Aida, No question LDS is very helpful, information can be obtained, along with help, regardless of what program you use. Whether a person uses the correct county is something we all are faced with not and then, and if you can't keep it correct, then you do need to get information from LDS records.. I just think you are unfair to Family Tree Maker. I've used it for many years now, as the 3rd program since starting genealogy. The second program was PAF. Thanks for your reply. I did piece part of the question I asked you about. Sir John, Earl of Berkshire What good is information if not shared with others?

One comment was made "and if you can't keep it correct, then you do need to get information from LDS records" .... also similar questions arrived by personal Email which I will answer here for the benefit of all. Unfortunately, I found some of these incorrect listings on personal websites which are most often not verified, something that would not pass at the LDS. But even name registers of the IGI lists countries like Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in 1750 or 1850 ... when these countries did not yet exist. There was not even a country called Poland in 1914 because it was a Kingdom under Russia, like the Bohemian Kingdom was part of Austria Hungary. Therefore, one must know history! This is part of genealogy and we have to educate ourselves by reading the history of the land we research, and we have to look up borders on old maps. It is a very exact study and cannot be fudged, because history is just that! I can read Karen's emphasis towards this end time and again on this list. Old atlas sources are of prime importance. And here is what we German Bohemians must do to keep the records correct: You must list on your data input records when they are predating 1918 (as an example below) ----Kuttenplan, German-Bohemia, Austria Hungary and in the notes we can say "presently the town's name Kuttenplan is Kutna Hora, Czech Republic, formerly Czechoslovakia." And if your ancestors are Czech Bohemians you must record: ----Podebrad, Czech Bohemia, Austria Hungary (until 1918) OR ----Podebrad, Czechoslovakia (after 1918) Czech towns in the Interior rarely had a German name were there was a predominantly Czech population. The area and the names will give you the clue whether your ancestors were of Czech or of German Bohemian ancestry. Many descendants do not know and some of their families are mixed. And to make it worse, often Germans have Czech names and Czechs have German names. That is quite common, because they lived side by side. Be it as it may, in each case they will have either German or Czech birth, marriage or death certificate. Since a genealogical data sheet must be copied from an original document, and that document is in the language of the individuals' ethnicity, there should not be a problem. It will give the person following you a clear picture of ethnicity and location. (If you copy from personal genealogical websites you must ask the author to reveal his source -town, country, register and page number- and be willing to defray some of his research costs. In the LDS this is not necessary, the data is verified at input and I have seen many records rejected because they did not carry a reference source.) As you go further back into the past, you will find all Church Records in Latin and then you will have to look at the very front of the Register to look at the name, it is at the start of the microfilm. A German name indicates a German village located in Austria Hungary. And then you must hunt so see in what country this town or village happens to be now, and you have to check if there is more than one name for this German settlement! There are German settlements that carry 3 names and then you know that there was a shift in borders and you must read up on history and find maps of these times. That is the only way If the church register is written in Latin and there are words in German, or Czech, or Hungarian, etc. that will be your clue! Especially when you go back to 1700 you will find that people did not mix as readily, even in cities they were living either in a German town or a Hungarian town, or a Polish town....etc. I hope that this will help in sorting through old records and making sense of it. Aida ------------------------------------------------------------ ----- Original Message ----- From: "John L. Mikeska" <jlmikeska@yahoo.com> To: <GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 3:49 PM Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] FTM vs PAF > Aida, > > No question LDS is very helpful, information can be obtained, along with > help, regardless of what program you use. Whether a person uses the > correct county is something we all are faced with not and then, and if you > can't keep it correct, then you do need to get information from LDS > records.. > > I just think you are unfair to Family Tree Maker. I've used it for many > years now, as the 3rd program since starting genealogy. The second > program was PAF. > > Thanks for your reply. I did piece part of the question I asked you > about. > > > > > > Sir John, Earl of Berkshire > What good is information if not shared with others? > > > ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== > Would you like to see messages that were posted before you joined the > list? To search the archives, go to: > http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=GERMAN-BOHEMIAN >