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GeneaNet : Community : Genealogy Blog Thursday Mar 11, 2010

Genealogy Blog 


8 March 2010

What About Writing Articles For The GeneaNet Genealogy Blog

What about writing articles for the GeneaNet Genealogy Blog and sharing on the topics you are interested in.

It can be news, events, genealogy research (tips, terms, etc.), family history societies, archives, genetic genealogy, software, books, onomastics, coats of arms, etc.

To submit an article (a note), click "Submit a Note" in the right sidebar of the GeneaNet Genealogy Blog.

Then, you just have to type in your article. You can add links and images but there's no need to format the content.

(You can select any of the listed topics, this is not really important.)

Click the "Preview Note" button, then click "Edit Note" to modify it or "Submit Note" to validate.

If you can read the French, you can translate any article or part of article from the GeneaNet GeneaWiki into your language!

1 March 2010

Do You Know 'GeneaNet All Relatives'?

GeneaNet All Relatives can help you stay in touch with family and friends while doing your genealogy research.

Your GeneaNet personal inbox is a great way to connect with other members who have ancestors in common with you and share discoveries.

GeneaNet All Relatives allows you:
- to organise your address book,
- to see if you have been added in a GeneaNet user address book and to manage your authorizations,
- to view your family and friends on Google Maps,
- to manage your contact groups and to use the color tool to spot them,
- to write private notes.

Your GeneaNet All Relatives home page provides a snapshot view of the latest news from your network of family and friends.

22 February 2010

GeneaNet: Publish And Share Your Transcripts

Did you know that you can publish and share your own transcripts in GeneaNet?

Select the "My GeneaNet : Transcripts" menu in the left sidebar or simply go to http://my.geneanet.org/dep to upload and manage your transcripts.

Your transcipts will be indexed in the GeneaNet database and viewable for free by the GeneaNet users, but you are the owner of this data and you can remove it at any time.

Use one of the following formats to upload your transcripts:
- Excel File Format (.xls)
- CSV File Format (.csv)

Your file must contain:
- a record per line
- a row per information: record type, date, name, occupation, etc.
- if using some abbreviations, describe them in your file.

15 February 2010

The GeneaNet Collection Has Been Improved

The GeneaNet Collection offers more than 200 million digitized documents to go further in your genealogy research!

The GeneaNet Collection contains:

- Library: Almanacs, military directories, etc. with name index (Club Privilege Members), Monographs, bibliographies, genealogy works, etc. provided by our partners (Pay per View).
- Census: Transcriptions provided by our partners (Club Privilege Members & Pay per View).
- Announcements: Digitized French announcements (Pay per View).

The search engine has been improved so you can now enter many search terms:

You can also browse the Collection by country/county.

8 February 2010

GeneaNet Search Preferences Improved

The GeneaNet Search Preferences edit form has been improved.

The Search Preferences allows users to save some settings that will be applied to all future searches.

Click "Account : Search Preferences" in the left sidebar or simply go to http://my.geneanet.org/preferences/.

You can enter some GeneaNet Account usernames to exclude from your search results list or you can select a Group of Contacts from your "All Relatives" Address Book.

You can remove any username from the list at any time.

To restrain your search to some country/county, just select it in the list.

To restrain your search to some places, just enter their name or select the most popular places in your Family Tree.

You can remove any place from the list at any time.

1 February 2010

GeneaNet: Export Images Published In Your Family History Book

You can now export the images from your GeneaNet Family History Book.

Click the 'My GeneaNet : Online Family Tree : Export' link in the left sidebar or simply go to http://my.geneanet.org/geneweb/down.php3.

The images are exported in a ZIP archive file.

Please read 'Write Your Family History' and 'Annotate Pictures in your Family Book' for more about the GeneaNet Family History Book.

25 January 2010

GeneaNet: New GEDCOM Import Option

A new option has been added to the GeneaNet GEDCOM Import.

If the date of death of some individuals in your family tree is unknown, you can now prevent import if they were born within a range of year in order to respect their privacy.

Available ranges of year are: 80-100, 90-100, 80-120, 90-120, 100-120.

18 January 2010

GeneaNet: Share Family Pictures and Postcards on Facebook and Twitter

Your can now share family pictures and postcards on Facebook and Twitter, or by email.
Click the 'Family Pictures' link in the left sidebar of the web site or simply go to http://portraits.geneanet.org/, then search and select a picture.

When clicking on the Facebook icon, you will be send to a new Facebook page. Just click 'Share' to post the picture on your wall.


When clicking on the Twitter icon, you will be send to a new Twiiter page. Just click 'Update' to twit the picture.

Click the star to send the picture by email.

To share a postcard, click the 'Postcards' link in the left sidebar of the web site or simply go to http://cards.geneanet.org/.

11 January 2010

GeneaNet: Learn the Popularity of Your First Name

GeneaNet has added a new feature that allows users to learn the popularity of their first name, or the one of their ancestors!

Click the 'Learn the Popularity of Your First Name' link in the left sidebar of the web site or simply go to http://www.geneanet.org/prenoms/.

Enter a first name in the search form and it will show the percentage of individuals who are indexed in the GeneaNet family trees, by year.

4 January 2010

GeneaNet: Send Postcards To Family And Friends

GeneaNet allows you to send a free electronic greeting to your family and friends!

You can pick from a selection of our greeting postcards...

... or click on a category area to browse through our selection of postcards.

Once you've selected your postcard your next step is to customize it.


Please be sure to fill out all boxes completely and check the recipient’s email address for accuracy.

When done click the "View Your Postcard" button to see what will be sent. If everything looks right, click the "Send" button. If you would like to make additional changes before sending, click the "Correct" button to return to the editing screen.

And remember that you can upload and share postcards!

28 December 2009

Automatically Compare Your GeneaNet Online Family Tree With Another One

GeneaNet Club Privilege Members can automatically compare their online family tree with the one of another GeneaNet user. You can access this feature from the user Page Contact.

We hope that it will help you finding a lot of new connections in your genealogy research!


Remember that the GeneaNet Cross-Database Search feature is available to any GeneaNet user.

21 December 2009

The GeneaNet Search By Alternate Spelling Of Names Has Been Improved

The GeneaNet Search by Alternate Spelling of Names has been improved.

Enter a name in the GeneaNet home page Search Form.

A Search Edit Form is displayed in the right sidebar of the search results page.

Select "Search by Alternate Spelling" then click the "Search" button.

It shows the list of existing alternate spellings for this name.

To continue the search, check/uncheck the alternate spellings then click the "Search" button.

To add/delete some alternate spellings, click the "Add/Delete Alternate Spellings" link.

Click the "trash button" to delete any alternate spelling and the "more button" to add some.

This feature is collaborative and any other GeneaNet user may delete an alternate spelling that you previously added! Contact us to report abuse.

When done, click the "Submit & Search" button.

It shows the home page of the earch results list.

You still can add/remove some alternate spellings by clicking the "Modify" link.

Choose any of the category: Online Family Tree, Archive, Library, Other Source.

The search results list shows the GeneaNet Index for all of the alternate spellings of the name.

14 December 2009

New Features In The GeneaNet 'All Relatives' News

Some new features have been added to the GeneaNet 'All Relatives' News.

The Latest News are now displayed in a separate list.

You can archive these news by clicking on the 'Mark Read' link.

You can also remove some news from the list by clicking on the 'Remove' button.

Click on the 'Show Hidden News' link at the bottom of the 'Preferences' page to display all of the removed news.

7 December 2009

New Features In Your Contact Page And Your GeneaNet Online Family Tree

Some new features have been added in your Contact Page and your GeneaNet Online Family Tree.

Tag Cloud of Most Popular Surnames and Places

A Tag Cloud of the most popular surnames and places in your family tree is now displayed in your Contact Page.

Users can click on these tags to automatically see the selected data in your GeneaNet Online Family Tree.


You can add/remove some surnames in your Tag Cloud at "My GeneaNet : Account : Public Contact Page : Tag cloud of most popular surnames".

The Tag Clouds are building from your Family Tree Index. You should re-index your Family Tree if the tags are not correctly displayed .

Geographical Distribution of your Family Tree

You can now see the geographical distribution of your family tree in your Contact Page by clicking on the link "Map".

The same map can be shown in your online family tree by clicking on the link "Map" in the left sidebar.

Links in your Online Family Tree Home Page

Some links to your Family History Book, your Digitized Documents and the geographical distribution of your data (Map) can be displayed in the home page of your Online Family Tree.

You can select the links to be displayed in your family tree home page at "My GeneaNet : Online Family Tree : Personalize : Home Page".

30 November 2009

Merging Individuals In Your GeneaNet Online Family Tree

You may create some duplicate entries when uploading a GEDCOM file or manually entering a lot of data in your GeneaNet Online Family Tree.

You can automatically merge these duplicates and all of their information into a single individual.

For example, two entries have been created for the same person: John Doe.

The first entry contains information about the birth of John Doe: born on 22th december, 1910 in London, England.

The second entry contains information about the death of John Doe: deceased on 15th april, 1950 in New-York, USA.

Log in to your family tree as "Wizard", select a John Doe then click "Update - Individual, family, media".

Then click "Merge".

The software automatically finds individuals that match but with some different available information.

Select "John Doe" then click "Ok".

The two entries are automatically merged into a single one that contains all of the information about John Doe.

23 November 2009

GeneaNet Launches 'Learn The Origin Of Your Surname' Facebook App

GeneaNet launches 'Learn The Origin Of Your Surname' Facebook App which display the geographical distribution of your name thanks to the searches of 2 millions members worldwide!

Your name won't appear in some areas of the map if no record has been indexed by the GeneaNet users. But it doesn't mean that your name doesn't exist actually!

You can search for another surname, publish the map to your wall and invite friends to join.

Click the image below to go to the 'Learn The Origin Of Your Surname' application then log in to your Facebook account:

We hope that you will enjoy using our new Facebook app!

16 November 2009

Deleting Duplicate People In Your GeneaNet Online Family Tree

When merging a GEDCOM file to your GeneaNet online family tree, you may create some duplicate people. To eliminate duplicates, you can delete one of them.

Expert Online Family Tree (GeneWeb)

A duplicate entry has been created for Susan Leech, spouse of John Baxter.

Click the "Wizard Access" link in the left sidebar then enter your GeneaNet username and password to log on as "Wizard".

Enter the surname and name of the duplicate individual in the search form, select "first name/name", then click "OK".

Both Susan Leech are shown in the search results list.

The first one is the duplicate we want to delete and the second one is the spouse of John Baxter.

Click the first Susan Leech link.

Click the "Update - Nidividual, family, media" link.

Verify that this is the right person (not the spouse of John Baxter) then click the "Delete" link to delete this duplicate.

Basic Online Family Tree

A duplicate entry has been created for Susan Leech, spouse of John Baxter.

Click the "List" link at the top right of your family tree.

Enter the name of the duplicate individual in the search form.

Both Susan Leech are shown in the search results list.

The first one is the spouse of John Baxter and the second one is the duplicate we want to delete.

Click the "Paper Sheet" icon to open the individual information panel.

Verify that this is the right person (not the spouse of John Baxter) then click the "Remove" link to delete this duplicate.

9 November 2009

Numbering The Ancestors In Your GeneaNet Family Tree

An Ahnentafel is a list of the ancestors of a person, numbered in such a way that the starting person is number 1, the father 2, mother 3, paternal grandfather 4, paternal grandmother 5, maternal grandfather and so on. It is also known as the Sosa-Stradonitz Method, for Jérôme de Sosa, the Spanish genealogist who popularized the numbering system in 1676 and Stephan Kekulé von Stradonitz, the German genealogist who published his interpretation of Sosa's method in 1898.

Set Your Family Tree Root

Log on to your online family tree as "Wizard", then select an individual and click "Update - Individual/Family". This will open a window that shows you a list of available update options. Click "Set to home individual" to set the selected individual as your family tree root.

Sosa numbers will be automatically assigned to the ancestors of your family tree root.

Clicking the Sosa number of any person will open a window that shows you a descendancy list.

Remove Your Family Tree Root

If needed, you can deactivate the numbering system. Select the "Online Family Tree - Manage - Expert Options" menu item then click "Remove the family tree root". Note that this will not remove the individual in your family tree!

2 November 2009

Protect the Privacy of Living People in your GeneaNet Family Tree

GeneaNet allows completely withholding of information on living people in your family tree, thus protecting their privacy.

Go to "My GeneaNet : Online Family Tree : Manage : Privacy" to configure your privacy settings.

GeneaNet - Gestion des contemporainsShow/Hide Living Individuals

- Default: Only the name and surname of individuals born within the past 100 years will be displayed. Information such as life events will not be available.

- Hide Living Individuals: The name and surname of individuals born within the past 100 years will be replaced with "XXX" and information about living persons will only be available in the online search for users with a Wizard Access Right.

- Show Living Individuals: All of the information about living individuals will be displayed in your family tree and available in the online search.

Remove living persons from your online family tree

This will remove every person born within the last 100 years. Please, save your data before processing!

Expert Options - Advanced Access Rights

- Privacy of Living Individuals: To restrict access to living individuals in your family tree, select a number of years then select "Yes" to replace these individuals with "XXX".

- Birth Date Unknown: Select if individuals with unknown birth date should be hidden in your family tree.

- Remove Hyperlinks: Select "Yes" to remove hyperlinks on private individuals.

26 October 2009

How To Contact A GeneaNet User?

Anyone who has registered with GeneaNet can send or receive messages from other users as well as reply to messages if they are contacted.

Through the email address

You may contact another user anonymously through the email address provided on their public profile.

To view their public profile:

- In the GeneaNet search results list, click on the username
- In the user's online family tree, click on the icon at the top left of the screen (see image below)

Through the user's personal forum

Every GeneaNet user has their own online family tree forum for free.

By clicking on the icon at the top left of the screen (see image below) you can post a message and an email will be automatically send to the user.

Through the "All Relatives" address book

Enter the name or the username of the user in the search form, then click "Add to my address book". When adding a user to your address book, you can enter a message. The user will automatically receive an email.

More about the "All Relatives" feature.

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