More Data Recovery Projects

More Data Recovery Projects

I completed data recovery projects for:

• William David Henthorn and Susannah Parrott
• John Henthorn and Mary Eleanor Jarrett
• John Wesley Henthorn and Ursula Anne Hall

I'm working on:

• John Milton Henthorn and Annie Elizabeth Hougland

Each project entails various edits to the records in my old, PAFBIG, file followed by copying the records to my large, pafyoh, file. I'm also using RootsMagic7 to create a Family Group Sheet (FGS) for each project. These FGSs include the Note field information of each person in the FGS. The FGSs are uploaded to my Box account where they are available for Preview or Download by folks who have the URL.

Dick Henthorn

5 July 2020

Family Group Sheets

Family Group Sheets

I have a paid subscription to cloud storage on Box.

I created a folder on Box where I can upload Family Group Sheets created by my genealogy program, RootsMagic7. This Family Group Sheet folder has many family sub-folders. With the link shared below you can access the Family Group Sheets. Individual group sheets can be previewed online and/or downloaded to your computer. I believe Box works best when accessed via a computer. It is probably possible to access the family group sheets with a SmartPhone if you have the URL.

The family group sheets produced by RootsMagic include the Note field of the people listed on the family group sheet. Included in the notes are source citations, if I have them, Find A Grave memorial numbers, obituaries and other historical information. After the Note fields each family group sheet has a name index and a place name index.

Corrections and additions are welcome.

I'll also entertain suggestions for other family group sheets 

I'm a very active user of Facebook which makes that the best way to catch my attention. 

My Email address, which I don't check often is: Dick.Henthorn@gmail.com

Family Group Sheets

Dick Henthorn

26 June 2020

Facebook Formatting

Facebook Formatting

There is an issue with document formatting on Facebook.

I tried two ways of sharing a document on Facebook that didn't work well.

First, I copied obituary text that I'd extracted from a Find A Grave memorial. I made some addtions using square brackets [ ] and uploaded my file as a "Document" to a Facebook Group. This didn't work well. Paragraph breaks were inserted between text several sentences long and a one line piece of information in parentheses that should have followed immediately after the text.

Next, I tried copying the same text as a "post" to the Group. This resulted in the same problem, excessive paragraph breaks.

Here's how I solved the problem. I was working with a couple who didn't have children. There was an obituary for the wife only. I told RootsMagic to create a Family Group sheet for the couple. I saved the output as a PDF file. I uploaded the PDF to the Facebook Files area of the Group just as I have often done with Descendant Reports as PDFs.  As a result the obituary paragraph formatting appears to my liking and the PDF can be previewed online or downloaded.

Dick Henthorn

3 Jun 2020

What Will Become of It?

What Will Become of It?

The other day I was thinking about Wetzel Co., WV because I discovered a Facebook Group for the county that I didn't know about.

I have been working on the genealogy of folks from Wetzel Co., WV for many years. In fact, I used to be in touch with some of the folks from the county genealogy society before they decided to disband. In those days I donated four genealogy documents to the society. I was co-compiler on a couple of them. The society had the documents hard bound and then placed them in the genealogy section of the county library at New Martinsville, WV.

I visited New Martinsville several times and the library once. That was before the donations were placed in the library, so I have never seen the bound volumes.

Yesterday I checked the catalog to refresh my memory about the donations. I searched for "Author, Henthorn, Richard E.."

This activity brought to mind a subject that has been on my mind for months, "What Will Become of It?" I have been working on genealogy projects for over 30 years. There are thousands of pages of information on my computer in the RootsMagic program. Some of the information has been shared with other people in digital formats such as PDFs, some has been shared on Facebook in my private Group and other Groups, some Conger information is hosted by a Conger friend in Iowa, some information is shared in two of my genealogy Google blogs, some is on my Google Site, some is shared on my private Box account, some has been donated,in printed form, to various genealogy libraries around the USA.

I turned 81 year old this month and I have been in poor health for about ten months. It's time to come to grips with the issue of What Will Become of It?

Dick Henthorn

12 May 2020

May 2019 File Backups

May 2019 File Backups

Today I ran the RootsMagic Database Tools on the nineteen files that I've updated since January 2019. 

For the first time ever I got a message about a file problem with one of my largest files, the one where I currently do the majority of my updates. I continued to run all of the database tools on this file and then returned to the first tool, where the error was reported, and ran that first test again. Fortunately the error was corrected by one of the other database tools tests.

After I ran the Database Tools for each file I backed up each RootsMagic file to a backup folder on my laptop hard drive..

Next, I copied all of the backups to a thumb drive that I use solely for genealogy backup.

I also have an external hard drive that I salvaged from a laptop that broke down. I copied the same files to a genealogy backup folder on this hard drive.

I have a paid subscription to cloud storage with the Box company. The final step in the backup process was to upload the nineteen files to my RootsMagic backup folder on Box.

The final result of my backup project is four sets of backup, one on my laptop, two external in my house, and one in the cloud.

I keep Notes in a Steno notebook. I created a page with a table that recorded the extent of my 24 May 2019 backups.

Dick Henthorn

24 May 2019

Year-End Backups

Year-End Backups

Today, in order to get 2019 off to a good start, I'm doing Backup on some of my genealogy files.

 I ran the Database Tools on the last eleven genealogy files I'd opened. RootsMagic keeps track of the file names of the most recently opened files.

 Then I backed up those eleven files to my laptop.

 Then I made copies to three external media
1) 4GB Sandisk thumb drive with green smiley face sticker
2) 30 GB Dell external drive
3) Box cloud account

I made notes in my Steno notebook to remind me when and how I did this backup. I spent about an hour doing this task.

Dick Henthorn
1 Jan 2019

Tennant Genealogy

I did a test run to see how many pages of information I have about the Tennant family.

The information is stored in one of my RootsMagic files.

A narrative descendant report includes an every name index and a place name index.

In general, my policy is to exchange information only with people who have done substantial work on recording their own genealogy and who are willing to share.

The current page count for the Tennant family is - 1571 pages.

Dick Henthorn
7 Aug 2018

LDS Ancestral File Numbers

Here's a PDF that lists the LDS Ancestral File Numbers (AFN) in my pafyoh RootsMagic database.

An HTML link to the report, which is stored on my Google Drive account, displays the report. I adjusted the width to 425 to make the pop-out button visible on this page.

There is a "pop-out" arrow in the upper righthand corner. The bottom and right hand scroll bars also work without using the pop-out option. Use the plus-sign to enlarge the display to make the bottom scroll bar appear.

The purpose of this post was to assist me in the learning process. I think the result is pretty cool. There is always more to learn.

Dick Henthborn
13 Mar 2018

RootsMagic Search Everywhere

RootsMagic Search Everywhere

Today I noticed a search option with RootsMagic that I hadn't seen before. 

This option finds records by searching the text of the Note field. 

I ran two tests looking for data tags that I entered in all caps:

• Search for all records with the word, RESEARCHER
• Search for all records with the word, OBITUARY

Here are three screen captures I made during the process.

First, enter the word you seek, in this case, RESEARCHER. In my Note fields this word is in uppercase (all caps) so I checked the Match case box. You have the option of searching for more than one word. In my test I was only interested in one word.

Next, after you click on "OK" the Search Everything box appears with a thermometer in green displaying the search progress.

Finally, the search results are displayed, in alphabetical order, based on the names of the person whose Note contains the word or words of interest. Here, before making the screen capture, I scrolled to the entry for deceased Yoho family researcher, Denver Clayton Yoho. 

For each person in the report a snippet of the the text of their Note with the search word(s) highlighted in red is displayed. 

Also, there are two hot spots, in blue, that can be clicked to go directly to a person's record

• (edit)
• Note:

The HTM file can be printed or saved. 

Dick Henthorn

23 Feb 2018

Benjamin and Mary Edgell

From time to time I like to run a test to determine how many pages of information there would be in a Narrative Descendant report if I decided I wanted to share with someone.

The RootsMagic narrative descendant report, as I compile it, includes an "every name index" and a "place name index."

This morning I ran a test for the family of Benjamin and Mary Edgell. There were 1,411 pages in the report.

I'm willing to discuss an exchange of information with members of the Edgell family, but there must be a willingness to share in order to obtain the information I have compiled.

Dick Henthorn
16 Feb 2018

Why I Seek Typed Obituaries

Why I Seek Typed Obituaries

This morning a frequent contributor to the Ice Family page on Facebook asked why I am typing and sharing obituaries.

Here's my reply.

Here's how I do genealogy. I use a genealogy program [RootsMagic] to record the information I obtain about each person. Each person can have a Note field where "text" can be stored. When I obtain an obituary I transcribe the information to "text" and save it in the Note field. This allows me to create narrative ancestor or descendant reports that show everything I know about a particular line. These reports are what I call, genealogy. In my opinion storing digital images in a genealogy database wouldn't work very well when one wants to print out the information.

Collecting "raw" data is an important aspect of the genealogy hobby, but in and of itself will never produce a readable genealogy. The only way this can be accomplished is to process the "raw" data and enter it into your genealogy program of choice.

Dick Henthorn
12 Jan 2018

Finding the Records of Researchers in RootsMagic

Finding the Records of Researchers in RootsMagic

I wanted to be able to find all people in my file who I considered to be a Researcher. 

I created a Fact with that name. 

When I created their record I selected this Fact. When I want to remember more about a researcher I also write about their interest in the Note field. 

When I want a list of all of the researchers I go to: 

• Lists,
• then Facts Type List, 
• then scroll down and select - Researcher, 
• then click on Print. 

The result is a list of all Researchers with their RINs. 

Dick Henthorn
9 Jan 2018

Genealogy Year-End Backups

Genealogy Year-End Backups

Because I can't remember the things I think I can remember I keep a steno pad notebook for note taking. At the bottom of each page I write a label for the page and the date I used the page.

Today, 7 Jan 2018, I created a page for recording my RootsMagic Backup. My goal was to accomplish year-end (seven days late) backup of my genealogy files.

The RootsMagic program maintains a list of the last ten genealogy files I accessed on my C: hard drive.  A prudent backup strategy demands backing up to media external to the computer itself.

RootsMagic Steps

• I ran the RootsMagic Backup Tools on each of the ten genealogy files to insure file integrity. 

• I backed up each of the ten files to my laptop hard drive to create a backup with today's date.

• I deleted all but the last three backups of each file from the hard drive, to free up hard drive space.

External Backups

• I copied the ten latest backups to my genealogy thumb drive (with the green happy face sticker).

• I copied the ten latest backups to my 30GB Dell external hard drive.

• I uploaded the ten latest backups to my Box account cloud storage. 

Storage Used

I used Properties to check how much available storage remains on the thumb drive, the external drive and the Box account. There was plenty of space left, so I didn't consider deleting old backup files from those three media.

Storage Strategy

The end result of this backup strategy is I have four backups of the ten genealogy files I'm actively accessing, three reside in our house and one is in the cloud.

Dick Henthorn
7 Jan 2018

Stitching Two Images Together Vertically

Stitching Two Images Together Vertically

Here's a genealogy problem I wanted to solve without spending any money.

RootsMagic can create a nice screen image that displays the members in a family. Sometimes I use the Windows Screen Capture program to make a JPEG image of what I see on the screen.  Then I post this image to one of the county Facebook pages to share what I know about a family of interest to myself and Facebook friends.

Once in a while the amount of information I'd like to share exceeds one screen. In the example I'm using here my display included three generations. I knew I could capture a second screen image with the Windows Screen Capture program. The problem I faced was how to stitch the two screen images together to be saved as one JPEG file that I could post on Facebook.  I sought a way to do the stitching for "free." 

I learned that the "free" IrfanView program, which was already installed on my laptop,  could do what I wanted.  I also discovered that the program offers an option of including a colored "bar" between the two stitched images. You can't adjust the images to the right or left, so being careful how you select the area of the two screen images is important.

Using the Lumbatis family of Ohio and West Virginia here are three images that illustrate:

• First screen capture
• Second screen capture
• Two images stitched together with IrfanView

Click once on any of the three images to enlarge the display.

First Screen Capture

Second Screen Capture

Two Images Stitched Together with IrfanView

Dick Henthorn

28 Dec 2017

Lazarus Rine, Sr.

Lazarus Rine, Sr.

FYI, my Lazarus Rine, Sr. genealogy, with every name and place name indices, is now 1148-pages. That's a little over two reams of paper if printed on one side only.

It isn't available on the Internet. That is to say, I don't even keep a copy of the report on my own computer. It's just information stored in one of my genealogy files until I tell RootsMagic to create the report.

I just felt like doing some Tuesday morning bragging.

Dick Henthorn

6 Dec 2017

RootsMagic Place Name Edit Tip

RootsMagic Place Name Edit Tip

In the Place List if you highlight a place and click on Print it should default to printing a list with everyone using it [the place name in question]. You can save it [the report] as a PDF if you can't [don't want to] print [the report]. If no one [in your file] is using it [the place name] then click on "Unused Places" in the Place List and you can delete them [the problem place name].
(Furnished by Renee Zamora of the RootsMagic staff, via the Facebook RootsMagic Users page on 1 Dec 2017)

Not mentioned by Renee Zamora is that you can also use the report information to determine which RINs are involved with the place name and then use that information to find and view the records for possible edits. Information in the square brackets [ ] added by yours truly to improve readability.
(Furnished by Richard E. Henthorn, on 2 Dec 2017)

Dick Henthorn
2 Dec 2017

'via Blog this'

Special Holiday Offer for RootsMagic Users

Special Holiday Offer for RootsMagic Users:

Two RootsMagic bundles on sale until 30 Nov 2017, one for $25 and the other for $35 plus S&H

'via Blog this'

Dick Henthorn
27 Nov 2017

HenthornFamily - Cemeteries

HenthornFamily - Cemeteries:

New Cemetery Reports - May 2017

Today I added seven new cemetery reports to my WikiSpaces genealogy website.

These cemetery reports were created using information in my RootsMagic file, named, pafyoh. To create the reports I had to master the creation of Custom reports on RootsMagic. It's a multi-step process. Once you get the hang of it it isn't too complicated. I found the learning curve challenging.

The reports are in the PDF format and show cemetery information based on county names. The reports can be viewed on your computer screen and they can be saved on your computer.

There are three columns in the report.

1. Surname, Given
2. Death Date
3. Cemetery location and cemetery name

The reports are sorted by: Surname, Given Name, Date of Death.

When death dates aren't complete or cemetery names are not present, I seek this information.

Dick Henthorn
27 May 2017
'via Blog this'

RootsMagic Blog » Questions about upcoming Ancestry features?

RootsMagic Blog » Questions about upcoming Ancestry features? We’ve got answers!:

Status update about how the Ancestry and RootsMagic sync feature will work and when this update may be ready for release.

Dick Henthorn
28 Mar 2017

'via Blog this'

Social Security Numbers

I store Social Security information in the Note fields of my genealogy files.  I don't want the Social Security Numbers to print in reports that I share. The RootsMagic program has a way to "turn off" this information by surrounding any text that you don't want to appear in reports with curly brackets {Don't Print}.

I noticed recently that the file I created for my own family didn't have the curly brackets.  Today I completed the project to surround all of the Social Security Numbers with the curly brackets.  I also checked to see if I had set the switch to turn off printing anything surrounded by curly brackets.

Dick Henthorn
13 Mar 2017