Dave Schweisguth's genealogy

I've researched my ancestry since 1994. I maintain my tree in desktop software. I publish it in several places:

• Overview spreadsheet. Start here, especially if you're not a genealogist.
• Tree generated by the desktop software I use (access restricted to family)
• GEDCOM (living persons and notes removed)
• FamilySearch (free, requires registration)
  • I upload my tree (living persons and notes removed) to FamilySearch. Here are my paternal grandfather, Raymond Carlton Schweisguth Sr., and my maternal grandfather, Joseph John Kundratis, in that tree.
  • I contribute to the FamilySearch shared tree. Here are my paternal grandfather, Raymond Carlton Schweisguth Sr., and my maternal grandfather, Joseph John Kundratis, in that tree. I've put all of the people that are in both my tree and the FamilySearch shared tree into reasonably good shape in the FamilySearch shared tree. I haven't yet taken the time to add all of the people that are in my tree that aren't in the FamilySearch shared tree. However, the FamilySearch shared tree connects to many distant cousins not in my tree. The FamilySearch shared tree is the best way that I know of for genealogists (especially Americans) to collaborate, and I encourage every genealogist to add to it.
• Ancestry (requires subscription; I don't know if it's usable without one)
  • I upload a public copy of my tree to Ancestry. I periodically delete and re-upload this copy. Genealogist relatives, ask me to give you access to this tree so you can see living people.
  • I've uploaded a permanent copy of my tree to Ancestry on which I accept Ancestry hints. This copy will eventually fall behind the master copy, since it won't necessarily get all of the additions that the master copy gets.
  • I also manage some family members' Ancestry DNA results.
• Geni: Here is my maternal grandfather, Joseph John Kundratis, in the Geni shared tree. I entered the Lithuanian part of my tree into Geni to collaborate with Lithuanian genealogists, more of whom use Geni than they do FamilySearch or other similar services. I haven't yet entered all of the people or sources from that part of my own tree, only my direct ancestors, but the Geni shared tree connects to many distant cousins not in my tree.

Goals

My main goal is to find European documentation of all of my most recent European-born ancestors. Eleven down, four to go:

• GGG grandfather John F. Hart, c. 1821-1880; lived in Pawling, Esopus and Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York; gave many different birthplaces in Dutchess and Putnam Counties, Connecticut and Ireland; and his wife Catherine Reed (several spellings), c. 1822-c. 1865, born Ireland
• GG grandfather John Adam Raab, 1834-1897; lived in Newtown, Queens County, New York; and his wife Anna Kwasnikowa (countless spellings), 1846-1930; both likely born Austria

Data standards

Notes on each individual in my tree document the sources of information about that individual that I used. I keep a collection of all such sources and am happy to share them when appropriate. S## refers to a physical source and DS#### refers to a digital source.

I almost always rely on only primary or close-to-primary sources, i.e. original documents or indexed representations of original documents. I almost never use others' trees as sources.

I focus on my direct ancestors, their children, and more-distant relatives who I or close family members know or knew personally. I usually enter into my tree all persons mentioned in a source that I use, but sometimes, to keep my tree from growing without bound, I omit persons who are less closely related to me than the person of interest in a source; when I do that I say so in a note on the person of interest.

Privacy

I remove living people and notes from the versions of my tree that can be seen by the general public. I give access to the tree generated by the desktop software I use only to family. I publish my complete tree on Ancestry, but I give view access only to family, and Ancestry hides living persons from other users. Similarly, I entered part of my tree on Geni, but Geni hides living persons from other users.

Resources