Announcing a NEW Feature

ResearchTies is happy to announce that users can now link a document to more than one result. When recording a result, click on “Add file,” and a list of previously uploaded documents will open. The list is sorted in reverse order so the most recent upload is at the top.

Select File

1. To add a new file, click on “Upload New File” in the upper right corner. You will be shown the usual template to name and select the file to upload.

2. To add the same file for additional results, click on “Add File,” and the most recent document will be at the top of the list. Click on “Select.”

3. To link a document that was uploaded a long time ago, you can scroll through the list, but it might be easier to enter a keyword from your document title in the “Find” box (located in the upper right corner of the menu). The list will narrow to documents with that keyword in the name. When you find the correct image, click “Select.” It’s that easy!

Select File with Find

We hope you enjoy this new feature, and as always, feel free to ask questions or send feedback. Happy researching!

RootsTech 2016 Begins This Week!

We are ready for RootsTech! Are you planning to attend? The ResearchTies conference special will be free, one-on-one mentoring sessions (30 minutes each). Take advantage of the opportunity to work with a personal tutor to answer your questions and help you get started. Appointments may be made any time prior to the conference by sending a request to: support@researchties.com. Give us a couple of options for the day(s) and time(s) that will be convenient for you, and we will send a confirmation email. You are welcome to make an appointment during the conference as well, just come to our vendor booth. If you would like more than one session, that is fine, too. Make learning ResearchTies one of your educational goals for RootsTech. See you there!

Visit us in the vendor hall at booth #535, across the aisle from the large BYU booth. See demos, ask questions, and pick up a ResearchTies ribbon for your name tag.

RootsTech vendor map

For more information about RootsTech, click on the image below.

Data Entry Tip: Today’s date with one keystroke

A best practice for creating a research log is to record the work as it is being done. Rather than typing the date or using the calendar in the result template, hit the “tab” key. Today’s date will be automatically entered and the cursor will advance to the next field–all with one keystroke.

Data Entry Tip: Use ID Numbers

When entering research results for a person, most users begin typing the person’s name to select from the dropdown box. That is one great method, but the selection is a little more complicated when the person has a common name. How many men named John Smith are in your database? The name fields for selecting a person or family also accept ID numbers. Instead of typing John Smith and looking through the list for the specific John with the desired birthdate, type his ID number. It’s really fast!

ResearchTies: Tying it all together

Do you use different software to track genealogical data, create research logs, file documents, and index photos? After a research session, do you duplicate your work to share documents and citations in online sites like FamilySearch® Family Tree?

Tie all of these activities together with ResearchTies! When importing individuals and marriages into ResearchTies, ID numbers from your genealogical data management program are recorded to clearly identify the subject of the research. All research goals, searches, and results are linked together, making them searchable and available for instant retrieval. Digital photos can be recorded the same as documents, and research logs are easily generated. Recorded citations and linked documents in the results template become immediately available for 2-click sharing with FamilySearch Family Tree. No additional data entry required. No other research log ties it all together from setting goals to sharing research like ResearchTies.

Confused by Evernote® Tagging?

Evernote has brought several benefits to tracking genealogical research, but many users remain confused about the multitude of tags that need to be created for every note. They struggle to use the same spellings and syntax to keep their notes searchable. And, sharing documents or creating shareable logs? It’s not easy! Evernote is generic note-taking software, and it has to be adapted for use by genealogists.

ResearchTies is software created by genealogists for genealogists. Programming has been done to eliminate all of the duplicate data entry required for easy searching, while sharing and collaboration features are built-in. Stop struggling with Evernote, and try the online research log made specifically for genealogy research.

Announcing: Time-Tracker Feature

Are you a student or professional who would benefit from tracking your research time in your research log? A new time-tracker feature has been developed for ResearchTies and is now in the testing phase. If you would like to participate in the beta test, please send an email to: support@researchties.com to request access to this new feature.

Using the time tracker is simple: click the timer icon, state the current research activity, then start the timer. You will see the timer running on the toolbar. When the activity is complete, click the timer again to record the ending time. All entries are editable and a PDF or Excel® report can be created for a client or professor. Try it today!

(Click the image to enlarge.)

Three New “Source List” Improvements

The ResearchTies source list has a new format. Rather than separate columns, the source citation fields have been placed together in bibliographic format. This allows users to copy and paste a bibliographic citation into other works with minimal editing. Remember, the author and title are recorded separately so that they can be used in the dropdown boxes of ResearchTies, and the remainder of the source citation for any source is recorded in the “Additional Citation Details” field. If users record the additional details in bibliographic format, the source list will be accurate.

Entries in the list can be sorted by repository, record type, or author. (If the list is sorted on the source citation column, the effect is an author sort, because the author is the first entry in the citation field.)

Second, it is now possible to display titles in italics. A checkbox has been added to the source template for users to indicate when a title should be italicized.

A third improvement is that the source’s URL has been added to the list. In the past, the URL was recorded in the source template, but it was not visible on the source list. With the URL now showing on the list, it is possible to use the source list as a bookmark list for all the sources you have used. Whether you use FamilySearch, Ancestry, or other sites for research, it takes many clicks to drill down to sources that you use regularly—especially censuses. Use the source list in ResearchTies to record the URL of the search page for each source. When you want to search it again for a different person, open the list, click on the link, and you are ready to begin the next search.

As your source list grows, it may require paging through the list to find a particular entry, even if the list is sorted. If this happens, be sure to use the “Find” field in the upper right corner of the screen. Type “census” in that field, and only sources including that term will remain in the list. Or, type “1850” and only entries with 1850 will remain in the list. Experiment with this to see how it works, but the sort and find capacities are powerful tools to speed up research, especially in sources that are used repeatedly.

Improved Search Engine Capacity

We are excited to announce that the search capacity of ResearchTies has been improved recently. When objectives and searches have been data entered for a “family,” it has always been possible to search and retrieve it by family. With the new changes, the search engine will now locate all entries for a family, as well as every entry for each individual who is a member of that family. If objectives and searches were entered for individuals, they can now be retrieved when a search is conducted for all data relevant to their family. These entries are connected by the marriage record number of the parent couple. When a family is recorded, the marriage number is entered on the family template. This connects the husband and wife to the marriage number.

When the children are added to the individual list, the template asks for the marriage record number of their parents. This process connects each child to the parents’ marriage number.

Be sure to include these numbers from your genealogical data management program, and ResearchTies will be able to retrieve all entries for the husband, wife, and all children in a family.

To generate a report for all work done for a family, conduct a search for all objectives for that family. Click “select all” in the upper left corner (or select specific objectives to include in the report using the check boxes to the left). Then, click “report.” Select “Objectives, related searches and results,” and click “Next.” Choose PDF or Excel format, and the report will be generated.

In order to use this functionality, go to your family list and check to see that all Marriage ID numbers are recorded.

Then, go to the Individual List to be sure that each person has their parents’ marriage ID recorded.

With the numbers in place, ResearchTies has the ability to retrieve all data for a family in a matter of seconds.

Join us at the BYU Conference next week!

Our next conference will be at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, 28-31 July. There will be a vendor booth, as well as a class on planning research to become a more effective and efficient researcher. We hope you will join us!