Monday, June 27, 2022

AQ Sorting Feature

 


When organizing your data, Ancestral Quest provides a spreadsheet type way of showing your data which helps to find areas of research, missing data and so much more.


To work with this area go to the "Name List" Tab in the program and you will see some preset columns that can be organized according to the way you want. Each column header there can be changed by clicking on the "Adjust Columns and Sorting."


When looking at the above screen, you'll note that on the left are the available fields and on the right are shown fields. Using the greater than and lesser than symbols [> <] in the middle allows you to move back and forth to change the columns.


The up and down arrows on the far right allow you to say where you want to place this new column. Each column can be sorted by clicking on the name of it just ONE time. It will take a moment to build the index but it will do each one. This is a great feature as it provides you an opportunity to look for missing data that needs to be found!


In the above screen clip, one can see there are some missing spouses for a few individuals. This helps to guide me and see where my research needs to focus on next.

Manipulating the data this way allows one to see missing births, deaths, and so much more. Try it out!


Remember Ancestral Quest is FamilySearch Compatible!


Happy Ancestraling...Claire 





(c) 1994-2022 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved

ancquest@ancquest.com

Comments Welcomed!




Monday, December 6, 2021

AQ-Illegitimate Ancestors


    Researching ones' ancestors can be a frustrating, yet, enjoyable task. For many it is a labor of love, especially adding names to ones' tree, especially those more difficult to find. The fact that searching for ancestors is one of the most reasons individuals search the internet speaks volumes for the gratification received by an ancestral seeker.

    Unfortunately, people a human and sometimes one can run into a family member who was illegitimate. This happened when researching a line a the Family History Library back in the 1990s when this author came across a birth entry with the words "Illigitimate" written accross the entry.


Image curtesy of Scotland Peoples
     
    While it was a bit of a surprise, there was additional information in the record to assist in locating the father. Under father, the name had been entered but it was crossed out. In spite of this one could read the entry.


Image curtesy of Scotland Peoples

    Some may say it is only circumstantial evidence, however, the census record listed the mother as a cook in this person's business as a surgeon. The responsibility of taking care of this child fell to the mother as the father ended up joining the military as a doctor (surgeon) and died in Pietermaritzburgh, Natal, South Africa. It was not uncommon to deny culpability, however, the father's will even says nothing about the child he abandoned. His mother made sure he had a good home and was raised well. Life happens, so one does the best they can at the time.  

    He knew who is father was as he is listed in his marriage record, however, not much else is known about what happened to his own mother after she gave her son to her aunt and husband to raise. The mother gave the son the fathers' last name as part of his name to make sure he knew the name of his father. While these things are frustrating and sometimes the fathers' name is blank, it is possible to find out the missing parents' name with a lot of diligent research. Using the hints in Ancestral Quest can aid any research query, be sure to take advantage of it. 

Remember Ancestral Quest is FamilySearch Compatible!


Happy Ancestraling...Claire 





(c) 1994-2021 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved

ancquest@ancquest.com

Comments Welcomed!


Thursday, January 7, 2021

AQ Tree Tips ~ Improved

 

Genealogical research takes a tremendous amount of time, using AQs hinting through TreeTips can help anyone researching their ancestors. Entering a few pieces of information often can return addition sources and/or new information. 

The new slick interface recently added to AQ 16 makes it even easier and leaves one plenty of room for family names in the pedigree view without truncating the names. The interface allows hints from FamilySearch Family Tree, FindMyPast, Ancestry, WorldConnect, Geneanet, MyHeritage and the individual Favorite sites added by the user. 

Note there are two sections, one for hints and one for advanced searchers, each provides links right into the connected website. Once there the user is able to copy and paste the information in and attach a new resource. If the resource is from FamilySearch FamilyTree it can be moved through the lync and sync processes. 

Two new videos showing how they work are available for view on our YouTube channel. 

The first one, TreeTips-Research Assistance built into Ancestral Quest: Complete Guid. Updated reviews the various hints and searches.

The second one, TreeTips-Research Assistance built into Ancestral Quest: Case Study takes you step by step through the process of entering some information, searching with hints and the research features, adding the information to database and sourcing it all. 

Each video provides great insights in extending your family history using the AQ's Tree Tips.

Remember Ancestral Quest is FamilySearch Compatible!

Happy Ancestraling...Claire 





(c) 1994-2021 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved

ancquest@ancquest.com

Comments Welcomed!


Friday, September 4, 2020

Using AQ15 or AQ16?

 


Many times individuals are not aware of having both AQ15 and 
AQ 16 programs on their computer, some have ever earlier versions. In the above image, you will see both AQ 15 and AQ 16 Icons are exactly the same except for the version number and if you quickly glance you can accidentally open the wrong version. You may or may not see your file and instead see an error message.

At a glance, there is a quick way to know if you are in the correct updated Ancestral Quest 16. A "Descendants" tab was added in AQ16, if you do not see it, you will be in the wrong version. Here are the different tabs in each version.

Ancestral Quest 15 Tabs

Ancestral Quest 16 Tabs


If you find yourself in the wrong version of Ancestral Quest, simply close it and look for the correct version and open it. 

To prevent it from happening again, you can remove the AQ15 Icon by right clicking and click delete or remove or you can uninstall AQ15.


Remember Ancestral Quest is FamilySearch Compatible!

Happy Ancestraling...Claire 





(c) 1994-2020 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved

ancquest@ancquest.com

Comments Welcomed!






Friday, June 12, 2020

Using AQ 16?




Ancestral Quest 16 was released in October, 2019. There are many new Premium features to enhance your experience when working on your Family History!

Descendants View



This is a much-requested new feature, it joins the Pedigree, Family, Name List, Individual, and Timeline view tabs along the top of the program! The different view provides an additional way to handle and view your families. You can click on the various buttons to the right or left of individuals to navigate, including the special left arrow next to the main person, which will let you change the focus to a parent. You can select 1, 2 or 3 generations of descendants, then expand selected lines up to 6 generations deep.


Background Images on many Charts


For many charts, you can now include a background image. The background image can be placed on these reports:

  • Pedigree
  • Fan
  • Ancestry (Standard and Wall chart)
  • Descendant (Standard, Wall chart and Dropline chart)
  • Line of Descent
  • Calendar
  • Timeline

 
The image can be displayed with various opacity levels. You can even move background images around on the chart. As an example, you can create a birthday calendar for a month, where you set the page margins to .5 inches for left, bottom and right, but to 5.8 inches for top margin (this will put the calendar on the bottom half of an 8.5 x 11 paper), then put a picture on the top half of the page.

Share Custom Events

When you are adding or editing other/custom events within the Edit Individual screen, you can now share (copy) an event with other individuals in your database. 

For example, after finding a family of 10 on a census record, you can go to one member of the family, add a “Residence” other event to indicate that the person lived in that location on the date of the census, and attach a census source to the Residence event. You can then Share that event and source quickly with the other 9 members of the family, without having to individually add the Residence event to each record. Talk about a time saver!

To learn more about these new premium features and many others, check out our video that explains each one! Ancestral Quest 16 New Features!  If you haven't purchased AQ or updated, here is the link to our store.

Remember Ancestral Quest is fully FamilySearch Certified!


Comments and questions are always welcome!



Happy Ancestraling...Claire ;)


AQ Cues & Clues Blog:http://ancquest.blogspot.com/

(c) 1994-2020 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved
     ancquest@ancquest.com



Friday, December 6, 2019

Updating from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for Free


Support for Microsoft Windows 7 ends January 2020. They are encouraging those using Windows 7 to update to Windows 10 in order that there devices maintain security and are running without any problems.

On the Microsoft website, there is a cost of $139 to download the Home version of Windows 10. However, the free upgrade offer from Microsoft that supposedly ended in 2016 will still work.

The first release of Windows 10 in July, 2015 brought with it an offer to do a free upgrade from Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users which was good until July 2016. But in 2017, Ed Bott from CNET's sister site ZDNet reported that the free upgrade tool was still working and as of November, 2019, other individuals have reported it still works, this was confirmed by Bott.

For those Windows 7 users who do not upgrade to the new version, the security updates and patches will not long be available nor will there be any technical support for any problems or issues.

Here is how to to get Windows 10 for free or you can purchase a Windows 8.1 for $187 at Walmart either the Home or Pro version.

1. Go to the Download Windows 10 website

2. Under Create Windows 10 installation media, click Download tool now and run

3. Choose Upgrade this PC now, if this is the only computer to upgrade. If you are upgrading a different computer, choose Create installation media for another PC, and save the installation file.

4. Follow the prompts.

5. When the upgrade is complete, go to Settings Update & Security > Activation, you should see a digital license for Windows 10.

Note you will only see a license matching what you have, if you have the Home version, then it will be a Home license, if you have a Pro version, then it will be a Pro version.

Note: This article first appeared on c|net on November 16, 2019. Sharing for our customers who may be using Windows 7.

Remember Ancestral Quest is fully FamilySearch Certified!


Comments and questions are always welcome!



Happy Ancestraling...Claire ;)


AQ Cues & Clues Blog:http://ancquest.blogspot.com/

(c) 1994-2019 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved
     ancquest@ancquest.com

Thursday, October 3, 2019

AQ Mac Users Information


MacOS Catalina will be available this month, it is the first Mac Operating System built to support only 64-bit applications, older 32-bit applications will not work. In addition, the 235 32-bit applications will be removed from their Mac Apple Store. 

Being prepared is key concerning this Mac update. Wonder what will NOT work? Choose "About This Mac" from the Apple menu, click "System Report". Once there, scroll down to "Software" in the side bar and select "Applications". When you click on an application, check the line labeled"64-Bit (Intel)", if it says "No". it will not run on Catalina. Checking each application listed to see if it is a 64-bit version will provide one an idea of the number of programs that will no longer work including Ancestral Quest

During these last few years, the folks who provide the technical layer between Ancestral Quest and MacOS (which allows AQ to run on your Mac) have been working on a new technical layer that will convert the 32-bit workings of AQ into 64-bit workings required by MacOS Catalina. They call this technical layer a 'wrapper', and had hoped to be done by now, but they are still working on it. We hope that they will be ready before Catalina is released, but they may be a few weeks behind.

If you get a notice it is available and Apple invites you to upgrade to the new version, simply delay upgrading until we have this new 64-bit wrapper available. Delaying the upgrade will allow you to continue using AQ until this new wrapper is available. 


Remember Ancestral Quest is fully FamilySearch Certified!


Comments and questions are always welcome!

Happy Ancestraling...Claire ;)


AQ Cues & Clues Blog:http://ancquest.blogspot.com/

(c) 1994-2019 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved
     ancquest@ancquest.com