9 Steps to Really Safeguard Your Family Tree

Ever since I quit my day job, I've been spending all day, every day building my family tree. When you're adding 200 people to your tree a day, you've got to make sure not to lose any of your work.

That's why I developed an iron-clad routine so I'll never lose a day's work. I follow this routine without fail. It's a long list, but when you make something a habit, the steps move right along.

This list assumes you're using desktop family tree software. I cannot imagine building your tree only online. I want that data on my computer, in my control at all times. Don't you?

Here's my obsessive-compulsive routine. I should be this careful with everything in my life.

Together, these 9 steps make your family tree as safe as you can imagine.

Throughout the Day:

1. Save the Change Log

When it's time for a break, I take advantage of a Family Tree Maker feature I learned about last year. When you click the Plan tab in FTM, you'll see 2 tabs: Tasks and Change Log. Change Log is a list of your last thousand changes.

Click the printer icon to save the list as a PDF. The name of my family tree file is Iamarino, my maiden name, so I save this file as "temp Iamarino Change Log.pdf." Each time I save it, I overwrite the previous version.

2. Make a Backup

Since I make a few backups throughout the day, I add a letter to the end of each file's name:

• Iamarino_2022-09-20a.ftmb
• Iamarino_2022-09-20b.ftmb
• Iamarino_2022-09-20c.ftmb
• Iamarino_2022-09-20d.ftmb

Once I make the final backup of the day, I delete these interim files. But if disaster strikes my file in the middle of the day, I can rely on my latest backup.

You may have overlooked these important family tree maintenance and backup options.

At the End of the Day:

3. Export a Full GEDCOM

This is a new step for me. After a long day's work, why wouldn't I generate my latest and greatest GEDCOM file? As the days go by, I keep only the 2 most recent GEDCOMs on my computer.

An up-to-date GEDCOM means you're always ready to:

• upload it to a new website
• search it for text you need to find
• open it in different software.

4. Make a Final Backup

Now it's time for the final backup of the day. This one has no letter added to it: Iamarino_2022-09-20.ftmb. You may want to include media in this backup. I had to stop doing that because backups with media for my 55,000-person tree were about 18 gigabytes each. It took forever!

5. Compact Your File

When you add or edit anything on your computer, the new data could be stored anywhere on the drive. Family Tree Maker lets you compact your file to make it run more efficiently. After adding 200 people, I want to clean up the data storage.

You can compact your tree with your FTM software open, but your tree file closed. I prefer to do it this way to avoid potential errors. Next, exit FTM and let it generate another backup: Iamarino_AutoBackup.ftmb.

With my FTM file closed and compacted, I can delete any earlier backups I made that day.

6. Sync the Day's Files with the Cloud

I keep my family tree files on my computer and on Microsoft OneDrive. When I'm done for the day, I turn on OneDrive to upload my new files to the cloud. Note: Do not keep your working FTM file on the cloud. That is, don't work on a file that is also synchronizing with the cloud. Keep the file on your hard drive, then put a copy on the cloud.

The Next Morning:

7. Sync the Tree with Ancestry.com

An early morning sync with your Ancestry tree gives the best results. Website traffic in your region is going to be lighter early in the morning than any other time of day. If you're a night owl, consider syncing very late at night.

8. Save the List of Changes

During the sync process you can save the list of changes that FTM is about to upload to Ancestry.com. I keep these dated PDF files for a few weeks. They're very small files, so there's no harm in keeping them a while.

• FamilySyncChangeLog 2022-09-17.pdf
• FamilySyncChangeLog 2022-09-18.pdf
• FamilySyncChangeLog 2022-09-19.pdf
• FamilySyncChangeLog 2022-09-20.pdf

At the End of the Week:

9. Copy All Files to External Drives

This is my Sunday morning ritual. I sync my tree and copy the most important files on my computer to 2 different external hard drives. Plus they're on the OneDrive cloud. Because, you know, obsessive-compulsive.

Now that I've written it out, nine steps sounds positively insane. But your genealogy work is priceless! It's worth your time to protect your files like a mama bear protects her cubs. How safe are your files?

And speaking of safety:

• 4 Ways to Protect Your Genealogy Research from Disaster
• Prepare Your Family Tree for Your Computer's Demise
• 3 Top Safety Tips for Your Family Tree Data

3 Key Steps to Identify a DNA Match

Wouldn't it be great if they made everyone who took a DNA test post a family tree? We want your family at least up to your great grandparents. That's only 15 people, and the living people will be private.

We'd all have an easier time of figuring out our DNA matches if we could see their great grandparents. That's why I'm hopeful when a DNA match's family tree shows a double-digit person count.

I figured out 2 new DNA matches today by following 3 key steps. Now, it doesn't always work out. And I skip right over any match with no tree or a single-digit tree. But if they have a decent tree, these steps can lead straight to the solution.

1. Check Shared Matches to Isolate a Branch

Which DNA-testers do you and your match have in common? Seeing familiar names here can tell you which branch your match fits into. For example, if shared matches include Dad's maternal cousins, they belong on Grandma Lucy's line.

It helps a lot to know you're looking for family members from a particular branch of your family tree.

Your shared DNA matches can pull your focus to a particular branch of your family tree.

For one of the matches I solved, there were only 4 distant matches in our shared list. But 3 of the 4 had last names from a town on Mom's maternal side of the family. Right off the bat, I knew our connection came from the town of Santa Paolina, Avellino, Italy.

2. View Their Tree for Familiar Names

My Santa Paolina match has a tree with 16 people. I noticed she's only Italian on her mother's side. I'm nothing but Italian, so that's all I need to investigate.

Her mother's maiden name was not familiar to me, but her grandmother's name did ring a bell. My match's grandmother was a deSpirito, the daughter of Felice deSpirito. I was pretty sure deSpirito is a Santa Paolina name.

Having taken steps 1 and 2, I'm very confident this DNA match has roots in Santa Paolina. My connection to the town is only through my 2nd great grandmother and her paternal family. We're off to the races!

3. Research Their Family to Find the Connection

My DNA match's tree says her grandmother was born in 1889. That told me her Italian birth record should be available online. As it happens, I've downloaded and renamed every available Santa Paolina vital record. They're searchable on my computer with a desktop search program called Everything. I typed in my match's grandmother's name and found her birth record!

While the grandmother and her parents were not in my family tree, their ancestors were. I searched the town's records to build out this family tree branch. Now I know my DNA match's grandmother is my 3rd cousin 3 times removed. My match is my 5th cousin once removed.

The other DNA match I figured out today is a shared match with my Dad and my maternal 1st cousin Nick. Nick and Dad are DNA matches, and both have roots in one town. All the shared matches for this DNA match point to my paternal town of Colle Sannita, Benevento, Italy.

This DNA match is Italian only on her father's side. I recognized one last name immediately. It's a name that has morphed into 2 or 3 spellings in America.

Her family tree has 67 people, so brava to her. I checked out her father's line and saw a few Italian document images that she'd borrowed from my family tree. That's a good sign!

This DNA match has obviously seen my family tree and cashed in on my research.

When I went to her ancestors in my own family tree, I saw that her 3rd great grandfather is my 4th great uncle. His brother is the great grandfather of my paternal grandmother Lucy.

So where is the connection to my maternal 1st cousin Nick? As I looked at these people in my family tree, I found my answer. My DNA match's 3rd great grandfather married Nick's 1st cousin 4 times removed. I saw this because of the color-coding in my Family Tree Maker file.

Color-coding your family tree is like planting seeds you'll harvest later.

My DNA match shares ancestors with me through my paternal grandmother Lucy. And with my maternal cousin Nick through his father's side. I know exactly where this match belongs in my family tree.

As I said, things won't always work out. But you can set yourself up for lots of DNA success stories if you:

1. Check shared matches
2. View their tree
3. Research their family

How many DNA mysteries can you scratch off your list now?

9 Bonus Facts on Italian Birth Records, Part 2

Last week we covered 5 out of 9 bonus facts you can find on Italian birth records. They can be game changers! Here are the rest of them.

6. Multiple births

Look next to a baby's given name on their birth record for gemello (twin). In a paragraph after the baby's name, look for "é il primo nato" (is the first-born) or "é il secondo nato" (is the second-born). Of course the birth order is the same as the record order.

If baby is a twin (or triplet), look for special wording. Also, did baby grow up to marry? Look for who and when, and sometimes where.

7. Baby's dead father's date of death

This is a bonus I discovered last week. Many times when a midwife reports the birth instead of the father, the documents tells us why. Typically I see:

• the father is in America
• the father is out of the country
• the father is ill
• the father is in jail

But sometimes he didn't present the baby because he's dead. And you may find his death date on that birth record. That's fantastic if that year's death records are unavailable.

On Libera Filomena Zeolla's 1887 birth record, the levatrice (midwife) presents the baby. The document says Libera was born to Damiana Palmiero, the widow of Giovanni Zeolla. So we know Giovanni died shortly before his baby was born. But in a bonus paragraph we see:

La dichiarante ha denunciata la nascita suddetta, per aver assistito al parto della Palmiero, e in luogo marito di questa, perche morto sin dal dicciasette agosto mille ottocentottantasei.

That translates to: The declarant presented this baby, having witnessed Palmiero giving birth, and instead of her husband, because he died on 17 August 1886.

It's always sad to see a baby born after dad died. Silver lining: This record tells us his date of death.

8. Marriage notation

It's great when your ancestor's birth record has their marriage notation in the column. If you already know who they married, this confirms you've found the right birth record.

The marriage notation can include:

• Date of marriage
• Town of marriage
• Spouse's name

In another town I know, if a woman married an out-of-town man, her birth record even includes his parents' names. Bonus!

If your person married more than once, you'll see multiple marriage notations. They made these notes at the time of the marriage when the bride or groom had to prove their birth and parentage. While the clerk is getting that proof, he can add the marriage notation.

9. Baby's father died in the war

One genealogy project that's waiting for my attention is identifying men who died in the war. I photographed their names on a monument in my ancestral hometown's piazza. I can find their military records online.

As I add babies to my family tree from the early 1900s, I'm finding a few records that note the baby's father died in the war. When I see that, I rush to get the father's military record.

Seeing this "died in the war" notation tells you to look for the soldier's military record.

This notation in the column of a birth record will say something like:

Il genitore é morto per la guerra addi 27-10-1917

That translates to: The parent died in the war on 27 Oct 1917.

This particular soldier, Angelo Giovanni Mascia, had at least 3 children. I found this important note written on his sons Antonio and Giovanni's birth records. His first child was stillborn, so he did not get the note. I'll bet the note is there because the surviving children are due some compensation.

It's very easy (with practice) to pull the important facts from an Italian birth record. Be sure to look at the rest of the document, especially after 1865, for more details. Be on the lookout for notations in the columns and a paragraph written after the baby's first name.

Now you're ready to cash in on all these bonus facts!