DNA ~ Here’s how I’m keeping track of the correspondence I’m sending to matches

DNA is certainly a subject we are all talking about. As more and more of us and our families test, we will have more connections.  That leads to more correspondence.

How are you keeping track of your emails and connections?
There are spreadsheets, Word documents, One Note, Evernote, handwritten notes and I’m sure any other number of ways to go about keeping track.

Or, like me, are you overwhelmed and don’t know where to start?  I decided enough was enough and ………

Here’s how I am currently keeping track.

So far I’ve used this method for matches from FtDNA.  Both of my brothers and my husband have completed FtDNA tests.  I have uploaded my autosomal DNA from Ancestry to FtDNA.
 
NOTE:  It is currently not possible to upload from the newer Ancestry DNA tests to FtDNA.  It is hoped that they will soon change that.  It has something to do with the configuration of the new Ancestry tests.

I begin by finding the matches in Family Finder on the FtDNA site.  Below are just a few of the matches on page one of my brother, Norm’s test.  Norm and I have the same parents.  Because we have a paternal brick wall, I concentrate on Norm’s YDNA a lot.

My brother John Zimmerman has a different father, therefore he is our half brother.  Although we never use the term half, except for genealogical purposes.

Those numbers in the 60’s are very good matches, and likely to be within the current time range which would allow us to easily find our connection.

I created an “Introductory Email” in Word and saved it.  I will use the same email, with changes here and there, for all my correspondence.

From attending several DNA lectures/seminars, I’ve learned that an introductory email should be simple and short. In other words we shouldn’t go on and on about our family lines.  In this case, I’ve introduced myself, mentioned that we matched on FtDNA and indicated how many centimorgens for the match.  Then I’ve told them in a couple of sentences that I’ve been working on my genealogy for over 13 years and still have ancestors that are “hiding from me.”  Then I tell them to contact me if they are interested in exchanging information.  Period.
  
Time will tell, how effective my email is and if I need to change the wording.

Next, I entered the information about the contact into Evernote.  Why Evernote?  For me, it seems a simple solution right now, that will allow me to keep track and find things in the future.  I do know there are spreadsheets out there that we can make copies of.  I do like spreadsheets and foresee that in the not too distant future, I will be using one to keep my DNA records.  But, for right now, I had to get started and this is the method I chose.  If you want to know more about how I use Evernote for my genealogy, please read my posts here, and here.

Here’s how I recorded my email correspondence today:

John Smith is not the match's real name

In the same note underneath the information above I’ve listed more contacts that I sent emails to.

I’ve already heard back from two people I contacted.  I’ve chosen to save all correspondence in Evernote, in separate notes for each contact. That way I can keep all the correspondence back & forth between us, in one neat, tidy place.

This method may not work for everyone.  Whether it works for the long haul for me is yet to be determined.  However, being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start or how to keep track was getting me no where.

I’d love to know how you are keeping track of your matches & correspondence.  Are you making a lot of discoveries?
 
I know we’ve only touched the surface of our future with genetic genealogy.  I look forward to all of it.

NOTE:  I was contacted by our Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, after publishing this post.  She informed me that, unless I had permission, I could not show the names of the matches.  I had already blurred their emails, but didn't think to blur names.  I have corrected my error and thank Judy for always reminding us about proper procedures.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JAMBOREE - DAY ONE - All about DNA

WHAT DOES MY DNA TEST FROM ANCESTRY.COM TELL ME?
Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TUESDAY’S TIP ~ How to Save a Book from Archive.org to Evernote or Your Computer

This is a great way to have your books with you wherever you go.  We know that Evernote will sync with all your devices, whether they are Android or PC or Mac.
 
Archive.org is a site I go to many times to find copies of the books that are out of copyright and available to the public.  Out of copyright, means they were published prior to 1923.

Here’s my process for downloading these books.

• Go to Archive.org and conduct a search for the book, by title or by subject.  In this case I was looking for a copy of the Adjutant’s Report for West Virginia in 1864 or 1865.  I typed exactly that in the search box.

(Background)  I had located this book when conducting a search on Ancestry.com.  The entire book can be found on that website.  However, I wanted a copy for my own files, as I know there are many members of my family who served in the West Virginia military during the Civil War.

In this case I got 18 hits/results on the page and just scrolled down til I found what I needed.  I see two different books, one for 1864 and one for 1865.
 


I selected the book for 1864 and this is the next page that came up.



From this view you can actually page through this book a page at a time or hover over the grey area on the right hand side and select specific pages.  If you’d like to search inside this book while it’s up on the screen just use the search box in the upper right corner.

To download this book to your computer you scroll down on the page and select from the options listed.

In this case I selected the PDF option.



Once the download is complete I see this screen.  Note in the lower right hand side, I have an option to “Save to Evernote.”  This option shows up automatically for me.  I believe this option is offered because I have Evernote Webclipper on my browser.



Once I selected “Save PDF to Evernote” the webclipper brings up my options.

 

I changed the “Inbox” to my folder for “Places” and added several tags to the entry.

That’s all there is to it.  Now the item is available to me on all my devices, whenever I need to refer to it.
 
When I opened the book in Evernote and conducted a search for the surname Lunsford (my ancestor), it took me to the first entry for that name on page 118.  Then on to page 250 and so on.

FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT USE EVERNOTE
You can still use Archive.org and save the item to PDF on your own computer or even save it to your Kindle.
 
I’d like to know if others have used Evernote in this way? 
How often do you use Archive.org

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

TUESDAY'S TIP ~ How to Determine Which War Your Ancestor May Have Participated In
TUESDAY'S TIP ~  Why Those "Extra" People in a Census May Be Important

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HOW I SAVE COUSIN CONTACT INFO USING EVERNOTE

We all get them.  Those contacts from cousins we’ve never met.  Maybe we have a connection, maybe we don’t.  They might contact you in any number of ways:

• by email
• via Facebook
• by phone
• maybe on Pinterest or Twitter
• or maybe even by good old snail mail

HOW DO YOU KEEP THEM ALL STRAIGHT?

I definitely struggled with this question for many years.  I first started saving all communication in surname folders in my email. Then, I began saving their names, numbers and addresses in my contacts in yahoo or on my smart phone.  I would add little notes indicating which line of the family they were related to.

HOWEVER, those methods didn’t seem to be a good long term working solution.  For one thing I couldn’t do a surname search if I’d forgotten the name of a particular cousin.  I mean let’s face it, they usually don’t have the same surname as the ancestor we are related to.

I thought about using Excel and that wasn’t a bad idea.  After all, you can sort and search in that program pretty easily.  But, I wanted more than that.  I wanted to be able to store all the communication between myself and those cousins, in one place, searchable and easily organized.

Then it came to me.  EVERNOTE!!! 

I’m a daily user of Evernote for everything from genealogy tips, storing my blog posts, setting appointments to recipes and landscape ideas.

I started this process not long ago and here is what I’m doing.

1.  I open a new note in Evernote
2.  I copy and paste any messages between myself and the cousin contact.
3.  I tag the notes with the appropriate surname.
4.  I annotate the notes with my own messages regarding the contact or the pictures.

NOTE:  I have redacted names & emails to protect those cousins who may not want their information made public.

Here are some of my cousin notes stored in Evernote. 

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT) 

THESE TWO IMAGES REPRESENT BACK & FORTH COMMUNICATION

Another thing you may have wondered about.

How do you save those private messages you receive from cousins on Facebook?

Again, they often contain information we want to use later or even photos.

I use Evernote for that too.  Here’s how:

• Open a new note in Evernote
• Copy the text of the message
• Paste it into the note, tag it and save it
• You can also copy and paste any images the same way

Here is the private message I received from a cousin connection on FB.
 
Kind of difficult to read that information she shared with me, isn’t it?


When I click on that image it opens in a new window in Facebook.
I purposely left all the black around it to show you exactly what you will see.



When I right click on the image, these are my choices.



The bottom line here, is that there are many ways you can save that precious information. 

Whether you choose Evernote, Excel, Word or One Note, just be sure you don’t lose track of those cousins.

NOTE:  If you have Evernote Premium you can forward emails to your Evernote account directly from you personal email.  Each Evernote account has it's own email.  Find yours by going to "Tools" and "Account Info."

I’d love to hear how you keep track of cousin contacts.  Please share with me here via a comment or in your own blog and then share the link.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
EVERNOTE - A Very Useful and Free Tool to Help You Organize Genealogy and Everything Else
INTELIUS.COM - How to Connect with Cousins

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

EVERNOTE–A VERY USEFUL AND FREE TOOL TO HELP YOU ORGANIZE GENEALOGY AND EVERYTHING ELSE

I have debated on writing this post for a few weeks now.  Why?  Because I am not an Evernote specialist by any stretch of the imagination.  I began using the program about 6 months ago.  What I’m going to do in this post is tell you where you can go to learn about this wonderful program.

I belong to several genealogy Facebook groups  and I kept hearing about Evernote this and Evernote that.  I’m always curious and continually strive to learn and improve my skills at all times.  So, I downloaded the FREE program onto my desktop and my iPad. 
Once I downloaded Evernote I played around with it a bit, but have to admit that I wasn’t quite “getting it.”  I didn’t do anything with it for a month or two.  Then one day I decided that I needed to take some time and really explore this program everyone seems to rave about.  I watched the tutorial online at their site.  Then I did what I usually do when wanting to learn something new, I turned to YouTube.  That is a site that can teach you about everything from composting to how to use software programs.

Here are some links I found by Googling “Evernote tutorials.”  Of course there are many more out there and you may find some that explain it better or differently, but these will get you started.

http://www.cyndislist.com/evernote/how-to/
https://evernote.com/getting_started/
http://evernote.com/video/
The following link is very informative.
http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/how-to-use-evernote-the-missing-manual-full-text

WHY USE THIS PROGRAM AT ALL?

• Every note you put into Evernote is OCR’d and searchable.  Can’t remember where you put that note about your Grandmother’s birthplace?  Just enter her name or the place or something that might have been included in the note and Evernote will find it for you.
• You can tag your notes.
• You can create notebook stacks.  I have a notebook called  SURNAMES and I have several surnames notebooks under or stacked in that master notebook.
• You can email items you’ve found or want to save, directly to your Evernote account.  You are given a specific email address just for your use.
• You can create audio and video right from the program.  Take a picture, record a voice note.
• You can sync to all your devices.  I have Evernote on my desktop, laptop, iPad and iPhone and they all contain the same items.
• You can share your notebooks with others and allow them to add to them

That’s just a partial lists of the features.  Are you convinced yet?

Here is a screenshot of Evernote on my desktop:



There are a list of my notebooks on the far left.  A snippet view of some of the posts from my Blog Post notebook in the middle and then on the right, a larger view of the note I have highlighted.

I have shared notebooks with my brother, John, who is also a genealogist.  If you look at my notebook list you will see that I have one for Gardening, Household tips, my Mom’s info (she is in assisted living and I need to keep all her paperwork, medicines, cards etc. handy at all times), one for Recipes and another for our upcoming trip to Scotland. 

Another free application offered by Evernote is their Web Clipper.  If you have ever used a screen capture program, that is what this is.  It allows you to mark up, add text, highlight etc.  And then, allows you to save that clip to a specific notebook, that you designate within Evernote.

Here’s a screen shot I captured yesterday, with Web Clipper.  Then I played around with all the features in web clipper.  I’m just learning to use this feature and needed to practice.



I wrote this so that maybe you will have an idea, now, about what everyone is talking about when they mention Evernote. 

FYI:  There is a similar program offered by Microsoft that is also free.  It’s called OneNote.  Many people use it and like it.  Some people even use both programs.

I hope this post has been useful and somewhat informative. It certainly isn’t meant as a tutorial as there are many of those already available.  

Other bloggers have written about using Evernote.  One noted blogger, Thomas McEntee wrote about it and you can find his post here: EVERNOTE - Your Virtual Genealogy Assistant

Let me know if you begin using Evernote and if so, what tips can you share with me?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
FACEBOOK - How It Can Be Very Useful in Your Research
FAMILY SEARCH - Going Back & Getting Those Other Pages
SETTING GOALS, FOCUSING ORGANIZING - How do we Handle These Issues?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION