RootsWeb Status Report as of 23 Jan 2018

RootsWeb.com Home Page:

Here's a link to the 23 Jan 2018 RootsWeb status report. Progress has been made.

Dick Henthorn
23 Jan 2018

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Ice Family Project

Ice Family Project

Working on a big Ice family project today. A while back an undated, typed, family history of four pages was shared on Facebook. It was written by Charles Lee Ice. Very difficult to read because the ribbon was probably old when the piece was written. I used Google Voice Typing to read the document out loud. The results left a lot to be desired. Next I used my text editor to compare my product with the original to do the clean up edits. In the next step I will attempt to post the contents of the document to my genealogy file. I'm considering posting the entire piece to the record of Charles Lee Ice as well as posting pieces to the records of people I can identify. The final step will be to share my readable version of the document to the Ice page on Facebook. I'm leaving this step until last in case I discover errors that I made. Recently I was asked why I type obituaries. I type documents because I want to be able to read them and I want to be able to incorporate them into my genealogy databases. And, I like sharing.

Dick Henthorn
15 Jan 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

Tri-County Researcher

I Seek

Does anyone have back issues of the West Virginia Tri-County Researcher that you want to sell?

I'm also interested in obtaining a copy of a 1983 volume about the history of people of Wetzel county, West Virginia. Title: History of Wetzel County, West Virginia, 1983, published by the Wetzel County Genealogical Society.

If the price is right I may be interested.

Dick Henthorn

11 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

RootsWeb Status Update as of 9 Jan 2018

RootsWeb.com Home Page:

RootsWeb has been down for several weeks. Today, 9 Jan 2018 an update message was posted to the Internet.

If you are interested in steps made to resolve the problems and plans for the future you can learn more at this link

Dick Henthorn
9 Jan 2018

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My Slovak Roots – A Genealogy and Travel Site on WordPress

My Slovak Roots – A Genealogy and Travel Site:

Here's someone's genealogy website built on WordPress.

Apparently there are genealogy templates available on WordPress.

This isn't someone I know or a family of interest to me. The link to the site was shared on Facebook.  I'm posting the link because some of us might be interested in seeing what can be accomplished.

Dick Henthorn
7Jan 2018

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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

Using Find A Grave Cemetery IDs

Using Find A Grave Cemetery IDs

Find A Grave assigns each cemetery an ID number. Currently there isn't a way to search on a known cemetery ID.

When I asked about this on the Find A Grave Facebook page I was provided with a tip that will be very useful.  You can go directly to a cemetery by adding the ID number to the URL for cemeteries.

For example, I've been working with the cemetery assigned the ID number 212241. Here's a link to the cemetery using that ID number.

Senecaville, Guernsey Co., OH, Salem Baptist Church Cemetery

Here's what the URL looks like:
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/212241

So, if you know the ID number of some other cemetery, just replace "212241" with your ID of interest and you can go directly to that cemetery.

Which reminds me of another tip, that I came up with on my own. In the RootsMagic place name list you can record information about a place. When I obtain cemetery details from someone else or from Find A Grave I like to record that information in the Place List "text" field. I'm going to try to form the habit of recording the cemetery ID number as part of that information. This will help me when I want to quickly go to a particular cemetery on Find A Grave.

Here's what I recorded in the Place List text field for the Salem Baptist Church Cemetery.

Note: 

This cemetery is called, Salem Baptist Church Cemetery, Senecaville, Guernsey Co., OH on FindAGrave. Catharine (Foreaker) Fedorchak) in her Foreaker genealogy mentions it at least a dozen times as, Salem Baptist Cemetery and on page, 4b, lists the location as Richland Twp., Guernsey Co., OH.

Researcher, Richard E. Henthorn also believes it is located in Richland Twp., Guernsey Co., OH and as of Jan 2017 was called Salem Baptist Church Cemetery.
FINDAGRAVE: Cemetery ID# 212241

Dick Henthorn
5 Jan 2018

HenthornFamily - Wiki on Wikispaces

HenthornFamily - Wiki:

On 2 Jan 2018 I renewed the annual subscription for my HenthornFamily Wiki on Wikispaces.

My Plus account is for 2Gb of storage with a 20Mb limit for any one file.

The cost per year is $10.00 a month or $100.00 a year. I think this is a little high (they doubled the price when they raised the price). However, I am willing to pay what they charge because I don't want to go to the trouble of moving the information to another host.

The Visitor Counter currently shows 2320 visits to the homepage. That's a little disappointing considering the cost of maintaining the Wiki.

I am willing to host information shared by others. I don't believe anyone has taken me up on this offer.

Please encourage your genealogy friends to visit.

Dick Henthorn
2 Jan 2018

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RootsWeb Is Down: Data Recovery Strategies for the Genealogist | Genealogy Gems

RootsWeb Is Down: Data Recovery Strategies for the Genealogist | Genealogy Gems:

As of 1 Jan 2018 there is no projected date for restoring the "free" RootsWeb service to the Internet.

Some of the information I compiled and share is hosted by RootsWeb.

The main website of The Monroe County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, where I sometimes provide website assistance, is hosted on RootsWeb.

This is an unfortunate and serious problem. Hopefully, the staff of Ancestry has the skill and finances to fix the problem and restore these valuable genealogy assets to the genealogy community.

Dick Henthorn
1 Jan 2018

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