Freedman Family Tree

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to register for the blog in order to be able to leave comments on posts. Note that the online tree and the blog are two separate systems, so having a login for the online tree doesn’t mean you automatically have a login for the blog as well – you’ll have to register for this separately. There’s nothing stopping you choosing the same login details for both, though!

First, click on the “logged in” link:

You’ll then see the log in screen – if you’re not registered yet then click on “Register” at the bottom:

On the register screen, enter the username you’d like to use, and your email address:

Click the blue “Register” button, and then check your email. You should receive an email like this:

Don’t worry that the password it’s assigned for you is complete garbage; you’ll have a chance to change it in a moment. Copy and paste this password back into the login screen, after entering your username:

and then click “Log In”. The first time you log in, you’ll see your profile screen (the top bit of which is shown here)

scroll down to the bottom of the profile screen and you’ll see a section where you can change your password to something more memorable:

Feel free to add any other information about yourself onto your profile. Click “Update Profile” when you’re finished. Scroll back up to the top of the screen and click “Visit site”

and now, you’ll see the comment entry box, where you can leave your comment.

The next time you need to log in, you can just enter your username and your chosen password, and you’ll go straight to the comment screen. Once you’re logged in you can click on your name to get back to your profile screen (i.e. where it says “logged in as dan2″ in the screenshot above.

Right-click on one of the download links on the right and choose “save target as” from the popup menu. At this point it should ask you for your username and password since all the files are stored in the password-protected area of the site.

When asked where to save the file, choose somewhere memorable (the “My Documents” folder or the desktop are popular places to save files – as you can see from the screen shot I’ve created a “Downloads” folder where I put everything I download).

If you’re downloading the gedcom file it’s probably safer to select “all files” from the “save as type” drop-down list – this will force the computer to save the file as “freedman.ged” and not “freedman.ged.txt”

Remember where you saved the file so you can use it later!

A GEDCOM file must be imported into an empty database. You need to create a completely new database into which you can import the gedcom data, and to avoid having several copies of the same database on your computer, it’s advisable to delete the old database first. To do this, choose File -> Delete Database from the menu at the top.

A window will open asking you to confirm that you want to delete the database; you will need to type in the word YES to confirm.

Then go to File -> New (or click on the “new” button on the toolbar) to create a new, empty, database.

Pick a name for the database (freedman, or freedman tree, or family tree, or whatever)

Choose whichever options you want for the database – we usually like to show the record number next to the name.

Click on File -> Import -> GEDCOM file

Tell RootsMagic where you saved the gedcom on your computer.

It’s important here to tick the box that says “keep original record numbers”

That’s it – you’re done!

You can keep updated of the latest developments on the family tree by subscribing to this site’s RSS feed. This article explains what this is and how it works.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is used to keep readers up to date on latest developments. A web site producer (i.e. me) will make available an “RSS feed” which you, as the reader, can subscribe to. Once subscribed, your computer will tell you when I’ve made an update to my site.
To do this you’ll need a program to check the feeds for you. Such a program is called an “RSS aggregator” or “Feed Reader” and I’ve placed one here for you. Just click on this link to download it.
When you’ve downloaded the file, double-click it to start the installation routine. You should see this screen (click on the thumbnail to see a larger version):

Click “next” and accept the licence agreement:

Keep clicking “next” and accepting the default settings, and on the last installation screen, tick the box to launch the program. You should then see this screen:

Go back to the blog screen for a moment. Near the bottom of the right hand menu is a link to subscribe to this blog’s feed:

Right-click on this link and choose “Copy shortcut” from the pop-up menu.
Now go back to the feed reader. Click File -> New to add a new feed. This screen will appear:

Paste the link in to the box (if the copying and pasting doesn’t work then you can just type in the link directly – it’s http://www.danielfreedman.co.uk/ftree/atom.xml )

That’s it – you’re subscribed! The FeedReader program checks all your subscribed feeds every hour and pops up a window in the bottom right hand corner if it finds any new headlines. Just about any web site worth its salt these days will publish an RSS feed to keep people updated, and a handful of sample feeds are already included with the Feed Reader program. You can choose to keep or delete these as you wish. The feed reader program is designed to run in the background all the time, so when you click on the “X” at the top you won’t close it, you’ll just get it off the screen. It puts a small icon in the corner of the screen near the clock; you can click this icon to get the feed reader screen back.
If you have any problems or comments please let us know by clicking on the “comments” link below and leaving us a message.