(this helpme article updated 11/9/2010) 

What's the purpose here?

The purpose of this document is to have a BOOK with interesting stories and information about the family, organized with a CHAPTER for each of the 11 siblings and SUB-CHAPTERS for their children and so on.  This creates a central collection place where information can be added by:

1. Current descendants where there may be two or three generations contributing, and
2. Others who remember information and interesting stories about YOUR ancestor and maybe even about YOU.  Now that's truly scary.

This section will provide a hierarchy within which to document the entire family tree from A.B. and Jane downward.  As an example, I'll do my tree (Guilford).  This is not intended to be a replacement for a program such as family tree maker or ancestry.com but rather to be a place for collecting facts, stories, historical info, etc.

An important usage of this page will be to add the historical information about not only the original 11 brothers and sisters and their parents, but the progeny following them right down to yourself.  After all, you will one day be someone's ancestor! Here come the instructions on:

• Organization of this "family tree"
•  What information can be posted here
• How to add family members, i.e.descendants of one of the 11 ancestors
• How to add stories about a person
• Details on editing the body of an entry, i.e. word processing on the web and adding photos 

How is this organized?

This "family tree" info is organized like a book with a chapter for each of the 11 brothers and sisters (generation 1).  Then, for each child, there is a sub-chapter for each of their children (generation 2); and for each generation 2 child, a sub-sub-chapter for each of their children (generation3), and so on.

Using my grandfather (Guilford) as an example, here is the organization:

1. Guilford
   1. Margaret Lee Jones Haynie
      1. Josephine Haynie
   2. Jane Jones Merriman
      1. Michael Merriman
      2. Jeannette Merriman Scott
         1. Liesl Scott Keeter
            1. Hanna Keeter
            2. Scott Keeter
         2. Amy Scott Fortenberry
            1. Emma Fortenberry
   3. Guilford, Jr.
      1. Guilford Jones, III
         1. Russell Todd Jones
         2. Melissa Jones
         3. Patti Kelly-Jones Cryer
            1. Mattie Cryer
            2. Tess Cryer
         4. Sheila Jones Bullard
            1. Davis Bullard
            2. Brooke Bullard
      2. Janet Jones

And if you go to the "Guilford" Chapter (click here) on the site and follow it through you will see a chapter, sub-chapter and so on that mirrors the above outline.

What Information can be posted in the "tree?"

Most of it will be text in a "chapter" of the book. But you can also attach documents or scanned documents and photos. You can make an album in the Photo Galleries and link to individual photos. For example, here is a link to a picture in my album of the ancestral memorial.

Further down this page we will discuss how to write a story about someone, but first we need to know how to enter additional people, the descendants under one of the 11 brothers and sisters.

How do you add your family members and write about them?

One thing is for sure, you can't break anything here. And if your chapters don't end up aligned correctly the friendly webmaster can fix that!  So jump in and be fearless.  You can print out these instructions (click printer-friendly version at the bottom and then print from your browser) and have them beside you if that helps.  You can also open this document in a browser window and open the tree in a second browser, which you can do if you hold the CTRL key while clicking on the link to the family tree info.

Here's how you enter a new descendant. It's easy. First, in the left menu under Quik Nav, click on Ancestors -- "book" format. Then click on one of the ancestors about whom you want to write. Feel free to use the "practice cousin" XYZ imaginary cuzzin -- practice story entry here ... in order to get a feel for things. 

For now let's look at an existing ancestor tree.  Start at the menu item Ancestors -- "book" format.  To see a full hierarchy, click on Guilford and work through it. You see his three children. Click on one of them to see their children, and so on.  As you click around in the Guilford line, look at the breadcrumb trail at the top of the content area.  That tells you where you are in the hierarchy and clicking on any part of the trail takes you right back there.

Now click on A.B. and Jane to get back to the starting point. You can then select an ancestor and add children and children of children. First click the ancestor and look beneath the text box.  Click on the add child page link.

Here is what that child page link looks like.

Now let's walk through that page for what it is you need to fill in and do.  I will use my family line in the examples.

• Title: Fill in the name of the child. In the case of Guilford, one of his children was Guilford, JR. and you can see a page for him.
•  Parent:  Make sure it still says the name of the parent -- and here we mean the genealogical parent.  For Guilford Jr the parent is Guilford. For Guilford Jones III, the parent is Guilford Jr. 
• Main Topics: click on your ancestor. That will tie to the category under that ancestor so that anyone selecting that ancestor from the Main Topics list will see this page that you are now creating.  The ancestor selection in Main Topics remains the same for all descendants under that family line.
• Files: Skip -- n/a
• Body: Here's where you write about the person.  Look at the Guilford example which I repeat here for your reference:

Guilford Lavendar Jones was born Nov. 25, 1877.  He was the youngest of the 11 brothers and sisters. He was married to ??? from whom Margaret Lee (Aunt Maggie) was born.  She died and Guilford re-married my grandmother, Jeannette Thomas, in ??? when Aunt Maggie was about 12.

Guilford and Jeannette had two children, Jane and Guilford, Jr.

More about filling in the body -- see below. 

• You can forget input format, log, weight, and all the file upload/attach stuff.
• Click on preview to see what your page looks like.
  • Make changes as needed.
  • Preview again if desired.
  • Click submit when you're happy with it.

You can always edit the page later.

Now about filling in the BODY of the page

You will notice controls very similar to Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect to bold, center, make a bullet or numbered list, insert a table, etc.  You probably don't need to do much other than an occasional bold for emphasis or make a bullet list.  It's like a min-word processor.  You can even do CTRL-B and CTRL-I like in a word processor instead of having to click on the icons.

One caveat:  You can edit the "book" pages, including those created by others.  I've turned on this option but ask that everyone be respectful of what others write.  Stick within your family to do edits.  If you have additional information about another family member you can add that to their tree using a comment.

Now add more children

To add another child of that person you can navigate there one of several ways:

• Click one generation up in the breadcrumb trail
• At the bottom of the current page, click previous
• Or also  at the bottom, click up

Any of those choices will take you back to that parent.

Now add grandchildren

You've added the ancestor, one of the 11, and all the children (generation 2) of the ancestor.

Navigate back to the ancestor page and you will see his/her children listed. Click on the first child (they'll be in alphabetical order, not birth order).  For example, my next one was Guilford, Jr. (my father). While looking at that page, click on add child page to add the first child of that person, a grandchild of the ancestor and a member of generation 3.  

The process of adding those is identical to adding the original ancestor as far as the information that is essential. 

How to enter a story

Here's how you enter a new story. It's easy. First, in the left menu under Quik Nav, click on Ancestors -- "book" format. Then click on one of the ancestors about whom you want to write. Feel free to use the "practice cousin" XYZ imaginary cuzzin -- practice story entry here ... in order to get a feel for things.

Once you are under the page of the subject ancestor (or someone under
that -- look at the Guilford line for an example of a pretty fully
developed family line), start a "child" page. Here's what the link looks
like: 

Click on the "Add child page" link as outlined in red and you'll get a
new blank page. Other than the writing area, there are just a few things
you need to fill in.

Title:  That's pretty obvious. Make it something that will draw your reader into your story.

Parent: should already indicate the person about whom you are
writing. "Parent" as used there is just about the hierarchy of pages,
not the familial relationship.

Main Topics:  This is very important. Click on the particular
ancestor involved. If you are writing about another relative of that
ancestor, you still select the "top-level" ancestor.  Example:  if you
were writing about Mike White (and I wish someone would), the main topic
would be Malinda Cubage. 

Files:  If you are uploading a scanned document or photo you should select "historical documents."

Body:  (more later)

 
Details on editing the body of an entry

(more later)