This week's challenge involves how many locations are in our tree. To read the assignment go HERE and read the directions and find links to others that accepted the challenge.
The family tree software that I use is called "Reunion". I changed from FTM to Reunion last fall and I like it very much. Using the side bar I selected "place" and found I had in excess of 2600 places in the place fields of my data base. But in scrolling down the list I found what I really have is a mess. For example, I may have Peru, IN listed. Then I may have Peru, Miami, IN listed. And then Peru, Miami county, Indiana, USA. The possibilities are multiple for each location. Therefore I do not have over 2600 places. Instead I have a lot of work to do to go through and combine within the list of 2600+ locations. Luckily I only have to drag one location to overlay another and then agree to combine the two to by changing the one dragged to the one it was dragged to. It will still take a long time and will be one of those things to do on a cold winter day when I snowed in.
I was not able to sort locations by events. Nor was I able to list the top five or top ten locations. But I was able to go into the help area of my software and learn to do something kind of cool. First I combined all my Miami County Indiana entries that did not have a specific township or city. Then I clicked on the geo coordinates and "get".
After that I copied the coordinates and pasted them into my browser search area and clicked "maps". I looked at it in regular maps and in google earth. I also clicked "explore" in google earth.
So, while I feel like I did not pass the assignment (or challenge) this week. I feel like it was a worth while exercise. I not only identified a problem and identified a stratigy to improve my data base, but I learned a way to utilize google maps to learn more about the areas my family lines lived in.
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