Prince in those earlier records is in fact my ancestor.

So, that 1841 England census record is quite exciting! At that time, Henry was living in Bramshaw, Wiltshire (Bramshaw used to be split between Wiltshire and Hampshire; it is now completely in Hampshire.), which is also where he was born. This is far from most of my other English ancestors, almost all of whom originated in West Yorkshire, in Huddersfield and the surrounding areas. So I have another county to explore! And by explore I mean research because who can afford a trip to England? :)

December To Dos

It's been awhile (a year!) since I wrote a to do post, so I thought I'd bring them back! One of my weaknesses is my inability to actually plan my research (I go with the flow!), so I should probably work on that. Here's what I'd like to get done this month:

• Start scanning my Cockroft family album. I haven't prioritised this one since the people in it aren't related to me (they're from my great grandfather's first wife's family), but recently I was contacted on WikiTree by someone in that family, so I'd like to send her some pictures!
• Write a blog post about my progress on Henry Prince, my 4x great grandfather.
• Finally finish my post about the Romeo and Juliette in my family, which I keep starting and not finishing for some reason.
• Order the mtFullSequence DNA test from Family Tree DNA! I'm so excited to do this! A series of blog posts will follow, probably in January.
• Catch up on my genealogy blog reading in my Google Reader, which I've let get way out of hand!

What are you hoping to accomplish this month? Let me know in the comments!