INTERNET GENEALOGY CLASS 5:

GENSMARTS

©2005 by Donald R. Snow

Sections of the Class Notes

• Welcome and What This Class Is All About
• About GenSmarts
• Menu Items Across the Top
• Tabs To Select the Operation You Want
• Miscellaneous
• Conclusion
• Assignment

Return to the Class Notes and Descriptions.  This page was last updated 10 May 2005.

• Instructors are Elder and Sister Donald R. and Diane M. Snow of the Illinois Nauvoo Mission (snowd@math.byu.edu and dms34@juno.com), (217) 453-6306, in Nauvoo, Illinois
• This class is to learn the program GenSmarts -- GenSmarts home page  http://gensmarts.com/index.asp (the URL http://gensmarts.com/ takes you to a text-only screen describing GenSmarts)
• These notes with the Internet links are online at both  http://www.familyhistorycenter.org (under Class Notes and Descriptions) and at http://www.uvtagg.org, under Class Outlines.  Other notes and outlines for family history courses are posted on both sites, too.

• Summary -- GenSmarts is a program that reads and analyzes your PAF (or other FH) database, does artificial intelligence on it, and suggests places to look for more information, showing you why it is suggesting what it suggests, what that data would look like if you found it, and for web sites, taking you there and doing the search
• Commercial program -- $25 (downloaded), $35 (on CD), free for FHC's -- GenSmarts home page is http://gensmarts.com/
  • Current full version is
    
  • 1.07 -- see history of versions at http://www.gensmarts.com/versionHistory.asp
    
  • Free trial version you can download and use as long as you want, but it lacks features the full version has
• Can have your database running in both PAF and GenSmarts at the same time, so when you find something through GenSmarts you can enter it into your database -- can then have GenSmarts consider the new data in its analysis by clicking Refresh/Reopen
  
• What GenSmarts does
  • Analyzes your database from PAF, Legacy, GEDCOM's, and other programs, for gaps in your data, things you have forgotten to check, and new ideas
  • Shows why you would want to look at that record, e.g. because you don't have the parents' birth places in your database and that census record would have them
  • Can be run on databases WITHOUT being connected to the Internet -- only need Internet connection when you want to go to the web sites to see what data they have for you -- but GenSmarts does the analysis without being online
    
  • When connected to the Internet, it can take you directly to the site and do the search without you typing it in
  • Includes searches for things such as vital records, federal censuses, state censuses, land records, and military records
    
  • Prepares you for a genealogy trip since it shows what you can find in various locations
  • Lets you "surf the web" without having to type in the web sites nor the data -- you just select the name and site and click and it takes you to the web site and enters the data from your database
  • Lets you use it in "Kiosk mode" where you enter data directly into GenSmarts and it gives suggestions of where to find information on that person -- very helpful when someone comes into the FHC asking how to find information on a person -- the more data you enter about the person and those near him, the better the suggestions will be since they take into account other related people
    

• FILE MENU -- has a File Open Wizard that guides you through opening a new database or you can just tell it where to find the database you want to open
• PRINT MENU -- can print list of people with suggestions to search and in the detail that you want; can also print parts or all of the To Do List of suggestions and in the detail that you want
• TOOLS MENU -- Settings is where you set the parameters the way you want for analysis, folders to use, settings, and any paid subscriptions to FH web sites you may have, e.g. Ancestry.com, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, etc. -- when you list paid subscriptions it makes suggestions for those, too
  • Under Tools/Settings/Integration there are options to set IE (Internet Explorer) with SmartLink or with SmartSearch -- the difference is that with SmartLink it opens up the web site with the name and information entered, but waits for you to click on search, whereas with SmartSearch it enters the data and does the search, too.  If you elect to use another browser, e.g. Netscape, it only goes to the site and waits for you to enter the data to search -- is designed to work better with Internet Explorer.
• HELP MENU -- very helpful information screens that are worthwhile going through to learn the details
  

• MY GENEALOGY TAB – allows you to determine information about your file, select “root” person(s), “tag” your direct line ancestors in each "island" you have in your database -- also allows you to select a particular person you want to find data for in the Query Tab (see below)
• TO DO LIST TAB – shows what it suggests to search for selected persons in your database -- many sources to search are online
  • Various options of which persons to include and how to sort the data, e.g. only work on direct ancestors, only show suggestions for information that can be found online, or only those places that are searchable online for free
  • Narrative is shown at bottom of screen that tells why the suggestion is being made, what format you will likely find in the record, e.g. "This census record will contain the birth locations of parents and will look like this."
  • Can copy and paste into PAF running at same time
• RESEARCH LOCATIONS TAB – shows what research locations, web sites, etc., are currently being used in the analysis and what records you can find from that location, what persons (and their RIN's) that these records would apply to
  • Click on any location and you see a list of the data and which individuals with their RIN's can be found there
  • If location is a physical place, e.g. Allen County Public Library, then you see the address
  • If location is a web site, clicking on the www Link button takes you to that web site
  • For Heritage Quest Online if you have a Godfrey Memorial Library (http://godfrey.org/), Washington County Library card (http://www.washco.lib.ut.us), Provo Library Card (http://provocitylibrary.com/), or some other library card that allows you to use Heritage Quest Online, you can enter the URL, e.g. , in the Subscriptions list and when it finds something to search there, it will open up the web site and wait for you to enter your Library card bar code.
• DATA CLEANUP TAB – shows how GenSmarts is interpreting your places and estimating dates and places not completely clear in your database
  • LOCL: is the town level; DIV2: is the county level, DIV1: is the state level (reminiscent of U.S. Cities Galore's list)
  • Can Export the place list as a CSV file to the GenSmarts folder -- click on Tools/Export Place Names -- can then load it into a spreadsheet or word processor -- list shows every place in the database, but has no RIN's associated with the places -- list can be sorted by any column, e.g. cities, counties, states, etc. -- helpful to find places needing corrections in your database
• QUERY TAB – can select anyone in your database by clicking on their name in the My Genealogy File Tab and it puts all their info with spouse and child in the Query form -- or can enter anyone there by hand (see Kiosk Mode below)
  • Click on Generate Suggestions to get suggestions to find additional data for that person

• 44-page pdf GenSmarts Manual free for everyone at http://www.gensmarts.com/versionHistory.asp -- can also download their free pdf file called Ambiguous Place Names Report which shows U.S. cities with same name in two or more counties in that state
• Each time you run GenSmarts it checks with GenSmarts homepage to update the program and/or get new searches to add to its database since the GenSmarts staff is constantly adding new web sites, libraries, and databases
• You can suggest new web sites and databases for the GenSmarts people to consider for additions to searches -- their forum page at http://www.gensmarts.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=7 is a good source of data sites that have been suggested for inclusion
• You can now add you own logic to check other books, libraries, etc. -- see their 15-minute online video of how to do this at  http://www.gensmarts.com/customAnalysis.asp
  
• Data files that GenSmarts produces stay on the machine and do not transfer with your PAF database -- so if you run the program on your database on another machine at a FHC, for example, your previous selections of "Found", "Research", etc., will not be there, but the suggestions it comes up with will be what you would have got on the other machine
  
• Kiosk Mode allows you to type in data for an individual and have it generate suggestions to check, e.g. when someone needs suggestions of where to look and they don't have their data in a database yet

• Requires that you have your FH data typed into a computer program
  
• Very helpful program to suggest what to do and where to find the genealogy data you need for your database
  

1. Open your PAF database in GenSmarts and check each of the menu items at the top of GenSmarts and set the parameters the way you want.
2. Go to the My Genealogy Tab and select yourself or a descendant as the “root” person and see all the names that are your direct ancestors.
3. Look at the To Do List Tab and click on various options for sorting, etc., to see what happens.    Note that your direct ancestors (with the blue stars) are at the top of default priority To Do List Tab.
4. If you are connected to the Internet, click on a web site suggestion in the To Do List and see how the search is done and see what data it finds for you.
   
5. Go to the My Genealogy Tab and select someone from your database and double click on the name.  Now go to the Query Tab and note that that person's data has been entered into the search form there. Click on the Generate Suggestions button and see what suggestions it comes up with.