Seven years ago, OneGreatFamily.com introduced a revolutionary new service: an online genealogy database containing data contributed by users. Best of all, the data was shared by all and instantly updated when any user added or corrected any data within the single database. It was a revolutionary concept at the time.
Subscribers to OneGreatFamily.com accessed the service by first downloading a bit of software into their Windows computers and using it in a manner that was somewhat similar to other genealogy programs of the time, with one major exception: the data was stored in an online database instead of in individual "islands" on users' own hard drives. All the users shared one genealogy database. Any new data added to the centralized database was instantly visible and fully usable by others.
OneGreatFamily.com has continued to grow, and the company has occasionally added new features. You can read my past articles about the company at http://tinyurl.com/yuwykq.
This week OneGreatFamily.com introduced several major new features, perhaps the biggest upgrades ever. I had not looked at the service for a while, so I went back to see what's new. OneGreatFamily.com V.P. Rob Armstrong was kind enough to take me on a "tour" and point out the new features. I must say that I was impressed. The OneGreatFamily.com service has matured into a great product that will please many genealogists.
In practice, OneGreatFamily.com is a cross between a standard genealogy program that runs on a desktop computer and an application that runs in a web browser. In fact, it is an online application. The database resides on a large server farm on the Internet. Users access OneGreatFamily.com via an online connection. However, they don't use a standard browser. Most functions are performed by using small programs that download and run in the user's Windows computer. (There is no Macintosh capability.) Those applications communicate across the Internet to the database. In short, the OneGreatFamily.com programs operate in much the same manner as other genealogy programs (Legacy, RootsMagic, The Master Genealogist, Ancestral Quest, etc.) with one exception: data is not stored on the local hard drive. Instead, it uses a large database on a remote server for data storage. Everyone can read that data, and everyone can write to it, with protections that prevent overwriting someone else's data that I'll explain in a bit.
Upon signing up with OneGreatFamily.com for the first time (you do use a standard web browser for sign-up), you start by downloading a small program called Genealogy Browser. You enter information about yourself and your ancestors into Genealogy Browser. It will also import a GEDCOM file if you wish. At some point, the user decides to add his or her data to the one huge database at OneGreatFamily.com. Then the process gets interesting!
When I saw Genealogy Browser in action last week, Rob Armstrong entered very basic information about three people: himself, his father, and his mother. That's all, only three people. He then merged the data into OneGreatFamily.com, and within a few seconds he was looking at pages and pages of information about more than 1,000 of his ancestors!
To be sure, Rob knew in advance that all the information about his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and beyond were already in the database. He was able to use this as a demo simply because the information he entered about his father and mother was already in the OneGreatFamily.com database, and the software recognized them when Rob merged his newly-entered information into the major database.
This "canned demo" illustrated an ideal scenario, but it also shows what can be accomplished. Most of us will have to first enter more than three people into the database, although perhaps not. It all depends upon how much data about your ancestors has already been entered by others. The OneGreatFamily.com application will accept your new data and then start looking for matches. It will display probable matches to the user and ask, "Is this a match?" The user can accept it or not, as appropriate. After identifying one or two matches, the OneGreatFamily.com application will then connect the user into all known relatives already documented in the central database.
While the example I saw earlier of connecting someone to thousands of ancestors after entering the information of only three people is obviously unusual, it is common for genealogy newcomers to find documented connections to thousands of ancestors after entering information of only eight or ten known ancestors.
Obviously, the more people you can document on your own, the better the odds of matching with data already available on OneGreatFamily.com. Once matched, you will see all the known relations, probably included many that you were not aware of previously. You might find a few new ancestors. Some people may find thousands of new ancestors. As with any other genealogy information obtained online or in books, you always want to verify the information. However, this is a great way to get started or to verify what you already have. OneGreatFamily.com has often connected genealogy newcomers who only have information about a handful of ancestors and then suddenly found themselves with a thousand or more ancestors already defined. .
In the demo that I saw, Rob initially entered data about three people but deliberately left out his own middle name, deliberately misspelled the town where his parents were married, and also left out county names. When his three entries were matched against the master database, he was presented with a series of options of whether or not to accept the various bits of new information. In this example, the master database correctly identified his middle name, corrected the spelling of the town, and also inserted all of the correct county names. Each piece of new information was optional; the user is queried as to whether or not to accept the proposed new data. If you have doubts, you can decline the offer.
Much of the data within OneGreatFamily.com includes source citations although that is not strictly required. Any good genealogist is going to verify the information anyway, whether it is documented or not.
Everything up to this point was done in the Genealogy Browser program. After data entry is complete, the user moves to a different application: Family Dashboard. This is where the fun begins. Family Dashboard provides the ability to "zoom around the family tree," investigates individuals and facts, create reports, and generally check your family tree research.
Family Dashboard is built using widget technology. It is similar to the widgets used in Yahoo, Google, and Windows Vista's so-called "gadgets." Widgets are small sub-programs that a user may elect to make available or not. Widgets can be "dragged-and-dropped" onto the desktop or removed and hidden at any time. Some of the widgets already available today include:
EXCELLENT online maps built on top of Google Maps technology. You can map the locations and the travels of your ancestors in an almost infinite number of ways. You can see migration patterns. You can see the ancestors' locations as recorded in census records and elsewhere. You may be able to see why some of your ancestors met, courted, and married spouses in some nearby towns but not others (for example, perhaps a river or a mountain range blocked easy travel in one direction but not in another).
Dropline Charts showing the generations between you and a particular ancestor
Shared Ancestors. In the demo, Rob selected his own name, then selected Lucille Ball as the person to be compared with. Within seconds, he was told that Lucille was his ninth cousin, once removed. Keep in mind that Rob had not entered any data about Lucille Ball and very little data about his own ancestors. Almost all the data had already been in OneGreatFamily.com's database before he started on the project. He picked Lucille Ball at random and was pleasantly surprised to find he had a very distant relationship. Most everyone has distant relationships with a number of notable people. You may find some notables among your distant cousins on OneGreatFamily.com.
End of Line Widget that shows all of your ancestors who have no data entered about their parents. You can show all of them at once or focus on only one or two. These are the people for whom you need more research to go back more generations.
The Time Capsule is a sort of "What happened on this date in history" application that links dates in your data to historical information stored on Wikipedia. This can be very useful for studying the factors that affected the lives of your ancestors.
All of this is the tip of the iceberg. There are more widgets available today, and new ones are still being developed. All widgets are available to all users of OneGreatFamily.com.
Navigating around your family tree in OneGreatFamily.com is a pleasure. You can "surf" your family tree, using a mouse to "zoom" in and out, up, down, and around the tree. Indeed, it is displayed very much like a tree or some thick brush with branches intertwined everywhere. Cousin marriages and multiple lines of descent from one person or from one couple all present no problems. You can browse through the branches effortlessly.
I do not have the words to properly describe this form of navigation. Instead, I'd suggest you look at the demo at http://onegreatfamily.com/LearnMore. It will provide a visual demonstration that is far better than any words I can write.
Another feature that I think will be very popular is the "Read-only view for non-members." A OneGreatFamily.com customer can create a view of all or some of his family tree and then create a custom URL (web address) that displays the data in a web browser. The customer can then place that URL on a web site or include it in an e-mail message. Anyone who clicks on that URL link will display the information tree specified. You have to be a OneGreatFamily.com customer to create the custom URL, but anyone - customer or not - can later use the URL to see the information.
OneGreatFamily.com handles conflicts about as well as any system I have seen. Any time two or more genealogists collaborate on research, there are bound to be disagreements as to which "fact" is right. OneGreatFamily.com allows all customers to enter all sorts of facts. At first, all customers will see all the claimed facts for any one individual. In cases of disagreement, each person is invited to communicate with the other(s) in a cooperative method. (E-mail addresses are never shown without your permission.) If the two people eventually agree, those two facts are merged together to reflect the newly agreed-upon information. In cases where resolution is impossible, the user may elect to show all facts or to show only the specific facts that he or she selects. In other words, while the database may show three different dates and places for the birth of your great-grandfather along with two different sets of parents, you may elect to see and display only the one date, one location, and one specific set of parents that you wish. If you elect to create a custom URL of your ancestry, only the data you selected will display to those who click on your URL.
While you are using a shared database and do have the benefit of everyone else's research at your fingertips, you are never forced to accept any information that you believe might be incorrect.
Sensitive data, such as children born out of wedlock, can be kept "hidden." You can grant access to the hidden information to selected people while simultaneously hiding it from all other OneGreatFamily.com customers.
The OneGreatFamily.com database supports all sorts of religious database fields, including dates of LDS events, Catholic christenings, Jewish Bar Mitzvahs, and more.
As you might expect, OneGreatFamily.com sends and receives a lot of information over the Internet connection between your computer and the company's servers. A broadband Internet connection is strongly recommended. Company officials told me that a few customers have used it on dial-up connections and that it does work. However, performance on dial-up is very slow.
All in all, OneGreatFamily.com has come a long way since its introduction seven years ago. The company has preserved the benefits of one shared database with thousands of genealogists collaborating together to build one huge family tree, showing how millions of people are related. More recent changes have increased security, protected privacy, added ease of use, and greatly enhanced the user experience.
OneGreatFamily.com has a slogan: "Enjoy your family tree." Indeed, the company has produced a product that helps you do just that.
Some of the company's employees will expand on that a bit by saying, "Enjoy your family tree without all the tedious data entry." I am not sure I agree with that completely as some data entry will still be necessary. OneGreatFamily.com has not yet reached the Utopian concept of "enter your name and click on a button to see all your ancestors back to Adam and Eve." Nobody has provided that service yet. However, I will concede that OneGreatFamily.com is closer to that goal than any other product I have seen to date. The company provides millions of interconnected records in a user-friendly display. It offers documentation that is as good as what the users entered (which often may not be sufficient) and then allows the user to accept or reject any facts in the database. If the user has better information, he or she is invited to share it with everyone else.
In short, OneGreatFamily.com has already accomplished what some other organizations say they will do within a few years.
OneGreatFamily.com costs about $60 a year, or $5.00 a month but paid annually. A seven-day free trial is also available.
This strikes me as an economical price when you consider there is no software to buy, never any need to purchase software upgrades, and no other charges - and the company takes care of all the backups. Your data is always protected via daily backups without any action on your part. Your complete genealogy data is also always available from any Windows computer with an Internet connection, be it your desktop, your laptop, a friend's computer, or a public access computer at the library or at an Internet café. Universal access is a big help for those who travel.
To learn more about this great service, or to sign up now, go to http://www.OneGreatFamily.com.
I spent a couple of hours in there and got fairly lost. I did understand their policy statement however. It says whatever you own is their property and they can publish it however they see fit. Does it ever end?
Posted by: JLB | September 03, 2007 at 07:03 AM
OneGreatFamily's homepage also reinforces the need to verify data. They show a selected individual of President Harry S. Truman, born in Lamar, Jackson, Missouri. Actually Harry Truman didn't have a middle initial and Lamar is in Barton County. Still, as you say, a great starting point to find new avenues of research and to share what we already have.
Posted by: JCarter | September 03, 2007 at 09:02 AM
INCORRECT:
"the data was shared"
"new data added to the centralized database was instantly visible"
"data is not stored on the local hard drive"
"Everyone can read that data"
"how much data about your ancestors has already been entered"
etc.
CORRECT:
the data were shared
the new data ... were instantly visible
data are not stored...
everyone can read those data
how many data ... have already been entered
Hint: the word "data" is plural.
Posted by: The Grammar Doctor | September 03, 2007 at 10:27 AM
Well, excuse me Dick, but this review looks like a paid advertisement.
Posted by: rdx | September 03, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Nope. Not paid. They don't have enough money for that. (smile) I always liked OneGreatFamily.com and was enthused about it when I first saw it seven years ago. You can read my June 17, 2000 article at http://www.eogn.com/archives/news0025.htm
I've always been amazed that the service didn't become more popular. It languished for a while but new managers moved in some time ago and have now rejuvinated the product. It should be interesting to watch over the next year or two to see if they are successful.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | September 03, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Two questions I posted to this company today may be of interest to EOGN subscribers:
" snip], a few questions:
1) Your seven day trial agreement does not take account of your summer pricing promotion. Is that corrected upon billing?
2) Must one continue to be a subscribed member to access the information? That is, if at some future time, I do not remain a member, what services will continue to exist for me? I ask, because, I would be providing all my GEDCOM data - theoretically -to you apparently on a perpetual basis. Yet it appears that the business relationship is heavily biased in your company's interests. Am I incorrect in this analysis?
Posted by: Barry Spinner | September 03, 2007 at 11:20 AM
It would be nice if I could at least do a browser based search of the site and see some specific results (not just that there are 1300 matches for Moffat in the OneGreatFamily. That might get me a little more interested in giving them my credit card information.
But the fact that there's no Macintosh support on this site is pretty lame in this day and age I reckon - and the fact that their FAQ system seems to be broken as links to specific FAQ entries like "System Requirements" return an error also doesn't endear warm fuzzy thoughts .
Maybe someone who is a Windows using member can search for George Moffat born around 1790 +/- 5 years in Berwickshire, Scotland and let me know. :-)
Roger
Posted by: theKiwi | September 03, 2007 at 11:26 AM
I realize that FTM and OneGreatFamily are two entirely different programs, concepts, etc. But....
Once upon a time, FTM encouraged one to upload your own data to them. After a few years, they sold all that data on CD's. We had to buy our own data if we wanted access. And now folks can download off the FTM site this data and post to WorldConnect and claim it is their own research on the families.
Is OneGreatFamily going to do the same? No where on there site spells this out. It all sounds almost to good to be true, so what am I missing?
It is entirely possibly the reluctance of many to run to OneGreatFamily was/is due to being burned by FTM. I don't know, but someone tell me why I can trust OneGreatFamily. Thanks.
Posted by: Melinda | September 03, 2007 at 01:47 PM
Melinda, you can't. It says plainly in their Terms of Use:
3. You grant OneGreatFamily permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute any of the information included in your submission without compensation and in any form we feel appropriate. You also give us permission to use information from your submission to create new databases.
4. You affirm that you have the right to grant us permission to use the information in your submission, as described in these conditions. You accept legal responsibility for any permitted use made of the information you provide.
5. You agree that we are not responsible for any alteration, loss, damage, or corruption to your submission.
6. You agree that once you submit your genealogy to us, it becomes our property and cannot be retracted or returned. However, this does not limit your right to publish, sell, or give the information you submit to others.
Why do you think it's printed there?
Posted by: JLB | September 03, 2007 at 03:07 PM
I never found the "Terms of Use". Privacy Notice, but not the Terms of Use. It must be found as one is signing up or something. Anyway, thanks for sharing this tidbit.
Posted by: Melinda | September 03, 2007 at 03:29 PM
It's first presented while signing up and later it can be found in their Sitemap.
Consider this: First they charge you nearly $7 a month for uploading your genealogy, then they claim a right to own it and redistribute/sell it.
Posted by: JLB | September 03, 2007 at 03:43 PM
No, let me make that clearer. $80 a year (in perpetuity if you like) to store your genealogy database on their server, with all their rights as stated.
Mon Dieu, I can get an upgrade to Legacy Family Tree every couple of years for about $20, and it's mine.
I don't think a handful of widgets compensates for an insult of such magnitude.
Posted by: JLB | September 03, 2007 at 07:46 PM
When I first began family research (1976) kindly priests, clerks, and strangers would send me reams of info and copies of docs (well beyond what I had requested) simply for the asking and sometimes the cost of postage. Because research was very slow and tedious then, people were much more willing to share and help each other. There's still a lot of talk about sharing but it seems to be trending towards, "You can't use my information-it's MINE!" It seems to me that unless you're the only child of an only child of an only child, etc., someone at some point is going to upload the exact same info that you have so what is the purpose of claiming sole ownership to facts that anyone with a little gumption can ferret out for themselves? I think Ancestry, OGF, and the others are to be applauded for the work they've done and if they make a few dollars from the info they gather they've more than earned it-how else to pay overhead and salaries? I know they've saved me many thousands of dollars in time and travel costs to obtain what I have now. I couldn't possibly have done it without them!!
To those of you who have only found family by use of the internet go find someone who did research before computers and have them tell you how it used to take literally months and endless letters to find one small piece of information at a time-no sitting at a computer and finding entire trees with a few key strokes! Let's put the sharing back in genealogy.
Posted by: Ann | September 03, 2007 at 10:53 PM
The problem is not an unwillingness to share. I have a website for sharing. So far, people have mostly taken from there rather than giving back but that's fine. I have been freely given to through other channels and no-one's complained. And of course, as you say, it's common to gather family history that some-one else already has or could have. Mostly we don't beat each other over the head about who finds it 'first'. What I and others take umbrage to are genealogy websites who take from work that's freely circulated for the purpose of selling it.
OneGreatFamily can still charge a monthly fee for access, but do they really need to claim ownership of the data stored on their servers? with the over-arching threat of selling anything we put there, in whatever form at whatever time they choose. To me, that's just creepy.
On the other hand, I'm always open to hearing from a cousin who wants to chat about our common ancestry. Let's put the people back in genealogy!
Posted by: JLB | September 04, 2007 at 01:25 AM
JLB,
We share opinions on this, so I won't repeat all you've said. I would add that there are some Crooks who might choose to "keep" their data safe, by uploading that of another (or worse, invented) and representing it as their own. THEN, they would have access to the information they were after. Meanwhile, others accessing the Crook's information are also cheated. I've heard complaints over the decades about the contributed, but errant, data that are on FamilySearch. At least FamilySearch doesn't charge for it, too.
My site is also free. It is an enjoyable work of love.
Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/ssg1.htm
Posted by: Happy Dae | September 04, 2007 at 02:06 AM
I agree with Ann on the "It's Mine!!" attitude. I had that from a few Town Clerks in NY State. When given the public records challenge, one told me, "That's not true. These records are my records and I decide who can or can't see my records."
I also have a problem with the assumption of legal responsibility for something when I can't control the distribution. If I might be sued, I sure as hell want to control who and when it is given to.
I already store my data on my own server and my family research team can access it. So far the only thing that's possibly useful is data imports almost automatically. But, a problem with that may be what plagues Family Search; when there are two submissions for the same person that don't match exactly, the program automatically creates a new person. Somebody has to resolve the problem to make it the correct person. I'll try the test run and see if it convinces me.
Posted by: Gerald Eberwein | September 04, 2007 at 06:53 AM
Since I signed on to Eastman Newsletter I have become increasingly aware of the fact that people get envolved in doing genealogy for many different reasons. Some people want total control of their information and others do not object to someone else taking the results of their work.
The key here is that everyone should always have the right to choose. It is frustrating to read comments from people who like sharing their information openly that impune the attitude of people who like to control their data. I think I hear a bit of a better than thou attitude.
I also was amazed that someone who called themselves the Grammar Doctor would post an uninvited judgement on another persons communication. That kind of behavior tends to stifle free flowing, creative thinking. We have lots of good minds working in this comment section and we need to keep this great communication going without being afraid of censure.
Posted by: Betty | September 04, 2007 at 08:40 AM
I enjoy the articles by Dick and link to them for my genealogy e-mail buddies and this one is a definite "keeper." Additionally, I appreciate the comments from other knowledgeable genealogists who have experience where I have none or insights and concerns that have not yet arisen for me.
We need to assume that everyone posting is doing so "from the heart" and with good motives. Like gardeners, I find genealogists to be the most giving and sharing of persons.
Thanks to all of you for enlarging my core of knowledge!!!
Posted by: Margaret | September 04, 2007 at 09:48 AM
I'm pretty appalled at the possessive nature of genealogy organizations and websites (OneGreatFamily and FamilySearch). Additionally, I just had my third encounter with a far, far distant "relation" who uploaded my immediate family information to Ancestry/Rootsweb in no less than three kinds of family trees. Another slightly distant family relation had given this person my family's info probably some time ago and he felt that he then had the right to post it to the internet. I cringe when I think of what might be on OneGreatFamily now that I don't know about--I'm a subscriber to Ancestry but not to OGF. Finally, this frenzy of hobbyists to post literally tens of thousands of "relations" to the internet without documentation in most cases has made me far less likely to share any of my ancestor's or relatives information on the net. One branch of my family has a few dozen descendants who are in the process of creating a website that only family members can access to share our research. This frenzy of invading others' privacy by posting so-called "relations" without permission has gotten out of hand, to my mind. I agree with a poster a couple of days ago in this newsletter--what ever happened to researching one's ancestors? Who gave you the right to post everybody in the world to the internet? And why aren't more people concerned about this invas?ion of privacy?
~Bewildered
Posted by: Linda | September 04, 2007 at 11:19 AM
I have a cousin who won't share her information with me, her own cousin. She has the only known source documents and photos of two primary family lines. The "MINE!" attitude is more scarey to me than the sharing on public sites that claim ownership. Pretty soon we'd all be in a vacuum...
Posted by: Trish Lewis | September 04, 2007 at 11:59 AM
"OneGreatFamily can still charge a monthly fee for access, but do they really need to claim ownership of the data stored on their servers? with the over-arching threat of selling anything we put there, in whatever form at whatever time they choose. To me, that's just creepy."
I would suggest that if you think about it for a while you will see that it would be impossible for One Great Family to offer the functionality it does if they didn't have the right to redistribute the uploaded data to their other customers. If you don't give them the right to publish and sell the data then they can't distribute to other users (who are paying customers - hence selling) and the whole system becomes useless.
A question I don't know the answer to is whether it is possible to download parts of the tree to import into your private collection. If not that is pretty strong lock-in. I don't think I would rely on an online service to maintain my data without any way to make a local copy should I decide I want to part ways. But there is no reason you can't manually take information from the site to add to your own database - so you can walk away and stop paying at any time.
Again, this makes me wonder if what the world needs is a way to collect and organize simple facts - something no one owns. This might get us beyond these arguments about who should be allowed to do what with what data because everyone would be allowed to do anything with any of the data because it is all just a bunch of uncopyrightable facts. The key would be to simply exclude anything that isn't a simple fact and do it in a way that no one can claim that they own the "collection of facts". The open source software community and creative commons folks have already gone down this road and developed solutions that make this possible. Just create an open database that anyone and everyone is free to copy. That way you don't have to worry about it "going commercial" or at least if someone creates a commercial service based on it free versions are still available, and the commercial service has to add value in some way if it wants to compete with "free".
Posted by: Lindsay | September 04, 2007 at 12:25 PM
"Who gave you the right to post everybody in the world to the internet?"
I think that was the authors of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. :-) :-) :-)
Posted by: Lindsay | September 04, 2007 at 12:32 PM
A simple approach is to only post publicly what you're willing to share with the general public, whether that's on your own personal website or on a public tree site. Once you put it out to the general public, consider it public. Why the shock and outrage that other people are re-using it?
A great deal of my family history is not "public", such as photographs from private collections, diaries and other hand-written documents from across centuries. Those are for sharing amongst family members who honor the sanctity of it. Draw that line where you may.
Posted by: JLB | September 04, 2007 at 05:03 PM
I have been a member of OGF for 8 months or so. I have been interested in seeing how it works, but take some of the "merges" with a grain of salt. I prefer to use the information I find as a trail to find documentation and sources.
I am perturbed though to find that this past weekend I have been unable to access the family tree I uploaded in GEDCOM format. It just is not there. I sent them an email and was told that I must have edited my Tree which caused a break in the link. Well, I didn't, and since they no longer appear to have my tree, I am wondering just how secure my other trees will be.
I urge everyone to make sure they send copies of their data to other family members for safe keeping. Don't count on some online company to keep it safe for you. I figure the more people that have access to my data, the safer it will be.
Nora Nell
Posted by: Nora Nell Thompson | September 04, 2007 at 07:19 PM
Nope,No Thanks...I have a hard time giving them my credit card info for a "free trial".
I'm sure there's a few really good computer geeks out there who could setup a gizmo that would block the free trial access after that 7 day time frame is over.
By then ,if not before,the free times up...I'm sure someone can decide then to give them the yearly fee.
Posted by: Marianne Fisher | September 04, 2007 at 07:29 PM
First Amendment Schmendment :-) :-) :-)
I think there are a few areas of the law that deal with privacy as well. I wasn't the one who gave my family's personal information to this guy--and I wasn't asked for permission to use it publicly (and luckily, Ancestry "will" take it off when we complain, though it's a slog through their bureaucracy). Folks in this arena are far too cavalier about putting information on living individuals online.
To the individual whose cousin wouldn't share--I hope you keep trying and that the cousin comes around eventually. That's just mean spirited on her part--it's not about public vs. private info at all in that case. Good luck!
Posted by: Linda | September 05, 2007 at 11:17 AM
I think people should be cautious and courteous about posting "private" information about other people too. And I think this is a potential downside to the proliferation of family/genealogy oriented social networking sites - in most cases they encourage people to post data about living people. And if you want to connect people to their living relatives this is somewhat hard to avoid. I expect that in the age of Google et al our concepts of what is private and what is public are very likely to shift toward more and more that was private being comfortably public.
And this is where the lack of threading in these comments go to heck and one ends up with multiple people arguing about multiple topics and all the confusion that arises from that. There are several issues here:
1) Posting something someone else considers to be "their research" without permision and/or credit
2) Posting information about people who consider that information to be private
3) Courtesy
4) Ethics
5) Legality
6) Giving credit and citing sources
My only point was that when people question other people's right to post things, from a legal point of view the default is that you have a right to say almost anything, only when there is copyright or contractual arrangements or specific laws to the contrary do people lose the right to say/post things.
Posted by: Lindsay | September 05, 2007 at 01:36 PM
OMG. This is yet another unashamed uncritical advertorial.
You are misleading your readers .The "free trial" IS NOT FREE AT ALL.
They demand your name, email address, home address and even credit card details.
- Biance
Posted by: Biance Spolt | September 06, 2007 at 10:58 AM
"Free" means they do not charge you for that period of time.
Their free trial is just that: free. Your credit card is not charged until the eighth day and you can opt out before then if you please. Therefore, it is a seven-day free trial. I use free trials often when writing reviews: I sign up for something, give my credit card info, use the product long enough to become familiar with it, write the review, then cancel before the free trial expires. That has always worked well for me.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | September 06, 2007 at 11:07 AM
Just started using and they came back with some information that leads me to doubt their accuracy. I entered information about my 8th great grandfather born 1608. They came back with his father born 1774. I notified OGFN and so far no explanation.
Posted by: Al Calkins | September 07, 2007 at 09:39 AM
You indicated, Dick, that when you first get on, "You enter information about yourself and your ancestors into Genealogy Browser" -- Please elaborate & let us know whether they require you to enter your own personal info in order to benefit? In particular, *must* one enter her full DOB (versus just a year, for example)? Or instead of entering any personal info that would be on their huge database, could one alternatively enter info about, for example, her deceased father & his parents, and thus see info on matching people in that family line, without having to divulge her own personal info? Of course I realize one's credit card & billing info would be with the company, but is there an explanation of how deeply that is safeguarded? Thanks.
Posted by: Barb | September 07, 2007 at 02:51 PM
In short, you enter whatever data you want: about yourself or about a great-great-grandparent or whatever. The more data you enter, the better the chances of finding a link to data that is already there. As to which people: that is totally up to you. There is no REQUIREMENT to enter data about yourself. You can start at a distant ancestor and work backwards, if you wish. It is your choice.
As to entering credit card & billing info, I NEVER worry about that. I spent three years working at a company whose sole service was processing online credit card transactions. What I learned was that most of the stories about using credit cards online are "old wives' tales." All credit card transactions are 100% protected against fraud and mis-use.
In fact, I have stopped sending checks through the mail because checks get stolen so often and cashed. Sending a check in the mail is too risky. Checks are not insured; if your check is stolen and cashed, you lose the money.
HOWEVER, using a credit card online is very safe as all transactions are 100% insured. Should someone rip off your credit card number (which is very rare), you might suffer some inconvenience but you will never lose a dime. Simply contact the credit card company (most cards have the phone number on the back, all cards include the phone number with your monthly statement).
For details about credit card safety, go to VISA's Web site at http://www.usa.visa.com/personal/secure_with_visa/index.html?it=h1_/index.html and to MasterCard's Web site at http://www.mastercard.com/general/zero_liability.html and to American Express' Web site at http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,5962,00.asp
I use credit cards online a lot because of the safety of that insurance. I would never do that with a check, however, either online or offline.
There was a genealogy experience a few years ago that proves the point: a two-person company announced they would sponsor a major genealogy conference in the Detroit suburbs and they sold advance registrations at a discount. The company accepted tens of thousands of dollars for registrations and then folded up and declared bankruptcy. Every person who paid by credit card received a 100% reimbursement from the credit card companies. Everyone who paid by check or by cash lost every penny.
As a result of that and other experiences, I always pay as many things as possible by credit card, either online or in person. I would not hesitate to give my credit card number to this company or any other company, as I know the transaction is fully insured, even if the company later turns out to be crooked.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | September 07, 2007 at 03:11 PM
Dick, et al;
I signed up for a one month trial of OneGreatFamily and uploaded a GEDCOM. I was pleasantly surprised to see three immediate matches! I was even more surprised to discover that all of them were identical to my GEDCOM, but submitted by different people. Apparently, my GEDCOM appears on a site (I know it was submitted to Ancestry by a cousin against my wishes). It appears that it is spread all over the pay sites now.
It is a shame that the hobby and serious research enjoyed by so many genealogists has turned into a massive hijack operation that makes a few large corporations richer when I and many others would gladly share for free with anyone that would agree not to sell it and enrich the people who only exploit our years of work and vast expenditures of time and money.
Vincent Falter
Posted by: Vincent Falter | September 08, 2007 at 03:43 PM
Dick, since this is a PC orientated program can you tell me how it compares to Geni.com ? I like this program for sharing data with kin. I do not use it for my major genealogy program. But I can have distant kin link to the site and we can share data more easily. It also helps to explain to others when you have duel related lines that are so hard to explain. I like the idea you can share or limit sharing and expand as much as you want.
Thanks if you can give me update on this. I have many PC computer users in the classes I teach and would love to give them good knowledge.
SusiCP@aol.com
Posted by: Susi Pentico | September 08, 2007 at 08:02 PM
I enquired - they are working on a Mac-compatible version. How hard they're working is another question as they project no date for its completion.
Dick - Can you reply to the question of their "ownership" of data submitted?
Posted by: Tom | September 08, 2007 at 10:01 PM
---> can you tell me how it compares to Geni.com ?
The two are totally different in almost every way imaginable. OneGreatFamily.com is closer to traditional genealogy programs written for Windows and Macintosh computers. It helps you go back many, many generations and produces all sorts of charts and printouts for that purpose.
Geni.com is a social networking site designed to connect you with your cousins. It features photo albums and such.
It is easy to say "apples and oranges." In this case, it is much more different than that. More of a comparison between apples and lettuce. Really different.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | September 08, 2007 at 10:05 PM
---> Dick - Can you reply to the question of their "ownership" of data submitted?
Sure. That is simple and something that has been well tested in the courts. Facts are public domain. Nobody owns them.
The fact that your great-grandfather married your great-grandmother in Podunk, Massachusetts in 1866 is a public domain fact. It is not anyone's personal property, although many people would like to think it is. You or I may have possession of facts about our ancestors and we may or may not choose to share that information but we never "own" facts.
All of the online sites have a clear right to publish facts, with the exception of records created in the past 72 years (privacy laws take precedence over public domain).
The above is true for the United States but I have been told that the laws are different in many other countries.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | September 08, 2007 at 10:18 PM
I manually posted a few names to get started and found that to be totally cumbersome. So then I downloaded a gedcom to get started. Now, it keeps telling me I only have 7 names and need more to find matches.
When I go to the the index and click on the Ancestor, it shows all the trees and families but the dashboard does not recognize it. Did I do something wrong or does it take time to digest the gedcom.
Posted by: No2more | September 10, 2007 at 04:29 PM
No2more, I have also have trouble with my OneGreatFamily program recently. I had many, many generations going back on my Hughes line, but this past week I found it no longer had info in it.
I even wrote to OGF and got an email response that really didn't explain what had happened. I tried entering data, and then did what you did and downloaded/uploaded my Hughes GEDCOM. It sat there for a few days, and now I still don't have any more people than I did before I sent them the larger GEDCOM.
All the trouble seems to have started when they came up with their new format and Dashboard.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. noranell1@gmail.com
Posted by: Nora Nell Thompson | September 10, 2007 at 04:53 PM
I signed up for the free seven day trial, and then had to give my credit card information in order to get admitted. So to make sure when the seven days were over, I would not be charged for a full year, I checked the quarterly plan. Now, it is telling me that my suscription will expire 12/9/2007 instead of 12/15/2007. So what happened to my free seven days.
Once I clicked on the quarterly plan, did that mean I no longer get the free seven days?
Posted by: No2more | September 10, 2007 at 04:57 PM
Thanks for the come back Nora. Appears that I have just been ripped off, with a program that is supposed to be a backup for my files. I have no backup, but I'm sure they have access to my tree - my Scott line goes back to 1678.
I guess I a not a happy camper at this moment - besides the fact that I have wasted the better part of two days messing with this.
Posted by: No2more | September 10, 2007 at 05:03 PM
Is this page gone dead? No responses to any queries since the 8th.
Anyway to get my money back?
The sites are not working and the bosses flew away
Posted by: No2more | September 11, 2007 at 08:34 AM
I've also had trouble getting started, with a small gedcom sitting there stalled at "merging" for days. Finally got a "dashboard" this morning, but I have not been pleased with all the wasted time. I paid the $60 for a year and now regret it.
I find that, no matter how fancy a site is, like OneGreatFamily, junk is still junk, and that seems to be the bulk of these user-submitted gedcoms. Sources are nonexistent and obviously a huge number of the entries were merged from other unsourced pedigrees. I was hoping for better, based on Mr. Eastman's enthusiastic review.
Sharon
Posted by: Sharon Workman | September 11, 2007 at 11:36 AM
After reading a number of negative comments here, I feel that I have to add a bit more information about my review. I did use the OneGreatFamily.com service for a couple of hours last week as I was writing that review. I used a three or four-year-old Windows XP system and did upload a small GEDCOM file of a few hundred ancestors, not all of my database. I suspect my data is still online at OneGreatFamily.com.
I did not encounter any problems when uploading the GEDCOM file and the operation of the service seemed to run smoothly, although it was not blindingly fast. I was able to navigate around the menus. The service did find a lot of my French-Canadian ancestors but was less successful with my northern New England Yankees.
I never encountered any errors in the two or three hours I used the service. I haven't been back since.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | September 11, 2007 at 12:27 PM
Another follow-up comment:
As to "ownership" of the data submitted, in my earlier response I focused on copyright laws. While that answer was correct, with a bit more thought I now realize it is only a partial answer. In addition to laws, there is a users license that you agreed to when you signed up for the service. In the terms and conditions of that license, you gave the company permission to store and use any data you submitted.
This site is the same as almost all other online sites; if you don't want the site to store and re-use your information, don't upload your data! Once you agree to the terms and conditions displayed on your screen, it is too late to go back later and complain about the terms and conditions that you already agreed to. (Yeah, I know... nobody ever reads that stuff. But we should.)
On all web sites, you have 3 choices:
1. fully accept the terms and conditions that site uses
2. if you do not agree with those terms and conditions, go away and never upload any data at all
3. start your own web site where YOU can specify the terms and conditions.
Posted by: Dick Eastman | September 11, 2007 at 12:29 PM
I tried again today to work my file. The Dashboard is still showing 0000. I decided to download my gedcom again thinking it went to cyber space. No way - it is there somewhere, it told me not to download again that I could mess up some of the siblings etc . So, It is there. Then I went to search and put in a name I know is in that gedcom and searched. The results - 0 results.
Can someone please tell me where it went and how I can access it?
This is a pain in the neck so far and a poor advertisement for your site.
I intend to keep complaining until something gets fixed, along with my membership fees. Better yet, as long as I am still on my free trial, why can't I get my subscription cancelled.........
Posted by: No2more | September 11, 2007 at 02:54 PM
I did get a pretty good laugh, but not one worth $60.
They've added this to my tree:
Fetjuir, born 1275 b.c. in Italy, married Anchises, who was born 1275 b.c. in Troy, North West Asia.
I haven't looked for Adam and Eve, but I'm sure they are there.
For this I paid $60? I can buy a book on mythology for a whole lot less.
I am canceling out. They will keep my money, but maybe I can keep my sanity (what there is) and my sense of humor.
Sharon
Posted by: Sharon Workman | September 11, 2007 at 03:13 PM
And the good news is...... I had no problem canceling my account. I had to call, but a nice person on the other end gave me no argument, no questions, no demand for reasons. :>)
Sharon
Posted by: Sharon Workman | September 12, 2007 at 07:47 AM
Human beings have the opportunity to choose their reactions - in this case any person can choose to:
1) be angry, upset, indignant, etc. that info they have researched, discovered, documented, or "owned" would be "owned" and used by OGF.
or
2) be happy, grateful, appreciative, etc. that, for a reasonable fee, OGF will help you share the info you have compiled with the rest of the world, and offer some tools that may (or may not) help you [it a service for a fee deal]
If you choose (1), whine; if you choose (2), enjoy what you may learn.
Posted by: Jim Bartlett | September 12, 2007 at 10:22 AM
Regarding Jim's comment: "be happy, grateful, appreciative, etc. that, for a reasonable fee, OGF will help you share the info you have compiled with the rest of the world..."
For NO fee, Rootsweb/Ancestry and GenCircles, among other sites, let me share my data with the rest of the world, and they don't mess it up with a lot of bogus, mistaken, mythological crap which just contaminates some otherwise well-researched genealogy.
I want to make two final comments to this thread.
1. The main IDEA behind OneGreatFamily is one great fiasco. Their software program matches what people have submitted and merges those that seem identical. Gedcom1 has a match with gedcom2, and say gedcom1 has no further ancestors for that individual. Gedcom2 does. As a result, those further ancestors are automatically merged into the whole mess, even though the further ancestry is bogus. We all know there are "genealogists" out there who can't distinguish between their supernatural religious beliefs and historical facts. Hence, we get Biblical figures dumped into family lines, as if those were real people with proven genealogy. Adam and Eve really are listed in people's data published on the net. At least one person has Angel Gabriel as the father with God the grandfather. Do you want God attached to your well-researched data? As an atheist, I sure don't.
2. There are some exceptionally astute persons posting here, including Mr. Eastman. Some heavy and very important issues have emerged on this one thread, and I am sure on others. I am impressed and plan to read more here.
Posted by: Sharon Workman | September 12, 2007 at 01:47 PM
A message posted by Margaret on September 04, 2007 at 09:48 AM is misleading. She said:
"I'm pretty appalled at the possessive nature of genealogy organizations and websites (OneGreatFamily and FamilySearch)."
Unlike Ancestry and OneGreatFamily (among others), FamilySearch and the LDS Church derive no income or monetary benefit from people who post their genealogy to the Web site. To lump this site with other proprietary software and database companies, is totally irresponsible.
As for "the possessive nature of genealogy organizations and Web sites (OneGreatFamily and FamilySearch)," you have a choice to share or not to share your genealogy with others. Nobody is twisting your arm. I, for one, am happy that people share their information with others. If every genealogist took a proprietary view of their work and failed to share it with others, then genealogical research would come to a screeching halt and there would be no joy in this wonderful vocation/avocation.
As for documentation, it is the sole responsibility of each conscientious genealogist to properly identify sources and other information. Personally, I'm not concerned about the inaccurate work of others; I'm more concerned about the quality of research and documentation I do and the information I share with others. It's called personal responsibility, and my integrity is on the line. I can sleep at night, knowing I've done my very best work.
Thanks, Dick, for your excellent critiques!
Posted by: Dave W. | September 12, 2007 at 10:00 PM
Genealogy is my hobby, and I have FUN with it. One Great Family is a fun (and funny) site. I have learned how many different ways I am related to God, Adam, Noah, the Visigoths, etc. Now while I haven't exactly downloaded this information into my "serious" genealogy program, I have gotten some pretty good hints of places and people to investigate on some of my brick walls.
I've spent more money than this in my earlier life in the pursuit of "fun" (privacy and security concerns prevent me from releasing identifying details about this specific brand of fun to the public...i.e. If you don't want info known and/or shared, keep your own mouth/keyboard shut).
I do wonder who has the time and imagination to create some of these "trees"...I guess they just like to have fun too! :o)
Posted by: twedia | September 19, 2007 at 10:36 AM
I tried the 7 days free. Signed up two days ago, and decided to cancel today. First of all, while it's very easy to figure out how tosign up, in order to cancel, you have to call their number, leave a message, then wait for someone to call back.
Secondly, even though I signed up with the 7 day free trial (2 days ago), in my return call I was informed that I would be charged for the first month because I signed up for a subscription plan.
I found the website difficult to use, hard to navigate, and full of erroneous data. So far, tribal pages has been loads better.
Posted by: Allison | September 20, 2007 at 05:43 PM
I made a BIG MISTCKE of subscribing to One Great family - which I believe should read ONE GREAT MESS. Example - I had Gov. William Bradford and Alice Carpenter posted as having three proven children. Next time I checked, this couple had 67 children. I would have to merge duplications before I could delete any children. Wish I had never heard of this site. I have a one year subscription because I did not unscribe during the one week FREE period if it was ever offered. You have to give your credit card information before you can have the free week and if you fail to give them notice before the end of the free week, you are stuck with a one year subscription. After Ancestry's charges, I should have learned my lesson. Was too trusting of Dick's recommendation. My fault - no one else's! Be forewarned!
Posted by: Peggy Taylor | September 21, 2007 at 11:39 PM
I subscribed after reading one of your posts Dick but have not spent much time there in a long time. Now I cannot log on to the site. When I try to get help I am either told (1)that an email message will show shortly or (2) that there is something wrong with my attempt (wrong e-mail or such) No message has every arrived. However, OGF can send me e-mail. I hae tried other ways to get help but all have failed.
If anyone can suggest a way to get the logon/password/email/whatever combination they want, I would welcome the help.
Posted by: BarryBoyer | November 22, 2007 at 02:56 PM
Have you contacted OneGreatFamily.com and asked them? Their contact info is on most every page there in the bottom right corner.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | November 22, 2007 at 06:55 PM
"My only point was that when people question other people's right to post things, from a legal point of view the default ..."
I don't think "rights" are exactly the point. One can certainly post whatever he or she wants. My question is whether it is ethical. We should be encouraging all genealogists to follow the guidelines of the NGS at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comstandards.cfm
I don't post any information on myself, my parents, or grandparents online, and I will never upload a GEDCOM to the Internet. My family web site includes tons of information and I would rather share information that way.
Back when we wrote letters, I sent FGS to "cousins," and some of them included all of my work in the GEDCOMs they distributed, without my permission, of course. It took almost a year to convince Ancestry to remove information on my living father and aunt that multiple people had uploaded.
Public record information is in the public domain, but my narratives and conclusions are not. I freely share all of my information with other researchers in my line. However, it's simply COURTESY to footnote sources and ask another researcher if they mind sharing their data with the "world."
Posted by: Patsy | March 01, 2008 at 01:13 PM
I've been using OGF for about six months. During four to five months it was difficult, balky and seemed to be awkward to use. Finally I saw the pattern. I could not tell it to do something, then tell it to do something else before it completed the first task. It would often crash on doing that. Also, I expected merges and hints to be automatic, but that is exactly where the person working with
genealogy is expected to input his or her own information, correct it if necessary, and take considerable, even meticulous care to ensure the records are good. I found it necessary to be bolder about accepting merges when they really seemed probable, and clear them to reject them from showing in my data whenever they were not up to par. If the name was good, but no dates or spouses were there, I just clear it and get rid of it. It's up to those who use it to include enough information and I have no way to validate data for them. Hints sometimes won't go away but return a message "There are no hints at this time for this individual" but it will be fixed someday. Some, even many people fear the ancestors, and it's almost a requirement to look at the past that way now even though one is not actually fearful; the United Nations covenants call for "Freedom from Fear". Often still the system crashes by itself. It moves data back and forth rapidly when not being used by me so it is doing something, probably using borrowing computer time from users' machines like SETI or many other distributed-computing systems do. I wish OGF would describe that. But it is very, very good if one eliminates bad information ruthlessly and carefully keeps good information. It just takes time how to do it well. Also, OGF staff will tolerate some complaints but if there are many they just stop answering, probably because there are so many clients they just cannot afford to deal with complainers. OGF is not a system that hatched perfect when new. It will require time to get all the bugs worked out, but for some purposes it appears to be unequalled already.
Posted by: Mike Lewis | April 30, 2008 at 09:04 PM
I signed up for a 7 day free trial. After 3 hours realized I was getting records that didn't work for me. Cancelled on their on line form. Later get billed, when I contact them I am told my membership was cancelled but I would be able to continue to use their records for a year. Wow I think great service. At the end of the year maybe I will purchase anyways, one never knows right. I even said to their nice little customer service rep that they did not need to do that. She paused and then contiued with how I could use it and they did find my cancellation email. I then send off an email asking when the credit card will be reimbursed only to find out the reason I could still use the service is because they did not cancel my subscription and no refund will be forth coming, this is why I can still use it. Ummm ...So question if I send a clear message I do not want to purchase something and they receive that email, what kind of game are they playing to then make it about whether I clicked a link or not. I did click the link. How do I prove this? Even if they are good ( I doubt giving away family info to a faceless nameless organization is a great way to spend my money) I will never use them again, nor would I recommend them. Byer beware is all I can say. I am not happy.
Posted by: Debra Schapansky | May 21, 2008 at 05:13 AM
I would seriously reconsider your recommendation of this firm. They are extremely aggressive in fighting legitimate refunds and run misleading "free trial" advertisements. My credit card company agreed with me and charged back the amount. They rebilled and demanded documentation be filed with the credit card company! Over $50.
They are obviously not in this for the long run and I would not trust them.
I have a complaint filed with the NY State Attorney General's office.
Here are two other samples of their aggressive tactics.
www.complaints.com/2007/july/26/One_Great_Family_147706.htm
www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/onegreatfamilycom-c105378.html
Posted by: Tyler Colby Hill | October 25, 2008 at 03:48 PM
There is no way to cancel a trial membership that I can find on the web site. When I try to send an email it conveniently doesn't work and returns an error message.
Posted by: Richard | November 16, 2009 at 10:46 AM