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  • Is Your OneGreatFamily Tree Growing?

    OneGreatFamily is a remarkable service that continues to help people identify tens of thousands of previously unknown ancestors each week. OneGreatFamily is growing and the information included at OneGreatFamily is becoming more accurate. People whose genealogies are included as part of OneGreatFamily are seeing their family trees continue to grow.

    How can you make sure you are one of the people who benefits from this amazing growth and collaboration? We'd like to suggest two ways:

    1. Submit your entire known family tree!

    The more information you provide to OneGreatFamily, the greater the chance of tying into other ancestral lines. OneGreatFamily allows people to enter information directly into Genealogy Browser, enter information through Family Dashboard, or to submit a GEDCOM file to start or expand their family tree. With each additional generation you enter of your own family tree, you are increasing your ability to know if another member of OneGreatFamily is already working on your family tree. Identifying ONE common ancestor can result in finding a whole new ancestral line.

    Many people have been able find new matching data and meet distant relatives after entering only a few generations of their family trees . . . or even just a few ancestors; however, others with "less common" ancestors may need to supply OneGreatFamily with more information to get started. You are guaranteed further success over time as OneGreatFamily continues to enjoy phenomenal growth.

    2. See your family tree to the end of each line

    Genealogy Browser only shows the first seven generations of your family tree as its default setting; however, you may actually have more than seven generations of data available at OneGreatFamily.

    You can identify whether or not you are seeing your entire family tree by recognizing "end of line" individuals. An "end of line" individual is someone in the OneGreatFamily family tree with no known ancestors. You can find them quickly because they are in red boxes as shown in the example below.

    If you see a line in your family tree that doesn't end with an individual in a red box, you are not seeing your entire family tree. The following instructions will help you change the preference for how many generations can be viewed in Genealogy Browser. You can then expand the Starfield View (pedigree) to see your entire family tree at OneGreatFamily.

    Number of Generations Display on the Toolbar

    You will notice this drop down menu in the toolbar section at the top of Genealogy Browser. This convenient menu lets you quickly and easily set the number of generations to be displayed in the Starfield area.

    Many users have never changed this setting and so have never actually seen their entire family tree on OneGreatFamily. If you have never changed this setting, we strongly encourage you to play around with it. You can select a value off the drop down menu or just enter a value into the box. If you are on a high-speed internet connection, we would suggest you try starting with at least 50 generations. Dial-up users might want to start with 20 generations.

    Remember, the higher the number, the longer it may take to load your pedigree. Still, you could be surprised to see how far back your family tree goes, and it will be worth the wait!

    Family Dashboard End of Line Widget

    Another way to view your "End of Line" ancestors is on Family Dashboard with the "End of Line" widget:

    This widget shows you a list of 3 random people from your family tree that have neither parent listed in OneGreatFamily. These people can be excellent choices for focusing further research into your family tree.

    If you click on the "more" button on the widget, a window will pop up with the Details Page that lists all ancestors in your family tree that are the end of their line in OneGreatFamily. This Details Page allows you to sort by Surname, First Name, Birth Date, Birth Place, Death Date, or Death Place. You can click a button to view an ancestor in Genealogy Browser, see how they are related to you with use of the relationship calculator, or view the migration calculator.

    By looking at your end of line ancestors, you can see where to begin to work on extending the reach of your genealogy.

    You can view any and all information you have contributed to OneGreatFamily without subscribing; however, the ability to view details on individuals who have been added to your tree through the OneGreatFamily service is reserved for subscribers only.

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  • Forgot Your OneGreatFamily Username or Password?

    When you first subscribed or signed up as a guest, it was required that you enter a username and password. Once this was completed, we sent you a welcome email with your registration information, which included your password and username. If you are not a frequent user of OneGreatFamily, it's possible that you have forgotten your username or password.

    Check your old email to see if you still have our welcome letter containing your registration information. If not, we can send your username and password to you again. If you have forgotten your username or password, use the Remind Me! feature. All we need is your username or email address. If the information you submit matches the information associated with your OneGreatFamily account, an email will be sent to you with your login information.

    If you have changed your email address since you created your OneGreatFamily account or do not receive your login information by email within a few minutes (when using the "Remind Me!" feature above), you may contact OneGreatFamily Customer Service by filling out the Contact Form. OneGreatFamily Customer Support will ask you a few questions to verify you are the owner of the account, and then supply you with your login information.

    As always, we are happy to help if you have additional questions, so don't hesitate to call 1-877-643-8733 or email if you need assistance.

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  • Share & Store Photos, Video, And More About Your Ancestors

    OneGreatFamily allows you to go beyond just names and events and allows you to share photos, scanned documents, videos, and more. Finding a picture of a distant ancestor can sometimes feel like discovering gold. Pictures, audio clips, and movies make for a very rich family history experience.

    Instructions for Uploading Multimedia:
    From the Individual Details window, open the Multimedia window by clicking the Multimedia icon (). You will be presented with a list of media (or a blank list if media has not yet been added for this individual). You can upload, view, rename, or remove media associated with individuals.

    The buttons in the upper-right corner of the Multimedia window (shown below) allows you to add, display, rename, or remove multimedia files.



    Media List
    Multimedia files can include pictures, audio, text, and movies in the following formats:

    • Images: .jpg, .bmp, .tif, .gif
    • Audio: .mp3, .wav, .au, .rm
    • Video: .avi, .asf, .mpe, .mpeg
    • Text: .rtf, .html, .txt

    View
    View the selected media file in the associated program. This requires that you have software on your computer capable of viewing the file type. Most files can be viewed by software included with your operating system, though you may need to update to the latest version of the software (Windows Media Player, for example), depending on how the media was created by the person uploading the file.

    Add Media File
    Add a new media file associated with the individual. This option will open a window for finding the file on your computer. Once this file is chosen and uploaded, a copy of the file resides on OneGreatFamily and does not affect the file on your computer.

    Rename
    Change the title of the selected media file.

    Delete
    Remove the selected media file from OneGreatFamily. (This will not affect a media file on your own computer.)

    We hope you will find OneGreatFamily's Multimedia section to be useful. Sharing photos, documents and scanned videos is one of the best ways to collaborate on OneGreatFamily with Distant Cousins. Upload and share today!

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  • How OneGreatFamily Is Different From Other Genealogy Services

    OneGreatFamily.com has been online since 2002, which is significantly longer than a majority of the other genealogy websites. From the very beginning, our services have been quite revolutionary to the genealogy community. Surprisingly, there are critical components of our services that have never been duplicated by others and make it critical for anyone who is even partially serious about doing their genealogy or building their family tree to have and maintain a subscription to OneGreatFamily. We have come up with 3 Core Concepts that explain what makes us so unique and how our cutting-edge, yet simple, approach to genealogy can greatly help you in building your family tree.

    Concept 1: OneGreatFamily is a Single Global Family Tree 

    OneGreatFamily is a single, global family tree which everyone helps to build. It's not just a collection of individual trees that people work on alone. This means that when ANYONE works on OneGreatFamily, they are also working on your tree, and when you work on your tree on OneGreatFamily, you are collaborating with others to explore their family trees. 

    As OneGreatFamily members add to the global family tree, the system searches to see if any of the names submitted could be your ancestors. Even if we find some of your ancestors today, we may find more in a week, a month, or a year. Just think; while you're concentrating on a maternal line, OneGreatFamily may identify a breakthrough on your paternal side! Your next step forward could come when you are sleeping, making dinner, or enjoying an evening out with friends, all thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of OneGreatFamily members.

    Concept 2: OneGreatFamily Searches and Sifts For You

    OneGreatFamily automatically does all the "search and sift" work for you. Let's face it, most of the effort being done on other genealogy websites is essentially "search and sift", where you initiate a search and then have to start sifting through the tens of thousands of matches you get back. Obviously, most of these possible matches will be wrong and a few may clearly be right. The rest have to be sorted and checked.

    OneGreatFamily does all this tedious work for you. We compare all the people you enter into your family tree against every other person in the OneGreatFamily single, global family tree. Then, we sift the results and alert you of possible matches, which we like to call "Hints". Instead of endlessly sifting through obviously incorrect search results, OneGreatFamily focuses your attention and effort on likely matches. Also, when we find two individuals who are obviously the same person on trees submitted by different members, based on our patent-pending matching algorithms, we don't even bother you with them. Instead we automatically merge the two identical records together to combine their trees and eliminate the duplication. This avoids the even-more-painful task of having to approve dozens or even hundreds of obvious matches. It is this process of automatic merging that could end up adding thousands of ancestors to your branch of the tree.

    Concept 3: OneGreatFamily Handles Different Opinions

    OneGreatFamily easily handles differences of opinion. Sometimes genealogists disagree. Perhaps there is documentation supporting multiple dates for the same event or even regarding parentage. Since all evidence is valuable, we built OneGreatFamily to handle these situations. These discrepancies are called "conflicts". OneGreatFamily will never force you to accept someone else's information, nor someone else to accept yours. We call this View Preservation, because your view of your tree is always preserved for you.

    Now, there are two primary types of conflicts: informational and relational. Informational conflicts occur when a fact is in dispute, perhaps a birth date or a marriage location. Relational conflicts occur when a family relationship is in question. In resolving both types of conflicts, you will be presented with your information and the conflicting information. You will then be given a choice to 1) accept the alternate information presented, 2) clear the conflict, which means you are satisfied with your information and no longer want to consider any alternative information, or 3) cancel for now, which will allow you to postpone making a choice until you can find more information.

    Dive into OneGreatFamily and see what we can do for your family tree.

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  • How to Earn Free Months At OneGreatFamily

    Customers often ask how they can earn free subscription time. The answer is to refer your friends and family to our website. You can receive one FREE month for every subscriber you refer to OneGreatFamily.

    HERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR REFERRING SOMEONE TO ONEGREATFAMILY:

    When you refer family or friends to OneGreatFamily, simply tell them to enter YOUR username (created at sign-up) into the "Rewards Program" field when they subscribe.

    After they subscribe, you will receive an email to confirm your free month.

    Check your account to see your new expiration date. After you login, click on "My Account" to view your account. One of the boxes provides you with your Subscription Information. You will see below the space that will inform you whether or not you have received credit for a referral.



    For more information on our Rewards Program, follow this link.
    http://www.onegreatfamily.com/Help/Rewards.aspx

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