You know Connie I get a lot out of your extraneous comments like, "now Mary died in 1860 so we don't know if she will be in the census or not." I figured that, but it is nice to hear someone say it. Also, had the same feeling when you said, "Now remember, these are the days when everyone lived close within walking distance and horseback-or mostly they did." In sports we used to call those the "fundamentals." After we'd play a bad game the coach would say, ok, next practice we need to review the fundamentals..." Anyway, it is what I like about you and how you present- you are true teacher, you want others to learn. -Scott
Ah... thanks Scott. That was nice. Yes... I try to teach to genealogists of all levels. Some are brand new to genealogy and others are professionals... with most in the middle somewhere. It's part of my game plan (to continue the sports analogy). I do my best to explain quickly the basics for those who don't know, but also move on to give something new or a reminder for those who have been doing this for a while. Hey... I'm not perfect or know everything either... I learn from the audience and from guests on the channel. Thanks for the comment.
I can't express enough how incredibly helpful this was, I'm not a Spreadsheet person at all and getting around them for me has been challenging! Hard to teach an old dog new tricks, lol!!! 🤦♀️Now I can't wait to work with one! Thanks so much Connie!!🤷♀️🙂
I am absolutely in love with your program. I love to learn new things especially about the computer with the different programs that we can use. You go there just about every time and I love to hear your teach. Thank you for everything you do.
I was having the same problem as Theresa E. When I pasted the info into Excel (Office 365), the info would paste all in one column. I then tried pasting it in Google sheet, with the same result. After reading Connie's reply to Theresa and knowing that I have the most recent version of Excel, it occurred to me that it might be a browser problem. Firefox is my browser of choice, but I opened Chrome and copied the info. It pasted correctly in Excel. So, Theresa, if you're still having problems, switch to a different browser. Thanks, Connie, for your great tip of copying and pasting the info into Excel or Google sheets. I absolutely never would have thought of that.
Omg. I had no idea we could do this! I spent time years ago transcribing Census pages box by box on Word! I wouldn't even do the whole page. Lol. This is so awesome! Thank you!!
Connie...You probably know, but didn't hear/see this mentioned. After you set up the spreadsheet with data and freeze top row of columns/page...you can "insert" rows above the "frozen" row with the column titles and then add other information, i.e. census titles, townships, dates, anything, merge cells, etc.. AND the frozen row with titles will still be the point that stays in place as you scroll down through the data below.
Thank you so much for this great tool! Copy and paste would not work for me at first. In case anyone else is having trouble pasting into Google sheets, I had a pop up suggesting I install a Google Chrome extension called Google Docs Offline which I did. Now the paste feature works perfectly!
This is a unique way to research the FAN club! And possibly find the father's of illegitimate children. Also the 'freeze row' is a lifesaver. Thank you
Tried this method after watching the video. Will point out you need to check every page is fully selected before hitting Copy. If the previous page has a number of lines left blank then the following page will not highlight that same section of lines! Over 29 sheets I lost around 100 lines of information. Still grateful for all the hints, tips and information you give.
Very well taught, Connie. I haven’t used the method yet but feel confidant about giving it a whirl after your video. When you clicked on the filter icon in the surname column cell, the top filter selection was “sort A to Z.” If you pick that option, it should alphabetize all the surnames, which would be another way to group like names together. Of course, the method you demonstrated is more specific, showing only the particular names you are interested in. I think I can save you a click! I noticed when you wanted to look at the microfilm census image via a person’s profile page on Ancestry, you double clicked on the “view” button (at 31:34, for example). That takes you to the transcribed record, and another click is required on either the miniature image itself or the “view image” button to bring up the microfilmed record. I always did it that way too until a couple of weeks ago when my brother had charge of the mouse and brought it up in one step by clicking on the mini microfilm image rather than the “view” button on the profile page. That way, you bypass the transcribed record. (I rejoice over such small victories. 😊)
@@GenealogyTV Well, you certainly know what you’re doing, so no complaints here. Your tips on the ins and outs of website use are greatly appreciated, such as the smart filtering on/off option on Ancestry you mentioned not long ago. That has particular relevance for my research because I have many ancestors in the Philadelphia area and, as you probably know, there were two censuses recorded in Philly in 1870 due to complaints that many residents were deliberately overlooked the first time around (political hanky-panky and moronic enumerators largely blamed for this). I do, in fact, have some relatives listed on the 2nd enumeration who didn’t make it into the first one. With smart filtering on, once one of the censuses is saved to the person’s profile, no further 1870 Philadelphia census results appear for that name, even though there are other possibilities. So far, I’ve only found one relative who was listed on both the first and second enumerations (June and November). He had moved during that gap period, so there was a little extra information there.
This is brilliant I wish I knew this when I was searching for a little girl adopted out within walking distance of the father who gave her up after the mother died (family lore). I eventually found her, but only after painfully searching records line by line. Being able to filter by age would have been very helpful (she was listed under the new family's name).
I was able to do the same in Libre Calc. That is also free and will export to other spread sheets. This is a very handy tool. I have done all the pages of our small village 1850 to 1910 and will get the others soon. Back up each time you make a change. When I get done with the raw download, I make a copy and stick it away in a separate sub-folder. That way if I muck something up, I don't need to redo it all. I also color code the electron districts. One of your comments asked why to do this. Well in my village I have two electron districts or have both a town and village census. So I take all them and download them on one spreadsheet. I then color code the different censuses by highlighting the cells. That way I can search the entire town and village and instantly see where they can be found. As a town historian it can be fun to sort by occupation, sex, race, or whatever to see how things changed. You can also use the search option to find a key word. If you know the first name, sometimes it is handy to search for John instead of Smith as Smith might have been spelled as Smyth or Smit. Cheers.
I just found my great grandfather and his family was living near his father and stepmother in 1880 using your technique! I had no idea they were living that close! Very helpful! Thank you!
This is great for so many researchers. For me, 90 percent of both sides of my family settled in New York City. Sometimes Census records have rolls that contain only two square blocks. And because there were subways, sometimes families lived in different boroughs. I always joke that only I could have NYC as my primary research area and the surname Smith as one entire line 🤣🤣.
Oh boy. Well that is where Cluster Research comes into play to help tease out one Smith from another. See my episodes on FAN Club (aka Cluster) research if you are not familiar with the concept.
Connie; This is a video everyone should see. Just great. I enjoy all of your videos very much. I have learned so much from you. Thank you very much for doing all this for us.
Taking this idea of yours, I applied it to getting list of people in tree. I often see names that look familiar in other trees, either ones I'm working on or looking at. This list allows me to review surnames for comparison. Thanks for a great tool tip!
Glad it was helpful! Yes... it is worth the effort. If you keep your extractions organized, you can use them over and over again as you discover more people.
a great help for those of us who are exel hesitant ! Maybe something like this would work with city directories across several years. Thanks for this vid . Super teacher.
I don't know if you know this, but both on Google Sheets and on Excel, if you click on a cell, press ctrl + any of the arrows (up, down, left, right), it will take you to the first/last written cell in that row/column (if for any reason there's an empty cell it will stop there). It's an easy and fast way to "scroll" over the cells.
I think you created a monster! I taught all the parts of Microsoft Office to first year College in my previous life. I can see so many ways to use this! I see hours on my computer that I have neglected because I use the iPad for almost everything. Of course I can use google sheets on the iPad, but I’d prefer to have my big monitor on my PC. And since I have my previous monitor gathering dust, I could hook that up and use two monitors! And I’m certain some of these brick walls of mine are about to fall.
@@GenealogyTV ah, I see. I saw the vid with your set up. Jealous! But I will get there. I’m beginning to see why I haven’t broken thru my brick walls. I’ve gone directionally back along my major lines but I have done much other than note the sibs in each family. I could be missing so much. I can’t thank you enough.
I was so excited to do this, watched over and over…. But the Paste Special isn’t working for me. If I paste…I get everything in column 1 as you said, but paste special(values) I get nothing. Did I miss something? New to Google sheets but not completely computer illiterate. Any idea? TY!!! BTW, your videos have made an amazing impact on my journey!
I can't wait to do this. I'm stuck on finding my 3rd great grandfather's parents. I found his Estate records, but not his parent's. Wish me luck, because I know nothing about spread sheets....lol🤦🏽🤷🏽
I have made several indices like this for wikitree. I don't extract the entire data because of the width of wikitree free space pages. I only do the whole data for 1790-1840.
I am having trouble with special paste (format values only), it only pastes to one line. tried different browser, even tried in excel, only pastes to one line. what am I doing wrong? Thanks for the vid
I was struggling to get this to work then I saw on another video of yours, someone said this won't work with Firefox. I tried it with Edge and it works fine! Just incase others are pulling thier hair out trying to get this to work! :-)
@11:47 "… and get the little 'plus' symbol, I can now click and… " Actually, if you double-click the cross/plus, it will populate the value in the selected cell all the way to the bottom of the current date (your last row). Giggle Sheets takes the highlighted value and populates the relative cells with that value. You can use this technique for each new 'Image' that you paste, and the value will be properly inserted - no need to drag to the bottom (and fiddle finding the last row). Note that much different results will be experienced if multiple cells are selected. "Buyer beware"!
You've shown me a couple of wrinkles I need to try using Spreadsheets to handle census data from Ancestry or Family Search. Thank you. Additionally there is OpenOffice Calc (and Writer) that maybe worth mentioning. Also is it possible to forgo some of the labor (agony) by getting all the data from one (or more) Census Enumeration District with one request? Maybe from the Census Bureau or from the National Archives?
Yes... well this would work with any spreadsheet software. Regarding the data dump from NARA... I'm not sure they would do that. I would not be surprised though... if Ancestry doesn't figure out how to do this on their platform. That would be HUGE!
I find that ancestry transcribs entries wrongly quite a lot and that some families are missing on certain census years. But with all of ancestry's faults they are still my favourite genealogy site because they show the original records and you can work alot out with this. Although you might miss alot out because they are not perfect.
I recommend starting with yourself... especially if you have a DNA kit on Ancestry... or are ever going to think about one. Your information will be private to others... all living people are not visible to others.
HI Connie! Is there a handout for this video? Like the concept, but copy and pasting UK Census is a pain. The names in the transcripts are all given name, then surname.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks Connie! I did eventually find it. Did you see the other part of my comment about the names? Any idea how I can resolve this problem? Thanks!
I was able to figure out how to change the names. I had to add an Extension to Sheets. It is called Split Names. I Googled how to do it. Once you split the names you can then switch columns. Pretty easy to do. Hope this helps others who are having the same problem.
Alas, it won't work for me in Firefox, Edge, or Opera...I don't use Google Chrome for anything but work as it connects to a work database. I even tried in Libre Calc, but the Ctrl-Shift-V still gave everything to me in one column...I guess I'll go back to doing in in Excel - I just like the way Sheets does it better...
It is not part of Ancestry, but you use it together with ancestry. So have a separate window open. It might be a little challenging if you are working on an iPad alone. You would need both the Ancestry window open and the Google Sheet open and toggle between them.
I figured it out! Thank you for this idea ! I was trying to do this by hand as a way to see a bunch of people with the same name in the same town to figure out which was my ancestor through the decades.
Connie, Can you explain why you need to spend so much time to copy and paste? Could you not get the same information just using Ancestry, Search, Records? Currently, I drill down to the Fed census year that I want, and search a city and a last name. I get pretty much the same results as copy and paste and more. Am I missing something that your method improves upon?
You can but... you can't have multiple surnames filtered at the same time. Plus, you can't layer several fields, like looking for a male, surname Davis, and age, all in one easy to view list. This is a great tool for working various hypotheses.
Sometimes in reviewing these lists, I also find other names that look familiar… like In-Laws. They often married people who lived close by in my family. It’s like double treasure! 😁 I often copy the whole census rather than just a few pages. I also list street names in the file name, so I can refer back when I find a person in a different family who lived on that street. Someday I want to do a huge map with pins showing each family’s residence because it seems most of my tree lived in one city in upstate NY. 😆 I love that you showed us how to do this. Thanks sooo much!
I have tried several times. I have copy paste, Copy shift past and it will not copy to google sheet. I watched your video over and over and I am following each move. What may I be doing wrong?
Tried again. I followed you to a tee and it still did not paste. I CTRL C on the census, went to the speadsheet and clicked Ctrl V on the column A. It came up wrong like you said so I went to edit, down to Special paste, but it came up value only instead of paste value only. I click this anyway, but nothing came up. What must I be doing wrong? Need help
After you copied the information... in Google Sheets... put your cursor in the upper left cell where you want to paste. Choose Edit (from the top menu), then Paste Special, then Values Only. You can do the same thing by holding the CNTL + SHIFT + V all at the same time. That's the short cut code.
Can you help me find info on my Grandfather??? I have his name, age, and nickname and he worked as a tap dancer in 1938. I have looked in census and found nothing and there's no match on DNA on Ancestry.
You might consider my virtual coaching service. We jump on a Zoom call for an hour, we can share computer screens, and work on your family history together. Go here for more information. genealogytv.org/coaching-options/
and now, even in Excel, even when I select Paste Special and choose Text, it gives it all to me in just one column...so weird because since you did the updated version of this workshop for Excel, I've used it several times, and now, nada...very odd...oh, well, first world problem...
Works for me. Make sure you have the latest version of Excel. Some have reported that older versions are putting it in one column. I'm using Office 365 version and it worked for me.
You can track them through multiple records. So if you find a cluster as young adults in 1880 and then you find them living together as a family ten years earlier you know you have the same group. It is best to try and find several records where some or all tie together through time.
Looking for help in pinpointing who my father is....numerous children were taken from my paternal grandparents for neglect and abuse...along with other spouse's and those children. Was told a name that somewhat fits, but genetically (DNA)impossible
I wish this freedom to view census records was available in scottish Records where my mothers family is from, every document you want to view from Scotlands people costs soooo much money.
I do appreciate your video. This extra work shouldn't be necessary. I'm disappointed with the search features on Ancestry. I should be able to easily search any particular census, or any range of pages within it, without having to export the data to my own spreadsheet. How handy it would be to have some global search parameters that I didn't have to reset every time. I shouldn't have to check a bunch of boxes over and over just to accomplish searches within a certain state, or county. Even if it sorted the results with some logic, it would automatically put all the results from the state I'm searching first. I don't want to see results for people in England.
Handouts for Channel Members are in the posts in the COMMUNITY TAB on the UA-cam Channel. Once there, scroll down, look for EARLY RELEASE + HANDOUT. Sometimes you need to CLICK READ MORE to see the HANDOUT LINK. Info Access level channel members have access to all handouts. If you are at the Support level, you need to upgrade to the Info Access level. To go to the Community Tab directly... ua-cam.com/users/genealogytvCommunity. Thanks for supporting Genealogy TV!
Make sure you have a recent version of Excel. Choose Paste Special, then Text. Alternately you can do this in Google Sheets with Paste Special > Values Only.
@GenealogyTV I did paste special as the video directs in Google Sheets and it still didn't work. I only have a 10 year old version of Excel, so I'm not even trying that.
@@GenealogyTV I know. But I was looking for a way to get the same kind of info of household members in the same kind of format in order to make it easier to evaluate. I can't see being able to do it one page at a time vs.having to copy and paste one family at a time.
The only thing I don't like about this method is that the people who transcribe these census sheets often don't get the spelling of the surname or first names correct. I wish they would have screened their census takers penmanship. 😂
Ah yes... and... you can use this in the filter to discover other name spellings really fast by scrolling through the last name in the filter box. " I wish they would have screened their census takers penmanship. 😂" Hilarious... well they would not want me for a census taker, my penmanship is horrible... That's why I print everything. :)
You know Connie I get a lot out of your extraneous comments like, "now Mary died in 1860 so we don't know if she will be in the census or not." I figured that, but it is nice to hear someone say it. Also, had the same feeling when you said, "Now remember, these are the days when everyone lived close within walking distance and horseback-or mostly they did." In sports we used to call those the "fundamentals." After we'd play a bad game the coach would say, ok, next practice we need to review the fundamentals..." Anyway, it is what I like about you and how you present- you are true teacher, you want others to learn. -Scott
Ah... thanks Scott. That was nice. Yes... I try to teach to genealogists of all levels. Some are brand new to genealogy and others are professionals... with most in the middle somewhere. It's part of my game plan (to continue the sports analogy). I do my best to explain quickly the basics for those who don't know, but also move on to give something new or a reminder for those who have been doing this for a while. Hey... I'm not perfect or know everything either... I learn from the audience and from guests on the channel. Thanks for the comment.
@@GenealogyTV how do i get the handout
I can't express enough how incredibly helpful this was, I'm not a Spreadsheet person at all and getting around them for me has been challenging! Hard to teach an old dog new tricks, lol!!! 🤦♀️Now I can't wait to work with one! Thanks so much Connie!!🤷♀️🙂
Glad it was helpful Maria. Thanks for supporting the channel.
I am absolutely in love with your program. I love to learn new things especially about the computer with the different programs that we can use. You go there just about every time and I love to hear your teach. Thank you for everything you do.
Ah... you're going to make me cry. Thanks. That was very nice. I absolutely love what I do. Thank you.
I was having the same problem as Theresa E. When I pasted the info into Excel (Office 365), the info would paste all in one column. I then tried pasting it in Google sheet, with the same result. After reading Connie's reply to Theresa and knowing that I have the most recent version of Excel, it occurred to me that it might be a browser problem. Firefox is my browser of choice, but I opened Chrome and copied the info. It pasted correctly in Excel. So, Theresa, if you're still having problems, switch to a different browser. Thanks, Connie, for your great tip of copying and pasting the info into Excel or Google sheets. I absolutely never would have thought of that.
Correct, Firefox does not work. Use Chrome. Thank you for the compliment Wanda, it’s one of my favorite tips.
Yup, the same problem. After 45 minutes, I went back and read through the comments. Bingo!
Thank you for your comment. I was having the same problem. I used your solution. It now works. So happy.
Omg. I had no idea we could do this! I spent time years ago transcribing Census pages box by box on Word! I wouldn't even do the whole page. Lol. This is so awesome! Thank you!!
Glad it was helpful!
Connie...You probably know, but didn't hear/see this mentioned. After you set up the spreadsheet with data and freeze top row of columns/page...you can "insert" rows above the "frozen" row with the column titles and then add other information, i.e. census titles, townships, dates, anything, merge cells, etc.. AND the frozen row with titles will still be the point that stays in place as you scroll down through the data below.
Good point. Thanks and thanks for supporting GTV.
Thank you so much for this great tool! Copy and paste would not work for me at first. In case anyone else is having trouble pasting into Google sheets, I had a pop up suggesting I install a Google Chrome extension called Google Docs Offline which I did. Now the paste feature works perfectly!
Really? That's good to know. Thanks!
This is a unique way to research the FAN club! And possibly find the father's of illegitimate children. Also the 'freeze row' is a lifesaver. Thank you
My pleasure.
Tried this method after watching the video. Will point out you need to check every page is fully selected before hitting Copy. If the previous page has a number of lines left blank then the following page will not highlight that same section of lines! Over 29 sheets I lost around 100 lines of information. Still grateful for all the hints, tips and information you give.
Excellent point Margaret thank you.
Very well taught, Connie. I haven’t used the method yet but feel confidant about giving it a whirl after your video.
When you clicked on the filter icon in the surname column cell, the top filter selection was “sort A to Z.” If you pick that option, it should alphabetize all the surnames, which would be another way to group like names together. Of course, the method you demonstrated is more specific, showing only the particular names you are interested in.
I think I can save you a click! I noticed when you wanted to look at the microfilm census image via a person’s profile page on Ancestry, you double clicked on the “view” button (at 31:34, for example). That takes you to the transcribed record, and another click is required on either the miniature image itself or the “view image” button to bring up the microfilmed record. I always did it that way too until a couple of weeks ago when my brother had charge of the mouse and brought it up in one step by clicking on the mini microfilm image rather than the “view” button on the profile page. That way, you bypass the transcribed record. (I rejoice over such small victories. 😊)
Yes Deb... true... but sometimes I take the slower route to tell the story. You're right thought, I should mention that as an option.
@@GenealogyTV Well, you certainly know what you’re doing, so no complaints here.
Your tips on the ins and outs of website use are greatly appreciated, such as the smart filtering on/off option on Ancestry you mentioned not long ago. That has particular relevance for my research because I have many ancestors in the Philadelphia area and, as you probably know, there were two censuses recorded in Philly in 1870 due to complaints that many residents were deliberately overlooked the first time around (political hanky-panky and moronic enumerators largely blamed for this).
I do, in fact, have some relatives listed on the 2nd enumeration who didn’t make it into the first one. With smart filtering on, once one of the censuses is saved to the person’s profile, no further 1870 Philadelphia census results appear for that name, even though there are other possibilities. So far, I’ve only found one relative who was listed on both the first and second enumerations (June and November). He had moved during that gap period, so there was a little extra information there.
This is brilliant I wish I knew this when I was searching for a little girl adopted out within walking distance of the father who gave her up after the mother died (family lore). I eventually found her, but only after painfully searching records line by line. Being able to filter by age would have been very helpful (she was listed under the new family's name).
Well perhaps you can use this for future searches.
Connie, great information! I was not even aware of Google Sheets. Many thanks, as always!
We learn something new everyday.
I was able to do the same in Libre Calc. That is also free and will export to other spread sheets. This is a very handy tool. I have done all the pages of our small village 1850 to 1910 and will get the others soon. Back up each time you make a change. When I get done with the raw download, I make a copy and stick it away in a separate sub-folder. That way if I muck something up, I don't need to redo it all. I also color code the electron districts. One of your comments asked why to do this. Well in my village I have two electron districts or have both a town and village census. So I take all them and download them on one spreadsheet. I then color code the different censuses by highlighting the cells. That way I can search the entire town and village and instantly see where they can be found. As a town historian it can be fun to sort by occupation, sex, race, or whatever to see how things changed. You can also use the search option to find a key word. If you know the first name, sometimes it is handy to search for John instead of Smith as Smith might have been spelled as Smyth or Smit. Cheers.
Great ideas. Thanks for sharing. I think this is a very powerful strategy.
I have been searching census records for decades and still I learned a lot here
Me too!
I really enjoyed nerding out with my spreadsheet on this one!
Thanks for becoming a channel member.
I just found my great grandfather and his family was living near his father and stepmother in 1880 using your technique! I had no idea they were living that close! Very helpful! Thank you!
Fabulous. Yay! See! It works!
This is a fabulous new tool, I know what I'll be doing for the next few days lol Thanks Connie! 🥰
This is great for so many researchers. For me, 90 percent of both sides of my family settled in New York City. Sometimes Census records have rolls that contain only two square blocks. And because there were subways, sometimes families lived in different boroughs. I always joke that only I could have NYC as my primary research area and the surname Smith as one entire line 🤣🤣.
Oh boy. Well that is where Cluster Research comes into play to help tease out one Smith from another. See my episodes on FAN Club (aka Cluster) research if you are not familiar with the concept.
I'm there too 😉
Connie;
This is a video everyone should see. Just great. I enjoy all of your videos very much. I have learned so much from you. Thank you very much for doing all this for us.
Wow, thank you!
Thank you for taking it slowly, showing each step, and where to click. That allows us to do it along with you, and really understand it.
Super. Thanks for the feedback.
Oh wow!!!! For me, I use Excel for my job so I will be doing this for my brick walls.
Go for it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you . . . I love this research technique and eager to apply to some of my family unknowns.
Taking this idea of yours, I applied it to getting list of people in tree. I often see names that look familiar in other trees, either ones I'm working on or looking at. This list allows me to review surnames for comparison. Thanks for a great tool tip!
That's a great idea! Thanks.
This awesome! I'm not really a spreadsheet person, but I've known there is a way to use it for genealogy research. NOW I KNOW HOW!! Thanks a ton!!
Wonderful! I hope you give it a try.
This is so brilliant. And game-changing! Thanks for doing the Sheets version.
😎
@@GenealogyTV how do I hire you personally?
This is brilliant! I have to do this! Thank you, Connie!
Thanks Linda. I like it. I use it all the time.
I have extracted a couple of census. Great tip. It is so tedious though. Worth the effort!
Glad it was helpful! Yes... it is worth the effort. If you keep your extractions organized, you can use them over and over again as you discover more people.
Thank you! You're awesome! Ask and ye shall receive....
Yes I try.
This is great - I love spreadsheets and they are particularly useful for genealogy tasks such as this.
Agreed
Wow so very useful. Thank you for this video!
You're very welcome!
Thanks for teaching me something I didn't know on this subject.
You bet!
Fantastic info. Thanks so much!
Glad it was helpful!
a great help for those of us who are exel hesitant ! Maybe something like this would work with city directories across several years. Thanks for this vid . Super teacher.
That's a great idea. The wheels are turning in my head. Thanks for the compliments.
Thx Mrs Knox for this class using google sheets
My pleasure.
I don't know if you know this, but both on Google Sheets and on Excel, if you click on a cell, press ctrl + any of the arrows (up, down, left, right), it will take you to the first/last written cell in that row/column (if for any reason there's an empty cell it will stop there). It's an easy and fast way to "scroll" over the cells.
Great tip. I'll try that. Thank you.
@@GenealogyTV You're most welcome :)
I think you created a monster! I taught all the parts of Microsoft Office to first year College in my previous life. I can see so many ways to use this! I see hours on my computer that I have neglected because I use the iPad for almost everything. Of course I can use google sheets on the iPad, but I’d prefer to have my big monitor on my PC. And since I have my previous monitor gathering dust, I could hook that up and use two monitors! And I’m certain some of these brick walls of mine are about to fall.
You scared me when you said I created a monster. I thought, oh boy, what did I do? Yes... monitors... I use three!
@@GenealogyTV ah, I see. I saw the vid with your set up. Jealous! But I will get there. I’m beginning to see why I haven’t broken thru my brick walls. I’ve gone directionally back along my major lines but I have done much other than note the sibs in each family. I could be missing so much. I can’t thank you enough.
I was so excited to do this, watched over and over…. But the Paste Special isn’t working for me. If I paste…I get everything in column 1 as you said, but paste special(values) I get nothing. Did I miss something? New to Google sheets but not completely computer illiterate. Any idea? TY!!! BTW, your videos have made an amazing impact on my journey!
Oh thank you for the compliment. Make sure you’re using Chrome for the browser when you.
Outstanding info! Thanks :)
Glad it was helpful!
This was so cool! Thanks for sharing this. Too bad we can't do this directly on Ancestry.
Maybe one day!
Very helpful! Thank you!
Thanks
That was very useful Connie! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I learn so much from you. This was so enlightening that I can do this
Yay. Go for it.
Such a great video, thank you so much. I can't wait to try it.
You are so welcome! It's one of my best tips!
Fantastic video!!! Thank you Connie
Thanks Lorna.
This is fabulous information. Thanks for demonstrating this.
Thanks LeAllyson. Thanks for your continued support.
One thing I've learned is useful is color filtering each name, so I can see them at a glance.
That's a great idea!
This is a game changer!
Yes!
I can't wait to do this. I'm stuck on finding my 3rd great grandfather's parents. I found his Estate records, but not his parent's. Wish me luck, because I know nothing about spread sheets....lol🤦🏽🤷🏽
Sassy Cat... just follow the video... I think it's easy once you get the hang of it.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you.
👍
You are awesome! Thank youj!
You're welcome!
Very cool!
Good info. Thanks
My pleasure.
I have made several indices like this for wikitree. I don't extract the entire data because of the width of wikitree free space pages. I only do the whole data for 1790-1840.
Fantastic!! Thanks.
You're welcome!
I am having trouble with special paste (format values only), it only pastes to one line. tried different browser, even tried in excel, only pastes to one line. what am I doing wrong? Thanks for the vid
Use Chrome.
I was struggling to get this to work then I saw on another video of yours, someone said this won't work with Firefox. I tried it with Edge and it works fine! Just incase others are pulling thier hair out trying to get this to work! :-)
Thanks for sharing
@11:47 "… and get the little 'plus' symbol, I can now click and… "
Actually, if you double-click the cross/plus, it will populate the value in the selected cell all the way to the bottom of the current date (your last row). Giggle Sheets takes the highlighted value and populates the relative cells with that value.
You can use this technique for each new 'Image' that you paste, and the value will be properly inserted - no need to drag to the bottom (and fiddle finding the last row).
Note that much different results will be experienced if multiple cells are selected. "Buyer beware"!
Thanks Sean. I learn so much from folks like you. BTW, love the typo... Giggle Sheets. It made me giggle.
Oooh, thanks for the double click tip.
You've shown me a couple of wrinkles I need to try using Spreadsheets to handle census data from Ancestry or Family Search. Thank you. Additionally there is OpenOffice Calc (and Writer) that maybe worth mentioning. Also is it possible to forgo some of the labor (agony) by getting all the data from one (or more) Census Enumeration District with one request? Maybe from the Census Bureau or from the National Archives?
Yes... well this would work with any spreadsheet software. Regarding the data dump from NARA... I'm not sure they would do that. I would not be surprised though... if Ancestry doesn't figure out how to do this on their platform. That would be HUGE!
I find that ancestry transcribs entries wrongly quite a lot and that some families are missing on certain census years.
But with all of ancestry's faults they are still my favourite genealogy site because they show the original records and you can work alot out with this.
Although you might miss alot out because they are not perfect.
Agreed.
Could you kindly let me know on my family tree should I start with me and not my grandparents or parents?
I recommend starting with yourself... especially if you have a DNA kit on Ancestry... or are ever going to think about one. Your information will be private to others... all living people are not visible to others.
HI Connie! Is there a handout for this video? Like the concept, but copy and pasting UK Census is a pain. The names in the transcripts are all given name, then surname.
I just reposted it for you.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks Connie! I did eventually find it. Did you see the other part of my comment about the names? Any idea how I can resolve this problem? Thanks!
I was able to figure out how to change the names. I had to add an Extension to Sheets. It is called Split Names. I Googled how to do it. Once you split the names you can then switch columns. Pretty easy to do. Hope this helps others who are having the same problem.
Alas, it won't work for me in Firefox, Edge, or Opera...I don't use Google Chrome for anything but work as it connects to a work database. I even tried in Libre Calc, but the Ctrl-Shift-V still gave everything to me in one column...I guess I'll go back to doing in in Excel - I just like the way Sheets does it better...
I know it definitely will not work using Firefox. Many have reported it.
I think I just noticed something. You have the different years census on a different sheet, in this case, within Martin County. Is that right?
I had several census years extracted over time.
This is life changing. How do you get google sheets? It is a free app on an iPad but then I don’t think you can see that feature on ancestry.
It is not part of Ancestry, but you use it together with ancestry. So have a separate window open. It might be a little challenging if you are working on an iPad alone. You would need both the Ancestry window open and the Google Sheet open and toggle between them.
I figured it out! Thank you for this idea ! I was trying to do this by hand as a way to see a bunch of people with the same name in the same town to figure out which was my ancestor through the decades.
Excellent
Connie, Can you explain why you need to spend so much time to copy and paste? Could you not get the same information just using Ancestry, Search, Records?
Currently, I drill down to the Fed census year that I want, and search a city and a last name. I get pretty much the same results as copy and paste and more. Am I missing something that your method improves upon?
You can but... you can't have multiple surnames filtered at the same time. Plus, you can't layer several fields, like looking for a male, surname Davis, and age, all in one easy to view list. This is a great tool for working various hypotheses.
@@GenealogyTV Yes, now I see. Thank You.
My pleasure
Sometimes in reviewing these lists, I also find other names that look familiar… like In-Laws. They often married people who lived close by in my family. It’s like double treasure! 😁 I often copy the whole census rather than just a few pages. I also list street names in the file name, so I can refer back when I find a person in a different family who lived on that street. Someday I want to do a huge map with pins showing each family’s residence because it seems most of my tree lived in one city in upstate NY. 😆 I love that you showed us how to do this. Thanks sooo much!
I have tried several times. I have copy paste, Copy shift past and it will not copy to google sheet. I watched your video over and over and I am following each move. What may I be doing wrong?
Tried again. I followed you to a tee and it still did not paste. I CTRL C on the census, went to the speadsheet and clicked Ctrl V on the column A. It came up wrong like you said so I went to edit, down to Special paste, but it came up value only instead of paste value only. I click this anyway, but nothing came up. What must I be doing wrong? Need help
After you copied the information... in Google Sheets... put your cursor in the upper left cell where you want to paste. Choose Edit (from the top menu), then Paste Special, then Values Only.
You can do the same thing by holding the CNTL + SHIFT + V all at the same time. That's the short cut code.
Can you help me find info on my Grandfather??? I have his name, age, and nickname and he worked as a tap dancer in 1938. I have looked in census and found nothing and there's no match on DNA on Ancestry.
You might consider my virtual coaching service. We jump on a Zoom call for an hour, we can share computer screens, and work on your family history together. Go here for more information. genealogytv.org/coaching-options/
@@GenealogyTV Thank you!!!
My pleasure.
and now, even in Excel, even when I select Paste Special and choose Text, it gives it all to me in just one column...so weird because since you did the updated version of this workshop for Excel, I've used it several times, and now, nada...very odd...oh, well, first world problem...
Works for me. Make sure you have the latest version of Excel. Some have reported that older versions are putting it in one column. I'm using Office 365 version and it worked for me.
Connie, even though people live close together, how do you know that they are from the same father, or cousins?
If they are cousins, how can I differentiate between cousins and siblings?
You can track them through multiple records. So if you find a cluster as young adults in 1880 and then you find them living together as a family ten years earlier you know you have the same group. It is best to try and find several records where some or all tie together through time.
brothers., but even if families stick together, you do not know if they are cousins or sblilings!
You’ll figure it out through a variety of records.
How can you if the all related or not, they just maybe two different family the same last name?
I found this in my census , I would to know if they're related or family with the same last name.
Looking for help in pinpointing who my father is....numerous children were taken from my paternal grandparents for neglect and abuse...along with other spouse's and those children. Was told a name that somewhat fits, but genetically (DNA)impossible
Plot twist..apparently my parents are related...
Oh wow.
Is there a way to do this with city directories?
Yes... and that is a great idea for another video! Thanks for the idea.
Do you or anyone else do any videos for UK research or is it always USA?
Hi Sandy. See this video for UK records. FindMyPast UK and Irish Genealogy Research ua-cam.com/video/9uJzTCV7K0Y/v-deo.html
I wish this freedom to view census records was available in scottish Records where my mothers family is from, every document you want to view from Scotlands people costs soooo much money.
Bummer. I need to learn more about researching Scottish records myself.
I do appreciate your video.
This extra work shouldn't be necessary. I'm disappointed with the search features on Ancestry. I should be able to easily search any particular census, or any range of pages within it, without having to export the data to my own spreadsheet.
How handy it would be to have some global search parameters that I didn't have to reset every time. I shouldn't have to check a bunch of boxes over and over just to accomplish searches within a certain state, or county. Even if it sorted the results with some logic, it would automatically put all the results from the state I'm searching first. I don't want to see results for people in England.
Tom... you know... that's a great idea... to be able to save search parameters.
Hello how do i get the handout for this video
Handouts for Channel Members are in the posts in the COMMUNITY TAB on the UA-cam Channel. Once there, scroll down, look for EARLY RELEASE + HANDOUT.
Sometimes you need to CLICK READ MORE to see the HANDOUT LINK.
Info Access level channel members have access to all handouts. If you are at the Support level, you need to upgrade to the Info Access level.
To go to the Community Tab directly... ua-cam.com/users/genealogytvCommunity.
Thanks for supporting Genealogy TV!
Even with paste special, all the data is appearing in one column. Help?
I opened a new document and now it just refuses to paste special at all.
Make sure you have a recent version of Excel. Choose Paste Special, then Text. Alternately you can do this in Google Sheets with Paste Special > Values Only.
@GenealogyTV I did paste special as the video directs in Google Sheets and it still didn't work. I only have a 10 year old version of Excel, so I'm not even trying that.
I give up trying to find the handout for this video.
I just reposted it for you in the Community tab. ua-cam.com/channels/cvpi8XvOScBogIxmarmADw.htmlcommunity
Thanks for supporting the channel.
How do you do that for 1840 and earlier?
Well you can only extract information for the head of household since the rest of the family is not listed.
@@GenealogyTV I know. But I was looking for a way to get the same kind of info of household members in the same kind of format in order to make it easier to evaluate.
I can't see being able to do it one page at a time vs.having to copy and paste one family at a time.
how do I find the hand outs?
Go to the community or membership tabs and look through the posts. If your at the Info Access level, you should see posts with handout links.
Thanks for supporting the channel.
The only thing I don't like about this method is that the people who transcribe these census sheets often don't get the spelling of the surname or first names correct. I wish they would have screened their census takers penmanship. 😂
Ah yes... and... you can use this in the filter to discover other name spellings really fast by scrolling through the last name in the filter box. " I wish they would have screened their census takers penmanship. 😂" Hilarious... well they would not want me for a census taker, my penmanship is horrible... That's why I print everything. :)
@@GenealogyTV
Lol
Agree 100%. My ancestors were Divines and the transcript program saw it as Dervin. Huge difference!
George parents had short lifespans. Both only lived to 38 and he only lived to 51 it looks like.
RALEIGH NC 919 👋
Hi Shirley...
Oh wow!!!! For me, I use Excel for my job so I will be doing this for my brick walls.
Used it today and WOW what a game changer.