OneGreatFamily Blog

• Finding Family I Never Knew I Had

  5/22/2013 3:21:00 PM

  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.

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• OneGreatFamily Will Save You Time

  4/24/2013 11:51:00 AM

  OneGreatFamily Can Speed Up Your Research!

  With all of our busy schedules we don't have much time in the day to do the things we really like to do, such as spending time with those we love. Working on our genealogy is something we often can't spend as much time on as we would like because of other obligations. So when we do have a few moments to spend, it is important that we be as efficient as possible. Using traditional research techniques is essential, yet much time can be saved if we can see the work that others have already done. We save time in not pursuing dead ends already explored, or in focusing on pursuing evidence for a lead someone else uncovered. OneGreatFamily was created to make researching as efficient as possible, saving time and money.

  OneGreatFamily searches for ALL your ancestors ALL the time. It identifies leads for both new ancestors as well as additional information about known ancestors. And it helps you zoom right in to focus on those leads. This process saves YOU hours or even years of time!

  To get started all you have to do is submit what you already know about your family tree. You can either provide us with a GEDCOM file or enter the information you have in Genealogy BrowserT. Include as many relationships as you can, even aunts and uncles. With more than 280 million names already submitted and between one and three million new names being submitted each month, you are sure to find research leads on your ancestors at OneGreatFamily . . . in the near future, if not today.

  Once your family tree is submitted, an automatic review process looks at each individual in your family tree and begins searching for individuals that are identical within OneGreatFamily. When OneGreatFamily identifies that two ancestors match, this means new information becomes available to you . . . on a specific ancestor or even an entire branch of your family tree! A match with someone else's data also provides a point for further collaboration within OneGreatFamily.

  OneGreatFamily also makes your own searching more efficient by identifying and merging away duplicate family trees and individuals. You don't need to spend hours wading through copies of the same family tree fragments submitted by dozens or hundreds of different people. OneGreatFamily presents you with a largely de-duplicated version of an individual or a family tree fragment, including conflicting vital information, alternate spellings, notes, sources and other important clues.

  OneGreatFamily also saves you time by allowing distant relatives to help each other grow their family trees through collaboration.

  So take the first step to efficiently working on your genealogy by first submitting your family tree. Remember, OneGreatFamily is working all the time, even when you can't!

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• You've Submitted Your Family Tree To OneGreatFamily - Now What?

  2/27/2013 3:30:00 PM

  Here is a list of things you can do at OneGreatFamily that will increase your chances of success at OneGreatFamily. We hope that as a subscriber you have come to appreciate the unique service provided by OneGreatFamily.

  1. Discover what has been done on your family tree already
  The OneGreatFamily Tree is a powerful genealogy database that is shared and built by people like you all over the world. Every single name, date, place, picture, biography and video clip has been submitted by people like you. In fact, the OneGreatFamily Tree started without a single name. Users in over 80 countries have submitted millions of names . . . and we've only just begun! So what does a "shared" worldwide database mean to you? It means someone else may have already entered dozens or even hundreds of your ancestors!

  2. Start researching where others left off
  Spend some time searching for your ancestors at OneGreatFamily and pay special attention to new information that is added to your family tree over time. This will help you know what research others have already done or are doing on your family tree. You can then spend your time conducting new research or simply verifying information that others have provided.

  3. Meet and collaborate with family
  OneGreatFamily allows people around the world to work on one common family tree. This means others can be researching and improving information on your ancestors. Wouldn't you like to meet and collaborate with these genealogical cousins? You can! OneGreatFamily provides collaboration features that allow you to work with other researchers and family members.

  4. Search millions of names
  At OneGreatFamily, you can search millions of names in the OneGreatFamily Tree and in the Social Security Death Index. When you find an individual that you would like to learn more about, simply click on him or her to view detailed information that we store in our databases.
  
  With OneGreatFamily, you have the flexibility to choose when to work on your genealogy and when to focus on other needs in your life, knowing that work on your family tree continues.

  5. Visit your Family Dashboard
  Your Family Dashboard is the first page you see when you login to OneGreatFamily. This very unqiue page allows you to learn interesting facts about your ancestors and family tree. This is also a great place to get ideas of where you can do addition research.

  OneGreatFamily has much to offer that cannot be found on any other genealogy site or within any other genealogy program! 

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• How To Change Your Email Address And Your Email Preferences

  2/13/2013 8:30:00 PM

  By Brenda Eyring, Customer Service Representative

  If you would like to change what types of emails you receive from OneGreatFamily, you will need to edit your email preferences. To make those edits, follow these steps.

  1. Go to OneGreatFamily.com
  2. Enter your username and password
  3. When you have logged in, go to "My Account"
  
  
  
  4. A new screen will come up with 4 boxes:
  
  
  5. The bottom left box is labeled "Email Preferences"
  6. In that box is a button that says "Edit"
  7. Click on that button
  8. You will see:
  
  9. Select the ones you want
  10. Unselect the ones you don't want
  11. Re-enter your password
  12. Hit "Submit"

  If you just want to change what address we send our emails to, follow these steps.

  1. Go to OneGreatFamily.com
  2. Enter your username and password
  3. When you have logged in, go to "My Account"
  4. A new screen will come up with 4 boxes
  5. Find the box labeled "Account Information"
  6. Click on "edit" in that box
  7. Type in your new email address
  8. Click "submit"

  
  

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• Is Your OneGreatFamily Tree Growing?

  2/6/2013 10:40:00 AM

  OneGreatFamily is a remarkable service that continues to help people identify tens of thousands of previously unknown ancestors each week. OneGreatFamily is growing and the information included at OneGreatFamily is becoming more accurate. People whose genealogies are included as part of OneGreatFamily are seeing their family trees continue to grow.

  How can you make sure you are one of the people who benefits from this amazing growth and collaboration? We'd like to suggest two ways:

  1. Submit your entire known family tree!
  
  The more information you provide to OneGreatFamily, the greater the chance of tying into other ancestral lines. OneGreatFamily allows people to enter information directly into Genealogy Browser, enter information through Family Dashboard, or to submit a GEDCOM file to start or expand their family tree. With each additional generation you enter of your own family tree, you are increasing your ability to know if another member of OneGreatFamily is already working on your family tree. Identifying ONE common ancestor can result in finding a whole new ancestral line.
  
  Many people have been able find new matching data and meet distant relatives after entering only a few generations of their family trees . . . or even just a few ancestors; however, others with "less common" ancestors may need to supply OneGreatFamily with more information to get started. You are guaranteed further success over time as OneGreatFamily continues to enjoy phenomenal growth.

  2. See your family tree to the end of each line
  
  Genealogy Browser only shows the first seven generations of your family tree as its default setting; however, you may actually have more than seven generations of data available at OneGreatFamily.
  
  You can identify whether or not you are seeing your entire family tree by recognizing "end of line" individuals. An "end of line" individual is someone in the OneGreatFamily family tree with no known ancestors. You can find them quickly because they are in red boxes as shown in the example below.
  

  If you see a line in your family tree that doesn't end with an individual in a red box, you are not seeing your entire family tree. The following instructions will help you change the preference for how many generations can be viewed in Genealogy Browser. You can then expand the Starfield View (pedigree) to see your entire family tree at OneGreatFamily.

  Number of Generations Display on the Toolbar
  
  You will notice this drop down menu in the toolbar section at the top of Genealogy Browser. This convenient menu lets you quickly and easily set the number of generations to be displayed in the Starfield area.
  
  Many users have never changed this setting and so have never actually seen their entire family tree on OneGreatFamily. If you have never changed this setting, we strongly encourage you to play around with it. You can select a value off the drop down menu or just enter a value into the box. If you are on a high-speed internet connection, we would suggest you try starting with at least 50 generations. Dial-up users might want to start with 20 generations.

  Remember, the higher the number, the longer it may take to load your pedigree. Still, you could be surprised to see how far back your family tree goes, and it will be worth the wait!

  Family Dashboard End of Line Widget

  Another way to view your "End of Line" ancestors is on Family Dashboard with the "End of Line" widget:

  This widget shows you a list of 3 random people from your family tree that have neither parent listed in OneGreatFamily. These people can be excellent choices for focusing further research into your family tree.

  If you click on the "more" button on the widget, a window will pop up with the Details Page that lists all ancestors in your family tree that are the end of their line in OneGreatFamily. This Details Page allows you to sort by Surname, First Name, Birth Date, Birth Place, Death Date, or Death Place. You can click a button to view an ancestor in Genealogy Browser, see how they are related to you with use of the relationship calculator, or view the migration calculator.

  By looking at your end of line ancestors, you can see where to begin to work on extending the reach of your genealogy.

  You can view any and all information you have contributed to OneGreatFamily without subscribing; however, the ability to view details on individuals who have been added to your tree through the OneGreatFamily service is reserved for subscribers only.

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