See How Much We've Grown

With your help, OneGreatFamily continues to grow and add new branches to your global family tree! Each new member increases the community of people with whom you can collaborate, as well as your opportunity to find more of your ancestors. The most significant area of growth this year has been the number of names submitted. Over 10 million new names have been added to OneGreatFamily so far this year providing a wealth of valuable new data for everyone to benefit from. Take a look at how much OneGreatFamily has grown over the past years:

This growth indicates that more and more people are recognizing the value of sharing genealogy information with others through common relationships. It also demonstrates that people are supporting OneGreatFamily's vision of creating a common family tree that helps you identify ALL of your ancestors.

Researching your family tree shouldn't be like looking for a needle in a haystack. By removing duplication and focusing on family relationships, OneGreatFamily makes it easy to identify your FAMILY TREE, not just an ancestor here or there.

We are grateful for your continued support as we make the vision of providing the world with a common family tree a reality. We encourage you to visit OneGreatFamily often to further your research and make new connections to the work that others have already done.

• Visit OneGreatFamily and view all the ancestors that have been added to your family tree
• Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to take advantage of the promotion.

OneGreatFamily's Strong Growth Means More Value to Members

OneGreatFamily continues to have an increasingly large impact on the lives of genealogists. Genealogists and casual family researchers would find little value in OneGreatFamily if the service were not growing in terms of names, members, and subscribers. OneGreatFamily is now looking at opportunities to push its growth rate even faster.

What does growth mean to you?

The growth of OneGreatFamily means that more people than ever are working on YOUR ancestral lines. The growth in data and membership will lead to new opportunities for collaboration, and grow to your family tree through the automated matching and merging process. Some people think their families are somehow orphaned from the human family and that nobody else has an interest in their genealogy. Although these notions are common, they are rarely true. The real challenge is taking a family line back far enough to find a point where it ties in to the research of others. As OneGreatFamily continues to grow, the likelihood of someone researching more recent generations of your family tree increases.

Growth in subscription revenue leads to new functionality that will help you find ALL of your ancestors. OneGreatFamily is working on tools and features that will help you find your ancestors more easily. Current development is focused on standards for names, dates, and places, which will further reduce duplication within OneGreatFamily and make finding your ancestors easier than ever. OneGreatFamily is also working on ways to further improve the speed and performance of its service and ways to simplify the Genealogy Browser for those who are new to OneGreatFamily.

What challenges are created by growth?

Although everyone benefits from the growth of OneGreatFamily, this growth brings with it certain challenges as well. As OneGreatFamily extends its reach, more people who are new to genealogy will begin using the service. OneGreatFamily is committed to supporting each of its members, which means the customer support and technical support resources must also increase. Training people on how to use OneGreatFamily is a challenge that OneGreatFamily is currently trying to address. Growth also means the technology supporting OneGreatFamily must also be scaled to meet the needs of a growing number of records and members.

Fortunately, OneGreatFamily has a growing number of subscribers who are helping to fund the growth of this extraordinary service. The more OneGreatFamily grows, the more success its members will have in finding their ancestors and connecting their family lines with the rest of the human family tree.

• Visit OneGreatFamily and see how successful you can be finding your ancestors.
• Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to take advantage of what OneGreatFamily can do for your genealogy.
  
  

Sign Up Today and Get 3 Months Free

You only have 3 days left until the promotion is taken off the website. For only a limited time will you be able to gain all the benefits of a subscriber to OneGreatFamily for $5 a month. Imagine what your family tree could look like when our unique software compares your family tree to everyone else's in OneGreatFamily. Your newly discovered ancestors are waiting for you!

For only 2 more days, buy an annual subscription and get an additional 3 months added to your subscription for free. So you get 15 months for the price of 12. That's 25% more time for the same amount of money--an average monthly cost of ONLY $5.

Click here to take advantage of this special offer now!

Some the benefits of subscribing to OneGreatFamily are:

1. OneGreatFamily automatically matches and merges identical individuals in its database to remove duplication and to allow opportunities for collaboration.
2. OneGreatFamily offers free, powerful software for viewing, organizing, and saving your family tree. OneGreatFamily does what no other family tree service or software program can do by letting you see your entire family tree at one time.
3. As a subscriber to the OneGreatFamily service, you can view the details on every ancestor who is added automaticallyadded to your family tree.
4. OneGreatFamily's ability to preserve each person's view of the family tree is something that makes OneGreatFamily unique.

These are just a few of the benefits your receive as a OneGreatFamily subscriber. OneGreatFamily is continuously finding ways for our subscribers to recognize the value available to those who subscribe to this excellent genealogy service.

• Visit OneGreatFamily to learn more about this unique genealogy service.
• Subscribe to OneGreatFamily and become a subscriber for only $5 a month.
  

Land Records

by Lisa South, Certified Genealogist

The following article was written in the June 9, 2005 OneGreatFamily newsletter. Since Lisa is no longer writing for us, we are featuring some of our favorite articles written by her.

In Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone With the Wind', Scarlett O'Hara's father says, "Land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts." Owning and working the land was very important to most of your ancestors. This makes land records a very valuable source of information, but they are often overlooked by the novice genealogist.

It is always important to try and locate exactly where your ancestors lived in a certain county. Many questions can be answered with this information: Were they close to the county border? What churches did they live close to? What would have been the closest cemetery? What are the possible routes of migration? Who were their neighbors (this can often give clues to former residence or possible relationships)?

Some land records will help establish the movement pattern of an ancestor. For example, the record may state, "Madison Almon, lately of Coosa County".

Some list relationships and, unlike most other records, the older the land record is the more details they seem to have.

There are three major types of land transactions:

1. British, Colonial, or Federal government to Individual
a. British Crown grants land to colonists 1606-1732
b. Colonies transfer land to individuals 1607-1776
c. Public domain - this includes military, county, homestead, private land claim entries, etc.
==> Your search for these records should begin at the National Archives.

2. State to Individual
a. States that did not cede land to the federal government
b. Thirteen original states, Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia
==> Your search for these records should begin at the state level.

3. Individual to Individual
a. Most kept at county courthouses
b. Both grantee (buyer) and grantor (seller) indexes are usually available
c. Both should be evaluated carefully before going to the actual deeds
==> Extract or copy the information from the deeds.

A large number of land records are available on the internet and at the Family History Libraries. Once you have found your ancestor's land record(s), you can mark a map showing their property and find it's relationship to other towns, counties, churches, etc.

As you learn more about the land your ancestors lived, worked, and died on, you will understand Gerald O'Hara's statement to Scarlett, "It will come to you, this love of the land."

• Login to OneGreatFamily to enjoy this unique genealogy service
• Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to find all your ancestors.
• Visit the OneGreatFamily Learning Center for more helpful genealogy articles by Lisa South
  

Genealogy.About.com

Genealogy.about.com is a genealogy topic site hosted by About.com and run by genealogy professional Kimberly Powell. Kimberly Powell has built a comprehensive environment around genealogy topics, including the best new content available, relevant genealogy links, How-To's, forums, and answers to just about any question you may have about genealogy. March is Women's History Month, which celebrates the accomplishments of famous and ordinary women throughout American history. Visit genealogy.about.com today to help celebrate the lives of our ancestral and historical women.

Want some FREE time?

• Learn more
• Refer a friend