Extreme Makeover
MyFamily.com will release Family Tree Maker 2005 (FTM), the 12th edition of its best-selling genealogy program, on Sept. 15.
If you upgrade from FTM 11, you may wonder at first whether you've ordered the wrong program. In March, MyFamily.com announced a software manufacturer switch from Broderbund (http://www.broderbund.com) to Los Angeles-based
Encore (http://www.encoresoftware.com).
The result is a totally different interface, as you can see below in the Pedigree View comparison between FTM 2005 (left) and FTM 11 (right).
Click on each image to enlarge it.
You'll immediately notice the subtle blue, gray and white color scheme, which thankfully supersedes the old peach and yellow. Information is rearranged, icons are redesigned, navigation arrows replace folder tabs and things look sleeker in general.
You may have to get used to more than a new look: MyFamily.com promises FTM 2005's beauty is more than skin deep, claiming it's easier to use and better organized than previous versions. For example, the Family View now shows three generations instead
of two, and up to eight children at once. The former Individual Facts Card has been refashioned into an Edit Individual window, which lets you add all the details about an ancestor in one place. The Pedigree View uses animation to show your current location
as you navigate among generations, and the Bookmarks feature keeps track of your most-viewed and recently edited ancestors so you can easily revisit them.
FTM 2005 works intimately with Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), MyFamily.com's flagship subscription-database Web site, whereas previous FTM versions were integrated with Ancestry.com's sister site Genealogy.com
(http://www.genealogy.com). The software automatically searches Ancestry.com for information on the people in your tree, and ranks results according to the most likely suspects. You'll need a subscription to the Ancestry.com
database containing a record in order to view all of its information and merge it with your data.
Minor tweaks include automatic notification of software updates and better GEDCOM importing. You can read about the program and order it for $29.95 from http://www.familytreemaker.com, although you won't get
your copy until the official launch next month. The software requires Windows 98 or higher (sorry, there's no Mac version) and 150MB of hard disk space. Look for a review of FTM 2005 in the February 2005 Family Tree Magazine
Last Call for Entries in Our Brick-Wall Busters Contest
This is our last chance to remind you to enter Family Tree Magazine's Brick-Wall Busters Tip Contest! The deadline is Sept. 1 at midnight.
Send us a research tip, method or idea that helped you get over a brick wall in your family tree search. We'll publish the 20 best tips in our special February 2005 fifth-anniversary issue.
All published tipsters will receive a genealogy how-to book from Family Tree Books. Five winners also will receive fabulous genealogy prize packages of software, CD-ROMs, family tree charts and more. One lucky grand-prize winner's Ultimate Genealogy Toolkit
will include an Epson PictureMate photo printer. Check it out at http://www.mypicturemate.com!
You must submit a tip (less than 200 words, please) to be eligible to win. For contest details and to enter your tip, visit http://www.familytreemagazine.
com/brickwallcontest.asp.
NGS Plans Winter Conference in Sunny Southwest
The National Genealogical Society (NGS) is giving you an excuse to escape the cold this winter with its Warm up Your Research conference Jan. 20-22 in Phoenix. Workshops cover family history software, professional research and general genealogical
knowledge with planned topics including Web site design, scanning, writing and communication skills. Online registration's not yet open and registration fees are unavailable. Visit http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/edutripsphoenix.htm
for information.
Warm up Your Research will take place at downtown Phoenix's Wyndham Hotel—formerly the Crowne Plaza, which sued NGS over its 11th-hour cancellation of the GENTECH genealogy-technology conference in January 2003.
Following financial troubles and a leadership shakeup in November 2004, NGS combined the GENTECH 2005 conference with its annual NGS Conference in the States last June. Read more about NGS's financial woes in the March 18 Family Tree Magazine E-Mail
Update at http://net.fwpublications.com/newsletters/Newsletter
Archive/Family_Tree_Magazine_E-Mail_Update/3_18_2004.htm
Readers Respond to National Archivist Controversy
Our Aug. 5 newsletter article on National Archivist John Carlin's controversial resignation inspired plenty of political venting from readers (no doubt a tense election season also had something to do with it). See that newsletter at
http://net.fwpublications.
com/newsletters/NewsletterArchive/Family_Tree_Magazine_E-Mail_Update/
8_5_2004.htm.
Most of the writers were concerned that the Bush administration's apparent failure to follow procedure in asking Carlin to resign and in naming his replacement could politicize the National Archives and endanger access to public records. On the other hand,
several suggested that the president's actions are related to former national security adviser Sandy Berger's stroll out of the National Archives with classified documents in his pockets last fall.
Next up is the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's (http://govt-aff.senate.gov) vote—still unscheduled—on nominee Allen Weinstein. If he's approved, the vote moves on to the entire Senate. Here's
a selection of your comments:
"We must have qualifications, NOT politics, decide who will head the agency I consider more important than any other—the public guardian of our country's history for future generations."
—P.B. Esterly
"Perhaps it has to do with the Sandy Berger incident. The taking of ANY material out of the National Archives is not allowed—the taking of secret papers would have cost me my job. Management seems to be too lax and their staff doesn't follow procedures—they
took the matter to a former Clinton attorney instead of their security department."
—J.M. Combs
"The 'requested' resignation of John Carlin as head of NARA and Bush's desire to appoint his own man is yet another step in the erosion of public records access and the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). In recent years, the states of New Jersey and California
(and possibly others that I'm not aware of) have severely curtailed access to vital records—especially birth records. All this in aid of "protecting" folks against identity theft—when no documentation of the use of these records for such a nefarious
purpose has come to light. It is a knee-jerk reaction of fear with no basis in fact."
—S. Weiner
"I wonder if this doesn't have something to do with replacing people overseeing NARA when former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger secretly took secret documents while reviewing Clinton administration records for the 9/11 commission. (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/20/berger.probe).
"Maybe there were complicit superiors at NARA? While this is surely speculative, it is no less so than the assertion in your article that 'some critics say' Bush is trying to protect records from his father's administration, or that 'others say' he is
trying to protect his own records. Who are these 'critics' and 'others' anyway, and what fact have they based their assertions on? I think you've gone over the political line in your genealogy newsletter."
—A. Blumberg
Editor's note: In an attempt to be concise, we summarized genealogists' and political commentators' reactions to this issue. You can read more about who "they" are on news Web sites such as these: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04209/352406.stm),
the History News Network (http://hnn.us/articles/6443.html), National Public Radio's "On the Media" http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/
transcripts/transcripts_043004_archivist.html
and the Society of American Archivists (http://www.archivists.org/news/pr-weinstein.asp).
"If the law says he is not supposed to replace the head archivist, then he is not supposed to. Asking for a resignation, then saying as an explanation that he got the request, is outrageous."
—D. Nelson
"We are supposedly an open society, but we have to maintain vigilance to protect that openness to see that it doesn't crumble a little bit at a time. We should be challenging the way in which this appointment is happening."
—P. Smith
Missing Links
Having trouble tracking down those elusive ancestors? In this biweekly, Web-exclusive column, contributing editor Nancy Hendrickson points to new and helpful ways to do your computer-related genealogy research. This week, she helps you
get around those frustrating broken links that can stop your online research in its tracks. Read more at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestornews/current.html.
Hendrickson is a family historian, freelance writer and the author of the book Finding Your Roots Online, on sale now at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70583.
Browse the archive of her AncestorNews columns at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestornews/previous.html.
You Say You Want a Resolution?
This week's tip comes from Digitizing Your Family History (Family Tree Books, $19.99) by Rhonda R. McClure:
"If your original photo is 4x6 inches and you scan it full-size at a 300-dpi (dots per inch) resolution, the digitized image is 1,200x1,800 dpi. Many people think that when they enlarge the picture in a photo-editing program, they're getting more dots
per
inch. But they're really spreading those 1,200x1,800 dots over a larger area, making the dots bigger and the enlarged image fuzzier.
"Likewise, using photo-editing software to increase the resolution by typing in a higher number results in a smaller image, because the program pushes those dots closer together. To avoid these problems, it's best to err on the side of a high scanning
resolution."
Do you have a great idea for discovering, preserving or
celebrating family history? E-mail us your tip at
ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com with "TIP OF THE WEEK"
in the subject line. If we publish it, you'll win a copy of Digitizing Your Family History, also available for purchase from http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70660.
Overwhelmed by the number of family history-related Web sites popping up? FamilyTreeMagazine.com sorts through them all—whew!—to bring you only the very best. We recently recommended the following as Sites of the Week:
• All About Polish Genealogy
http://polishroots.netfirms.com
Get help discovering your Polish roots using this gateway site that links to more than 450 Web sites, research societies and more.
• Rosie the Riveter
http://www.ford.com/go/rosie
Ford invites all "Rosies" and their relatives or friends (including men) to share stories about participating in the WWII home-front effort.
• Linkpendium
http://www.linkpendium.com
Access nearly 200,000 genealogy Web sites through this portal created by the founders of RootsWeb.
• German Insurance Industry and the Nazis
http://www.avotaynu.com/HolocaustList/nazi.htm
These unsettling transcriptions of meetings between Nazi officials and German insurance industry representatives, which took place to deal with the destruction of the 1938 Kristallnacht riots, offer rare in-depth insight into history.
[Ad Item]
Journal into Genealogy
Your family information could be sitting on a library shelf or tucked into a microfilm drawer in the form of a genealogical journal article written by a distant relative researching your line. Here's how to look for such an informational treasure chest:
The Periodical Source Index, also known as PERSI, lists names found in more than 6,000 genealogical and local history journals published in the United States and Canada since 1800. Ask for it at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'
Family History Library (http://www.familysearch.org), your nearest branch Family History Center or a large public library.
You can access PERSI at libraries that subscribe to HeritageQuest Online (www.heritagequestonline.com), or from home if you subscribe to Ancestry.com's (http://www.ancestry.com)
US Records Collection. It's also available in print up to 1985 at some libraries.
Once you find an article and the title of the periodical it's in, ask if the library has that publication. If not, you can order the article through interlibrary loan at your public library, or directly from the Allen County Public Library, which created
PERSI. Write to the Allen County Public Library Foundation, Box 2270, Fort Wayne, IN 46801 for the photocopying fee and an order form. Or download the form online by following the links at http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy/persi.html.
—Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
Get nine more tips on finding your ancestors in family histories—and lots more expert research advice—by reading the September 2004 Trace Your Family History, a special issue of Family Tree Magazine. It's available at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/trace04.asp
or by calling toll free (800) 258-0929. Or, learn how you can win a free copy at http://www.familytreemagazine.com!
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is a Family Tree Magazine contributing editor.
Go West!
Expert photo historian Maureen A. Taylor helps readers analyze old family pictures in her Web-exclusive column Identifying Family Photographs. This week, she tries to link this image with another one taken in the American West.
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/current.htm.
If you have a family photo mystery for Taylor to solve, check out our Submission Guidelines at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/photohelp.htm.
Austin, Texas
Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)
Sept. 8-11
Visit the FGS Web site at http://www.fgs.org.
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
Topics:
- From Italy to America: Starting Your Italian Genealogical Research (Sept. 9)
- Give Me Your Tired and Poor, But Not Your Sick: Passing the Medical
Exams at Ellis Island (Sept. 11)
Emily Anne Croom
Topics:
- The Territorial Papers of the United States: the Southern States (Sept. 10)
- You're Known by the Company You Keep: Cluster Genealogy, an Essential Tool in Research (Sept. 11)
Rhonda R. McClure
Topics:
- I Found it Online: Separating Fact From Fiction (Sept. 9)
- Mining the Treasures in Newspapers (Sept. 10)
- Fraternally Yours—Identifying Fraternal Organizations of Ancestors (Sept. 11)
James W. Warren
Topics:
- Writing Your Family History in Small, Manageable Pieces (Sept. 9)
- Salt Lake City! Using the Resources of the Family History Library from
Near or Far (Sept. 11)
Paula Stuart Warren
Topics:
- Increasing Attendance at Your Annual Seminar or Conference (Sept. 8)
- 21st Century Strategies for Handling Society Correspondence (Sept. 8)
- The Business of Speaking (Sept. 9)
- Two Perspectives on Research at US Federal and State Archives (with Constance Potter; Sept. 10)
Genealogical Publishing/Clearfield Company's 2004 illustrated catalogue describes 1,500 books and CDs! Get your FREE copy of the best catalogue in genealogy. Email your home address to info@.genealogical.com.
GenSmarts Automated Genealogy Research - "amazingly easy and convenient" says Family Tree Magazine. Get a free trial copy at http://www.GenSmarts.com
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RootsMagic Genealogy Software - "An excellent choice for any genealogist" says Family Tree Magazine. Get a free trial copy at http://www.RootsMagic.com
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