Share Your Success With Family and Friends at OneGreatFamily

Doing genealogy without cooperating with your family is like being the only player in a team sport. Genealogy was meant to be a team effort. Now you can use the most advanced “team” tools for doing genealogy AND be rewarded for it! There are 2 ways to invite your family and friends to view your family tree at OneGreatFamily:

1. Email a Link to Your Family Tree

If you want someone else to view the progress of your family tree, but you don't want them to be able to change information or become an actual member of your group, you can email them a link to your family tree.

To email a link to your family tree, refer to the following instructions:

1. Log into OneGreatFamily. This will take you to your "My Home" page.
2. In the "Top Tasks" box, you will see a link to "Send a friend your family tree.
3. Fill in the form with the bookmark (anchor) you wish to email; then fill in the recipient’s name and email address.
4. Submit the form to send the link.

1. Log into OneGreatFamily. This will take you to the “OneGreatFamily My Home” page.
   
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where there is a blue box titled "Groups"
3. Click on the link "Invite others to your group"


4. Choose which group you want to invite people to join. (This is especially important if you are a member of multiple groups.)


5. Fill in the form with as many people as you desire to invite to your group. You can send your invitation to as many as 10 people at a time.


6. Edit the message in the form below. The message will automatically insert your information, the name of the recipient, the name of your group, and your group's name and password.


7. Submit the form to send the invitation.

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Printing Your Starfield View Is A Great Way To Show Off Your Family Tree

Two weeks ago we featured an article about printing in Genealogy Browser™. Today we will be discussing more in depth how you can best print out the Pedigree Wall Chart as shown in your Starfield view:

Before you print your Starfield view you must first use the zoom, font and magnify scroll buttons. These scroll features will allow you to print your Starfield View exactly how you want it to look. When you go to the "File" Menu in Genealogy Browser and click on "User Prefences" you will see the following box:

Notice the red circled area labeled "Computer Expertise Level." This setting changes the Starfield formatting options presented to you as follows: Beginner: Only the Zoom slider is available at this setting. It is located on the right side of the Toolbar in Genealogy Browser: The Zoom slider changes the size of each box in your Starfield. As the box gets bigger more information can be displayed. From 0-47% only a box will be shown; from 48%-73% the name will be shown; from 74%-99% the name will be bolded and birth date are shown; at 100% the bolded name plus the birth date and birth place are shown.

Intermediate: In addition to the Zoom slider a Font slider is added. It appears right below the toolbar and runs the width of the window:



This slider changes the size of the font used in each ancestor's box. It will increase or decrease the size of each box in order to accommodate the font size. However, it doesn't increase the amount of information shown--only the size of the font used to show the information.

Advanced: A Magnify slider is added in addition to the Zoom and Font sliders. It is located below the Font slider, and also runs the width of the window:

This slider allows you to proportionally increase or decrease the size of everything in the starfield. So if you get everything get up, but your Starfield is just a little too wide for your paper, you can shrink it down a touch with this control. Everything will look the same, it will all just get smaller (or bigger).

Experiment with each of these view choices in the Starfield so you can see how each one is different.

Once you are satisfied with how your Starfield looks, you can go to the File menu and choose "Print". To print your Starfield View choose the following:

It is very important to click the "Print Preview" button before you hit print so you can make sure it is printing exactly how you would like it to look. You can then click the "Print" button on the above box or in the "Print Preview" window.

Optional: You can also print an Hourglass chart. An Hourglass chart shows both the ancestors and the descendants of a person. Click on the "Show descendants" button on your toolbar:



Your Starfield will look like this:



Then follow the steps above so you can change the zoom, font and magnify until it looks how you want to print it.

Printing your Starfield is a great way to show your family and friends your family tree. Remember that you can print as many or as few generations as you want. When printing the Starfield, you can print a wall chart. This means that you print your Starfield large enough to fill an entire wall! If your printer uses standard 8 1/2" by 11" paper, a wall chart can be created by taping the pages together.

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How To Best Utilize The National Archives

by Mandy Mathews, Family Historian

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is home to millions of records that may be beneficial to your genealogical research. The NARA has several methods of contact available to the public. The first, referenced in previous articles, is the NARA website (www.archives.gov). The NARA website provides you with all of the information necessary to begin your research, specifically referring to research of military records.

Military records include many different kinds of records. These records are usually only available to the individual who served and their next of kin. Types of records available include: Official Military Personnel Files, various medical records, pension applications and pension payment records (covering servicemen between 1775 through 1916), bounty land warrant applications (1775 – March 3, 1855), compiled service records containing miscellaneous information, and many more.

The NARA website covers how to order different records, fees (if any), and historical background information about the records available. The NARA holds military service records in two different locations; the National Archives Building in Washington D.C. holds records for the Revolutionary War through 1912, and the National Military Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri, for WWI to the present.

When researching any type of historical document, it is beneficial to do a little research about the record before you begin searching. Finding out pertinent information about the record will save you time and money. Make a note of the dates covered by the record, the information included, and who the record applied to. The NARA website outlines what each of the different record collections contain.

The NARA also holds records for civilians employed by the United States government. Obtaining information and/or copies of these records as well as military records is achieved through many different methods. The NARA websites provides information on all of the different options and contains printable copies of the various request forms used.

Below are the physical addresses available for contacting the different records offices if you are interested in visiting or actually mailing in your request:

NARA–National Personnel Records Center
(Civilian Personnel Records)
111 Winnebago Street
St. Louis, MO 63118-4199
Phone # - 314-801-9250

NARA–National Personnel Records Center
(Military Personnel Records WWI - present)
9700 Page Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100
Phone # - 314-801-0800

National Archives and Records Administration
(Physical Location for Military Personnel Records 1775 – 1912)                                  
700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20408-0001

The National Archives and Records Administration
(Mailing address for written requests for records dating 1775 – 1912)                          8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001                                                                                     
Phone # - 1-86-NARA-NARA

The National Archives and Records Administration is an invaluable source for historical records. When researching military records specifically, it is the best place to start. The NARA website is vast and contains a lot of important information. Take the time to look around the website and see what it has to offer.

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GenealogySpot.com is a free resource center that simplifies the search for the best online genealogy resources for beginners and experts alike. Sites featured on GenealogySpot.com are hand-selected by our editorial team for their exceptional quality, content and utility.

You can quickly and easily find the best resources to perform ancestor searches by state, country, ethnicity and religion, browse historical records, access reference tools, locate lost family members, join genealogy communities and much more.

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