What is the website’s purpose?

I’m providing this to my family and friends because I want to share all I’ve learned about our familes, and the website lets me display a lot of interesting images. In the past I tried sharing data with interested people via email or using CDs, but that was always unsatisfactory.

How do I use the website?

Click on things. Click on images. Click on underlined text. Click on menu items. When you are looking at an image of a record, click it to make it bigger. (Before looking at an image, check its caption. That tells you where in the image the person of interest is shown. For example, a census record whose caption says “lines 1-4” will show the person of interest at the top of the page.)

Please point out things that need improvement. I love questions. Please ask questions. You know how to reach me.

What’s the easiest way to learn something about a family?

Select a family on the home page, and you will see a list of topics. Choose one. You will see some pictures, a few important records, and some stories about the people.

How do I see the underlying records?

When a person’s name is underlined, you can click on it to bring up a post that shows all the records I’ve found about that person. I enjoy the primary records, my husband likes the census records. I tried to post everything of importance.

What’s that “Under Construction” sign?

In a “Marriages” or “Generations” timeline, the last entry might be a sign that says the page is under construction. That means I am still working to post data that I have. Please do tell me if you want to be notified when the data is complete.

Why are a few entries in the timelines dated January 1st?

Timelines are a good way to present information about a family. And they require exact dates. Sometimes I know the approximate year, but not the exact date. So, I use January 1st to place the event in a timeline. When you see January 1st, that is an approximate date.

Will you include my family? I know you have the data.

There are still many people whose data I have but haven’t had time yet to post. Please ask me to focus on someone if you are interested. I love questions. I intend to finish this project, but it takes time. If you express interest and perhaps can help by sharing a photo or two, I will be very happy to do the posting.

Why didn’t you just share the family tree on Ancestry?

I thought about it because it would be so much easier for me. I could have made it private and given guest passwords to you. You would have been able to see the tree, but you would not have had access to the actual records unless you paid Ancestry to be come a member!