How to submit data to MyKindred.com

http://mykindred.com/contribute/

Your family history / genealogy is welcome here.

A place to share and connect.

MyKindred.com is a free genealogy site where family history researchers can discover & share information and where they can find cousins and other researchers. Please check our list of surnames researched at this site.

Contributions welcome.

Contributions are welcomed and appreciated. Please contact us if you have questions.

We welcome.

  • Genealogical data

    – Gedcom files, descendant list reports, Family Group Sheets (FGS), pedigree charts, etc.
    Narrative genealogies are discouraged, please. Unless they're generated by a genealogy program, they can be confusing to non-family members and extracting data from them is difficult.

  • Pictures

    of deceased people or historically relevant places or events, etc.

  • Historically relevant stories, notes, Bible records or other documents.

  • Obituaries, Vital Records, Newspaper or magazine articles, biographies, etc.

    which are relevant to your family history research.
  • * If you send a picture of a document, it would be helpful were you to also include a text transcription of it, if possible.

  • Did we miss something?

    Do you have something else you think would be helpful to other researchers? If so, please contact us.

How do I submit data, pictures, stories, etc. to MyKindred.com?

Email your information to us. Please check below for more information .

Here are some guidelines to make the process as simple as possible.

  1. Check to see if your data contributes to our primary lines of research (see "Lines Researched" below).
  2. Contact us and let us know what you're planning to submit.
  3. Format your data, if possible (see below).
  4. If you have a large amount of data, submit it as a gedcom (see below).
  5. Email it to us – if it is a file, zip it first and attach it to your email.
  6. * We don't normally accept submissions by snail mail but contact us if you need to do it that way.

There is more information about how to do each of those things below.

What lines are researched at this site?

The primary lines researched here include BUMSTEAD, CLOUD, PINZONI, SEYBOLD, SINISI, VOEGTLIN, WIESS, WHITTINGTON, WOOLVERTON & collateral lines.

* Please check out the expanded list of the Lines Researched at this site.

Before reading any further!

We are more interested in having your contribution than in nitpicking what you want to send.

The information below is meant to help you submit your data, not to discourage you from doing so. The topics are guidelines only.

If in doubt, either contact us about it or just send it and we'll take care of it.

Preferred Conventions.

These are suggestions, not requirements.

They help us add your data more quickly.

  1. How to send your data to us.

    If you have only a page or two, just paste it into an email and send it to us.

    If there is more than that, please enter it into a genealogy program, export it to gedcom, zip it and attach it to an email. Information on how to do that is explained later in this document.

  2. Data recording & formatting practices.

    For data to be useful, it must be collected, organized and presented in a consistent and uniform manner. The research tools on this site can't work with your data if it isn't formatted the same as the rest of the data here. (That doesn't mean our methods are better than yours. We hope you understand.

    If your data format differs from ours, we'll work with it and try to get it to conform to the way the data is stored here.

    Here are some tips for preparing your data for its best use on this site:

    • Please provide accurate information.
    • Please indicate which parts of your contribution lack supporting evidence or might be questionable.
    • Enter birth and death dates, even if estimated – else our software can't make a determination as to whether the person is living or dead.
    • Put data in the proper fields.
      • Put names in name fields, dates in date fields, place names in place fields, etc.
      • Don't put notes in date or place fields, etc.
      • Don't put any text, e.g. "unknown" or "died", etc. into date fields.
    • Use complete place names – your data will be combined with contributions from people all over the world. Every country has its own conventions and those researchers may not understand abbreviations for ours.
    • Bear in mind that the same name may be used for different locations, so provide complete information, e.g. County or Parish. For example Austin, TX can mean Austin County, Texas or the city of Austin which is located in Travis County, Texas.
      • Use the conventional order for place names, separated by commas – most local first with the next larger geopolitical boundary in succession, ending with the country.
      • Don't abbreviate place names.
      • Spell out the word "County" or "Township" or "Parish".
      • Spell out state names (people from other countries are not familiar with U.S. state abbreviations).
      • Put the country after the place name (we use "USA" for the U.S.A. and spell out the rest of the countries).
      • Example:
        Deer Ridge, Lewis County, Missouri, USA
        Cheboygan County, Michigan, USA
        Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
    • Use proper capitalization, punctuation and grammar. Don't put surnames, or anything else, in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
    • Abbreviate name suffixes and prefixes where practical (Rev., Col., Jr., M.D., PhD, etc.).
    • Include relevant historical information in your notes – omit personal or medical information and embarassing stories which may prove counterproductive.
    • Include sources.
    • Please do not send large documents that will have to be manually transcribed – they may never be processed. Send a gedcom file instead (see below).

    If you've submitted data and it hasn't appeared on the site, please contact us and we'll check to see what has happened. We have limited resources and it sometimes takes longer than we'd like to add data to the site. We apologize if that has happened to your contribution.

  3. example
    1, Johnny Smith (1895-1944), s/o Robt Smith
    2, Allan Williams, cousin of Jno Smith
    3, Susie (unknown)
    4, Pamela Roberts
    Example of identifying people
    in a photograph.

    Pictures / Images.

    Pictures of people and places, headstones, etc., where historically relevant to the genealogical goals of this site, are welcomed. Please only send pictures of people who are deceased and, preferably, who lived more than approximately fifty years ago.

    Here are some tips for preparing your data for its best use on this site:

    • Images should have a resolution of at least 200-300dpi.
    • Images which could benefit from enhancement should be sent at resolutions over 600 dpi.
    • (72 dpi is what will be used on the site, but higher resolutions will allow us to edit and enhance the images.)
    • Include details about the image -- the names of the people in it (and where they are in the picture), the name of the place, etc.
    • If it is a picture of a group of people, please provide some means whereby we can locate and identify each person in it. Ideally, a second, separate image with letters or numbers near or over each person with a separate text file identifying each person.

Preferred format for lists.

A suggestion, not a requirement.

Descendant lists are good ways to exchange genealogical information. If you do not have a genealogy program to generate one for you, please use the following as an example.

1-Richard Treat (Treate)
b: AUG 28, 1584 in Pitminster, South Trendle, Somerset, England
d: FEB 11, 1668/69 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
 +Alice Gaylord
b: MAY 10, 1594 in Pitminster, Somerset, England
m: APR 27, 1615 in Church of Saint Andrew and Mary, Pitminster, England
d: bet 1670 and 1680 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
. . 2-Honor Treat
    b: abt MAR 19, 1615/16 in Pitminster, Somerset, England
    d: 1705 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
. .  +John Deming
    b: abt 1615 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
    m: 1637 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
    d: 1704/5 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
. . . . 3-Jonathan Deming
        b: in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
        d: JAN 8, 1699
. . . . 3-Sarah Deming
        b: 1643 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
        d: SEP 29, 1717 in Hadley, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA
. . . . 3-Rachel Deming
. . 2-Joanna Treat
    b: MAY 28, 1618 in Pitminster, Somerset, England
    d: OCT  1694 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
. .  +John Hollister
    b: abt 1612 in England
    d: APR  1665 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA
. . . . 3-John Hollister
        b: 1644
        d: NOV 24, 1711

Lists more than three or four generations deep can become very large, making them difficult to enter into our database. Please try to limit the amount of data you send this way (see gedcom export below).

The genealogy listing above has numerous missing dates and place names. If you know them, it is best to include birth, marriage and death information for each person along with a date and a corresponding place name for each event.

Privacy, Skeletons in the Closet & Genealogical Irrelevance.

We prefer to obscure the names of living people, but it's not possible for us to research all the data we receive, and some living people may inadvertently be shown. We have to rely on you to supply complete and accurate information and depend on the birth and death dates you send us. The site software uses those dates to make a determination whether someone is living or not. Please include dates where possible – especially for living people.

Please respect the dignity and feelings of others when you include notes with your data. It's possible not everyone will be thrilled to see that you've uncovered the truth about certain family secrets, so please refrain from sending information which is not genealogically relevant. Of course, what is "uncomfortable" is subjective and, if it is genealogically relevant, might ought to be included anyway. (It's silly for anyone to get upset about the publication of information about the divorce, recorded in court records, of their ancestors 183 years ago.)

Medical information is generally irrelevant to genealogy research and it would be helpful if you did not send it.

How to Export From Genealogy Software.

If you have more than a page or two of text, it is better if the data is entered into a genealogy program and exported to a file. There are several reasons for this:

  • There won't be any transcription errors – the data is imported exactly as you entered it.
  • Notes and sources are retained.
  • We are slow typists and very large documents often end up in a box in the corner.

  1. Genealogy software file formats we can use.

    1. "Native" file formats

      1. Family Origins (works best with a backup file)
      2. Family Tree Maker
      3. PAF
      4. RootsMagic (works best with a backup file)

    2. Gedcom.

      You can send a gedcom from any genealogy program. All genealogy programs we're familiar with have the ability to export to gedcom. If your software isn't listed below, try looking in its File or Tools menu or in its Help section. You can also google how to export from that program.

      1. How to export a gedcom from Ancestry   (youtube video)
      2. How to export a gedcom from Brothers Keeper
      3. How to export a gedcom from FTM   (alternate)
      4. How to export a gedcom from Legacy   (alternate)
      5. How to export a gedcom from PAF   (alternate)
      6. How to export a gedcom from RM   (alternate)
      7. How to export a gedcom from TMG

Once you've exported the data, zip it, attach it to an email and send it to us.

Note that some programs, notoriously Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com (the same company), produce gedcoms with data in non-standard formats. Some of this data may be lost when we try to use it.

How to ZIP (compress and protect) your data.

The "Zip" format makes your files smaller so they are easier to send via email and it protects them from being modified along the way.

You can zip any type of file – pictures, documents, gedcoms, etc. To send more than one file, create a folder with the files in it and then zip the folder.

zip-win.png
Windows right-click zip menu

Windows & Mac have a zip utility built in.

  1. Locate the file or files you want to zip. You can select multiple files or temporarily put them all into a folder before zipping them.
  2. Right-click on the file or folder (same for Mac OS X).
  3. Choose Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder. This creates a new file called an "archive".
  4. The archive should take on the name of the file or folder, but you can name it anything you like.
  5. Attach the zipped archive to your email and send it.
7zip.png
7-Zip right-click menu

Zip Programs.

If you don't have a zip utility, there are many available. Two of the best free ones are 7-Zip and ALZip. To use any of these utilities you may be able to right-click on the file as with the Windows utility or you can open the zip program and drop your files into it.

The image on the right is an example of using 7-Zip.

As before, you need to give the archive a name and then email it.

(Having software appear in the right-click menu may be dependent upon its settings, see its documentation.
Also, ALZip may not appear to be free, but it is – click on "Purchase" and you'll find the message that it is now free along with a product registration code.)

Site Policies

Please read this site's usage and privacy policies.

How to contact us.

  • Use our Submission Form.
  • Email – send an email to us at webmaster at mykindred.com – just replace the " at " with "@".