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It's easier than ever before to check your entries from the 1881 Census - more details here
DNA survey - please respond
- Thread starter peter
- Start date
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
Ok. I am trying again. I only have two counties for known 3x grandparents so coloured those in red and blue. I cannot find custom sort so hope it did it automatically.
Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
Not quite, the Sort feature is on the Home page Toolbar at the top RH corner (Sort & Filter). Double clicking offers Sort A-Z/Z-A & Custom sort. Selecting Custom brings up an options box for Sort by Column: Select Col E (Result). Sort On: (Select Cell Values). Order: (Select Smallest to Largest).
There were no colours on the spreadsheet that opened so either you did not save after colouring, or you did not use the 'Fill' box. Although colouring hardly matters for just two items, this is achieved by selecting the item to be coloured: (e.g. the County), Go to the 'Fill' box (top left with the tilted can icon) and select a colour. Click on this and the County selected will show with a your chosen colour. You can choose other colours or a lighter shade of the same colour (as Peter prefers) . Remember to save the Spreadsheet when both sort and colour actions are completed.
Note use of the UK spelling of Colour instead of the US Color is deliberate!
EDITED 9/1/2019 by Peter
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canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
Thank you Bob. I do not know anything about Excel beyond making basic spreadsheets, which I do a lot. Nothing involving totals or anything complicated. But I followed your directions, which were very useful, and really hope I did it correctly this time. (and I did not actually notice your correct spelling of colour, since that is the way I spell it 
)
)
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
And I have just found another 3G grandfather, who was born in Kent. Can you add 1 to that column Peter, or do I need to upload it again? I now have found six of my eight 3G paternal grandparents; cannot find out where the other two were born, as the leaf hints do not seem to be correct.
Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
The link from page 6 takes you to page 4 and I think Peter's post #65 is the one you want (You can of course manually go to page 4 and find #65). Click on his spreadsheet which will open in Excel 'Protected View'. Click on 'Enable Editing' and then customise with your own data, sort by Col F and apply a graduated shading.
I remind Peter later asked us to include a column showing in which counties our 3xG Grandparents originated (if known). If still in doubt check out a few of the other spreadsheets posted.
Kate
LostCousins Member
Hello. I have started doing this and am amazed at the number of pages which come up from places from where I have no known ancestor. I haven't searched these before as i have stuck to searching places of birth as suggested in the masterclass.
Does this mean I have ancestors from all these places? Or has ancestry just matched me to anyone with the same surname regardless of whether they are mine or not? I am matched to a family in Cornwall who married into my family and from whom I am not descended.
Does this mean I have ancestors from all these places? Or has ancestry just matched me to anyone with the same surname regardless of whether they are mine or not? I am matched to a family in Cornwall who married into my family and from whom I am not descended.
Just as you only share a small part of your tree with your genetic cousins, so do they only share a small part of their tree with you - less than 1% on average. So more than 99% of the relatives in their online trees won't be directly relevant to you.
When you think about this it's remarkable that the spreadsheet results make any sense at all - and yet they usually do.
A couple of things to bear in mind - if you have a large number of matches in total you could well have over 40 pages of matches in a single county, especially a large county like Yorkshire or Lancashire. But Ancestry only return a maximum of 2000 results, ie 40 pages of 50, so the spreadsheet will show the county lower, possibly much lower, than it deserves to be.
Similarly if you search for people with ancestors in Middlesex it won't pick up those who were in London, even though London was part of Middlesex until the late 19th century. This means that if you had ancestors from London the ranking for Middlesex will be lower, probably far lower, than it should be.
KirstenB
LostCousins Star
Yes it was time consuming starting a long time ago but as we all know asking questions of ancestors is one of the major sources of data and you can’t start that too soon. As an only child, only grandchild, and on one side, an only great grandchild, family history and stories fascinated from very young. My first datable piece of data is a tree I got my grandmother and her sisters to write out when I was quite young (she died when I was 13). I also wrote down bits of the stories my grandparents told me and still have the notes now. I have since proved some stories and disproved others and would love to be able to tell them what I have learnt over the last 45 years. However that early research, even things that would be easy now (e.g. sitting in the local library writing down all the people with my surname in the UK telephone directories) makes interesting reading and is itself now part of the family story!
But we also can't turn the clock back - for all sorts of reasons most family historians start later in life. And to the best of my knowledge nobody in my direct line researched our family tree before I did, so I don't feel in the least guilty for starting late, because my ancestors didn't start at all.
trebor
LostCousins Member
I agree - I don't feel guilty at all about starting late but I do regret not taking more interest in my parents and their siblings stories of their lives. I can remember snippets but I am sure that there was a lot that was ignored. If only I had a tardis and could go back to ask the questions I am trying to answer now.
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
Unfortunately, the information that my Dad gave me has turned out to be incorrect. And he told me nothing actually in person, just wrote down a couple of things in the little book that I can no longer find. I knew he was illegitimate because my mother called him the "b" word once when they were having another fight, and it was explained what the word meant and that it was true. I always knew who my mother's parents and siblings were, even her grandparents' names, and have learned more online and from a distant cousin who has reams of information about the Barratts (maternal grandmother) which he gave to me.
(I like your Tardis reference trebor.)
(I like your Tardis reference trebor.)
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You've used an old version of the spreadsheet - the latest version includes Welsh counties. No need to recount the English counties, however.
Please also include the number of 3G grandparents whose ancestors came from each county to the best of your knowledge). The shading should ideally vary according to the number - take a look at what others have done.
When you're finished sort the results in low to high order (Home - Sort - Custom sort). Then it will be obvious how well the spreadsheet has worked.
Thanks!
There should be a message at the top of your screen with a link to the latest spreadsheet - it'll take you to post #119 (on page 6).