Upload Your Gedcom Online On Family Dashboard

We at OneGreatFamily are pleased to announce another significant improvement in our service.  Many users have provided us feedback that the Gedcom upload process was confusing because once you uploaded your file you had no visibility to its status.  Often users would upload the same file multiple times because they weren’t sure what was going on with their first upload.

The new Gedcom upload process includes a real time status bar so that you always know the stage your file is currently in. You see, when a file is uploaded to OneGreatFamily it undergoes a tremendous amount of processing before it becomes available in the system.  These are the stages it goes through:

• Uploading
• Importing
• Matching
• Merging
• Dashboard processing

The new process allows you to upload your Gedcom in Genealogy Browser or you can do it online by clicking on the link located in the "Your Family Tree" box located at the top:

Once you click the link in Family Dashboard, the following webpage that allows you to select a file, and then monitor its status:

Click on the "Browse" button to find the location where you have saved the Gedcom on your computer. Once you have found the Gedcom file, click the "Open" button. This will take you back to the main Upload page. Now you can click "Upload" to start the process. While your Gedcom is importing, you will see the following:

Please don’t feel like you are stuck on this webpage while your Gedcom is processing.  Closing the webpage or navigating to another website will not cancel or slow down your Gedcom processing once the uploading phase is completed.  The processing is all done on our computers here in our offices, so you can feel free to go about your business.
If you do go away, when you come back to OneGreatFamily the status bar will be shown on your “My Home” page

Once the system finishes importing your Gedcom, it will be begin "Matching." Matching is the process of seeing if any of the people in your Gedcom are the same as any of the people already in the OneGreatFamily family tree. 

When the Matching process has finished, the OneGreatFamily system will begin "Merging." Merging is when OneGreatFamily combines together ancestors identified in the Matching phase, removing any duplication while preserving any differences in information.  Merging causes ancestors to be added to your family tree. 

Or you can click on the link: "Change who this information is about" on Family Dashboard. Here is where this link is located on Family Dashboard:

Or you can click on the "View Or Edit My Family Tree" button to view your ancestors in Genealogy Browser.

If you have any questions about uploading your Gedcom to OneGreatFamily, please feel free to contact us. If you have a large family tree, please be patient as the process may take some time as we add, match and merge your ancestors.

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OneGreatfamily Does Not Sell Your Information

Even with all the benefits an online genealogy service can provide, most researchers are still hesitant to subscribe because it is a decision filled with questions and uncertainty about trust and credibility. OneGreatFamily's business is focused on facilitating genealogy growth and discoveries by providing personalized access to the world's largest human family tree.

Trust is an important concept whenever you provide any information to any commercial entity. Trust is often more difficult to earn for companies that do online business. Some considerations include how your information will be used and the business model of the company receiving your information. At OneGreatFamily, we build a foundation of trust by working and researching together.

OneGreatFamily will never sell your information on CD-ROM or prevent you from updating your family tree at your convenience. As explained in previous articles, OneGreatFamily sells access to a Genealogy System rather than selling genealogical data.

At OneGreatFamily we make sure our subscribers and guests are getting what they expect from an online genealogy service. Our online services are easy to use, produce fast results, save you time and money, are convenient, and generate constant growth. We help you to uncover the information you need in the quickest and most economical way. OneGreatFamily is a service that was created to help genealogists get through their "brick walls" and move forward with the help of others from around the world. With OneGreatFamily you are able to see others who are researching your family lines, perform live collaboration with others, match and merge information, and verify and expand your family tree.

OneGreatFamily is one of the few success stories of online subscription services. With a growing subscription base, the company has created a solid foundation on which it will build for years to come. We hope that by using OneGreatFamily you have discovered the real value of genealogy, which is finding out about the people and places which made you who you are!

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By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

Headstones and grave markers often list much more than just a name, birth date, and death date. Some headstones list the names of family members. Some quote favorite verses of the Bible. Some list the place an ancestor was born or the church she belonged to. Visiting an ancestor’s grave is like searching for buried treasure; you never know what new information you’ll find listed on a tombstone.

It’s not difficult to find out which cemetery someone was buried in. If you know where your ancestor was living near the time of his death, you will most likely find him in that town’s cemetery. If your ancestor was not buried in the town that he died in, he was probably moved to be buried near his spouse or another family member who preceded him in death. Many cemeteries have been indexed by volunteers, and the indexes are searchable online on sites like www.usgenweb.org and www.familysearch.org. Every cemetery also keeps sexton’s records that list who is buried in a cemetery and where exactly they are buried. These records, along with a map of the cemetery, are available at the cemetery office (if it is a large cemetery) or in the local county office (if it is a small cemetery).

Sexton’s records are lists of who is buried where; they are not extractions of everything that is engraved on a tombstone. To read what is written on an ancestors’ tombstone, you’ll have to go to the actual grave. Just remember that just because a headstone engraving is “written in stone” doesn’t mean that it’s infallible. Headstones, like any other record, can contain errors, so compare the headstone with the information that you already have and evaluate it carefully.

Pay attention to the graves around your ancestor’s, since families were often buried together. You’ll find new information about other ancestors, and you may even find new family members that you never knew about. If a child died at a young age at a time when birth records were not made, she may not show up in any records but her tombstone.
When you go to the cemetery, wear clothes that can get dirty so that you can kneel on the ground and get a close look at the tombstones. Sometimes grass grows over flat headstones or headstones that have fallen down, so bring a small trowel to remove the grass and dirt. Bring gloves to wear in case the gravesite is overgrown with weeds.

Always make a record of any headstone that you find so that you’ll have it for future reference. The best way to do this is to take a digital photo. Bring a mirror; if the letters don’t show up in your photo, you can use the mirror to reflect sunlight onto the stone and to create shadows to make the words more visible. Never use shaving cream or chalk on a tombstone to make the lettering easier to see; this can damage the tombstone. If you choose to make a rubbing, be very careful not to scratch or wear away the stone. Don’t take a rubbing of a sandstone monument or a tombstone that looks worn or weathered; it is important to preserve headstones for others who will come to see them in the future. Once you have a photo or a rubbing of a headstone, record the new information that you found, and make copies for interested family members. With any luck, you may get a new companion for your cemetery excursions!

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Genealogy Research Associates

Since 1985, Genealogy Research Associates has helped people trace, compile, and publish their family histories. Their mission is to simplify the research process, provide practical educational training, preserve primary original documents, and create innovative information technologies. They educate on how to complete your genealogy, help find records, locate professional researchers, and help you get organized.

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