Last Form for February - Improved Family Group Sheet

Perhaps th oldest form in the Genedocs Innovative Library is the Improved Photographic Family Group Sheet designed in 2001 mainly to visually enhance what child branch our Norwegian ancestors came from who immigrated in the 1870's and 1880's to the U.S. settling in western Minnesota.

Everyone at our 2002 Reunion could really relate to at least one generation closer than Henrik, although explaining subsequent generations was far more challenging with brothers marrying widows of siblings, numerous Henry's, etc.

The obvious point of the form is to showcase images discovered once identities can be verified.

The not so obvious point is keeping all the children with their parents. It is an anti-orphan form in that, unlike other group sheets that use two or more sheets to list vitals for all the children in larger families, this template (2-sided) can handle any family group up to 26 people includigng the mother and father! If you look back one post you will note that 24 children is double what Ancestry.com's group sheet without photos maxed out at.

Note that this is a phenomenal tool to promote people to start researching as well. Here a few newer examples:

These can serve as a stand alone database since you can also make sets for ancestors siblings and their failies to whatever extent of cousinry you prefer.

To close I strongly recommend keeping these in clear protective plastic sleeves in a large binder for handy desk reference. Remember to freind Genedocs Wetpaint on facebook if you find these tools and tips useful.

See you in March!

2nd February Featured Form:

Finals are over for this session of college so now I can manage some time to share one of the highest points of innovation to date in the Featured Forms Series with you - The Genedocs Hybrid Chart.

Ancestry.com version

What began as a result of frustration from jumping back and forth between traditional pedigree charts and family group sheets has emerged a pioneering precedent in family tree charting that now can combine ancestry, sibling data, multiple portraits, embedded source document images, unlimited custom comments, three dimensional effects, and more using just one commonly available application - Microsoft Excel. I can't count the times about how people have posted on the internet where I have read they were seeking an all in one form. Little did I know five years ago that I'd be creating one!

FEATURES TO NOTE:

- Three Ancestors per page keep a simple family group view
- Up to 12 or more siblings can be listed in birth order per
ancestor!
(For up to 24 children in a family group use the Genedecs Improved FGS)
- You can choose to add one portrait per ancestor or a portrait of
each ancestor as adult and child if you have found and identified
such treasures in your research.
- Sibling portraits can be added too and even a spouse portrait if you
want.
- Actual source doc images can be viewed and enlarged plenty enough to read details!
- Unlimited custom comments with options to hover over cell to view, always view, print as displayed on sheet, etc.

Try the template at the following link - They are FREE!

http://gdinnovativeformslibrary.wetpaint.com/

I highly recommend that researchers become savvy practicing in MS Paint or other image editing software like GIMP (free) to be able combine images of ancestors as adult and child with vital statistics - you may alsosee in the image above how a filing system can be much more searcher friendly with these custom labels as mentioned last month.

RootsTech Winding Down / Updates

FEB NEWS: "Over 4,100 attend SLC Conference!"
Whether you went to the rootsTech 2012 Conference and got your t-shirt or not, Genedocs did not win any prizes this year, but is still proud to have competed with submitting a new data entry version of the Hybrid Chart (image example below).

Hybrid Chart with a few "related fellas" added for 3D effect.

The submissions that did win do seem to be impressive so be sure to visit the developers challenge page in the next day or two to check them out.

Anyway February is now officially on its way and my mission carries on to introduce y'all to this month's first Featured Form: The Genedocs Improved Research Log

Try it out for FREE at: http://gdinnovativeformslibrary.wetpaint.com/
(fourth attachment at the bottom of the linked page)

You may quickly notice many of the advantages of this form. For instance, it's simple check box/common life area format, the easy to use reminder columns for what to be sure to note about sources you find useful, and even they type of source identifiers per the legend at the bottom. This is a fourth generation improvment, but essentially has the same format as it did when originally designed nearly a decade ago in 2001. It also corresponds very nicely with last month's filing tools of folder cover sheet and file tabs. One thing to note is that you may want to have an additional line for AKAs and Nick names as well as sheets for various mispellings that we all come across from time to time in sur, maiden, and given names.

I hope it is helpful in both your hardcopy and digital research endeavors.