Trying to trace my family history

cdoherty · 06-08-2006, 6:03 PM

I have been trying to start my family tree on Genes Reunited only to find that it is not very user friendly. It has put all the information in the wrong places.

I started with my mother & father, added siblings on my mother's side only to have 1 of my aunts married to my father, also daughter to my father and her sisters as siblings.

I have now discovered the tree is in my sisters name and NOT mine. What the hell is happening?????

There is no help on how to change or delete information that may have been incorrectly installed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I put all the information in correctly before someone asks if I checked!!

I need to know if there is a way of deleting all this information to start again?

Any help would be very gratefully received from anyone as Genes Reunited don't seem to be very helpfull!! until you pay them some money!!!

ronniem · 03-01-2010, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by cdoherty

The only details I have at present is:-

My mothers name was Zena Mary Shoobridge (nee Roberts) dob 9/5/1928, died 15/5/1969, Her occupation according to the the passport I found was housewife, but I do know she worked on the switchboard at the Radcliffe Informary before I was born. She was born in Oxford and had 3 sisters - 1 elder whose name was Jean Marcella Boxall 2 younger sisters - Beryl Morley and Irene Valentine (nee Roberts). She married my father - Reginald Philip, dob 10/7/23, born in Grimsby, died 15/1/85, (his family tree has already and still being traced). ...snip

Christine

Hi Christine;
I have this little piece of information that may help you and I probably have more details of the marriage I would need to pull the information from my files if you are interested.
Marriage: Jul 5th 1952, BOXALL Eric Howard; St Giles, Oxford RD of Headington to ROBERTS Jean Marcella
I may be able to give you more details on the BOXALL family let me know if you are interested.

My primary focus is a BOXALL (and Variant) One Name Study.

Kindest regards
Ronnie

v.wells · 03-01-2010, 10:30 PM

Christine - on the genes homepage click on community (top toolbar), then help, then my family tree (these 2 are on the left side) and read the FAQ (frequently asked questions) and it tells how to correct mistakes.

mfwebb · 04-01-2010, 7:08 AM

Originally Posted by cdoherty

I have been trying to start my family tree on Genes Reunited only to find that it is not very user friendly. It has put all the information in the wrong places . . . . .

Genes Reunited is definitely NOT NOT NOT the place to build your family tree. You are putting all your information on someone else's server on the internet over which YOU have no control. Your original information needs to be on YOUR computer, under YOUR control. You can then upload your tree to GR if you wish via a GedCom file -- but you're probably not up to that page in the book yet

As other people have suggested you need a genealogy programme. There are dozens, if not hundreds, available at varying costs. Some of them are free, or have free versions. I have used Brother's Keeper for 15 years and I stick with it because I now know it inside out. It is shareware meaning you can download and use it entirely free forever if you wish; I registered and paid many years ago. If I was starting from scratch I would probably go with Roots Magic. You can download a free version of that too.

My advice is to choose one programme and stick with it. They all do the same but in differing ways.

I started out with a series of ring binders and I recorded absolutely everything I could find, even that which seemed at the time to have no relevance. It is amazing how, many years later, something I recorded 15 years ago now becomes a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. And, like others have said -- don't forget to record your sources so that you don't ask yourself in a few years time "now where did I get that from?"; trust me, I've been there.

Finally, the best advice I ever had was from a book I read when I first started out -- "Record everything, sort out the good from the bad, but don't ever throw anything away". The book is "Track Down Your Ancestors" by Estelle Catlett. My version was published in 1987 so it is pre-computer but I do know there is a newer version as I have recommended it to a friend recently.

Happy Researching -- you'll love it