Pealing Back to Direct Ancestors
Double-Goal: Getting Back to Research & Getting Ready for Ancestor Seekers Trip
After my husband passed away suddenly three years ago, even I thought at first I would just keep my mind occupied by really digging into genealogy. I probably would have if I could have focused. I couldn’t even read & I’ve always been able to read no matter what the circumstances. When I figured out I could never be happy in what was our dream home, I moved and that involved several years. Enough said …Oh, I’ve poked & fumbled & added stuff … but that’s totally different than real genealogy work & research.
Getting back to research …
First — I updated Family Tree Maker (FTM) to the latest version. I hadn’t even touched it in three years. Then I downloaded my most current tree from Ancestry.com.
Second — After copying that tree to a new one, “My C-L Direct Ancestors”. I deleted every person who wasn’t a direct ancestor with the exception of marriages of a direct ancestor. That brought the list of people down to just over 200.
Third — I ran an FTM Data Errors Report (under Publish/Person Report). I knew I’d have a ton of errors but some surprised me. And I started the cleanup.
Fourth — After 30-40 changes (and deletions) I compacted the FTM file to 0.00% and uploaded it to Ancestry.com.
Fifth — I changed my DNA tree to the new C-L tree. And I set the old tree to no longer be public. That change can take a month according to the Ancestry site.
Sixth — I was already taking advantage of the new Beta MyTreeTags.™ Now anytime I work in Ancestry on my C-L tree, I enter tags. Verified for me means I have found a reasonably good record verifying the data. At the same time, I’m cleaning double entries or false source entries. At the same time, I sync between FTM & Ancestry and always compact my FTM file & do a backup to a secure account in the cloud.
Ancestors Seekers Research Week
The Ancestor Seekers research week will be my first trip solely for genealogy research. Since I have been to the Family Research Center in Salt Lake City twice before, I am excited to be going. The idea of having someone there to help me … I honestly don’t know what all I should to get ready.
But I do know that I need to have a clean — or a fairly clean database to start with. One with authentic sources.
And identify what most I want to find out. But that too requires the database (the FTM file) be clean so I don’t waste time fumbling around.