February 8, 2009 Issue
Posted February 7, 2009 2:53pm*** G e n S m a r t s N e w s l e t t e r ***
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GenSmarts - Automated Genealogy Research from Underwood Innovations, LLC
Feb 7, 2009 Contents
Update news
GenSmarts Usage Tips
Research Tip
Tech Tip
Happy Birthday GenSmarts
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Email change Instructions
*** U p d a t e N e w s ***
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This past week, we released new free updates to both Version 1 and Version 2. The latest releases are 1.1.1.63 for Version 1 and 2.1.1.63 for Version 2. During the past several months, we've made the following major changes, which were included in this update:
1) Added support for FTM 2008 & FTM 2009 (GS Version 2 only)
2) Added support for RootsMagic 4 (GS Version 2 only)
3) Added support for the 1911 census
4) Added many more Ancestry.com suggestions
5) Added support for the Mid-Continent Public library
6) Added support for TMG's primary birth/death tags (GS Version 2 only)
7) The usual assortment of minor bugs and tweaks
As usual, you can use http://www.GenSmarts.com/versionHistory.html to update if GenSmarts itself doesn't notify you at start up of the update.
*** G e n S m a r t s U s a g e T i p s ***
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Want a quick hard copy of the suggestion you're looking at? Just click on that little printer icon immediately to the left of the word EXPLANATION in the center left area of the To Do List tab.
Want a quick map of a US county referenced in a suggestion explanation? You'll notice that locations containing US county names are underlined, much like an internet link is. They actually are internet links - try clicking on them. You'll find a browser window is launched to Wikipedia's entry for that county. There you'll typically find a nice map which will show you what part of the state that county is in.
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I continue to find myself using Books.Google.com for online research. It's a surprisingly deep resource for old publications, many of which contain enough of the actual text for you to uncover new facts. Since it's a keyword based search, you'll usually need to throw in something in addition to a name, like a place or an occupation. I hit pay dirt recently with an ancestor of mine named John Oldham, who had disappeared in the 1860's somewhere between Missouri and Arkansas. So I tried:
"John Oldham" Arkansas
- low and behold the second hit returned was a county history that included a write-up about how my John was killed in 1862 by Union troops. The full text of the county history was there for me to read. Now that I had a few facts, a couple of more searches revealed even more details from other publications available in Google books. All for free. Give it a try with a few of your ancestors.
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Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista has already been released to beta test and is just around the corner from production. Early reports have been very favorable and this one is shaping up as a "worth the upgrade" rather than a "avoid this" release. My biggest gripe with Vista is that it has this habit of making me wait all the time - apparently because it has something more important to do. So I'm hoping a lot more work has been put into the minute to minute user experience of Windows 7. On the topic of usability, and for a good laugh, read a classic email by Bill Gates himself expressing his frustration as a Windows user:
http://www.google.com/search?q=gates+usability+rant
Something you might try to improve your usability for free, is to try using RocketDock as an alternative "launcher" to Window's lower left START button or cluttering your desktop with icons. It's fast, free and low overhead, and doesn't change or disable anything on your PC. To see how it works, try this link:
http://www.google.com/search?q=about+rocketdock
*** H a p p y B i r t h d a y G e n S m a r t s ***
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This past June, GenSmarts celebrated its fifth birthday! For a peak at what the original prototype version of GenSmarts looked like (you won't recognize it!), see the following link:
http://www.GenSmarts.com/GenSmartsOriginalPrototype.jpg
*** S u b s c r i p t i o n I n f o ***
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That's all for now-
Aaron Underwood
GenSmarts
Tags: TMG RootsMagic Family Tree Maker Ancestry.com
