Howdy! I'm Devon Noel and I'm Caleb Lee
and we're Family HIstory Fanatics.
Today we're going to tell you
five reasons why you should be using
an online family tree.
[Opening Music]
Do you know what the first one is ? Organization?
Absolutely! Organization! Now, I don't mean
just organizing your paper files because
again, it's an online tree. But it
prevents the ability for us to have to
cart around our outdated family
group sheets and pedigree charts.
Online trees keep all of it up-to-date so you don't
always have to print it out. Which, you
know what Caleb likes about that?
[whispers] Saves the rain forest.
Say it louder! Saves the rainforest
Absolutely! He loves the fact that an online
tree saves paper, which then saves
rainforest the other thing about
The other thing about organization is portability.
When you have an online tree you can access that tree
no matter what computer or device that
you're using. So, let's say you're at a
public library. You can type in your
password and then you have access
to your tree.
Let's say, you're at home and your kids
take over your computer.
Well, there's another computer in the
house. You can log onto to that one and
you're good to go. With a desktop tree
or paper files, it is not as portable as you like.
So, online trees are great
for those spur of the moment times
when you want to access your tree.
And finally, do you know the number one biggest
mistake is for the beginning genealogist?
No.
Citations. Do you know what those are?
Maybe a little bit?
Kind of.
Kinda. Beginning genealogists
are told by experienced genealogists
that you need to cite your sources.
Well, beginning genealogists are so
overwhelmed with so many aspects of doing
family history, that keeping track of
citations is probably the last
thing on your mind. An online tree
helps you out because you can go to the
online record set and attach it to
someone on your tree and then the
computer databases
keep track of the citations for you.
Oh! Aren't you glad?
Ya.
So, the number one reason why you need
to be using an online tree is organization.
Caleb! What is this?
This is point number two. Be prepared!
The Scout Motto is be prepared and this applies
to all aspects of life, including, you guessed it
family history.
If a disaster strikes your house and
you need to leave now,
where is your family history?
It should NOT be in your attic collecting dust.
Then it's all gone and
all those precious documents like
journals, photos that have never been
scanned, they're all gone.
Which is why you need to put them on the
internet. It's a backup. And other thing
with something such as Ancestry.com,
you're already paying for the service.
So you might as well get your money's worth!
What's number three Mom?
The third reason you should be using an online
tree, is that it improves the quality of your
research. First, an online tree, especially one
called FamilySearch.org, forces you to
collaborate with others. You share your
sources, you share your conclusions as to
why those sources relate to the people
that you have a attached records to, and so on
and so forth.
And, Ancestry.com and Family Search
have a great internal communication
systems that allow you to work with
other users of those programs to ask
questions about the people who are on
your tree that you're not quite sure
about. It's a great service so it
improves your collaboration.
Additionally, when you share your
research online
it reduces the duplicate efforts.
Caleb, have you ever done for court research?
No.
Well guess what. Neither have I.
But online, there are several people who have
done courthouse research, which saves me a trip.
I can evaluate their records and
decide if they actually are for our
family members and that save us time,
money, and effort.
So put your trees online
utilize the ones
that already are online and that will
improve the quality of your research.
So, point number four.
Have you ever heard of research assistants?
These are people go out and research
your family history for you.
But guess what! You can get a free research
assistant by putting your family's tree.
online.
How?
Well, the computer, while you're doing..
you're not on the computer, doing other
things like sleeping, eating, and texting
{which takes up much of my time}
It will search in the background and find records
that could possibly be your family!
That's great resource
so, if you need a little help (cause don't we
all need a little help in our research?)
Hopefully now we don't feel like we're doing it all
alone
put it online. Put your trees online and let the services
such as FindMyPast, MyHeritage,
FamilySearch, and Ancestry.com
be your FREE research assistant.
The fifth reason why your tree needs to be
online, is because of inheritance.
Now, I'll be honest. And let's do it this way.
Caleb, do you want a room full of
research documents when I die?
Not really.
What about your uncles and your dad?
Do they want your Nana's room full of
research papers when she dies?
No.
No is correct! In fact they've
threatened my mother-in-law that they're
going to strike a match and go
[explosion sounds]
And burn up all of her research papers!
Now, they are wise enough
to know that they need to keep the
original photos and some of the
important documents and diaries that
they can't access anywhere else. But the
research papers and research logs and
copy of the census records that are online?
Uh-uh. No. Most people don't want that. So if
you don't want your research to go up in
flames, you need to be using an online
tree so that's your research efforts
can be passed on to the future
generations.
Hey. Caleb, do you know what a floppy disk is?
I think I went to a
museum once and they are like a giant SD card.
Seriously, floppy disks were around when I was a kid!
And he's never seen one. And he calls
them a what now?
A giant SD card.
A giant SD card!
Ok, maybe! But did you know there's still
people who have their family history on
floppy disks? Very few computers are around that
can read that. In fact, there's a lot of
computers that don't even read CD, that don't have a
CD drive anymore. What? Yes, CD drives are about
to be a thing of the past like the
dinosaurs. And no, I'm not as old as the
dinosaurs. So what happens when you put
your information online
you don't have to keep up with
technology. There's a word called
computer obsolescence. Ya, a big, fancy word. Yea.
It's a nerd word that means that things, that
technology kinda goes away. It expires,
like Personal Ancestral File. If you're using that
program you seriously need to upgrade
and transfer it into a program that
people can use now. Put it online, and
let those computer wizards that do all of the black
magic behind the scenes. Ya, like that.
They keep up with technology so your tree can
be passed on to future generations
without you have to worry about keeping
your technology update. I'm Devon Noel
and I'm Caleb Lee and we're Family History
Fanatics.
We hope you will put your family trees online.
Be sure to subscribe and once
you've gotten your family history online
be sure to leave a like,
[Closing music]