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The Twilight Zone

Sat 1/23/2021 4:49 PM
Beth, Earl, and Charles:
I bring you greetings from the Twilight Zone.
I just received an interesting message about a “Discovery” by MyHeritage.
First, I’m sharing a copy with you via the following link.
Now, for my interpretation: MyHeritage thinks that John and Joseph had a brother Frank and a sister Anna. Given our foray into the weeds, I couldn’t help but share. We all know old records are incomplete and can otherwise mislead, but the dates are right. Also, we do know that both brothers used the surname Elsik in the 1910 Federal Census. 🙂
Lol.
John, IV
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Re: Reading Hard-To-Read Gravestones

Sun 1/24/2021 12:06 AM
Beth,
I just gave you access to the MyHeritage site, though I don’t know what that means. I’m still learning their system.
It isn’t as impressive as you might think when I tell you the back story.
MyHeritage was having a Good Friday discount on their already low price for a DNA Kit, and I figured why not.  I’m a researcher at heart and like comparing software products.
Shortly thereafter, I ran into a snag with their pricing. It turns out that you can create a free site for up to 250 people with a limit on storage space.  I complained that it did not include a family tree subscription. I could pay for a month or two, but they only sell a one-year subscription. Ouch!  I went on to say (truthfully) that I got 3 months of World Discover for #1 with my DNA kit at Ancestry.com.  I was nice about it, and they rewarded me with a couple of months of free access.  The big advantage of this was I took down my tree with 249 people and used a backup of my ancestry tree to create a new one. When my free trial is over, the side benefit is that while I won’t get any more hints, whatever I have created doesn’t go away.
Very nice of them.
The pictures are from my (new) Top 100 Photos folder. It is exclusively old, black-and-white photos. The neat thing for us is the MyHeritage system used the photo’s file name to create the description, saving me a lot of extra work. I created a few albums, and presto, I have magic. I also have played with their feature to identify people in photos.
The hints on the MyHeritage site work a little differently.  They are always trying to increase the number of people and/or storage that determines the annual subscription price. The Elsik Hint notably said it would add 12 people. Other hints have been offered to add 50-100 people at a time. I usually say yes.
Again, MyHeritage only has annual subscriptions. Without the “Christmas” present of a free 2-month subscription, none of this would have happened.
Two items of note:  First, I don’t keep the family tree on MyHeritage as up-to-date as Ancestry.com.  It is a GEDCOM snapshot, plus their separate HINTs. And secondly, they have their own software, which I can use to sync an offline copy. Again, I am a software addict.
I think that something like the Top 100 will be on the eBook website. I’m still investigating options to make the mycousins.org site special.
Enjoy!
John, IV
P.S. My Ancestry.com site is undergoing a dramatic increase in the number of photos and stories.  Rather than use my workaround to accept individual HINTS, I aggressively use public family trees to grow the site. Since I understand how the software operates (the behind-the-scenes programming), I can do so rather safely. I also know if I do create errors or duplicates, how to fix them.
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Now I Understand

Sun 1/24/2021 8:31 PM
John,

 
I changed Elizabeth and Mary to Joseph’s daughters rather than his sisters.  The birthdates didn’t make sense before, and now they do.  Also, brothers naming their children the same names makes sense.  I remember when Eugene Elcik was here, and he mentioned the “other” Elcik family from Durham with the 3 girls.  He didn’t remember the father’s name, but it had to be Joseph.  That’s what makes this whole thing extremely confusing.
 
I read your recent emails and what you’re doing is beyond anything I can or understand how to do.  I applaud you for what you’re doing.
 
I belong to My Heritage as well as Ancestry and plan to renew them when the time comes.  My Heritage has different hints and search engines.  I spent a lot of time on there at the beginning and eventually switched over to Ancestry.  I get emails all the time from My Heritage about matches, and so far, I have them in a separate folder.  I never started the Elcik family tree, and I want to do that.  I believe I can create a GEDCOM to transfer what I already have on Ancestry.  Correct me if I’m wrong, please.
 
Beth