Connected Bloodlines
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| Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I find information for a specific person? A: Use the Search function first. Search boxes appear in the upper right corner on the home page of ConnectedBloodlines. On all other pages, use the "People Facts" pull down menu in the upper right portion of the page to search for persons or families. When searching a woman's name, use her maiden name in the Search box. If you don't know a woman's maiden name, use the Advanced Search function to search using a married last name. If you are unsuccessful but suspect that a specific person should be in the database, try looking at "Surnames" located below the search boxes on the home page or under the "People Facts" pull down menu on all other pages, in case there are differences in spelling. If you think a person should be in ConnectedBloodlines but you can't find them, please contact us for help. [top of page] Q: How do I find an individual's ancestors? A: Once you locate an individual and have displayed their Individual Person Page, click on the Ancestors tab above the name of the individual. This will show you a graphical display of both the paternal and maternal ancestors. Once you have the ancestor chart displayed, click on the yellow arrows located at the far right column of ancestors if you need to see additional ancestors. Choose whatever format works best for you: Standard, Vertical, Compact, Box, Text, Ahnentafel, Media, and PDF. [top of page] Q: What if I want to see an individual's descendants? A: Use the tab marked "Descendants" on the Individual Person Page. Choose whatever format works best for you: Standard, Vertical, Compact, Box, Text, Ahnentafel, Media, and PDF. [top of page] Q: How can I generate an A to Z listing by last name of all of the individuals in ConnectedBloodlines? A: There are two different ways in which you can create A to Z listings for individuals in Connected Bloodlines. For a listing of all of the surnames found in the database and the number of individuals having a specific surname, click on "Surnames" in the upper right hand corner of the home page or in the "People Facts" pull down menu on all other pages. You will then see a screen that enables you to access surnames through a variety of methods. On this screen, click on "Show All Surnames". You will then be viewing an A to Z listing of last names of all individuals in ConnectedBloodlines with frequency of use appearing in parentheses following the surname. You can also use the Search function and simply click on "Search" without providing any information in either the First Name or Last Name fields. This will generate a list of all of the individuals in the database, sorted by Last Name. [top of page] Q: Is there a way to tell if two individuals are related? A: Yes, use the Relationship tab to calculate the type of familial relationship that exists between two people. The Relationship screen shows a graphic display of all the people connecting the two relatives. To use this function, locate the first individual within ConnectedBloodlines and then press the Relationship tab that appears below the individual's name. Enter the ID of the second individual if you know that information or use the find button to locate the other person for which a relationship is being requested. Once you have the two people selected, click the Calculate button to display their relationship. [top of page] Q: What is the Timeline function? A: Click on the Timeline tab when you are looking at an individual person's page. The time line shows important events in history that occurred during the life of an individual or a group of individuals. [top of page] Q: If I see a mistake in the information presented can I correct it? A: Use the "Suggest" Tab on a person's Individual Person Page to send corrections, updates, comments or any other information to us for processing. Information on which individual you are referencing is automatically attached to the message when you make a suggestion using the Suggest tab found on the person pages. Visitors and registered users are not able to make any changes directly in the ConnectedBloodlines database. [top of page] Q: Is there a way to print displays without all the headers and icons? A: Yes, just click on the Print link, usually located in the upper right hand corner of appropriate pages in ConnectedBloodlines. You can then use the print function of your browser to print the simplified format screen. [top of page] Q: Can I create a PDF report for information in ConnectedBloodlines? A: On the Individual, Ancestors and Descendants pages you have the option to create a report in 'pdf' format for the information you are viewing. To make use of this option you will need to have installed Adobe Reader in order to view the report. If you don't already have it, you can download the (free) Adobe Reader software by clicking this link. [top of page] Q: Why can't I see all the information on a certain person? A:For individuals who are deceased, Connected Bloodlines displays all of the information that we have gathered for specific deceased individuals. The display of information on living individuals is governed by our privacy policy: only general information for living individuals is displayed without registering and logging in. Registration and log in information is only available to family members who have registered with us and have received a User Account. [top of page] Q: Who can register as a user? A: Only relatives of individuals in ConnectedBloodlines may register. Take a moment to register by clicking on Register and completing the form. You will be asked to describe your familial connection to an individual to whom you are related whose name is in the database. You will receive notification that your Registration request has been processed; you will then be able to log in to Connected Bloodlines and view all information in the database. [top of page] Q: What does the message "Details Withheld" mean? A: Whenever you encounter this message, it means that the information you seek is for someone who is living and you are not logged in to see this information. If you are already registered, simply use the "Login" button on any screen and follow the instructions. If you are not yet registered and are a family member, use the "Register" function on the home page and complete the form. Within a short period of time you should receive an email stating that you have been authorized to view information for individuals who are living. If you are not a family member, you may not register for access to information for individuals who are living. [top of page] Q: What if I forget my username and/or password? A: If you can't remember your username, go to the Log In page and enter the email address you supplied when you registered. We will then send you your username. However, for security purposes we do not have access to your password. So, if you forget your password, you can ask the system, again via the 'Log In' page, to issue you a temporary password. Just enter the email address you supplied when you registered along with your username. You can then access your ConnectedBloodlines account and change this temporary password to a permanent one of your choice. [top of page] Q: What other information is available on this site? A:Obviously there is much more functionality on the website than this FAQ can cover. Explore; you can't break anything. If you get lost within these pages, simply click on the "Home" button at the top left of the page and that will bring you back to the home page for Connected Bloodlines. The "Histories" and "Documents" collections contain a wide variety of social history memorabilia in addition to copies of official documents. You'll find an ever increasing number of resources. We will continue to add new people and make corrections to data related to individuals who are already in ConnectedBloodlines. We are also writing histories for homes, farms, towns, and cities linked to our core families. The Documents collection includes: Birth; Census; Death; Land Records; Marriage; Military; and Wills records. The Histories collection includes: Awards, Correspondence, Diaries, Education, Heirlooms, Immigration, Interviews, Newspaper Articles, Religion, and Stories. [top of page] Q: What is the history of ConnectedBloodlines? A: I began working in earnest on my genealogical pursuits in the early 1990s. We were a Mac household so I acquired "Reunion Software for the Mac" at that time. I began to build my textual database on Reunion and continue to do so at present. From the early 1980s, I had been gathering family photos and other "social history" types of documents. All of my photos were either framed or filed. I did not enter any photo information into my Reunion database. In late 2008, I purchased TNG software to enable me to create my web-based genealogy site called "Connected Bloodlines." Textual information displayed in the ConnectedBloodlines database comes from my desktop Reunion database. All of my media items are entered directly into Connected Bloodlines. Initially, my genealogy efforts were focused on: a) finding as many generations of direct line ancestors (grandparents; great grandparents; great, great grandparents; etc.) as possible; b) documenting all of the descendants of Reuben Lowell, 1739-1824, our 5-greats grandfather, who was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, U.S.A., moved to New Hampshire, and then in 1794 relocated to Farmington, Maine, while Maine was still a part of Massachusetts; 3) attempting to find additional familial ancestors in what is now Poland, Ukraine, Belorussia and Lithuania, for Mitchell's Jewish family. We continue to add a wide range of documents, resources, and photographs that attempt to depict "everyday life" for us and our families. Items of a pictorial nature, such as report cards, are not presented from any egotistical perspective. Instead, by including them, we hope to provide a more-encompassing snapshot of life throughout the generations. [top of page] Q: What specific families are emphasized in ConnectedBloodlines? A:We focus our research attention on what we describe as our "core families". Core families include our siblings, their spouses, and their descendants; our parents, their siblings, and all of their spouses and descendants; our grandparents, their siblings, and all of their spouses and ancestors; our great-grandparents, their siblings and all of their spouses and ancestors; and our great-great grandparents, their spouses and all of their ancestors. For these core families, we attempt to research as far back as possible for ancestors and attempt to include all descendants of these core families. We primarily emphasize those relevant subsets of families with the following surnames, including any spelling variations occurring within these surnames:
There are several individuals with the last name of "Trask" or "Peterson" who lived in Maine and are intertwined with our family. Both the Trask and the Peterson families have posed challenges for genealogists, especially when trying to document these families in the early 1800s. Therefore, you will find records for many Maine Trasks and Maine Petersons in ConnectedBloodlines, created to assist in our research efforts for these two families. We also attempt to include only those individuals whose existence has been or can be documented. We are not a website that demonstrates how we are related to Adam, Eve, Jacob, or Jesus. We also don't make guesses about an individual's place in our family tree nor do we "force" individuals to become our relatives when the data is insufficient to support such an inclusion. For Nobility and Royalty from the medieval era, I have relied heavily on the research presented in the Foundation of Medieval Genealogy. [top of page] Q: Can I make copies of photographs or documents that I find in ConnectedBloodlines? A:Any vital record documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, or death certificates can be copied and used in any not-for-profit application per the guidelines and restrictions of the issuing government or religious entity. While a few of these documents were supplied to us by other family members, the majority of them were obtained directly by us through legitimate channels. The majority of the photographs and social history documents that are contained in ConnectedBloodlines are scanned images of items owned by us and maintained in our personal collection. These items may be used for any not-for-profit application; such use must include ownership attribution to ConnectedBloodlines as the source for the image or social history document. Wholesale copying of complete datasets is not permitted. If you are interested in receiving a higher resolution image from us for a specific photo that interests you, please contact us. [top of page] If you are a family member, don't forget to sign-up and then login to get the full benefits of the site and to view information on living relatives! Gerald Lowell |