Ancestry Responds to Concerns of Users of New Ancestry with Updates

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Hard on the heels of the reminder notificati0n that Ancestry.com was moving completely to the “new” Ancestry website on 15 Dec 2015, and the announcement that it was ending sales of the personal genealogical database program Family Tree Maker, the genealogical database provider put out a new list of updates and changes to the “new” Ancestry with the 11 Dec 2015  Feature Update posted to the Ancestry Blog. (Posted by Ancestry Team on December 11, 2015 in Ancestry.com Site, Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, United Kingdom)

I personally was happy to see this posting as I was unaware of some of the changes (improvements?) even as I used my Ancestry.com subscription during the day of the 11th. Here is the text for that posting (to see the announcement in its entirety complete with helpful images, go to http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/11/the-new-ancestry-december-11th-feature-update/):

Welcome to our weekly update on the new Ancestry website. Last week we posted an article that covered the upcoming features and this week we introduced several important enhancements to the Person Page, Facts view and media experience in the new Ancestry.

As always, we have also included links to articles and videos at the end of this post that will help answer your questions and provide more tips on the new site. We appreciate your feedback, please submit it via this form.

Features we introduced:
Navigational changes on Person Page, Tree Viewer and Media – We introduced some additional navigation options. With these shortcuts, you can get to your endpoint more easily and quickly.

List of All People – This previously was only available from the Tree Viewer. Members suggested it would save time to have this available on the Person Page, so we added it there too. In addition to easier access to the List of All People, we added the option to navigate directly to the home person of the tree. Click on the icon to access “Home Person” or “List of All People.”

Trees Pages return to the Person Page – The Tree Pages menu options are now available on the person page. To access this, select the name of your tree. To view your tree you can either select the first option in the tree pages menu or the tree icon to the left of the tree name.

Tree Header Updates – In the Tree Viewer, the tree pages menu has been moved and is accessible by selecting the tree name. For visual consistency, we’ve updated the look of the Find Person tool in the Tree Viewer. Other pages from the tree pages menu, such as the Tree Media Gallery, Tree Settings and Tree Overview will get the same update as the Tree Viewer.

Media Viewer “Delete or Save” to Desktop Menu – You can now quickly access options for downloading to your desktop or delete from Tree with this menu.

Tree Owner Information – We added the tree owner information to the person pages. When you are viewing a tree that you’re not invited to, the “guest” badge will no longer show – some of our members expressed confusion about this, and we agree that it’s important to know the owner of the tree in addition to your role.
Hide/Show Family Events to Customize LifeStory and Facts View –The configure icon for hiding and showing the Family Events and Historical Insights has been changed to “Show” and is consistent with filtering for the media gallery. Checkmarks indicate what content will be shown on the page.

Media Enhancements

All Media Types Available on Facts view – If you have previously attached stories, audio, or video recordings to a fact, these will now show as attached to that fact. In addition, any media that you have attached to the person is now available to add to all the existing and new facts you create.

Link Story
Undo “Crop” on Profile Image – You can now undo the crop by selecting “Use Full Image” to use the full picture as the Profile Image.

Mobile-Friendly Media – Now you can see the pictures or their details easily on your mobile devices.

Mobile-Web-Media
Mobile-Web-Media-Details
Enhanced Designs – We’ve streamlined the person page with a few minor visual design updates. Text size has been increased, and contrast has been improved. There is also more visual separation between navigation elements and the vital information about your ancestor.

Person Header Updates – We’ve removed the background texture from the header of the Person Page to increase readability. The tab background has also been lightened.

Less scrolling on the Facts View – Name & Gender are collapsed by default. This way, more of your ancestor’s timeline is visible on the screen. You can expand the name and gender to edit them individually. The display of family events on the Facts view of in your ancestor’s timeline is now more condensed. This allows you to see more information on your screen, with less scrolling.
Features we will retire:

Features we will retire:

It’s difficult to lose any features on our site, however, after exploring a myriad of use cases and analyzing how our members conduct genealogical research on the site, we made the decision to retire Story View:

Story View – On the Person Page from the old Ancestry, we had a feature called Story View. This view helped us continue to refine how stories could be generated based on information about an ancestor and how users could refine those stories. Those learnings have been applied into LifeStory in the new Ancestry and as we move forward with all users in the new Ancestry by December 15th we will be retiring these pages. Stories, photos and records created in your Story View have already been migrated to the LifeStory view in the new Ancestry. Links to the old Ancestry Story View of an ancestor will not be available in the new Ancestry but you will be able to continue to access that view via the links that were created and shared until March 15, 2016. After that time, Story View will be officially decommissioned.

Features we are still working on:

Continue Search – Option to keep searching from within your tree versus right clicking to open new records.

Family Group Sheet – The functionality of the current Family Group Sheet is duplicated with that of the Facts view, so we do not plan to carry forward the current Family Group Sheet. We will however, introduce a new Family Group Sheet report that offers more information about a family in one glance, and it will be similar to a traditional family group sheet report.

We appreciate your feedback and encourage you to keep submitting it. What do you love about the new website? Did you find a bug? Something doesn’t quite work like you think it should? Please submit it via this form. Thank you. We will be providing more updates over the next couple of weeks.

Ancestry.com to Stop Selling Family Tree Maker

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The following rather surprising, even shocking, announcement was posted by Kendall Hulet on December 8, 2015 in Australia, Canada, Family Tree Maker, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom – See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/08/ancestry-to-retire-family-tree-maker-software/#blogComments

Ancestry is proud to have made a significant investment this year to bring valuable new content and records to the Ancestry site. In 2015, we’ve made 220 million searchable historical records from Mexico available, more than 170 million pages from the largest collection of U.S. will and probate records, among others. We’ve also introduced new features such as Ancestry Academy and major advancements for AncestryDNA.

We remain dedicated to helping people gain new levels of understanding about their lives, and who and what led to them, harnessing the information found in family trees, historical records and genetics. As a company, we’re also continually evaluating ways to focus our efforts to provide the most impact and best product experience for our users through our core offerings.

True to this focus, we’ve taken a hard look at the declining desktop software market and the impact this has on being able to continue to provide product enhancements and support that our users need. With that, we’ve made the decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015.

Our subscription business and website, on the other hand, continue to grow and we are doubling down our efforts to make that experience even better for our Ancestry community. Ancestry will continue to support current owners of Family Tree Maker at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™, will continue to work, and Member Services will be available to assist with user questions. We will also address major software bugs that may occur, as well as compatibility updates.

These changes are never easy, but by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on continuing to build great products for our loyal Ancestry community.

If you have inquiries regarding Family Tree Maker, please reach out to our Member Services team. We’ll also provide updates on our blog as needed leading up to January 1, 2017. – See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/08/ancestry-to-retire-family-tree-maker-software/#blogComments

By 11 am today, more than 5,500 comments had been registered, mostly expressing disappointment, and many stating that they wouldn’t be renewing their Ancestry.com subscription.

The New Ancestry Will Replace Old Ancestry as of December 15th 2015

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On 16 Nov 2015, I received an email from Ancestry.com stating that it is switching all accounts
over to its “new” Ancestry.com website on 15 Dec 2015. The “old” Ancestry.com will no longer be
available.

The most significant advances claimed for the new website are on the person page. The person page is organized into four tabs: LifeStory, Facts View, Gallery, and Hints. (see screen capture).

In a YouTube post, the company says “The new Ancestry has been designed to transform how you can discover and tell your family story. We like to listen to and share stories, but it can be hard to unravel and tell the stories behind all the facts and information you have gathered in your tree. With new storytelling features and a streamlined design, the new Ancestry helps you weave together richer stories that can bring you closer to knowing your ancestors as people. It’s your family story, reinvented. Learn more here: http://home.ancestry.com/
NewAncestry”

Ancestry.com has issued no press release on this development that this writer could find. Millions of people are reported to be using the new Ancestry site, but the company is getting a lot of blowback from disgruntled users on a variety of blogs. From what these users are claiming, many expect to cancel their subscriptions.

Ancestry claims that “All the research and information you have now will be on the new Ancestry. “Personally, I have found no serious problems with the new Ancestry.com on a desktop PC, a laptop PC, an Ipad, and an IPhone. I suspect that a big motivation for the redesign was the growing use of mobile devices at the expense of PCs. In a FAQ listing, Ancestry states “The new experience was designed to work better across all mobile devices. You’ll be
able to see the media gallery, Historical Insights, and LifeStory, too. More improvements for the mobile experience are planned.06

Here is a partial view of the profile that I have created for my great grandfather on the “new”
Andestry.com:Ancestry Profile of Otto Huuskonen

On 6 Dec 2015, on the Ancestry Blog, the Ancestry Team posted to following note:

As a reminder, as of December 15th, 2015, the old website will be retired and the new Ancestry will be the only Ancestry website. We will continue providing these posts as needed to ensure you have the latest update on the features available and the features the team is working on.

 

My Absence from Posting on Collecting Ancestors

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It has been awhile since I last posted to this blog–since July to be exact.

I have been dealing with some family health issues. I can’t say they have been resolved, but I am better organized to handle them.

As a result, I am going to begin again to post more regularly on this blog. There’s a lot happening in genealogy these days, and I am discovering new facts and data about my family history.

As they say in broadcasting, Stay tuned!

Evert Huskonen – Laborer, Farm Operator, Farm Owner, Retired Farmer

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When my grandfather, Evert Huuskonen, emigrated from Finland in 1902, he left his occupation as a farmer. In America, he worked as a laborer in a railroad car shop, as reported in the 1910 census. The 1908 and 1912 Ashtabula City Directories listed Evert and Ida as living at 11 Bell St. in Ashtabula, presumably so that Evert could be close to his workplace. Both city directory listings reported that he was working as a laborer in a car repair facility.

The Bell St house was relatively small according to a 1909 Sanford Fire Insurance map of the area. It measured about 30 feet wide by 40 feet deep, with a second story measuring about 20 ft by 10 feet. It also had a small front porch. In the 1910 Census, Evert, Ida, and five children were  enumerated as living in this house with its approximate 1500 sq ft of living space, along with three male boarders from Finland, aged between 21 and 26.

Evert Huuskonen moved his family to at least one farm before he was able to purchase his own farm in Williamsfield Township, in southeastern Ashtabula County. A family photograph taken about 1915 shows eight family members posing in front of a brick farmhouse along with an unidentified young man who probably was a farm worker. The location of this farm is unknown.

By 12 Sep 1918, when Evert reported to Draft Board No. 2 in Jefferson, the county seat for Ashtabula County, to fill out a World War I draft registration card, he was living in Simons, a populated place in the southeast corner of Williamsfield Township, Ohio. He was 44 years old, and listed his occupation as self-employed farmer.

The location of that farm was identified in the 1920 Census as on Center Road East in Williamsfield Township. Evert and Ida were living there with three sons: Emil, Hugh, and Walfrid. Evert was listed as a farmer on a dairy farm.

By 1930, Evert and Ida had moved to another farm on North Simons Rd, still in Williamsfield Township, according to the Federal Census. Son Walfrid was living with them in the household. Evert was listed as a farmer.

In the 1940 Census, Evert was aged 66 and apparently retired since there was no occupation listed for him. He and Ida were living in yet another location on Rt 7 North in Williamsfield Township. The 1940 Census also asked people where they lived in 1935 and the answer for Evert and Ida was “same place.”

In the 1940 Census, the citizenship status for Evert was marked NA, the abbreviation for “Naturalized,” which represented a change from earlier censuses where he was listed as AL for “Alien.” Ida continued to be listed as an Alien. The naturalization papers for Evert do not give a specific addresses for him other than RFD No. !, Andover, on his Declaration of Intent in 1935 and RFD No. 7, Andover, on his Certificate of Citizenship in 1938.

Sometime after 1940, Evert and Ida moved to a cottage of three rooms plus bath on the property of their son, Walfrid Huskonen, at 496 South Main St., Andover.

Evert died at home in Andover on August 14, 1947, at the age of 73 years. Ida continued to live in the cottage for a few more years until she moved to Ashtabula to live with her oldest daughter, Edith Nikkari.

Grandpa Evert Huuskonen’s Journey to America

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On Oct 6, 2011, I posted an article about how my grandmother and her four children traveled from Finland to America. It involved some records research, some detective work with maps, and some speculation about details. I also wrote an article about the details of my grandfather’s journey to America but hadn’t posted it until now. The journeys were separate because my grandfather emigrated from Finland in 1902 and my grandmother followed the next year.  The reason for the difference: my grandmother was still pregnant with my Aunt Mary when it came time for Grandpa to leave. Ironically, Aunt Mary was born in Vesanto, in central Finland, on the same day that Grandpa Huuskonen boarded a ship in Hanko, a port in southern Finland, to sail to England for his transatlantic voyage.

Here is my article about Grandpa Huuskonen’s journey

On 26 Sep 1902, Evert Huuskonen, aged 29 years, obtained Passport No. 456/1902 in Kuopio, the capital city of Kuopio Province, to travel from Vesanto, Finland, to the United States of America. His destination was Ashtabula, Ohio. He indicated that he planned to stay for 5 years. His intended companions were his wife Ida maria and four children.

The timing of his planned departure suggests that the summer farming season was over and he had saved up enough money to make the trip.
When it came time to make the final arrangements, Evert bought only a single ticket (the ticket price was 216 Finnish maarka–marks in English) no doubt because Ida Maria was expecting a child within a month or so.

It’s likely Evert left home on the 9 or 10 of October, traveling by train toward Helsinki from Kuopio, or even more likely from Suonenjoki, which is a main stop on the Kuopio-Helsinki rail line, and is only about 54 kilometers (34 miles) from Vesanto. At Hyvinkaa (where the railroad to Hanko branches off from the Kuopio-Helsinki line), he no doubt transferred to a second train bound for the Finnish port of Hanko on the Baltic Sea at the very southern tip of Finland.

As it turned out, Evert departed from Hanko on the same day as his daughter Mary’s birth, 11 Oct 1902. He sailed from Finland on the steam ship Arcturus of the Finland Steamship Co. bound for Hull, England.

Upon his arrival in Hull, he boarded another train for the approximately seven-hour trip as a transmigrant westward across England to the Atlantic seaport of Liverpool. There, he boarded the S.S. Tunisian of the Allan Line on 16 Oct 1902 for the voyage to North America.
The Emigrant Register does not list a destination port for this ship, but the passenger manifest for the S. S. Tunisian is on microfilm among the St Albans District records in the U.S. National Archives in Washington. It sailed from Liverpool, 16 Oct 1902, arriving in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 25 Oct 1902.

The manifest lists the following particulars for Evert Huuskonen: male; married; age 29; occupation, laborer; able to read and write; nationality, Finnish; final destination, Ashtabula, Ohio. It further indicated he had a ticket to that destination; paid for by himself; he was in possession of at least $20; and he was joining a friend, Vieko Pietihani [?], whose address was Box 115, Ashtabula. Evert was listed in good health on the ship’s manifest.

We can assume that once he arrived in Quebec City, he immediately boarded a train, again as a transmigrant, bound for the United States and Ashtabula, Ohio.

Evert and Ida Huuskonen from Vesanto and Rautalampi, Finland

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For years, we wondered about why Grandpa Evert Huuskonen moved from Rautalampi to Vesanto in Finland. The two towns are about 45 km apart. After learning the history of Rautalampi Parish and its daughter parish, Vesanto, we concluded that the Huuskonens did not move at all, but that Evert Huuskonen and his wife Ida simply were transferred to the rolls of the Vesanto Parish in 1893.

Vesanto Parish was  formed when a new church was built in the small town of the same name near the Huuskonen farm. The new parish was formed because the Rautalampi church was 45 km (about 28 miles) away, a long way to travel to church on the very primitive roads of the late 19th century. The Huuskonen family simply chose to maintain affiliation with Rautalampi Parish even though there was a church much closer.

Baby Names–Traditional Names Continue Popularity in 2014

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Laura Johnston, Northeast Ohio Media Group, writes about given names selected for babies born during 2014 in Ohio and elsewhere in an article  Top baby names in Ohio in 2014 appearing on the website Cleveland.com (It also appeared in the 15 May 2015 Plain Dealer, but you have to have a subscription for access). She wrote:  “Liam and Emma are the top baby names in Ohio, for the second straight year.”

While the focus of Laura’s article is on the most popular names for Ohio newborns, she notes that the list of Ohio names is similar to the national list, compiled by the U.S. Social Security Administration of the most used 1,000 names each year. Go to: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/#ht=2. The Social Security Administration can tally the name rankings because today parents are strongly urged to fill out an application for a Social Security account and number while the birth certificate is being created. A brochure, Social Security Numbers for Children, is available for download.

Laura concluded her article with this suggestion:

Want to have some fun with your name? Time.com has a widget that tells you what you would have been named in every decade, back to the 1890s, based on your name’s ranking.

I tried out the Time.com widget at http://time.com/3856405/baby-name-popularity/#, entering my given name, gender, and birth year. It reported that my given name of Wallace ranked No. 138 when I was born in 1938, and the name with the same ranking in America last year was Colin.

AncestryDNA Has Begun Processing Our Tests

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Just checked with my account on AncestryDNA.com and learned that the DNA tests submitted a couple weeks ago for my wife and myself were turned over to the lab for processing today, 14 May 2015.

AncestryDNA states:

Please allow 6-8 weeks for processing. You will receive an email when your results are ready.

Watch this space for the next developments.

 

Our Testing with AncestryDNA is Underway

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On 27 Apr 2015, I took advantage of a special offer from AncestryDNA for autosomal DNA testing at $79, a reduction from the regular price of $99. AncestryDNA was offering the special price in conjunction with its celebration of DNA Day on April 25.

What is National DNA Day?  Here is how Wikipedia.org describes it.

DNA Day is a holiday celebrated on April 25. It commemorates the day in 1953 when James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and colleagues published papers in the journal Nature on the structure of DNA. Furthermore, on that day in 2003 it was declared that the Human Genome Project was very close to complete, and “the remaining tiny gaps [we]re considered too costly to fill.”

In the United States, DNA Day was first celebrated on April 25, 2003 by proclamation of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, they only declared a one-time celebration, not an annual holiday. Every year from 2003 onward, annual DNA Day celebrations have been organized by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), starting as early as April 23 in 2010, April 15 in 2011 and April 20 in 2012. April 25 has since been declared “International DNA Day” and “World DNA Day” by several groups.

People actively involved with DNA testing for genealogical and family history purposes no doubt were well aware of this event, but I was not up to speed until I attended the Western Reserve Historical Society’s (www.wrhs.org) Spring Seminar presented by CeCe Moore, coincidentally on that very day, Saturday, Apr 25.

CeCe is a nationally known expert on the use of DNA testing for genealogical purposes. She provides information about DNA testing through a blog (http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/) and she has served as a consultant for television reality shows Who Do You Think You Are, Finding Your Roots, and Genealogy Roadshow.

I can’t say that I understood everything that CeCe presented at WRHS on Apr 25, but her four lectures, and especially the case studies she discussed, did inspire me to place the order for AncestryDNA test kits for me and my wife. FYI, the AncestryDNA sale closed at 11:59 pm on Apr 27, and I beat that deadline by just a few hours.

The kits arrived on Friday, May 1, and my wife and I provided the necessary spit samples in the enclosed vials over the weekend. On Monday, May 4, I hand-delivered the return packages to the local post office. Today, May 8, AncestryDNA confirmed on its website that our test kits had arrived yesterday.

I will be checking the website on a daily basis to learn when the test kits are checked in for lab processing. As for the results, the website provides the following:

Please allow 6-8 weeks for processing. You will receive an email when your results are ready.

Watch this space for updates.