User Guide 

As a new visitor to my family history website, the first thing you will probably notice is that it unlike any other!  Well yes - it is my own design and I do not use any commercial programs to store or create this website. 

My reasons for this are - firstly, I follow only a few family lines and I find Microsoft Excel perfect to manage these trees and secondly, I don't like the boring "story" printed out by most commercial family history programs.  I want to create family stories with images included with the text, not links that take the reader away from what is being read.  I can achieve what I want by using a simple, but very verstaile HTML editor - Kompozer.

Of course, you are asking - how do I get around your website and find useful information?


Basics

All my family history information is contained in only two formats:-
  1. HTML pages - the "stories", and
  2. Microsoft Excel spreadsheets - generally the family trees
These documents are readily accessible from the menu system at the top of each page.  The spreadsheet pages do not generally have the menu bar at the top and you must use the BACK command on your browser to return to the main area.


Menu Bar

A simple menu system is used for navigation.  Holding the mouse over any of the top menu items causes that menu to expand.  If an item contains a "" (right arrow), holding the mouse over that item will expand the menu to another level to the right as illustrated below.


Menu --> Start

The Start menu contains items that a new user should visit to become aquainted with the website.

Start
This page shows the family lines I follow and how I descend from them.

User Guide
This is what you are reading!

What's New
This page contains a list of website changes that I make whenever I have inspiration, time and new information.  Check her regularly to catch-up. 


Every new update or addition has an underlined link to the relevant page so you can get there quickly and by-pass the menu system.

 <-------underlined links

Introduction
Nothing much, just my reasons for becoming interested in family history.

Abbreviations
A list of  abbreviations that I use throughout the website

Links
A list of links that I regularly use for my research.

Disclaimer
Everyone has to protect themselves as far as the law will allow!


Menu --> Genealogy

This section contains all the information covering the families I am researching.


Search This Site
The first item is a handy-dandy search tool powered by Google.  You can use it to search for a person, place, date or any words that are contained in this website.  The search tool only searches this website not the whoe internet and provides a list of links to pages that contain the words you searched for -- very quick way to start your investigation of this website.

Example search results for "roosen"

Family Names
The 7 items are the family names that I follow.  Generally, for each family name, you will find:-
Family Trees
The family trees are arranged in an indented format with the oldest known relative at the top and his descendants arranged in birth order below and their descendants also arranged directly underneath them.  This format is in contrast with the output of most commercial genealogy programs.

Where I have writen a story about an individual, there is a link to that story at the left of the name on the family tree.  When you click on that link the story page will be loaded.  Sometimes a person may not have a page dedicated solely to him/her but maybe included with his/her parents' page.  For example:-

Related Families
Since I follow only the main family name, when a female marries into another family (a Related Family), the spouse's name becomes a link.  Clicking on this link moves you to another sheet in the workbook and there you find her/his descendants under the spouse's name. For example:-

To return to the main family tree, click on the tab at the bottom of the page, eg

Note:  At the time of writing, not all family trees have this "Related Family" feature.

Family Stories
If you have a good familiarity with the family you are interested in, you may go directly to a person's story page from the menu but following the "" (right arrows).


Menu --> Background Info

This menu section contains a number of pages with information which supports or enhances the personal story pages. For example:-

I plan to get some geographic order into these sometime in the future.


Menu --> Places

This menu section provides information, photos, maps and other data relating to the places various people lived with an accent on the time frame in which they lived there.  Put together from many sources.


Menu --> The Author

This menu section contains some information about your humble author.  You can send me an email (Send Email) or contact me using Skype (Skype Me!).