We are soon going to release a small program update to Family Tree Maker 2010, which will address some of the requests you’ve made here on the blog and in other forums.  Here are some of the highlights:

1. Improved Relationship Calculator. Direct-line relationships now take precedence over less direct lines.
2. Greater control over hinting. A new option lets you turn tree hints off, so you can get hints from records only. See the new check box in the Options dialog. Also, the program will stop hinting on trees owned by the logged in user, as well as not hinting records that have been downloaded with a tree from Ancestry.com.
3. Improved data and formatting in a number of reports.
4. Improved support for GEDCOM, PAF and Legacy import.
5. Many other small changes throughout the program to help it run more smoothly.

We appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us; they have helped us tremendously in preparing this update.

Please watch for the update in the next day or two. When it’s ready, a prompt will display in Family Tree Maker after you start the program. For those of you using Vista or Windows 7, make sure to right click on the Family Tree Maker 2010 shortcut and chose the “Run as Administrator” option to ensure you receive the notification. More detailed information regarding the patch, as well as links to download the patch directly, can be found at the following location starting tomorrow morning: http://www.familytreemaker.com/Support/Patch_2010.aspx.

Thanks!

And there is the story of Cary Christopher, who thought his great-grandfather was a German soldier during WWI but found out he was actually an American naval hero.

Well, recently we had a follow-up to Cary’s story that made it even more interesting. After we put the clip of Cary telling his story on Ancestry.com, we were contacted by one of Cary’s old friends and shipmates from Cary’s own time serving in the Navy.

Owen, Cary’s former shipmate, was also a member of Ancestry.com and his wife saw Cary’s video while doing some research on Ancestry.com.

According to Owen, he was reading the paper in one room when he heard his wife yell from the other, “It’s him. Honey, it’s him!”

“Who?” Owen yelled back.

“Christopher.”

“Chris who?”

“You know—him!”

When Owen finally figured out who she was talking about, he was ecstatic. He contacted us to see if we could put him in touch with Cary.

We took down Owen’s information and passed it on to Cary, in case he wanted to contact Owen. He did, and the two had a fun time connecting after so many years apart. They spent several hours on the phone catching up.

I love these kinds of connections because they just go to show you how doing your family history has a domino effect–one connection leads to another, which leads to another, and so on. Who knew when Cary made the discovery on Ancestry.com about his great-grandfather that it would help him reconnect with a former friend and crew member from his own life?

You can read the rest of the story about Cary and Owen’s reunion in the Learning Center. Plus, you can get some tips on how to make your own connections with family–past and present.

Note: This article was originally published in the November Ancestry Monthly Update.

“I had my DNA tested for mitochondrial results, but I’d like to do the same for my father’s side. My problem is that I have no brothers, no uncles, and my father has passed away. Can my son take the test? Or would his results only give his father’s Y-chromosome information? Surely my son must have inherited some of my father’s DNA?”

Types of DNA
DNA provides our genetic blueprint which makes each of us unique and yet genetically similar to other family members and to a lesser extent to all humans in general.  There are 2 major types of DNA useful in tracing one’s family history through DNA genealogy:

• Y-chromosome DNA (Y-DNA)
• Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

Y-DNA
Y-DNA passes from male to male in a family.  Location markers on the Y-chromosome are found in the Y-chromosome of males and are passed down from fathers to sons making it ideal for tracing paternal lineage.  In many cultures, the surname is also passed from father to son. This fortunate coincidence is what makes tracing your paternal lineage through genetic similarities so powerful for genealogy.   And because the Y-chromosome is passed largely unchanged from father to son, DNA results from a male participant today can be used to represent the paternal lineage dozens of generations into the past.

To test your paternal lineage you need someone on your male line to take the test.   If you are female, you can recruit a brother, father, or paternally related Uncle or Cousin to provide the DNA sample to use as if it were your own.  The key to remember in recruiting a “proxy relative” for the Y-DNA test is that the individual must be a direct line descedant of the ancestor of interest.  Thus, a woman’s son would NOT be a candidate for testing her great great grandfather as her son would have received his Y-DNA from his father NOT her father.

mtDNA
Mitochondrial DNA , or mtDNA , is a unique kind of DNA found outside the nucleus of the cell in the mitochondria.  Because mitochondria still replicate on their own, they need their own special DNA , which exists in a loop (unlike the strands of chromosomal DNA ).  A cell can have hundreds or thousands of mitochondria.  This unique factor and the rate at which the mtDNA changes make mtDNA a strong indicator of one’s ancient ancestral heritage.  Mitochondrial DNA testing is very valuable for unlocking clues about your ancient ancestors.  It can also be a powerful genealogical tool to eliminate possible relations through the maternal line.

Because a father’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is destroyed at fertilization, a child inherits only the mother’s mitochondrial DNA, thus preserving the maternal link to the ancient past. Due to this unique inheritance pattern, both males and females may directly contribute a DNA sample for testing the maternal lineage.

Should you have questions about a potential proxy or DNA test, please contact dna@ancestry.com.

The short answer is yes, Family Tree Maker 2010 is fully compatible with Windows 7.

The Family Tree Maker team has been working with Windows 7 for several months—even prior to the release of Family Tree Maker 2010.  Since the “Release to Manufacture” (RTM) version of Windows 7 was released last August, we have done additional testing in our labs as well as with alpha and beta customers with no indication of incompatibility.  Family Tree Maker 2008 and 2009 are also compatible with Windows 7.

As a point of interest, it may be helpful for people to know that we continually test Family Tree Maker with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

If you find a problem while running Family Tree Maker on your operating system, the best course of action is to contact customer support which can usually help you identify and solve the problem.

Crista would have needed nearly 1,000 of my hands – thumbs included. 

It wasn’t just a giant family tree that Crista was trying to populate. She was gathering all of the living descendants of one of her own ancestors, a great-great-great-grandfather, for a family reunion. One very, very big family reunion. 

Using a combination of Internet tools, genealogy tricks, and the kindness of relative strangers (who happened to be descendants of the same g-g-g-grandfather), Crista tracked down almost 5,000 living descendants of Samuel Milliner for the celebration of his 200th birthday last summer. Better still, Crista survived to talk about it – and to start planning another reunion for next summer.

Crista’s how-to tale is just one of the stories in the November/December issue of Ancestry magazine. You’ll also find features on how history affected courtship, spotting a child from another mother in a family tree, and the latest from columnists Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Howard Wolinsky, Megan Smolenyak Smoleyak, and more. Plus you’ll get to see what happened when we put our own family history wish-lists up for bid on Expert Connect at Ancestry.com (hint: we’re all celebrating a bit early this year).

Ancestry magazine subscribers should start receiving the November/December issue this week. (Not a subscriber? You’ll also find individual copies in larger bookstores and on the Shop button at Ancestry.com. Or visit www.ancestrymagazine.com for articles and more information).

As always, I’d love to get your feedback on the articles we write. You can reach me via email at jcroasmun@ancestry.com or become a fan of Ancestry magazine at Facebook and drop me a line there. And if there’s something you’d like to see Ancestry magazine cover in 2010, I definitely want to hear that, too.

A treasured timepiece.
One of the things I love to do when making a calendar is to look back on photos that resemble the same month from the previous year.  September was particularly fun.  Every year I take pictures of my kids in front of the mailbox in front of our home.  Now that my oldest son is in the third grade it is fun to look back and see how much he has grown over the four years since kindergarten.  My younger son just started first grade and likewise, it is neat to see how in just one year he finally reached the bottom of the mailbox.  Next September I’ll be able to look up at the calendar and remember the previous year.

Even more special is that I can share these memories with others.  All I have to do is copy the project and add a few additional photos with pictures of my parents to the appropriate months and I have the perfect gift for my mom and dad.  They also love seeing how much their grandchildren have grown over the year.

Where do I start?
A great thing about MyCanvas is that you start a calendar with any month of the year.  You can begin today on a calendar for this month or change the start date to January 2010 for a great holiday present.

Another great thing I love to do with MyCanvas calendars is to put a picture of the birthday person on their special day.  One of my son’s birthday also falls in September, so I put a picture of him in front of his birthday cake from this year’s birthday. It will be fun to remember that celebration next year when I get to September.

Make it your own.
MyCanvas lets you share your pictures in print.  There are many fun things to do with the MyCanvas calendar application.  You can be as creative as your imagination allows.  MyCanvas provides many cool backgrounds.  I chose the baseball background to remember opening day of the baseball season.

For the month of October, I put in pictures of my boys in their Halloween costumes.  plus a couple of other funny shots of my little one.  The picture of him sound asleep standing up at his bed after having run around the neighborhood collecting candy always makes me laugh.

If you have some cleaver ideas or have done neat things with MyCanvas calendars, please let us know.

We want to thank you all for your questions and participation in the webinar for Family Tree Maker 2010. We had a great turnout, with about 2,000 of you participating live with us that night.

We answered as many questions as time permitted, and we’re sorry if we weren’t able to get to yours yet. But don’t worry, we’ve got a list of the questions asked during the webinar, and we’ll be posting here to answer what we can. Again, specific questions about errors or technical problems will be answered much more quickly if you email support@ancestry.com or give our customer support center a call.

We just wanted to briefly mention some of the more frequently asked questions here:

Q: Will the webinar be available for viewing at a later date?

A: Yes. We will have the archived webinar up on our site in a few days. When its available, you can find this webinar, and past webinars at http://familytreemaker.com/About/Webinars.aspx. The webinars can be found on both FamilyTreeMaker.com in the Help section and on Ancestry.com under the Learning Center.

Q: What about phantom hints with the shaky leaves?

A: We are aware of this problem, and are working on getting things fixed. Right now the best thing is to be patient with us, or email support@ancestry.com for some help.

Q: There were lots of questions about functions in the program.

A: Many of those can be answered within the program itself, so you don’t have to wait for us to get back to you to get working on your family history. To get answers, go to the Help menu in Family Tree Maker, and there you will find the Training Tutorials and Online Help Center.

The tutorials are videos on your program that go over some of the basics of Family Tree Maker, and are great for visualizing what you want to do within the program.

The Online Help Center gives you access to the Getting Started Guide. This handy guide will help you begin your first Family Tree Maker project and master the program’s basic features. You can quickly navigate to the section you would like to see for the answers you are looking for.

Also in Online Help Center is a link to our free online database of Knowledge Base articles. These are often made up of answers excerpted from the Official Guide, and are updated often. These are a lot of the same answers Customer Support would provide–it’s the same set of information they work from when they’re answering your questions. By typing in a few key words of what you are looking for, such as “splitting trees” or “duplicate people,” a list of articles will display that you can browse through to find what you are looking for.

During the webinar, there were many more questions, and just to give you a heads up for what we’re working on to put in the blog post, keep your eye out for these new posts:

Book publishing

Source Citation

Transferring Files

Thanks!

One of the markers in our Y-chromosome DNA test has changed names from “Y-GATA H4.1″ to “Y-GATA H4“.  The allele value of “Y-GATA H4″ has also changed.  This has been done based on the recommendation of ISOGG and a consensus of genetic genealogists.  This will not affect purchasers’ current haplogroup assignments.

Ancestry.com DNA is committed to providing our customers with the most current and relevant results for family history research.  As other companies adjust their results to match the new standard, results will be more easily compared with the results in their databases and the results entered manually into our database.

For those of you that have purchased a Y DNA test you don’t need to take any action, but you can view your updated results right now.

We are looking forward to our free online class about Family Tree Maker 2010.  This “webinar” should help answer many of the questions you have about the new software.

To help us prepare, please ask your questions here. While we won’t be able to answer every question during the webinar, we’ll do our best. If you already entered a question in the preceding Family Tree Maker post about the online class (webinar), there’s no need to re-enter here. We’ll look at all the questions in preparation for the webinar.

When you want a question answered right away, a good place to start is the knowledgebase on http://www.familytreemaker.com under the Support menu. Just type in a few key words of your question, and click “Search.” For example, to learn how to register Family Tree Maker, type in the word “register” and click Search.  Several articles display that have similar words in them. When you see one that looks promising, click on it to see the detail.

For times when the knowledgebase doesn’t provide an answer, you can email customer support at support@ancestry.com. You should receive a response in approximately 24 hours.

The webinar will provide a helpful overview and step-by-step instructions for using many of Family Tree Maker 2010’s new features. To attend the webinar, please register, and enter your questions here. Thanks!

To help us prepare, please enter your questions in the comments section. We’ll try to answer every question in either the webinar or in blog entries here. To keep us all on track, please limit your questions to those regarding functionality in Family Tree Maker 2010.

As always, you can see past webinars on FamilyTreeMaker.com. These will be especially helpful to you if you’ve upgraded from Version 16 or earlier. To attend the upcoming webinar, register here.

Thanks for entering your questions about Family Tree Maker 2010 functionality — we’ll look forward to reading every one. Thanks!