Your Quick Tips, 01 January 2007

celtic tombstone.jpg

NOTE: To those of you who are getting this page in response to the reduced subscription rate offer, click here by February 23 to get the reduced rate. Or you can contact one of our customer service reps at 1-800-262-3787 (1-800-ANCESTRY).  There was a problem with the URL in that mailing.  Our apologies for the trouble. Enjoy!
Juliana  

Photograph Headstone Location
Sometimes it is not easy to find a specific headstone in a large cemetery, so when I take a photo of the stone itself, I take a picture of the stone with some feature that will be likely to remain in place in relationship to the stone (e.g., a structure such as a gazebo, a large, distinctive stone or monument, or other permanent outstanding feature in the area). Trees die and are removed, so they do not make good points of reference. These photos help other family members find the headstones when they are visiting for the first time.

Betty Voss
Cape Girardeau, MO


3’ x 6’ Office
Back in the 70s when I worked all day and went to college three nights a week, I needed peace, quiet and a place to study, type and store things. Our tiny master bedroom was a challenge until I rearranged the furniture to free up a spot for my work. My husband bought me a full-size door, smoothly sanded which he laid across a nightstand and a filing cabinet, spaced six feet further down. It was my office for 5 years.  My workspace was 3ft x 6ft! It was in front of a window. I had an overhead light and a table lamp on my left side. I never could have accomplished a thing if I hadn’t had “my own little office, 3FT x 6FT” 

Sincerely,
Marilyn Nelson

Saving E-mails as Documents
In response to David J. Stratton’s suggestion for saving emails, I do, but I save them as word processing documents. I do this (in XP) by:
  With the email document open: 
    Click on File
      Click on Save as:
        Change file type to Text Files (*Txt)
          Go to My Documents and save the file
            Close the email document.
  Go to the desktop:
    Click on My Documents
      Click on the saved document
        Highlight all of the text and press Ctrl C (for copy)
          Open your word processor for a new document
            Press Ctrl V
              Save the word processor document (in a special folder) with a meaningful name.
  You can then delete the text file.
 
After that, if you want to add any follow-up information to the saved document, it is available in a format that should be familiar to you. It also makes it easier to save the information to disk, especially if you do regular backups of your My Documents folder.
 
Bob Walter

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: mailto:[email protected] . Thanks to all of this week’s contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the “Ancestry Weekly Journal,” please state so clearly in your message.

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26 thoughts on “Your Quick Tips, 01 January 2007

  1. Bob Walter’s idea for saving email is great but time consuming.
    I use gmail from google and they have labels to file emails
    under. By labeling an ancestor or catagory and filing a pertinent email it can be recovered at a moment’s notice.
    Gmail has 2ghz of storage and keeps expanding it so you do not
    have to delete anything….it has been a lifesaver for me.

  2. 1. When I want to save the text of an email to my word processor, I simply select it, Ctrl C, open WordPerfect and Ctrl V.

    2. Otherwise, I use EverNote (free) to save anything from the Internet, email, everywhere, in any category I select or create. Retrieval is by subject, word search, or timeline date scale. Any saved material with hyperlinks can revisit the original source by clicking on it. Anything saved can be printed, emailed, etc. EverNote can be used as a journal, encrypted if desired. Great program. I use it multiple times per day.

  3. Bob Walter’s idea is good for saving e-mail, but a bit lengthy. I agree with John Bower, only I select and then copy, using the edit function in e-mail and paste into WordPerfect, using its “edit” function. When pasting into WordPerfect, however, you must use “paste special” and select “unformatted text”. (In my WordPerfect, I cannot use the normal “paste” command.) Then I do a bit of editing to make it easier to read and cite my source at the bottom of the document (flush right). Next I add a footer (for future retrieval from WordPerfect) and file it in the appropriate file. I also use this method when printing/saving documents from the internet.

  4. There is an easier way. Open the e-mail and press the Forward button but don’t send it, just highlight and cut the text which (will include the header information), and then open a word processor document and paste and save the file.

  5. Betty’s idea for the cemetery photos is right on target. I looked and looked for stones that I knew were in the cemetery but no one knew where. When I finally found them I took photos from the road that included a large very obvious stone at the end of the row that anyone could easily find. I then sent the photos to the local historical society for their records so anyone else looking for my ancestors could find them.

  6. Bob’s idea for saving e-mails is good, but lengthy. I simply highlight the text and copy directly to an open Word Document.
    I ighlight the sender’s e-mail address and add it to the signature line for reference and add a date on top of the document and save it in a folder with the appropriate surname.

    I keep a running word document of e-mails by surname. I add the e-mails sequentially with a line between them and my response, if any. When the document gets very long, I use the Edit/Find method of locating a particular reference by either sender name or some identifying word.

    This is one of the files that I back up to a separate drive so that a crash will not cause the loss of these valuable e-mails. Saves printing everything and then having to search a pile of papers for one that you want to look at again.

    Once in awhile I scan through the oldest e-mails from contacts on message boards because they remind me to try the boards again or I realize that I have since found information that proves a connection to an old correspondent.

  7. Betty’s idea is good and I discovered the need to use reference points in cemetery photos the same way she did! Our descendent genealogists will appreciate our thoughfulness and we will too if we revisit a cemetery!

  8. Bob’s suggestion for saving e-mail works. But, for those of us using Macs and Apple’s Mail application you only need to select “Save As” from the File menu and select a location. The default document type is an RTF file – Rich Text Format – which can be opened by almost any word processor in any operating system (XP, Linux, Mac OSX etc.). If you prefer you can also change the format of the saved file by selecting .txt.

  9. I, too, like Betty’s idea of photographing the gravesites with some identifying characteristic. I think it will especially be helpful in the “Memorial Park” where my parents are buried — there are no headstones, only placques in the ground. At present, I’ve been trying to remember a certain tree, a certain distance in from the road (finding the correct road in the first place) with a stone bench beneath the tree. My parents are just to the left and in front of that tree/bench! Come spring, I’m going back there to take some photos that will go with me whenever I visit! Thanks so much for your idea!

  10. I found Bob Walter’s procedure a bit long. I just save as a text file to file folders I already have set up for MS Word. The copying step is not needed for this procedure.

  11. I was trying to signup for the special one year Ancestery.com for $94.50. However the Button takes me to this page….. all the other signup buttons take me to a proper sign up page for into and credit card usage…..
    Ray

  12. I like many others on this page of comments, have been unable to signup for this special one year Ancestery.com for $94.50 as advertised in the email I received from you today. Is this bogus or as advertised. Please reply.

  13. I, like eleven thru fourteen above, am stymied by only getting this page when I click on “Sign Up Now” and since the sign-up time is expiring (for the discounted price) I guess that ends my efforts. It hasn’t been nice knowingt you. Freeland Smith

  14. I am also interested in joining at the special rate. I feel sure you will honor the advertised cost when things get straightened out. I also may try to call.

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  16. I also get this page when trying to sign up for the special offer of $94.50. It’s like looking for your ancestors, can’t figure it out. If you’re not going to honor it don’t advertise it.

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  19. To all who have left comments regarding the reduced subscription rate offer, click here to get the reduced rate. Or you can contact one of our customer service reps at 1-800-262-3787 (1-800-ANCESTRY).

    Enjoy!
    Juliana

  20. Tried to enter your site to take advantage of your special offer on a reduced price on ancestery.com, but was refered to this site instead. Is this offer for real or is this some kind of come on.I clicked on the button to sign up & got nowhere. Please respond regardless of honoring your special or not. Thank you, Joyce Stefan

  21. I got nowhere too. I guess they are really determined to not let us do business with them.

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