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Frequently Asked Questions

[See also, How To Navigate This Site]

Q: How do I find who I am looking for?
A: There are a number of ways, but the search function provides the most straight forward method. The advanced search form allows you to enter information about the individual you're looking for and presents you with a list of possible matches from the database. You can specify several different criteria to search against, including birth and death information as well as spousal information. This is how to search for a woman when you know only her married name (use the "Spouse's Last Name" field). You can even search by event or place.

You might also want to try looking at the surnames in the database if you don't have a clear picture of who you're looking for.

Q. How do I find an individual's ancestors?
A. Once you locate an individual, the easiest method is to press the Ancestors tab. This will show you a graphical display of both the paternal and maternal ancestors. By default the chart displays four generations, although this can be increased accordingly (just remember the page will get increasingly wider).

Once you have the ancestor chart displayed, you can click on any orange arrows located at the far right ancestor if you need to see additional ancestors. You will notice that there are little blue arrows pointing down beneath many of the boxes. If you hover your mouse over the arrow (not click!) a mini-group sheet for that person will open. And, you can click on the names in that sheet to go to their tree entry.  Clicking on the icon will show the ancestry starting from the next generation below. (You must choose the individual whose ancestry you want.) Wherever you see the pedigree icon , you clan click to show the ancestry from that individual.

There are a number of formats for you to choose from -- Standard (the default, with photos), Compact (without photos), Box (birth, marriage, death information, but no photos), Text (no boxes), Ahnentafel (see below), and Media (list of ancestors indicating which have photos or other media attached) --  to display ancestors. Try clicking on the various options and see which one works best for you.

Q. What is an Ahnentafel chart?
A. The Ahnentafel chart (also known as an ascendants table) lists all the generations in tabular form, complete with all children and birth, marriage, death, and burial details if known. Once you become accustomed to Ahnentafels, it becomes very easy to read these tables, to move up and down from parent to child and back again, and to understand the relationships of the individuals listed. Ahnentafels are very good at presenting a lot of information in a compact format. The numbering system is the key to understanding Ahnentafels. [See Wikipedia article on Ahnentafel for details.]

Q. What if I want to see an individual's descendants?
A. The tab marked Descendants can be used to display the descendants of an individual. There are a several of different formats in which descendants can be displayed. You can switch between the Standard (a traditional "tree" with photos), Compact (without photos), Text (a descendants "drop chart"), and Register (a list of generations in tabular form, similar to Ahnentafel) formats to display the information the way that works best for you. 

Q. Can descendants be shown in a graphical format?
A. Yes, You can click on the "Standard" view and see all of the descendants (with photos), or you can go to the "Text" view and view a specific branch of descendants (with photos) from the selected ancestor by clicking on the descendant icon next to the descendant you wish to display. This chart view includes the siblings of each ancestor. Thus, the younger the individual, the greater the number of generations in the chart; and the greater the number of siblings in a family, the wider the chart becomes.

Q. Is there a way to tell if two individuals are related?
A. Yes, the Relationship tab will show a graphic display of all the people between two relatives. To use this function, locate the first individual and then press the Relationship tab. Then use the find button to locate the second person to be displayed. Once you have the two people selected click the calculate button to display their relationship. This is a great way to understand how you are related to others in your family tree.

Q. The Timeline function looks interesting, what is it?
A. A timeline is displayed for an individual when the Timeline tab is clicked. The time line shows important events (and some not-so-important events) in history that occurred during the life of an individual or a group of individuals. It gives you a unique perspective to see what was going on in the world during the lives of our ancestors.

Q. If I see a mistake in the information presented can I correct it?
A. The suggestion tab allows you to send corrections, updates, comments or any other information to the database administrator. Information on which individual you are referencing is automatically attached to the message when you make a suggestion using the Suggestion tab. The database administrator will take your suggestion and add it to the database in the next web update cycle. Also, if you are a registered user and have "tentative editing" rights, you will see an edit icon  next to the fields that can be edited -- birth, marriage, death, burial (and, when indicated, other fields such as namesake and occupation). Clicking on the edit icon brings you to a form that you can fill out. The information then waits for us to "approve" the edit. However, different from the way the Suggest tab works, we are NOT automatically notified that you have made a tentative edit. We do look for these edits periodically; however, to be sure that we know you have made such an edit, please contact us via email.

Q. Is there a way to print the display without all the headers and icons?
A: Yes, just click on the Print icon locate on the top left of any page, below the header. A format that is simplified for printing is presented. You can then use the print function of you browser to print the page.

Q. What are all the three drop-down menus that are located on the upper right of the page?
A. These can be used to quickly access any area of the site to see additional information contained in the database. The areas are divided into three sections:

Find: Use this to find certain individuals, names, places or dates.
Media: Helps you find photos and documents.
Info: The info area provide some general information about the site.

Surnames Bookmarks Places Dates Cemeteries Search

Photos Documents Headstones Histories Recordings Videos Albums All Media

What's New Reports Statistics Notes Sources Repositories Help [This file] Contact Us

Q. Why can't I see all the information on a certain person?
A. We take great pains to protect the privacy of all living family members. Therefore, dates and other information for living individuals are "hidden." Registered users have access to this additional information for their branch of the family. If you are a direct descendant of people located on this website, please register by clicking on the "Register for a User Account" link here or on the home page.