If I Knew Then . . .

If I Knew Then . . . I was fortunate to be in Florida when MyHeritage genealogy expert Daniel Horowitz was touring the state and giving free lectures. The Manatee Genealogical Society hosted Daniel Horowitz’s lecture at the State College of Florida’s lovely “Together Manatee Community Room” in the college’s Library & Learning Center. 1. Back Up -The first thing on Daniel’s list of “If I Knew Then What I Know Now” presentation was Dick Eastman’s reminder: Back up. Mr. Eastman posted this reminder on the first of every month. Mr. Horowitz expanded on this suggesting backing up to multiple media. 2. Naming Documents – This slide was the first of how he names and stores his digital files. Make sure the document, image, or photo is identified so it can be easily found. 3. You See It – You Get It – How often have we seen documents or images online, but continue to search because we are hot on the trail? The document or image is forgotten for now, but when we need it later it can’t be found. Daniel Horowitz reminds us to stop and capture the item by either downloading or photographing it. 4. Dates – He posted several familiar ways to record dates that we either said no to or yes, that’s the way. Not. For sorting purposes, start with the year, then the month and date. Make sure you include the zero. i.e. 1980 07 05 5. Facts – He showed a photo of a family photo of a tombstone in Israel he’d found on Billion Graves. The photo showed a bit of the next stone which turned out to be another family member. A reminder to check cemeteries for other relatives as they tend to be buried near each other. Check the dates. He showed an example of a stone with a death date of April 20, but when he checked the death certificate, the person died on April 17, and the burial date was the 20th. 6. Source – Goes without saying, but do your best to get to the original source. 7. Associations – When you have documents, images, and photos of ancestors, look closely to see how they relate to each other. 8. Google Maps – He showed a photo of his aunt standing in from of her grocery store. The sign above the store had the number 722. He figured that was the address, so mapping where his relatives lived in Brooklyn, he looked for that number. They would not have traveled far to work like some do today. He put in 722 in Google Maps and it gave him several addresses with that number. He found one within a couple of blocks from his aunt’s home. Then he found a photo of what the store looks like today. He ended his presentation by sharing all the free opportunities that MyHeritage provides. They have a free Genealogy Course, you can upload your DNA results taken with other companies to the MyHeritage website, and you can have a free tree with a limit of 255 people, though you can transfer a Gedcom file with a larger tree. Daniel Horowitz covered a lot of ground in an hour, interspersed with a few laughs, and he spent another thirty minutes answering questions. I’m glad I took notes! After his Florida tour, he will be on his way to RootsTech. I’ve developed my schedule for the online courses. Have you?