ADDING A NEW PERSON: How do I add a new person to the Surnames Database when I do not know the name of a parent in the database to whom I could add that person as a child?
ANSWER: Go to the Browse Individuals tab. You will see an Add New Individuals button at the top left of the page.
CONNECTING A CHILD TO A PARENT: How do I connect a child to a parent?
ANSWER: The simple way to do this is to go to the parent's profile, click on the Add New Child button at the bottom of the page and proceed to add the information about the child.
Important: the system default for children is M (Male). Take care to change the gender to F (Female) when adding the information about a female child.
But what if there are already profiles for a parent and a child in the database who were created separately (perhaps without realizing that they were in the same family)?
ANSWER: This is a bit tricky, but easy to do once you know how to do it.
Go to the child's profile and click on the edit button. Go to the appropriate parent field (whether Father Id or Mother Id). Add the parent's "id." This is the tricky part. The id is NOT the parent's "Reference Number." Rather, it is the unique "id" assigned to the person in the system. But where is it? Simple: it's at the end of the url in your browser for the parent.
For example, in the case of Alanson Stewart Appleton, his Reference Number is US10268 but the url for his profile on the website is:
http://thffi.org/database/show/47148
His id is the number at the end of the url: 47148. THAT is the number to put in the parent's Id field, not US10268 (his reference number).
CONNECTING A NEW SPOUSE: How do I add a new spouse to a person who already has a spouse and how do I make sure that the new spouse designated the first spouse (if he/she is the first spouse)?
ANSWER: Simply click on the Add New Spouse tab at the bottom of the person's profile. Add the information in all of the fields and making sure that you change the M gender default to F if the spouse is female.
The system will add the person as the "next" spouse. Thus, if there is already a spouse in the person's profile, the new spouse will be added as the second spouse (even if he/she should be the first spouse).
If you want to change the order of the spouses (e.g., changing spouse 2 to spouse 1), simply click on the Order Spouses button at the bottom of the page.
GIFTS OF MEMBERSHIPS: How to I give a membership to either a friend or a member of my family?
ANSWER: There are two ways of making a gift of a membership to someone. One approach is to use the Join tab. The other is to use the Donate tab.
An important difference between those two approaches is that using the Join method generates an immediate email to the intended recipient of the membership. That approach is not a good one if you want the membership to be a surprise and you want to control the time and place that you give the membership to the person. You can control the time and place that you announce the gift to the recipient by using the Donate method. The Donate method also might be easier for you to implement.
Simply click on the Donate tab. Select the dollar amount that goes with the type of membership that you are giving. Then send us an email at thffi@outlook.com with ALL of the following information: the NAME of the person, the person's POSTAL MAILING ADDRESS, the person's PHONE NUMBER, the person's EMAIL address, the DATE on which you want the membership to be effective (for example, the person's birthday if it is a birthday gift), a USERNAME for the person, and a PASSWORD for the person.
Provide us YOUR MAILING ADDRESS so that we can mail you a package to give the recipient. That package will include a cover letter to you thanking you for making the gift, a welcome letter from us to the new member, a membership card, and a copy of the most recent newsletter,The Hungerford World Tree. The welcome letter will inform the new member of his/her USERNAME and PASSWORD. We will date the cover letter with the effective date of the membership as directed by you. We will also implement the person's membership on the date requested.
"AKA" or "Formerly" IN THE NOTES: What is the "AKA" or "Formerly" in the notes at the bottom of a person's profile?
ANSWER: The database is a continuing work in progress. Sometimes profiles for the same person are created more than once because a second (or even a third) profile could be created when the information “at hand” is inadequate for us to identify it as pertaining to the person whose profile already is in the database. Over time, new information becomes available that tells us that the multiple profiles all are for the same person, at which time we will merge them and eliminate the duplicate(s). That said, however, there may be references to the deleted profile elsewhere on the website or related off-site research material. We used to use an “AKA” with the Reference Number (REFN) of the deleted profile in order to alert people to that historical duplication and merger of profiles. Note that the "AKA" reference is being changed to "Formerly." "AKA" is an old usage that is being retired and replaced by "Formerly."
LIVING PERSONS: Why do you allow all members of THFFI to see living persons' profiles?
ANSWER: Perhaps the primary reason is that this has been a common practice when publishing that information in book form. That certainly was the case with respect to Stanley W. Hungerford's Hungerford genealogy book when it was published. Another reason is that much, if not all, of this information is freely available on the internet in any event. Finally, the information in living persons' profiles is not public. It is private and available only to members of THFFI.
FOUNDING MEMBERSHIP UPGRADES: How do I upgrade my Individual or Family Membership to a Founding Membership?
ANSWER: This option was available only during 2016. It was accomplished by going to the Donate tab and donating the difference in the membership fee ($75 in the case of an Individual Membershp and $70 in the case of a Family Membership). It was important that the person making the upgrade contact us and tell us that he/she was requesting the upgrade to Founding Membership.