Methods For Keeping Your Data Organized At OneGreatFamily
OneGreatFamily has developed the Family Group and Anchor system to quickly and efficiently manage your data. The method may seem complicated at first, but you will find that it is really quite simple.
Family Groups
One of the most powerful abilities of OneGreatFamily is that it keeps track of differences in conclusions reached by each user. So if you and I share an ancestor, but we disagree about that ancestor’s birth date, OneGreatFamily will show you the birth date you accept, and it will show me the birth date I accept. Furthermore, we both can see the birth date the other accepts, but we don’t have to agree.
You might be surprised to learn that OneGreatFamily does not keep track of these differences by user. Instead, it keeps track of these differences by Family Group (or just Group). This creates tremendous flexibility for you as a user of OneGreatFamily because you can create and belong to as many Family Groups as you wish. Further, you can invite other users to be a part of any Family Group you create. So you can use different Family Groups for different research efforts.
For example, you may want to create one Group for your mother's ancestral line and another one for your father's ancestral line. You might create yet another Family group for your spouse’s family tree. Then you could invite different relatives to be a member of the group they are researching.
Because differences in conclusions are kept at the Group level, any changes made by a Group member are automatically shared by all the group members, but not for other Groups. Let’s use a (hopefully) simple example to illustrate how this works. Assume that: i) you belong to two Groups, one for your ancestral family tree and another for your spouse’s; ii) your brother also belongs to the group for your ancestral line; and iii) you and your spouse share an ancestor for whom you agree about his birth date. If your brother were to find evidence of a different birth date and enter it within your group, you would automatically accept the new birth date within your group, but your wife’s group would continue to see the original birth date with the new birth date as a conflict. Your wife could then accept the new birth date, or stick with the old one.
Allowing others to join your group lets them also view OneGreatFamily from your perspective. Groups allow all members of OneGreatFamily to keep track of their data and work together on their family trees. As a member of OneGreatFamily you can search through all information from other groups. Subscribers get the added benefit of seeing where new information becomes available when other groups are working on their family lines.
To create a group, simply type a unique group name and password on the Group Chooser page. You can invite any OneGreatFamily members to join your group. When someone else joins your group, he or she gains the ability to enhance and edit the information in your group.
You should invite into your group anybody, as long as you are comfortable in automatically accepting their research. If you want to preserve the option of accepting or rejecting their changes, you need to be in separate groups. For that reason, some users maintain a separate group of which they are the only member. That lets them have complete control over one version of their family tree.
Do keep in mind that if you are a member of multiple groups, it will require some additional time to maintain and update each group. However, usually you can update one group and then accept changes in the other groups to quickly get all your groups to the same place.
Working within a single group will minimize the time and effort spent researching your genealogy. Many OneGreatFamily members find the need to create only one group. When these members find others who are working on their family tree, they invite those people to join their group as well.
Anchors
An anchor is the individual that any particular genealogy begins with. Genealogy would extend from the "anchor" to their parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so forth. Anchors are particularly useful to break down large genealogies into smaller, more manageable parts. An individual may want to have one anchor for his father's line and another for his mother's line.
Anchors are essentially quick reference points to any individuals of significance in your family tree. Creating or deleting an anchor does not affect the record being referenced. Removing an anchor only removes your quick reference to it. When you submit a GEDCOM file to OneGreatFamily, an anchor is automatically created to the first individual in the file.
Some family trees may only need one anchor at first; however, as they grow larger, more anchors become useful. For large family trees where you need quick access to specific branches, we suggest creating more anchors. You can create as many anchors as you like.
We hope that this article provides valuable information to help you manage your information using OneGreatFamily groups and anchors.
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