Do you have a genealogy brick wall that you're trying to solve?
Great.
You can create a specialized database to help you keep track of that targeted research project.
And I'm going to show you how to do that using RootsMagic.
Now, a brick wall database is just a term for multiple different types of projects.
Maybe you're focusing on one specific ancestor.
Maybe you're doing a one-name research project, or maybe you're doing a DNA research project,
and you really don't want to have your massive family tree.
There are couple of principles to keep in mind with your brick wall database.
First, you're going to start fresh.
When we try to tackle brick walls, we don't want to have all of the information that is
available and just make an assumption that it's all accurate.
We actually want to start over.
So, we're going to start with a fresh database.
The second principle that you have to keep in mind is to stay focus.
The goal of this database is not to have it be in a huge massive tree.
The goal is to only have people in this tree that helps you solve your research objective,
your research brick wall, or your one-name study.
So, if you're studying all the Townsends in New Jersey, you don't want to have Townsends
from New Mexico.
One, even though Townley, Towns, and sounds the same, they're not the same, and they're
not in the same location.
So, make sure that you only add people to this database that are focused.
Now, that does mean that you can add collateral people if they help you with your research
project.
So, if you have Germans who were on a ship from Hanover to Maryland and they hopped on
a train.
And they arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Well, then you can keep them connected.
Because they probably are connected in the old country or members of that traveling group
even though they aren't necessarily easy to figure out relatives.
It is entirely possible that they may have clues to help you solve your primary objective
of who is the ancestor of this person who traveled with these people.
So, you can put those extra people only if you stay focused on your primary research
objective.
Now, before I show you how to do this over in RootsMagic, let's walk you through the
process.
The first thing you're going to do is you're going to start with a blank RootsMagic File.
Think of it as Thomas McEntee's Genealogy Do-Over.
You're going to start fresh, and you're going to only put in things that you have
proven.
Which is the next point.
Add a fact one at a time.
Put your sources in one at a time.
You're doing this because you want to ensure that you have captured every clue that those
records had.
You're looking over them again for the third or fourth or fifth time, but you do it over.
And you do it slowly, and the next thing I want you to do is as you become confident
in the different facts that you have, go ahead and link individuals to FamilySearch.
You may be able to reprove some facts that are there.
There you may quickly be able to see some sources other people have, and then if you
want to update the FamilySearch Family Tree, you can.
So, do that.
You can also take advantage of the Ancestry hinting system to help you do some of your
leg work.
I don't think that's necessarily bad but what I want you to do is update a tree which we
talked about in the sinking video, update a new tree to Ancestry but set the setting
to private.
Means you don't check the box that you have that tree be searchable on Ancestry.
Keep it private because this isn't your primary tree.
This is just your project tree.
Now that we've gone over some principles, let's go over how to actually do it in RootsMagic.
First, we're going to create a new RootsMagic file.
We're going to do empty file, and we're going to go all the steps to
start a blank tree.
So, I have a blank tree.
It's the first thing I'm going to do is add my brick wall ancestor.
So, I've started with the basic information, and then, it's going to create a profile.
Now, the next step you do from here is you start working your research plan, which we
have talked about in other videos.
So, I'm going to start finding records that prove John's birth.
I'm going to look for that proved John's death, and I'm going to go through and get all of
the facts for John and put them into the RootsMagic tree.
So, let's say the first record I found was a census record where a census record discusses
residences information.
So, I'm going to add a new fact.
I'm going to type in residence, and I'm going to select residences but not residences family.
I could do residences family, but I'm going to go ahead and just do residences for now.
So, I'm going to type in the year.
I'm going to type in the place.
This is Cincinnati, Ohio, and I don't really have any details like the address, so I'm
going to leave that blank.
This is a primary source, meaning it is an original record.
It falls into that category, and now, I can come here, and I can add note sources media
task.
Now, if this fact was connected to another person in database, I can go ahead and it
to them as well.
But they're not shared in anybody else in the tree, so
they can't be shared with just yet.
So, I'm going to go ahead and start with my notes.
Now, your notes can be anything you want.
They can be in written form.
They could be table information.
So, here I have the people that was in the household.
I could put the age, the occupation, and stuff like that, and I can also write a little note.
Make sure when you are doing a brick wall database, you keep your thoughts right here,
and you can also put them into your research report that we've talked about here on this
channel.
So, go ahead and check that.
Go back out and make sure you add a source.
So, I can add a source citation.
We'll talk about adding sources in another video.
Let me just go ahead and add a new source.
So, I've completed this form, and I'm adding the citation.
And it goes right there.
And I can repeat this process for the rest of the project.
When I have enough information in this tree with my notes, and I have my citations.
Then what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to connect this person to FamilySearch.
So click hover on the circles.
They're currently blank.
I'm going to click on not linked.
RootsMagic looks for this gentleman.
I click Match.
And then, I can look at the shared data part.
So as I showed you in this syncing video, I can just I can now begin comparing information
one at a time using RootsMagic interface.
There's one part I want to show you, and that's the show on Family Tree.
If I click on that, then it'll be taken to the FamilySearch version of this profile.
And then I can just use this to come back to the
sources.
I can check out the memories.
And I can go through all of this information here to see what more stuff I want to put
over in my database, one fact at a time.
And as I build this RootsMagic data, once I am confident I have everything that I need,
then I can upload it to family search.
So now what do you do if you want to add somebody to the tree that isn't a relative of John
but could help solve your mystery, or maybe they're a potential relative you just haven't
figured out how they connect.
So let's go through how to add a Fan Club member to this brick wall database.
So, in order to add someone new to the Roots Magic brick wall database that's not connected,
we're going to come all the way up here.
And we're going to click on this plus button.
When we click on this plus button, there's add individual spouse parents and add child.
I'm going to add an individual.
And then, I'm going to begin completing this form as if I was adding John.
In this case, I'm going to add Major James Tanley.
After I all the details.
I click okay.
And now I have a new profile from Major James Townley.
Then over here in my people's list, all the people that I are in my database, you're going
to see John.
And then you're going to see Major.
And you're going to see that they're not really connected to anybody, right?
Clicking between each one, notice the name changes, but they're not connected to anybody.
What is really great about a brick wall database is that it's a great place to keep track of
some of your hypotheses.
In my series about John Townley, I had a hypothesis that John could be the son of Effingham.
So, I knew that John was the father, was the father of Richard Townley.
He's not in this database.
But I knew that John was the husband of Eveline Porter.
And then he had some kids.
And then the descendants went on into Cincinnati and elsewhere.
I hypothesized that this John, who is the son of Effingham Townley and Rhoda, with the
brother Richard, William, sister Abigail, and sister Jane, and a brother Caleb.
That that this John could be this John.
Now I just put all of my research in here.
I combine this with my research plan.
I keep working it.
I keep keeping track of it.
And when I'm confident that that theory is accurate of two men being the same one and
yeah these are the same people.
What I can actually do is now I can merge the two people together.
So let me show you how to do that.
So I'm going to go to this John, the one that has the wife and the children I know of.
I'm going to click on this toolbar.
And I'm going to come down to merge duplicates, but I'm actually going to choose the manual
merge one.
So, I have my primary person.
That's the first John.
I'm going to look for "duplicate John."
And that's this other one that John, who have the two parents and the six siblings.
So, I'm going to click on select.
So, now, there are some highlights.
There's some name problems.
There's some birth differences.
So, I'm going to do merge into primary.
And then I can click edit person so I can clean things up.
I don't need this one anymore, but it does have the correct location.
And I clean a fact, and anything that came over that doesn't need to be in there.
It's fine.
And now, when I close that out, you're going to see the family tree with Effingham as the
father.
Now, another thing I want you to do when you are working on a brick wall only database
is to create a brick wall only task.
Click on "Tasks."
And then the opens up.
And we're going to do "Add task."
And then type in the different task of the things that you want.
So, in the task, I went ahead and said what I wanted to do.
Search newspapers for John Townley.
I gave it a start date.
I gave it a goal.
And I can actually be more thorough with that goal.
And when I'm finished, I can have results.
When I scroll down, I can do a task-type research to do correspondence.
I'm going to label this as research.
And then I'm going to click okay.
And now I have a task.
So what if I want to have that task not just in a general task list for everybody, but
I want to sign it to a specific person.
Well, then we're going to go up to people.
Click on his name.
And then I'm in this editing for John Townley.
To add a task just to him.
I can either put it in the column with the to-do list.
Or I can put it associated with a specific fact.
Since it's searching for a newspaper, I'm going to put it with just him.
So, I'm going to click there.
And I can click "Add Task."
I'm not going to add a new task because I already created a task.
I want the one I already created.
So, I can go ahead and click search newspapers for John Townley and click okay.
And now there is a task for him.
And when I bring it over, I can see the task in this preview window as well.
So, I can assign a task to a person, or I can sign it to the entire filming tree.
So, I hope that helps you get started creating a brick wall database.
The things that you keep in mind is keep it focused, start from scratch add everything
as you validate it.
And make sure you keep a running To-Do list in the database.
And then when you do make connections that these two people are together or this group
comes with this group.
Then go ahead and leverage the tree to build it all together.
Once you have it all ready to go, then you can upload that information to FamilySearch.
and then you'll probably need merge this into your tree that's linked to Ancestry.
And I'll have to show you about that in a future video.
Any video that talks about merging trees into your tree linked to Ancestry.
That should be coming out in the future.
If you want more tips and tricks on how to organize your genealogy research, including
genealogy software, be sure to check out the playlist at the top.
And if you're ready for the latest video from Family History Fanatics, be sure to check
out the one right you.
I'm recording.