I watch obituaries for names I recognize, then I search OneGreatFamily for their family tree to see if we are related.
Dean
How to watch obituaries online, then use OneGreatFamily to view the family tree of the people you find.
Print these instructions
  1. Find the website for a newspaper you want to monitor. This might be in your home town or in a town you are researching.
  2. For this example we will use http://www.deseretnews.com/, which is a newspaper out of Utah, USA.
  3. Go to the newspaper website.
  4. Click on their "Obituaries" link.
  5. Scan the list of recent obituaries. See if you come across a name you are curious about or that you think might be related to you.
  6. Open a new browser window. In Firefox open the File menu and choose New Window. In Internet Explorer click the new tab tab, the small empty tab at the end of the current tabs.
  7. We want to keep the newspaper website open in a separate browser window so we can refer back to it as we work in onegreatfamily.com.
  8. In the new browser window go to www.onegreatfamily.com.
  9. Once on onegreatfamily.com log into your OneGreatFamily account if you are not already logged in.
  10. Now go to the Family Tree tab.
  11. On the Family Tree tab, click on the blue "Genealogy Browser" button to install or launch our full-featured family tree software.
  12. If you need to install Genealogy Browser, follow the installation prompts. (What is the Genealogy Browser? Tutorial: Genealogy Browser installation instructions).
Genealogy Browser installation instructions
Internet Explorer 7
FireFox 3
Windows Vista
  1. Click the "Genealogy Browser" button.
  2. A small "Launching Application" window will open.
  3. When the "Launching Application" window finishes, it will automatically go away and next you will see a "Downloading Genealogy Browser" window.
  4. Once the Downloading Genealogy Browser progress bar finishes Vista will show you a "User Account Control" window.
  5. In the "User Account Control" click Allow.
  6. The Genealogy Browser will then open. The Genealogy Browser is now successfully installed on your computer.
Internet Explorer 7
Windows XP
  1. Click the "Genealogy Browser" button.
  2. The grey "Launching Genealogy Browser" bar will appear.
  3. Inside the white box on the right of the grey launching bar will be the message "Click here to install the following ActiveX control: 'Genealogy Browser' from 'Onegreatfamily.com'..."
  4. Click the "Click here to install" message.
  5. A small menu will appear with two choices "Install ActiveX Control..." and "What's the Risk?"
  6. Click "Install ActiveX Control..."
  7. An Internet Explorer - Security Warning will now appear.
  8. Click the "Install" button.
  9. The Genealogy Browser will then automatically install and open. The Genealogy Browser is now successfully installed on your computer.
FireFox 3
Windows XP
  1. Click the "Genealogy Browser" button.
  2. You'll be taken to the Important Installation for Netscape and Firefox Users page.
  3. Listed on this page are a series of steps we are going to repeat here.
  4. First click the "HERE" link in step 1.
  5. Firefox will popup an "Opening npgb13.exe" window. Click the Save File button.
  6. Firefox will next show npgb13.exe in the Firefox Downloads window.
  7. Once dpgb13.exe is completely downloaded double-click it in the Downloads window.
  8. Firefox will then popup a window asking you if you want to "Open Executable File?". Click the OK button.
  9. Windows will then open a "Open File - Security Warning" window. Click the "Run" button.
  10. Next Firefox will popup a "Genealogy Browser Plug-in" window, click the "Yes" button.
  11. Firefox will then display a "Genealogy Browser Plug-in installation successful for Fire Fox 3.0.8 (en-US)!" message. Click the OK button.
  12. The Genealogy Browser will then open. The Genealogy Browser is now successfully installed on your computer.
  1. After the Genealogy Browser is open click the "Search" button on the Genealogy Browser toolbar.
  2. The OneGreatFamily Search form will appear on the right.
  3. Enter the first and last name of the person you found in the obituary and then click the "Search OGF" button.
  4. If we have information that on the person you search for the search results area will now show a list of matching names from our data. Browse the list until you find a result you want view in more detail.
  5. Double-click the name you want to view.
  6. That individual will now show up on the left of the Genealogy Browser, in the Selected Individual position.
  7. Now click the "Starfield" button on the toolbar.
  8. The search form will go away and you will now see the family tree for the selected individual.
  9. Now that you are viewing their family tree you can see this person's ancestors, descendants and other family members. Using this information you can evaluate if they are someone that belongs in the lines you are researching.
Back to Show me how other genealogists use OneGreatFamily