Visitor HowTo

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Some tips to help navigate our genealogy data.
Our genealogy website is driven by a database tool serving dynamic pages giving you, the visitor, more flexibility and eases the maintenance tasks for us.

Genealogy is all about family relations – ancestors, siblings and descendants. To view information about someone or their relations (parents, grandparents, children or grandchildren) you need to first select a person. The popular methods used to select a person are Surnames and Search. Both are available on the genealogy home page and most other pages (look in the upper-right of this page).

Surnames

Click Surnames to view a surname selection page. This page provides alphabetized row of buttons for each letter for which there is at least one surname beginning with that letter. Clicking on one of those buttons presents a list of all last names (surnames) that begin with the specified letter. Also on the surnames page is a sorted list of the top 30 surnames (number of individuals that share the surname) in the database. Clicking on a surname presents a list of all individuals with that surname. The surnames page also provides an ordered accounting of how many surnames exist for each letter; with a clickable button for surnames that begin with that letter.

One advantage to using Surnames is that you are presented with lists of surnames as they exist in the database. You do not need to worry about spelling a name wrong as in the Search features. The Surnames feature is simplest way to locate an individual’s record in the database; no typing required.

The surnames page includes [no surname]. There are number of individuals in the database with no surname. This situation is common in genealogy data due to many early records only provide the first name of a wife; not providing her maiden name or any information on her parents.

Search

Type a name (first and/or last) into the spaces provided and click the button. You will be presented with a list of individuals in the database with names matching the values you entered.

To view tabular details for a person, click on the name in the list returned from the search. To view a graphical pedigree chart (ancestors), click on the little icon to the left of a name. Once you are viewing either the details page or the pedigree page you can use the tabs at the top of those pages to change the view; either format or switch from ancestors to descendants.

Tip: This simple search feature is actually a filter. If you do not enter anything in the text boxes and click the Search button the resulting list will include all people in the database. By entering text in the fields you filter the database to those records that match the values you enter. You need not enter a whole name; the records returned are those that contain the entered value somewhere in the first or last name, depending on where you typed.

Advanced Search

Click Advanced Search to access a blank form that allows searching by fields other than just first and last name. You can search using dates, places, events in addition to names. Advanced Search is quite powerful, but most users will likely not use this feature opting for the name Search or Surnames features.

Viewing Information

Once you have selected an individual you can choose what you wish to see and in what format. Refer to the screen shot. There are two rows of Tabs. Click on a Tab in the top row to select the type of information you desire. The second row shows the available format options for the information type. Below the name and above the Tabs is a row of navigation links with little icons. You will probably use these links often. Home takes you directly to the genealogy home page. The Print link shows a print preview of whatever data you are viewing with a link to print that page or pages. If you want to print a page - this Print link is you best option; and is preferred over using the web browser Print tool.

The best way to learn the options available is to simply experiment - go ahead and click on various tabs and see what you get. Available information options and formats include:

• Individual - tabular data for the person
• All - recommended, shows all information we have; Default format
• PDF - create a Adobe PDF file that you can save or print
• Ancestors - parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. of the individual
• Generations - pick how many generations you want to see - default is 4
• Standard - graphical; the name of each person/ancestor with a picture, if one exists
• Compact - graphical; just names to take up less space
• Box - graphical; names with birth and death date/place, no picture
• Text - names with various life events (dates and place) includes marriage
• Ahnentafel - report suitable for printing of ancestors with spouse and children
• PDF - creates a text-based box-type tree of ancestors you can save or print
• Descendants - children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. of the individual
• Generations - pick how many generations you want to see - default is 4
• Standard - graphical; the name of each person/ancestor with a picture, if one exists
• Compact - graphical; just names to take up less space
• Text - textual ordered indented list of descendants
• Register - report suitable for printing of descendants with spouse and children
• PDF - creates a text-based tree of descendants you can save or print
• Relationships - select two people to view how they are related
• Timeline - graphical lifespan, that you can add additional people to compare
• Suggest - use this to send us a note when you see a mistake or question our data