A Letter to Lloyd

(He has been a constant source of help, especially with photographs and new computer hardware,) 

Hi Lloyd,

Thank you for the new monitor, I am loving it.

Over the past couple of days I researched Dennis' ancestors, as you suggested. .

I built his family tree on www.familysearch.org which is the largest family history website that is entirely free. I have attached a pedigree fan chart that he can print and give to family members.. For more detail, I encourage him to sign up for a free account. This will allow him to see more family members, add family photos and stories, do further research, etc. As we get to know our ancestors, we usually appreciate them more and have a better understanding of our own place in history..

On Youtube there are many short videos showing how to use the site. (Search for familysearch.)

There is a free help number 1-866-406-1830 and I am always glad to help.

Lloyd, I encourage you to sign up for a free account at FamilySearch too. I have uploaded hundreds of old family photos. You will recognize many of them. I always suggest that people keep a copy of their username and password in their wallet. (Of course there is a recovery process, but it is simpler if you don't need to use it.)

Love.

Bill 

FamilySearch - Getting started and moving forward now

 

 This is the text of my presentation at Edmonton Family History Fair on 19 October 2024

Who is FamilySearch? This short video will explain.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/who-is-familysearch-apac

Traditionally, each person built their own personal family tree on paper, which was typically stored in a ring binder or a filing cabinet.

When computers became available FamilySearch created the Genealogical Data Communications system, usually called GEDCOM, as a way to export and import genealogy data between different software applications.

Most family history websites basically still operate at that level, with a maze of competing family trees.

But in 2007 FamilySearch developed a single shared tree where people could work together, The current version is called the FamilySearch Family Tree,

In FamilySearch, all records of living people are hidden from everyone except the person that created that record. So if you add living relatives, they will not be able to see the records of themselves that you have created. But all users can see and edit the Family Tree records of all deceased people.

A quick overview of the site

Sign in if you have a free account, and create an account if you don't have one. Follow the prompts. Keep your username and password in your wallet for quick reference. And if you forget your username or password, click on Forgot and follow the prompts,

Navigation

These are the areas of Family Tree I use most often: Family Tree, Search, and Person Details. I also find myself using the Recents, Sources and Memories pages often.

Note that clicking a name on the Tree view (and the popup) will open their Person page, and on the Person page clicking View Tree will show you their Tree view. So it is easy to switch between the main views.

Adding people and events to the Family Tree will be demonstrated in this short video.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/how-to-start-your-family-tree-in-a-few-easy-helpful-steps (2.5 minutes)

Parents and children are easily added on the Landscape view of the Tree View, but the Person Details page is more versatile. This is especially true if you want to correct errors or add another spouse or another type of parent-child relationship or another set of parents, Children can be shown with birth parents, and step parents, and adopted parents, and guardians acting as parents.

How can FamilySearch Help you in your family history journey?

Firstly, FamilySearch can keep your family history safe for future generations. I have seen many excellent internet resources appear and disappear. Some of these were my own websites. But FamilySearch is part of the Genealogical Society of Utah, established in 1894 to preserve family history. So it has a proven history of dependability.

FamilySearch is an easy place to build your part of the family tree.

Secondly, there is great power in working together, combining our strengths. Instead of each person being limited by their own knowledge and skills.

Last year we had a FamilySearch workshop in Westlock. Two of the people working in Family Tree connected to other people's research which traced their shared ancestral lines back for multiple generations, One line went back to the 1400s. This shows the potential of working in a shared family tree.

I too have benefited when my research connected to the previous research of others,

Thirdly, FamilySearch has billions of historical records that you can search for free, to document the lives of your family. A search in FamilySearch historical records for August Zahn will allow us to add his family. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GK14-K27
Specify Canada and add the census records

Fourth, the FamilySearch website itself will automatically search for historic records of your ancestral families. In my earlier days we could spend months or years looking for historic records for our family, and in Family Tree, these records come looking for us. e.g. McGillivray https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/KFD3-RCZ

If the Family Tree has no birth information on someone, I like to add an estimated year and place of birth based on their marriage info or the birth info of their oldest children. For example, adding that James Waller was born about 1840 of Rogate Sussex, England will help FamilySearch find his christening record in 1834. Typically a couple got married in their early 20s and were 30 years older than their middle child.

Fifth, private chat messages allow you to request information from other users of FamilySearch without compromising your own privacy. Recently I was able to attend the funeral of my aunt's younger sister because of a chat message sent to me by her grand daughter.

Communicating with other interested people is unbelievably powerful. And don't be afraid to ask if they know other people who might know answers you are looking for. Twice I have received large books of genealogy that way. The internet has made this a much quicker and easier process that it used to be.

In 2006 I did a Google search for my grandfather's uncle. I knew that he had emigrated from England to Australia many years before Grandpa was born, I found that someone in Australia was looking for information on him. I replied and received 150 years of family history from my newly discovered cousin Irene, and I gave her 150 years of family history from our branch of the family. Cooperation is powerful.

Sixth, there are a number of applications designed to work with your FamilySearch Family Tree data, for various operating systems. (See the Solutions Gallery at the bottom of most screens.)
And you can print stories and a variety of charts from FamilySearch,

Seventh, FamilySearch has a variety of fun activities that can interest young people in family history. This can help to continue your family history legacy into future generations. Photos and Stories can also help to foster an interest in family history.

When we die, our computers, and paper materials will probably be repurposed or discarded, We need to keep a copy of our family history safe online.

Working with others

Remember that it is a shared tree, so share nicely.

As I look at the signed-in home page I see photos uploaded by relatives, I can use Chat to easily send a message to someone else working on my part of the tree.

To discourage others from carelessly changing the data, document your work by using Sources, Memories. And especially Alert Notes.

Add ancestors to your Favorites list to receive a notice if anyone changes their data.

Use the Changes list to undo incorrect changes.

Getting help

Use the Help Center (?) icon in the upper right corner, the question mark in a circle.

Ask an experienced person such as a Family History Consultant

https://www.familysearch.org/en/fieldops/united-states-and-canada-contact-us

Call the Toll-Free help line 1-866-406-1830 (8 am to 8 pm, but not Sunday mornings)

Visit a FamilySearch Centre or Affiliate Library for one-on-one help. They may have institutional accounts with Ancestry, findmypast, and MyHeritage, etc.

Send an email toNorth America Support nasuppoilysearcrt@famh.org

RootsTech and Youtube have hundreds of FamilySearch videos to help you

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=familysearch+tree

Staying on task

Did you forget who you were working on last time? Find them quickly in Recents list.

Since it is a website, you can bookmark frequently used pages. e,g, Jane Coles

Forgot how to get back to the Home screen? Click the FamilySearch Logo.

Use the To Do List on the Home page.

Using historical records to prove and expand your pedigree

It is often said that "Genealogy without documentation is mythology." and "Sources prove your pedigree,"

Some Record Hints include people who are not yet in Family Tree, so add them. For example, the 1881 census will list children who were not yet born in the 1871 census.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/linker?pal=/ark:/61903/1:1:Q274-ZJC6&id=MN22-4Y9 (French family)

I plan to post my notes for this presentation on my main blog

https://billbuchanan.blogspot.com/ (Just google billbuchanan genealogy)

Using information found elsewhere

A free add-on called www.recordseek.com allows you to add Sources from other websites Look up recordseek on Youtube for instructions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocwLBUNvRBs&ab_channel=GenealogyGenie

My family history journey

Brad told the story of how I first became interested in family history.

Ten years later in 1962, I became more serious about finding my Buchanan ancestors.
I packed up a bunch of blank family group records and travelled to Neepawa, Manitoba, where my dad was born. At the local newspaper I asked if I could see obituaries for my great grandparents. As I was transcribing the information one of the newspaper employees suggested that I contact Mervin Buchanan, the manager of the Windsor Salt plant. Mervin was interested in Buchanan family history. I talked to him about my quest, and he asked me to stay with his family. And after supper he would take me to visit knowledgeable relatives in surrounding towns. During the daytime I would interview people living in town. After 3 days I returned home with a huge part of my Buchanan family history.

Another milestone was discovering that some relatives had created a Buchanan Family Tree Book for my family. I discovered this quite unexpectedly. The book was out of print, but one of my family history contacts sent me her own copy for my personal use. She said, "I am in my 90s and live with my daughter's family. I can always use her copy of the book". I made 10 photocopies and sent one of them to her. When personal computers became available in the 1980s I bought the Personal Ancestral File software and input the data from the book into a computer database, and sent copies of the GEDCOM file to interested people.

Over the years I have probably owned a dozen personal family history websites, but only one survives -at least in part. FamilySearch has made it much easier to keep my family history online. I currently have a family blog at https://billbuchanan.blogspot.com/ and a Familysearch blog at https://billsfamilyhistorycenter.blogspot.com/ I have no idea how long Blogger will be in operation so I have put copies of my blogger archives in FamilySearch.

And your journey ...

My journey began before the internet, when contacting individuals, and government services and archives was done by mail or occasionally by long distance phone calls.

We are now in a different age. But the basic idea is the same. If you are just starting to build a family tree, find out what living relatives know, and find out from them how to contact any family historians in your family. Expand your research net, and make your questions polite and easily understandable. Find out what official records are available and how to access them. The FamilySearch Research Wiki in the Search Menu can usually tell you this. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Main_Page
(demo of Canada)

Web searches and social media have greatly expanded the possibilities.

Online obituaries have become excellent sources e.g. Rev Howard Steinburg Chatham Ontario
https://mckinlayfuneralhome.com/tribute/details/4593/Howard-Steinburg/obituary.html

You may find information you are looking for in Facebook, Blogger, digitized books, FindAGrave or elsewhere online. FamilySearch chat messages can be an easy way to contact people who already share an interest in the history of your family. I would feel shackled if I did not have access to Google's various services: Search, Maps, Translate, digitized books, gmail, YouTube and so forth.

It is easier with the internet, but it still requires effort. But your work can be a lasting legacy for future generations of your family.

And you will meet the most wonderful people on your journey, who can become life-long friends.

I have found myself travelling to unexpected places at the invitation of distant cousins that I met through our shared love of family history.

Your journey should be faster than mine, and i hope it brings you joy and satisfaction as mine has.

Suggestions

Use what you know to discover what you do not know, working backwards in time.

Working in a shared tree means that if you can trace your family back a few generations you may connect to multiple earlier generations that other users have already added.

There are also free mobile apps (for your phone or tablet) that gave access to FamilySearch.

The ability to add old photos, stories, etc, is wonderful. As you add them, connect them to the people. They help us get to know our ancestors' families.

Online Vital Records are another wonderful resource, when they are available. e,g,
https://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/d68ef71d-3776-41a5-bfe7-5404425c7469

Religious Records often go back much further than government records. FamilySearch has copies of many of these for various religious denominations.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KC2F-W4J

I also have family trees on Ancestry and MyHeritage as ways of helping lost cousins to find me.

Chat messages can bring big dividends. Two years ago I received a message from a total stranger in Scotland basically saying "I see that you have Wilfred Anderson and Jessie Evans in a family tree. After Jessie's death, Wilf married my widowed mother. I have inherited Jessie's old family photos. Would you like them?"

I knew Jessie and Wilf personally. My answer was an enthusiastic "Yes. Please" She brushed off my efforts to pay the shipping costs. And she also sent me a link to scanned copies so that if the postal services lost the box of prints, I would still have digital copies. Obviously, Sarah is my kind of person.

These photos have now been uploaded to FamilySearch Memories, and tagged to my relatives' records. I colorized some of the black and white photos by using the colorizing service which is part of my MyHeritage account.

Edmonton Family History Fair 19 October 2014

It has probably been 10 years since I have done a presentation at a family history conference and I am looking forward to this one.  - Bill

Invite your family, friends, and neighbors

Join us for an exciting day of discovery! Saturday October 19th
Classes for all levels: Whether you're a beginner or an expert, there's something for everyone.
Free Admission: Get one-on-one help from experienced genealogists.
Expert Assistance: Experts from the AGS and Alberta Archives will also be available.
Exclusive Resources: Learn from 16 different talks throughout the day.
Engaging Presentations: Discover your roots and uncover your family history!

FamilySearch and the Alberta Genealogical Society Edmonton Branch have collaborated to present a one-day FREE genealogy Fair on Saturday, October 19th from 9 am to 3:30 pm, at the church located at 14325 – 53 Ave NW Edmonton. (Lunch will NOT be provided, so please bring your own.)

An exciting lineup of classes over a variety of topics presented by experienced researchers will provide valuable and helpful direction for your genealogy journey. (Also see the attached poster.)

Please register and view the program, NOW, using this link
https://www.edmontongenealogy.ca/edmonton-family-history-fair

The Family History Centre will also be open and consultants will be there to help one on one.

Class Schedule:

Block One 10:10-11:10
Using Canadian census records to find your ancestors - Marion Rex Howard
Getting started with FamilySearch – You can do it! - Virginia Crawford
Elevate your cemetery sleuthing - A guide to searching AGS cemetery books in Internet Archive. - Diane Wozniak
Create and share your family history through videos. - Lianne Kruger

Block Two 11:20-12:20
Your life story - A gift to generations. - Bob Layton
FamilySearch research - Getting started and moving forward. - Bill Buchanan
Genealogical Gold – An Introduction to Genealogical Resources at the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) - Jaclyn Landry
Strategies for organizing your research material. - Neal Finn

Block Three 1:20-2:20
Beyond the basics - Mastering DNA for genealogical research. - Ellen Thompson-Jennings
Chinese Genealogy - Tracing One’s Roots is a virtue. - Tony Poon
FNMI: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada - Lianne Kruger
Find your family’s story in FamilySearch’s digital library. - Nestor Martinez

Block Four 2:30-3:30
Exploring the FamilySearch Wiki - Roy Jaffray
A new life for old family photos. - John Chalmers
Cracking Crimes with your DNA. - Bradley Pierson
Protecting sensitive family information in genealogy. - Kelcey Carlisle

My Almost Forgotten Aunt Maggie

 

My brother invited me to come with him to visit the grave of our aunt Margaret (always called Maggie).

Maggie died in Stettler, Alberta in 1936 aged 26. Her husband and children are now deceased as well, There is probably no one alive who knew her personally. She is almost forgotten.

She was the closest of Dad's siblings in age and his closest friend among his siblings. He was shaving on a Friday when he received the shocking news of her death. For years he would avoid shaving on a Friday because it brought back the painful memory. The song "When You and I were Young Maggie" would bring tears to his eyes. 

Mom kept a special place in her heart for this sister-in-law that she had never met. And when Mom passed at age 98, she left some money in her estate to put a headstone on Maggie's unmarked grave. This has been done. (Thanks Mom.)

On August 21, Lloyd and I set off to visit Maggie's grave and view the new headstone. While we were there I offered a prayer at her grave. My brother and I reflected on the lives of Aunt Maggie and her family. It was a special time. (Maggie, we never met you, but your life is remembered.)

In Memory of Margaret Isobel "Maggie" McCALLUM (Buchanan)

Mar 7, 1909 - Feb 13, 1936

A mystery solved? Probably

I have been helping someone solve his genealogical mysteries for the past few years. 

But an on-going puzzle has been the father of his ancestor Richard Coles. Richard was born in 1871 in Brackley, Northamptonshire, England, to Jane Coles, an unmarried 16-year-old girl, Within a few months, Jane marred Thomas, Pullen, and after his death she married James Baldwin, and then Richard Robinson. Jane and Richard Robinson moved to Victoria, British Columbia in their old age. 

Jane had 11 children, but the puzzle for Richard's descendants has always been "Who is Richard Coles' birth father?" Because Jane married Thomas Pullen soon after Richard's birth, Thomas has often been assumed to be Richard's father. Then why was Richard not known as Richard Pullen? If it was someone else, why didn't he marry Jane and spare her the shame, if he could?

A YDNA test by a male Coles cousin recently provided the answer. At 67 markers, there was a perfect match with a Giles family from Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England. And in the 1871 census, we find a 16 year old James Giles from Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, living in Brackley with the Thomas Hutton family as a servant. At the time of the 1871 census, Brackley had a population of about 400 people, so everyone knew everyone in the community.

This seems to answer all of the questions. James was old enough to father a child but too young to marry. 

NOTE:
The family tree of the YDNA match shows descent from their shared ancestor through a different branch of the Giles family. 

Happy Pioneer Day

Dear Family

July 24  is Utah Pioneer Day, commemorating the arrival of the first wagon train of settlers on July 24, 1847. Our ancestors may not have crossed the plains with Brigham Young, but we have lots of ancestors who had pioneer experiences. And sometimes we are pioneers too, 

Our Buchanan ancestors came to Canada from famine-stricken Ireland in 1847, Then they came to Manitoba in 1879 to settle this area which had recently been purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company by the Government of Canada. Then shortly before Alberta became a province, they came here. George Buchanan married Dorothy Ing.

On the Kinney side, the arrival here was more direct. Ernest Kinney was born in the Liverpool area of England, and came to Canada to do farm work. The great depression made him wonder why he came here. "I sometimes felt like I had jumped from the frying pan (of adversity) into the fire." He married Ione Teale.

Richard Ing arrived from London, England as a 14 year old boy. When he was an adult, his mother suggested that he needed a wife. She may have suggested that he write to Louisa Wright, a single girl back in London. Louisa had been engaged to marry a sailor but he drowned shortly before their wedding day. Louisa and Richard carried on a long-distance courtship by letter. In 1913 she agreed to come to Canada and marry him. They had a wonderful marriage. Dorothy was one of their children.

Arthur Teale was from Hessle, Yorkshire, England. He married Alice Simpson, whose parents were both born in Canada, with roots in Scotland and in the United Empire Loyalist community. Arthur died in World Ward I during the battle of Vimy Ridge in France. Ione was one of their children.

This is the barest sketch of their lives, Besides this, they had families and helped to build homes and communities. They were known as people who were not afraid to try to accomplish new things. Were they always successful? Of course not. But they were generally known as friends with whom you could spend time enjoyably and as people you could count on.

Here is Jane Buchanan Watson, my second great aunt, telling the family story.

NOTE: This animated photo was created using the Deep Story feature in my MyHeritage.com account. Unlike those who use "deep fake" technology to cheat people out of money, this usage allows us to show a long-dead ancestor telling their own story. It is a much better use of the technology.

Keeping Memories Alive (photos and stories)

 

Keeping Memories Alive

I love old family photos and old stories. For a few decades I have been collecting them. So has my brother. In fact we have boxes and boxes of them.

I realized two important things:

1. If people of my generation do not preserve them they may be lost forever.

2. My children may not find them relevant, and send them to the nearest dumpster after I die.

Many years ago I was contacted by a distant cousin, who said "When my grandfather learned that his father had died, he came back to Canada, cleaned out the farm house, burned everything, and sold the farm. I never even knew that our family was Scottish."

To preserve the old photos:
At first I made copies to share with family.
Then I discovered the economies of scanning them and making CDs to share with others.

But I was delighted when FamilySearch created Memories. https://www.familysearch.org

Now I had a safe place where I could store family treasures where they would still be available for free to later generations of my family, whether or not my children were interested. I served missions in FamilySearch Support, where I learned to help people preserve photos, documents, stories and audio recordings.

The maximum file size is currently 15MB and only certain file formats are supported. All items should be tagged to someone. The maximum number of memories that can be tagged to any one person is 1000. This seems like a lot, but I try avoid unnecessary repetition. Some of the restrictions will make more sense if you remember that the site is designed to respect the privacy of living people, and to respect the ownership rights to certain file formats.

I would like to share some ideas with you.

Preserve Your Photos and Family Memories https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/preserve-your-photos-and-family-memories

Photos
To copy printed photos, a flatbed scanner usually produces the best results, although phone cameras can still produce fairly good copies. If you are scanning use at least 300 dots per inch (pixels per inch), Otherwise it may look acceptable on the screen, but not as a printed copy.

Some photos: https://www.familysearch.org/photos/gallery/album/3399

PNG format is probably the most favored file format at present. My scanners have usually saved images as JPEG/JPG and I have found the results to be good despite it being a "lossy" format, After all, old photos are not usually perfect to start with. Any photo is usually better than no photo, in my opinion. Photos saved in PDF format cannot be rotated in Memories, which is inconvenient.

Black and white photos can be colorized for free at sites like https://www.myheritage.com/incolor which can also correct the color of colored photos. Note that colorization can produce stunning results if the black and white original has good contrast. Faces can be especially realistic, although the software may guess the color of hair and clothing incorrectly. Colorization really does bring the photos to life.

The Strengths of Albums
You can easily create personal photo albums on the Gallery page of FamilySearch Memories. These have some special advantages.
You can rearrange their order.
You can include photos, documents, stories, and audio in the same album.
You can give the URL to anyone and they can view the album whether or not they have a FamilySearch account.
You can view the album as a slideshow.
You can cast the slideshow to a smart TV. This is GREAT for family gatherings.

An album organized but not fully tagged. https://www.familysearch.org/photos/gallery/album/529402

What about Video?
MyHeritage can also animate photos too, and even have them tell their life story. But video cannot be stored in FamilySearch Memories. There is a work-around. You can store the videos on another site, such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Youtube and put the link in FamilySearch Memories. Of course we don't know how long the videos will remain available online, and once they are gone, the links will no longer work.

Jane Buchanan Watson tells her life story: 

Disclaimer: I am not sponsored in any way by MyHeritage, but I love their photo tools.

What is a Document?
In Memories, the distinction between a "photo" and a "document" and a "story" may be confusing. Something showing a person's face is considered a photo and something showing text is a document, but what about an image of a family home or a treasured possession? In any case, "photos" and "documents are both uploaded to Memories by selecting "File".

What is a Story?
A "Story" is an un-formatted text document, usually composed directly in FamilySearch Memories. Warning: The editor can time-out after 30 minutes, so it is safer to create the story in a word processor then paste it and save it.

War Veteran Albert Lidgett (click to read)

Why use PDF?
Portable Document Format can include formatted text, with different font sizes and enhancements, and photos, maps, etc. So, for longer accounts it is a much better format than "Story". I prefer creating longer documents in my word processor then exporting/saving/printing to PDF format. (Memories does not support proprietary file formats, but Adobe has released their rights to the PDF format.) How long can a PDF be? I have one PDF document that is over 1000 pages of text. But like all Memories items PDFs have a maximum file size of 15 MB. And as mentioned, photos in PDF format can not be rotated to correct their orientation.

Here is a 68 page PDF with photos and formatting

Ancestors of Ernest (Robert) Kinney

Audio Recordings
These are most easily made using the Memories mobile app. This app limits the length to 5 minutes. Some time ago I found an old audio cassette of my grandmother talking, She died in 1986 so this was a rare find. I used the free Audacity software to record the cassette on my computer. By adjusting the sampling rate I was able to fit it into 15MB and then I uploaded it to Memories. The playback quality is still acceptable to me.

A 23 minute recording https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/K6H5-HQJ
A life saved by a short plank https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/195467541?a=1347260

Tagging Memories to People
A photo, document, recording or story is useless unless it is tagged to someone.

If you upload items without tagging them, you are the only person who has access to them.
And when you die, no one will have access to them.
If a deceased person is tagged, that item is accessible to all FamilySearch Users.
If only living people are tagged, that item will remain private until at least one of the tagged people dies and their death is reported to FamilySearch. Then the tags to deceased people will be shown but not the tags to living people.

Mass Tagging
This is possible but should normally not be used. If you select Memories from someone's Person page and upload files, they will automatically be tagged to that person, whether that is what you intended or not. Of course, mistaken tags are easily removed,

Removing Tags
Even if you did not create a tag, you can still Detach it.

I love FamilySearch Memories. The Utah Genealogical Society (FamilySearch's parent) was created in 1894 and has been preserving family history ever since then. I hope that the Memories feature will preserve memories of my relatives for future generations.