October 3, 2006 Issue
Posted October 3, 2006 12:03pm*** G e n S m a r t s N e w s l e t t e r ***
.......................................................................
GenSmarts - Automated Genealogy Research From Underwood Innovations, LLC
October 3, 2006 Contents
Upgrade News
GenSmarts Usage Tip
Research Tip
Free Training Giveaway
Travel Tip
Historical Trivia
Mailbag
Tech Tip
Editors Comments
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Instructions
Please email any feedback to support@GenSmarts.com and not to the list robot that sends out this newsletter for us.
*** U p g r a d e N e w s ***
.......................................................................
Version 1.0.9.30/31 is now available. For update instructions (it's a free update), see:
http://www.GenSmarts.com/versionHistory.asp
Here are the highlights of what's new in the update:
1) Added free online Missouri Deaths
2) Added free 1895 Kansas State Census
3) Added free Colorado 1870 Census
4) Added free Delaware Probate DB
5) Added inventory of NewspaperArchive.com (1000+ US Newspapers)
6) Added "FreeBMD" access via Ancestry.com
7) Improved estimating logic
8) Added support for Ancestry.co.uk
9) Various bug fixes and performance improvements
*** G e n S m a r t s U s a g e T i p ***
...........................................................................
Tip 1) You can use pluses and minuses on words in the To Do tab <= SEARCH input field to include or exclude suggestions that have that word in their title. For example, to see all the non census suggestions for the surname Underwood, type this in the search box:
+Underwood -census
The list actually updates in real time as you type, so you may notice it flash blank occasionally if your phrase at that moment doesn't match anything. If there's more than one word in something you want to include or exclude, use quotes (e.g. +"1870 CENSUS"). And remember it's an exact text match (case ignored) of the list title of the suggestion, so you need to use words you see in the To Do list itself.
Incidentally, Google also supports use of pluses and minuses, so don't forget to make use of them when you're searching there as well.
Tip 2) Did you know you can use GenSmarts to generate an email to a fellow researcher? Go to the My Genealogy File tab, click on an ancestor and press the Email/Copy button. This will cause MS Windows to draft an email for you that includes a nice background paragraph on the person selected. If you want to include multiple people, hold down the CTRL key when you click on the people in your list.
*** R e s e a r c h T i p ***
...........................................................................
Do you descend from a US female via a second marriage that occurred in the 1860's? If so, don't forget to check US Civil War pension applications for the first husband filed by the wife. These applications often cover details about the wife's life and why she needed the pension.
Here's a real example from my own genealogy: I descend from William Gardner and Lieoda Jones who were married in 1865. William wasn't in the US Civil War, and so no pension applications exist for him. I never had much interest in Leioda's first husband, who had died in the war years before my William and Leioda gave birth to my ancestor. Big mistake - sure enough, there's a treasure trove of pension applications filed under that first husbands name detailing William and Lieoda's life and subsequent divorce. Even applications filed by their children were there.
*** G i v e a w a y ***
............................................................................
Want a free GenSmarts training CD? The first 3 correct answers to the following question that we receive on October 4 (e.g. after midnight US CDT) will get a free training CD in the mail.
The first letter of a soundex code is simply the first letter of the name being encoded. Regarding the letters, "ACWXYZ", which of them are skipped when calculating the remainder of a soundex code:
A) A
B) A and Y
C) A, W, and Y
D) A, W, X, and Y
To submit your guess, find out what a training cd is, or to discover the answer after we end the contest, go to:
http://www.GenSmarts.com/giveaway.html
*** T r a v e l T i p ***
...........................................................................
Making a trip to Canada or Mexico for some research? As of January 8th, 2007, US citizens will need a passport to reenter the USA. Previously a drivers license would suffice. A local US post office is often a convenient place to get one.
*** H i s t o r i c a l T r i v i a ***
...........................................................................
Q) Who was the first US President born in a hospital?
A) Jimmy Carter
*** M a i l b a g ***
...........................................................................
From recent customer correspondence-
Q) I use Family Tree Maker and find those little numbers you show after a persons name to be distracting. Can you get rid of those?
A) Sure, in GenSmarts top line menu, select TOOLS...SETTINGS...DISPLAY tab, and uncheck the "Show ID Numbers" option.
Q) I use several different files with GenSmarts, and it's annoying when it always opens one up when I run it. Any suggestions?
A) Sure, in GenSmarts top line menu, select TOOLS...SETTINGS...Files tab, and uncheck "Automatically Open Last File Used At Startup". Now when you run GenSmarts, you'll get a handy list of recently used files to pick from instead.
Q) What's Kiosk mode?
A) It's an option we put in for libraries and Family History Centers. Rather that assuming you have some file with you that you want to analyze, it presents a "fill in the blank" form, where you can simply type in your ancestors data. We can't imagine you'd want to use GenSmarts this way on your home computer, though.
Q) Does GenSmarts work with Windows upcoming Vista operating system?
A) We don't expect there to be any problems. Last time we tested it worked fine, though we noted there were still some bugs in Vista itself that could cause an occasional hiccup when installing GenSmarts. Even on the chance these MS bugs were to occur there's an easy work around. We expect Microsoft to fix these bugs before they release (December?).
For more Q & A check out the support page of our new website:
http://www.gensmarts.com/support.html
*** T e c h T i p ***
............................................................................
If you have pre-teens/teens around, be they children or grand-children, you're no doubt aware of how draining the constant noise of TV and video games can be. At my house, the kids can't even eat without the TV in the next room being on. The kids crank the volume up to hear over my wife and I talking, so my wife and I have to talk louder to hear each other over the TV... it was a never ending battle. Well, it's been blissfully quiet around here since I found these wireless headphones that sit on top of the TV. The kids just grab them when they flip the TV on, and they work anywhere in the house. They use a rechargeable battery and the little stand doubles as a charger, so they've been maintenance free, even after a year of heavy use. Easy to install, maintenance free, the kids love them, my wife and I love the quiet... technology can be so wonderful when it's done right. They're $67 at Amazon.com, look for Sennheiser RS-120 Wireless Headphones. No relationship to our company or GenSmarts - I just like recognizing a technology product when it gets everything right.
*** E d i t o r ' s C o m m e n t s ***
...........................................................................
We took a break from GenSmarts enhancements the first half of this year and worked on some of our infrastructure, most visibly our new website. As a consequence, we fell behind on getting newsletters out this year, but hopefully they'll be a bit more frequent now that we're back to working on GenSmarts every day.
*** S u b s c r i p t i o n I n f o ***
...........................................................................
You are receiving this newsletter via request (you had to ask for it, then reply to an email confirming your interest). If you'd like to remove yourself from the list, simply send a blank email from the email account you wish to unsubscribe to:
leave-gensmartsnews@list.gensmartsnews.com
If you're not a subscriber, but would like to be, just send an email from the email account you want subscribed to:
join-gensmartsnews@list.gensmartsnews.com
You can also use these mechanisms to change your email address - the most important thing is to add yourself from your new email account by sending from your new account to the join address above. If you still have access to your old email, you can remove it from the list by sending from the old account to the leave address above. If you aren't able to remove the old address, don't worry about it - it will delete automatically after we're unable to send to it a few times. Don't send us an email asking us to change your address - we can't do it for you because of our required verification process.
That's all for now-
Aaron Underwood
GenSmarts
Tags: Family Tree Maker Ancestry.com
