Free FTM 2009 upgrade, although their store isn't allowing it

I switched from Family Tree Maker to Legacy Family Tree software to record my genealogy a few years ago. It was a big transition, mostly for the user interface and how to do typical things like sourcing, which was much different but easy once you know how. Legacy helped me standardize my information and included a lot of error reports that I still use often. I could not believe the crazy stuff that FTM did with my data and it took me months of clean up. I'm not kidding--I spent all winter cleaning up data and I still work on it off and on to this day, 1-1/2 years later.

I found Family Tree Maker 2008 at BJ's for $19. I decided to buy it, more for the postcard collection CD that came with it than for the software. Although it had a neat new interface, it seemed like their big selling point was their online printing of books, which is not something I'm interested in. It also did not pull in GEDCOMs properly from Legacy in any format. I had a long list that I forwarded to the FTM developers. Most reviews that I read online of the software raved about it--not for the program but more for records they found on Ancestry.com which comes bundled with different versions.

Well, the Generations Network knew people were unhappy with the new software (which was missing most of the printing options and therefore not very useful) and nicely offered to give registered users of FTM 2008 a free upgrade to FTM 2009. I received the email last night, clicked the link and their website wasn't functional. I thought I'd go on and see how much they were going to hook me in fees and shipping to get this. I would have much rather had a download, but they don't seem to be offering it.

This morning when I try to get on the site, I get the message "Due to the high popularity of our FTM 2009 free upgrade offer, we are unable to fulfill your order at this time. Please check back later. Thank you, The Generations Network, Inc." If I go straight to the store, it won't accept my coupon. It seems like the full price of $39.95 for an upgrade of this software is rather steep, especially when they're giving it away for free.

It's kind of laughable. They're trying to make it up to people and then tell you "sorry". Way to go, Generations Network!

Genealogy Rip-Offs!

Dick Eastman posted a great article today on Genealogy Rip-offs. He actually lists some of them to stay clear of. It's worth your time to read. It's shameful what some people will do to get money.

You can read the article here on Dick's blog.

Druin collection now indexed! Hooray!

Ancestry announced yesterday that their Druin collection in their World subscription is now INDEX! I am so excited. I sat down last night and found baptism and burial dates for a number of my husband's ancestors.

The Druin collection is Canadian church records from 1850 to 1967. I had mentioned a while back that I had been browsing through parishes to find all the children and such. The problem with browsing that if they moved, you don't always know what parish to look through. Now with the index, that is greatly simplified.

It's a great day for Canadian researchers!

Ancestry Drouin collection

Ancestry putting Rootsweb under it's domain

There has been lots of buzz in the genealogy community in the past few weeks about Rootsweb. Ancestry, who is the provider of Rootsweb, has decided to move all the Rootsweb services under their Ancestry domain name. A lot of it looked like increasing their rank by increasing their page views. Many, however, took the view that Ancestry was trying to steal the free resources on Rootsweb and moved their USGenWeb pages elsewhere (although Ancestry denied this would happen).

There is a neat article on Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog that shows the trends of visits to the various genealogy sites that I found quite interesting. Check it out:

Genea-Musings: 5-year statistics for Ancestry.com traffic

Free Online Sample of Discovering Family History Magazine

There's a new magazine from the publishers of Family Chronicle, History Magazine and Internet Genealogy. It's called Discovering Family History.

It's more designed to help get people started with the basics of research, but even more advanced genealogists may find some useful ideas.

You can download a free issue at their website at http://www.discoveringfamilyhistory.com/freepreview.htm.

LegacyChart

Legacy 7 is getting ready to be released (I know, we've been hearing that for months). Part of the hype of this new release is chart capabilities.

There is a free download available so you can test-drive what we'll be getting in the new version of Legacy. This Legacy Charting free demo expires on June 15, but the full Legacy product should be out by then.

Check it out at Legacy Charting.

Enjoying the Drouin Collection on Ancestry.com

I've been on vacation this week. It's been filled with cleaning and all those other mundane things that need to get done while I have the time. I took yesterday, however, to do more research in the Drouin Collection on ancestry.com which is part of the World Deluxe subscription.

I admit, I'm not a fan of all of Ancestry's policies. I've had a couple of instances when I've bickered with them over theft of my data (both times, although it took persistance, they removed the information). I have to say though that I love that they have these records online.

The churches in Québec, Canada used to record the vital statistics of its people until around the 1960s. The Institut Généalogique Drouin went through and microfilmed the records to preserve them. Most churches are filmed through 1940, although a few are through the 1960s. As technology changed, the microfilms were scanned. Most institutes that have a copy of the microfilms or scanned records charge for access to them, either a by the hour charge or by the record charge. So, having them accessible at home (so I can browse in my PJs) is awesome.

If you don't have the World Deluxe subscription, you should check to see if your local library has access to that subscription.

If you just need a couple of records and don't have other access to the Ancestry site, the American-Canadian Genealogical Society in Manchester, New Hampshire also has the digital versions of the records. They will provide copies of the record or by the hour access to the collections for a fee. See their website under Drouin.

I believe there are also copies at the American-French Genealogical Society in Woonsocket, RI, the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, MA and the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN. I don't know their access policies, so you'd need to research that yourself. Your efforts will be well worth it if you have Québec ancestors!

NY State employee arrested for stealing historical documents

A New York State employee has been charged with stealing documents and selling them on E-Bay. This person, although he has pleaded innocent, has apparently admitted to stealing documents since 2002 and they recovered about 400 items. That's a long time and a lot of items before getting caught!

Boy, it seems like there have been a lot of these stories in the past year. I understand that people need money and tempations are hard to resist, but it's such a shame. Has this always gone and we're just suddenly catching people or were people "in the old days" more moral? Maybe the places that hold these documents should wake up and update their security policies for their employees. Most already have strict policies in place for visitors who want to look at the records.

Full article here on Reuters.

Have you searched on the new FamilySearch Labs site?

I wrote a bit back about volunteering to index records for FamilySearch. See that post here.

Did you know that some of the efforts by all these volunteers are already available? Best of all, they're totally FREE and include not only the index, but scans of the original records too!

The special site is at http://labs.familysearch.org. You do need to register for an account in order to access the site, but that is a small requirement.

You should give it a try today! If you do find this project worthwhile, it's still not too late to help. There are many projects currently being indexed. Please consider volunteering.

I'm pleased to announce that I have picked back up my transcription work on New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life by The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895. This is a wonderful volume. It's not often that you see a biography book mentioning the contributions of one or two women, yet this was a book containing 122 biographies of only women. Additionally, each biography is accompanied by a photo. You can't top that! A new biography will be posted each Sunday until they're all available.

Historical Rutland

I found a cute little history book on Rutland, Vermont, which will have sections released on even days on my website Family Findings.

The book is Historical Rutland: an illustrated history of Rutland, Vermont, from the granting of the charter in 1761 to 1911 by Rev. F. E. Davison, Rutland, Vt.: P.H. Brehmer, 1911. It had a lot of photos, but my xerox copy was bad, so I didn't try to post them. I'm sorry about that. I would have loved to be able to include the photos. Regardless, the text of the book can be found here. By the end of April, the entire book will be displayed. Enjoy!

The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches

I found a delightful book entitled The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches and have started transcribing it on my main site Family Findings under the History section.

The book was written by Lyman S. Hayes and published in 1929. It's a great resource for people researching the Rockingham, Vermont and Charlestown, New Hampshire area. It's not genealogies, but there are lots of fun topics on the area covered and some names mentioned. Consider it an easy to read compilation of historical essays on the area.

I've thoroughly been enjoying reading the book as I prepare it for free online access to you all on my website. There will be a new article pretty much every other day until the book is all posted. I think it will be worth your visit!

Remember to backup your data

Computers are quirky. You just never know when something is going to go wrong with them. You want to make sure that you have multiple copies of your data. Imagine how devastated you'd be to lose your family database or all the scanned photos that a distant cousin emailed to you.

I've been using Mozy to save my files. It's a service that you download a small program and it will automatically backup your changed files as often as you specify. The original backup does take quite a while, but once that's done, it's pretty fast to update your backup.

The largest benefit to this is that it's an off-site backup. If your house burned down, having 100 backups won't do you any good if you kept them in your house.

You can get a free account to backup 2GB of data. Use my referral link (or type my referral code 4YXZQ1) and we'll both get another 256MB of free space. For each friend you refer after that who downloads and backs up their data once, you'll get an extra 256MB.

Why not give it a try? You've got nothing to lose and a lot to save!

Have you indexed today?

Most of us wish that there were more records online for free. Would you be willing to help out in hopes that you get back?

FamilySearch is seeking volunteers to help them index records. You sign up at http://www.familysearchindexing.org, download a little program and you're in business! When you run the program, you download from various projects that they are working on (always your choice of which one you want to do). Then, the original record is displayed on your screen while you type the data into a spreadsheet that is also on the screen. It's pretty easy, well, easy if the writing is readible. If a page is too difficult to read, you can reject it and get a different page that you can read, either in the same project or a different one.

Imagine the difference that could be made if we all indexed just one page a day. Please consider being a part of this great project.

Oh, and by the way, yes I indexed today!