Attacking My Jamboree "To-Do" List and Other Announcements

As I mentioned prior to Jamboree, I have learned to keep a "to-do" list of the things I learn in the presentations that make me think "I have to go home and do or try that next week."  Hopefully, it isn't so long a list that it appears overwhelming, so you are reluctant to try and tackle it.  Mine is about a page and a half, so I decided to jump into it today before I forget what the cryptic notes mean.  I thought I might share some of them as you might also find them helpful.  Even if you went to Jamboree, you probably weren't in the same presentations that I attended.  

One of the first was to ensure my Family Tree Maker (FTM) program was set for Manual Sync with my tree on the Ancestry.com web site.  I was fairly certain that was my setting; but checked just to confirm--and it was.  If you are in "automatic", then every time you open or close FTM the program attempts to sync.  The Ancestry people said that can sometimes cause problems, so they recommend selecting "manual", which allows you to initiate it as you see fit.  You must first select "Plan" from the top FTM toolbar, then right click on the "Sync Now" blue box in the upper right below.  Next select "Update Options" in the pull down menu.  The "update Options" block then appears, as seen below, and you select "Manually".

Note, that from the same box you can also unlink your FTM and Ancestry trees if you so desire.  

As I was working with FTM and the Edit pulldown menu, "Find Duplicate People" caught my eye, so I selected that and initiated a search for all duplicates within the 8249 people in my tree.  That generated the window as seen below.

The names and birth and death dates of the duplicate individuals appear as Person 1 and 2.  They assign a Match Score with 1000 being the highest.  I had 370 possible duplicates and the lowest score was 570.  However, I found many of the highest ranked pairs weren't even close to being duplicates.  You can see above that many of the matches with 990 scores aren't even close based on the birth and death dates.  They also consider "Living Smith" and "Living Smith" to be duplicates, which in most cases isn't true.  Consequently, you have to look closely at each pair.  If you think they are duplicates, then select "Compare/Merge".  If you decide they are not duplicates then select "Remove Row".  If you aren't sure you can just move on to the next pair.  Interestingly, when you generate a "Data Error Report", which I discussed in detail in my May 27, 2013 blog, it does not include possible duplicate people.

I was reminded in one of the presentation to always check the 1870 Census for foreign born, male ancestors to see if they are a U.S. Citizen (Column 19).  If they are it means they have been naturalized.  Thus, you should search for naturalization papers.  The 1900 Census is also helpful, as column 16-18 provide Citizenship data, including what year they immigrated, number of years in the U.S. and naturalization.  

The 1870 Census for my Irish Brick Wall, Peter O'Malley, indicated he was a citizen.  I estimate he came into the country in New York around 1847.  He was in the Scranton area in 1850 and stayed in Pennsylvania until 1880, when they moved to Illinois.  I have searched extensively in Pennsylvania for Immigration Records without any success.  Since there was a five year residency requirement, I have not looked in New York.  I think I have to renew my energies in searching Pennsylvania sources!

Billion Graves Announcement

The following was announced today by Billion Graves.  Now you can connect all those images you upload on the BillionGraves site straight to FamilySearch with just the click of a button!

Simply go to the "Tools" tab on the BillionGraves site, and click "FamilySearch" from the dropdown menu and you can start connecting your family members' records (and any other records for that matter) to their FamilySearch records. You can also attach any record by clicking on "Link to Family Search" on any records page.

To see how it works, watch our introduction video or read more about it on the BillionGraves blog!

Ireland Reaching Out

Ireland has launched a major initiative this year to entice foreigners to come to Ireland to research their Irish ancestors.  It is called "Ireland Reaching Out" and is often depicted as "Ireland XO".  If any of you plan to visit Ireland this year, you would be wise to first contact this organization as they are anxious to know of your visit and make sure you are properly welcomed and supported once you get there.  The following in the latest of announcements about the effort. 

 Welcome to our latest newsletter featuring highlights of this month's news on Ireland XO!

In this issue:

• Ireland XO present to the Global Diaspora Forum in Dublin
• Kilkenny are reaching out!
• Help us fund and train our Irish Genealogy Army of Volunteers!
• The man who disappeared for 158 years has been found!
• Ireland XO were in Roscommon at the Military Conference
• Killeagh Graveyard mapping begins!
• Ireland XO run Genealogy Clinics at the Quilt Festival!
• Kilrush rededicate Graveyard 
• See our new Parish Liaisons & International Volunteers
• Don't forget to Like and Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Please spread the word about the programme by sending this newsletter on to others whom you think may be interested so they can keep up-to-date with Ireland XO developments.  

irelandxo.com@mail135.atl21.rsgsv.net

Best regards
Ireland XO Team

Our mailing address is:

Ireland Reaching Out

Michael Cusack House

25, Dunkellin Street

Loughrea, Co. Galway -

Ireland