What is the difference between a guest (Free Basic) and a subscriber account at OneGreatFamily?

Some customers have a hard time understanding what OneGreatFamily is and what is included in a subscription to OneGreatFamily. Some people erroneously believe OneGreatFamily is in the business of selling family tree data.

Some of this confusion is created by competitors that charge fees to access their family tree collections or that sell family tree data that has been freely submitted back to customers on CD-ROMs. OneGreatFamily does not engage in either practice.

If OneGreatFamily doesn't sell data, then what is included in a subscription? First, every subscription includes access to the only single shared collaborative online family tree in the world. Everyone who works on OneGreatFamily is working on the same shared family tree, so when one member adds to the tree, that material is immediately available to all other members.

Still, OneGreatFamily also has the unique ability to preserve each member’s view of the single shared collaborative online family tree. If one member believes that an ancestor had a 2nd wife and another member believes that ancestor did not have that 2nd wife, they will both see the tree they want.

Second, OneGreatFamily spent years developing technology that automatically searches every name in your family tree with every name in our single shared collaborative online family tree. Where exact matches are found, the data is merged. This means that OneGreatFamily eliminates duplication in research. If 100 people submit the same family line, all 100 will be de-duplicated, or merged, down to one single family line.

Third, merges in OneGreatFamily create opportunities for people to collaborate on their genealogies, identify new ancestors, and discover conflicting information. OneGreatFamily has collaboration built in, with the ability to easily reach out to others working on your same family lines.

Fourth, a subscription to OneGreatFamily includes the use of Genealogy Browser™, a free downloadable family tree program what allows you to view, edit, and print the single shared collaborative online family tree. This program includes many unique features, including the ability to zoom in and out on any portion of your family tree, allowing you to get the context of where various ancestors are in your tree.

Fifth, subscribers receive the added benefit of being able to view the names and information for individuals who have been added to their family trees through accepted hints and automated merges.

Sixth, OneGreatFamily allows users to upload and preserve up to 3 gigabytes of your multimedia objects. In addition to making it easy to share these with other relatives around the world, this storage represents a secure backup in case of accident or natural disaster that destroys your originals.

Seventh, a subscription to OneGreatFamily provides you access to the subscriber version of the Weekly Newsletter. This informative newsletter is focused on helping you get the most out of OneGreatFamily.

OneGreatFamily is not in the business of selling user-submitted data. However, OneGreatFamily has invested millions of dollars in the development of all the capabilities mentioned above. Further, these capabilities are unique—no other company in the world offers all these capabilities. We believe you will find a OneGreatFamily subscription to be some of the best money you have ever spent on genealogy.

OneGreatFamily's business is focused on facilitating genealogy growth and discoveries by providing personalized access to the shared human family tree.

• Visit OneGreatFamily to grow your family tree the OneGreatFamily way.
• Subscribe to OneGreatFamily and find others looking for your ancestors.




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Check Out The OneGreatFamily Alternate Spellings Database To Help You Find Your Ancestors

Misspellings or alternative spellings of names can waste your time and can actually prevent you from finding an ancestor. They consistently cause a lot of problems and chaos on other genealogical websites.

The old Soundex Indexing System and Metaphone Algorithm and other "matching" tools that some websites use can only take you so far. For example, a search at a prominent website of the Social Security Death Index for the name John Christensen returned 369 matches. Conducting a Soundex search instead returns 3057 results, and includes such obvious non-matches as John Creighton, John Crockett and John Carchedi. Metaphone was less expansive, producing a result of 822 results, but still included obvious mismatches with names John Krystyniak and John Curseaden.

At OneGreatFamily, we deal with alternate spellings and common misspellings in a very different way. We have been building a list of alternate spellings of both first and last names - a list that is currently contains nearly 2000 names. The list is hand-built, and identifies realistic alternative spellings. Our Alternate Spellings tool is more accurate than any of these other generalized matching tools.

This tool is used in two ways within OneGreatFamily:

First, our round-the-clock, automated system uses these alternate spellings when searching for you. If you have a John Christensen in your family tree and OneGreatFamily is comparing your tree to one just submitted by a new subscriber, it will automatically look for John Christensen, John Kristensen, etc. If it finds a match based on an alternate spelling, it will mark it as a merge or a hint for your review.

Second, you can choose to use the list on your own if you do some searching yourself. To check out our great Alternate Spellings Tool, click on the tab labeled "Search" on the page. You'll see the following:

Notice the two check boxes, one to "Include alternate first-name spellings" and the second to "Include alternate last-name spellings". If you check a box, the respective alternative name list will be used. If not, it won't.

Our database is already extensive and we continue to add to it on a regular basis. Visit the OneGreatFamily Search Page and find your ancestors.

We hope the continued growth of our Alternate Spellings database will improve your ability to find your ancestors at OneGreatFamily.

• Visit OneGreatFamily and share your genealogy with your family.
• Subscribe to OneGreatFamily and see how many ancestors will be added to your OneGreatFamily tree.
  

Finding Family I Never Knew I Had

We enjoy hearing about the success our members have in building their family trees at OneGreatFamily. We appreciate Steve for sharing his success with us.

I started my genealogy search just a couple of months ago, and I was finally able to untangle my mother's side of our family history. I found ancestors she didn't know she had. In three hours, I traced my brother-in-law's line back to the beginning of the 19th century and told him things he never knew. I have had several links established back to the mid 15th century. In such a short space of time, I have discovered the family I never knew I had.

Thanks to OneGreatFamily for all the information you have provided to me and my family.

Sincerely,

Steve Gant
OneGreatFamily Member

You can view more success stories by visiting:
http://www.onegreatfamily.com/LearnMore/SuccessStories.aspx

If you have had success using OneGreatFamily, please let us know. We would love to hear from you. Please contact us either by visit our Contact Page or by emailing ogfmarketing@onegreatfamily.com. Thank You.

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• Visit the OneGreatFamily Learning Center for more helpful genealogy articles.
  

HonoringOurAncestors.com

HonoringOurAncestors.com is a site that attempts to encourage others - from novice to pro - in their quest for roots. Here you'll find grants for genealogical initiatives, guidance for your search, and inspiration for those times when you could use a little dose! This site was developed to help at least a few more people connect - be it with scattered kin, family treasures or long-departed ancestors. So go to HonoringOurAncestors.com today, and spend a few minutes exploring!

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