GEDCOMS, PAF 5.5, ROOTSWEB, NEW.FAMILYSEARCH.ORG, FAMILYSEARCH.ORG

Be familiar with the term GEDCOM. If you aren’t interested at this point but want to see who your people are, skip to paragraph #4 below. Come back to the GEDCOM stuff later.

GEDCOMS are the sharable files that your personal genealogy will come in. They are useless as my brother Virgil found out, if you don’t run them with PAF 5.2 program installed on your computer. This is a free program that opens the file and turns it into a paf file. He said something was missing something on the file I sent him. 30 years of research and thousands of dollars went into this cute little GEDCOM that I emailed to him. Read on to find out how not to be frustrated and quit at this point.

If you plan to work on genealogy, own your own GEDCOM of your lines. If you need a GEDCOM, let me know and I’ll send you your very own that you can open with PAF 5.5

Paragraph #4 Get on Rootsweb which is a free site run by ancestry.com. It is a free website. Here is the link for my work and my mother’s work and my files: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=blanchurch1l Play around searching for people you know and look at the pedigree charts (link at the bottom of the page) and family groups. This won’t cost you any money and doesn’t require much knowledge to learn and operate. If you should get beyond this in your interests, read on. . .

You could be on new.familysearch.org with very little effort. Just start up an account and follow the directions. If you are a relative of mine, you have plenty of stuff already done and plenty more to do. You will be calling up the records already in the system. It is another free site where you own your own database and do research all for free. Yes, it is run by my church which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They let anyone member or not have access to the site and the family history research labs around the world. I am fortunate enough to live 3 miles away from one of two actual LDS Church Genealogy Libraries here in Salt Lake City. I believe those who volunteer their time at these centers and in the libraries will tell you that at least half of their patrons are not LDS. Sometimes, it is most of the patrons!

Now, you might wonder why I want you to get a GEDCOM and to get PAF 5.2 on your computer - English only. It is free through the church. www.familysearch.org > bottom of the page > Resources > Products > Personal Ancestral File > You must have this in order to view your GEDCOM. I am not going to be updating my records with your new information anytime soon. I have enough trouble keeping up with my own grandchildren, new marriages and adopted children, ordnances and deaths. That’s a bunch of good reason for you. The living people won’t be visible to others on these open files. Others can see your work and use it, improve it or make mistakes with it. You won’t have to suffer with their mistakes on your file though. You keep your file how you like it and they keep their version how they like it. The best work has the best documentation and there is no substitute for thorough history work.

I found an ancestor I had been looking for, for 30 years. She was on familysearch.org which is the older version of the above mentioned site. All of her work had been done ages ago. The records were not coordinated enough for me to ever find out all of this until last month. A whole new line was opened to me.

We need to complete the 5th generation from Robert Lyle Wall. Everyone seems to be accounted for except for 2 lines. Leonard Wall's line Mette Pedersdatter's parents. She is his mother's, father's, mother. Also, on Lulu Jane Steinagel's line are the parents of John James Stanley. He is Lulu's mother's , father's, father. If this work has been done, please share.