Using GRAMPS as a primary management, storage and presentation tool for our genealogical data came about slowly. As many of you may recall, I tried and still use numerous family databases such as TNG, RootsMagic etc.  However, moving genealogical data back and forth across three or four tools before placing it in a single secure location took a lot of extra time.  As luck would have it, I have need to create both hard copy and on-line versions of a branch of our family tree this week.  All weekend I was moving data around, sourcing new information, merging old files and images.  Doing all this in one place is a…

One quick trick I discovered for repairing problem Genealogy data involves using an editor -I like geany and gedit… probably because I run on Linux. But truth be known, any editor with a global find & replace function should do just fine! Here’s the typical scenario.  You have a data corruption problem that occurs throughout your database.  I always encounter problems like foreign character corruption… you have probably seen words like A@$0n in your files, too.  To make matters worse, they appear in various fields and across numerous records.  What to do??? Well the obvious, but painful, answer is to sit and retype everything using characters that don’t get jumbled…

Genealogy of Canada is a great site for researching French Canadian ancestry.  I discovered the site two days ago when I was stumped trying to locate some relatives. The site is developed primarily for native French Canadian language speakers and offered in translated English.  I have had no major problems with the English variant; it is much better than my French! I have encountered a couple of minor problem issues that are worth noting: source references are difficult, if not impossible to view. it is difficult to send bulk data to the site for inclusion in their database These are small prices to pay for what is an excellent, albeit…

Honesty is one of the most important dimensions of good genealogy and family history.  We all have backgrounds that we would like to say were ours. However, sometimes we have to settle for the fact that we are who we are. If you truly want to provide and accurate family history and genealogy, you need to look at things as they are, not as you wish they would be.  Facts, information and knowledge form the basic building blocks of good genealogical research.  Your family history requires not only knowing who your people were but why they may have done what they did, chose what they chose. Like you, remember they…

Family stories are not always true. If you have been doing any amount of genealogy perhaps you have discovered that out. If not, you may be in for a rude awakening. My family, like most, comes with it’s fair share of myths and fables. Certain family members are seen as being larger than life, other are viewed as being evil villains. The truth, as it turns out, is both more exciting and at the same time mundane. In all the literature you are told to gather oral traditions regarding your family, as the start of establishing your family history and genealogy. Although that is a good idea it also a…

For those of you who have not used genealogical source data before, I can assure you this is an adventure. In most ways, my experiences have been very positive as well as curious. I should also admit that almost all source material I have used has been either German or French Canadian. I have never either needed or used US English materials beyond that which is available in an online, computer accessible format for my research. Whether your source materials are online or microfilmed they often provide many of the same challenges: Script is often old and presented in unfamiliar styles ie. Fracteur or Gothic for German, Latin or Latinate…

Probably one of the most valuable primary sources of genealogical information today is provided by the LDS (Latter Day Saints- Mormon) Church- FamilySearch.org. The website itself is not really the most useful aspect of their service. In truth, I personally find the online components to their site to be less valuable then that of their primary competitor- Ancestry.com. So what is good about the site you might ask. The best part of FamilySearch is their ability to find microfiche/film within the LDS archives and make it available to you! Squirreled away in a very hard find, dark corner are two crucial search functions: one finds allows you enter an area…

Maybe your family is like mine. We come from a long line of hard working, salt of the earth people. Yes, that means many of them could not read or write.

So how do you prevent yourself from becoming a contributor to the vast amount of bad genealogy data?