How to Add a Custom Fact in FTM 2012

I have had several people ask how to add the custom fact into Family Tree Maker, so I wanted to share the steps with you. I have FTM 2012, but it is probably similar in FTM 2014.

First, in the People Workspace, click on Customize View (at the bottom).

This brings up the Customize View screen. Down at the bottom click on New Custom Fact and then OK.

This gives you the Add Custom Fact screen. Under the Fact label, type in what you want: GoOver, Verified, Proved, etc. and check whether it is to be an individual fact or shared fact and what information you want to show: Date/Place, Description Only, etc. Then click OK.

This puts the new fact under Selected individual facts (or shared facts, if you chose it). Next, click OK.

It automatically adds it to your People Workspace.

I hope this helps. Thank you to all those who viewed my post.

Easter Memories

As I reflect upon this Easter Sunday, I can't help but remember those that have gone on before me. When I was young, my grandmother used to tell me wonderful stories of her childhood. She talked about growing up in church and living a "good life." She didn't just talk the talk, she walked the walk. Oh, she made mistakes, as we all do, but she loved God and was a faithful servant to Him. Of all the people I have known, I know she is in Heaven waiting for me.

I remember a conversation I had with my grandmother, back in the '80s. I thought she grew up Pentecostal, but she told me that she nor my grandfather had grown up Pentecostal. She had been Methodist and he was Lutheran, and when they got married they couldn't decide where to attend church. They compromised and joined the Pentecostal church. They raised their children in that faith and later, her grandchildren.

My fondest memory of Easter as a child, was my grandmother making pretty Easter dresses for my two sisters and me. We were close in age, and my grandmother would always make our dresses the same, with only one little thing different; maybe a little trim around the sleeves on one, around the hem on the other, and around the collar on the third. People would say we looked like triplets. I loved my new dress each year and it made me feel special.

Another memory I recall with fondness is the Easter egg hunts we had immediately following Easter church service. All the parents brought the boiled and dyed eggs to church and the Sunday school teachers usually hid them during the Church service. It was so fun to learn about Christ and Resurrection Sunday and then find the eggs that symbolized renewal and rebirth.

As I remember the Easters of my youth, I am filled with love. Love for my family, young and old, past and present. This Easter, I got the news that I am to be a grandmother again. This will be grandchild number nine and I am tickled pink! More love to go around.

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday - Clay Ford Visits Grandchildren

I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless posts like others do. 

Here is one of my favorite images from my collection:

 This picture was taken in 1994. My dad, Clay Ford, is spending time with his grandsons, Terry and Elisha. He would always sing songs and play with them like he did with my sisters and me when we were little. His favorite song to sing was "And the Green Grass Grew All Around." He would sing it until he became out of breath. The boys would always beg for that song when he came for a visit.

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday - Clay Ford - Air Force, circa 1955

I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is one of my dad from my family collection:

I don't know much about this photo. Maybe some of you out there can help. My dad, Clay Ford, is on the left. This picture was taken about 1955-1957. Not sure where it was taken. Does anyone know who the two men are with him? 

Tombstone Tuesday - William Ezra Ford

William Ezra Ford was the son of Arthur Elisha Ford and Ethel Wickliffe Ford. He was born June 11, 1922 in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas. He moved with his family to South Texas after his younger brother, Clayton Richard Ford died in 1941. 

William enlisted in the service on 09 Nov 1942. He was living in George West, Texas at the time. After only a few months, he became ill and was honorably discharged on 30 Oct 1943. He later became a truck driver. He was driving a rig through the Valley in South Texas, when his rig jackknifed and killed him instantly. His brother-in-law, Jimmy Elmer Green had been driving a rig behind him and witnessed the accident.  Although William never married, he was loved by all who met him. 

The military erroneously inscribed Exra instead of Ezra on the headstone and refused to fix the problem. He is buried in George West, Texas.

Census Sunday: Arthur Elisha Ford, 1930 Hunt County, Texas

It's Census Sunday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The census today is the 1930 U.S. Census for my grandparents, Arthur Elisha Ford and Ethel (Wickliffe) Ford, in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas:

The Arthur Elisha Ford family entry is:

The extracted information for this census is:

* Elisa Ford, head of household, renting, lives on a farm, male, white, 33, married, 24 years old at time of first marriage, he can read and write, born in Arkansas, parents born in United States, speaks English, occupation- farm laborer, trade - farm, class of worker - W, actually employed, veteran of W.W.

* Ethel Ford, wife, female, white, 28, married, 19 years old at time of first marriage, can read and write, born in Arkansas, both parents born in Missouri, speaks English, is not working

* Ezra W. Ford, son, male, white, 7, single, in school, born in Texas, both parents born in Arkansas

* Daisy R., daughter, female, white, 5, single, not in school, born in Texas, both parents born in Arkansas

The citation for this census is:

1930 United States Census, Hunt County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct #7, enumeration district (ED) 116-38, sheet 7A, line 32, dwelling 137, family #137, Elisa [Elisha] Ford household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 08 Aug 2012); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T626, roll 2360.

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday - Visit With Dad, 2010

I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless posts like others do. 

Here is one of my favorite images from my collection:

This photo is so very special to me. It is one of the last ones with my dad. This picture is of my sister, Lisa, my dad, and me. It was taken in June 2010 at a Chinese restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas, just two months after discovering he had pancreatic cancer. He passed away that August. I am deeply grateful for the time I had to visit with him and say good-bye. We are not always so fortunate to have that time with our loved ones before they pass away.

Census Sunday: Arthur Elisha Ford in the 1940 Census

It's Census Sunday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The census today is the 1940 U.S. Census for my grandparents, Arthur Elisha Ford and Ethel (Wickliffe) Ford, in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas:

The Arthur Elisha Ford family entry:

The extracted information from this census record is:

*  Line 18, Household 98, Family 98, Renting, Monthly rent $4.00, not a farm

* A. Eligh Ford - head, white, male, 43 years old, married, 4 years of education, born in Texas, seeking work, laborer, farm, type of work PW, worked 8 weeks in 1939, income received in 1939 - $40

*  Ethel Ford, white, female, wife, 36 years old, 7 years of education, born in Texas, working as a seamstress, WPA, worked 30 hours the week of March 24-30, 1940, type of work GW, worked 52 weeks in 1939, income received in 1939 - $396

*  Ezra Ford, white, male, 16 years of age, son, no school in 1940, 4 years of education, born in Texas, seeking work, new worker

*  Dasie R. Ford, white, female, 14 years of age, daughter, no school in 1940, 5 years of education, born in Texas, kept house

*  Clay Ford (twins), white, male, 5 years of age, son, no school in 1940, education, born in Texas 

*  Claton Ford, white, male, 5 years of age, son, no school in 1940, no education, born in Texas

It appears that Arthur Elisha Ford gave the information for the census. Have found several errors in the census. Ethel left school in third grade to pick cotton in the fields. This information came from Ethel in an interview in 1985. Elisha and Ethel were both born in Arkansas, not Texas. This evidence comes from other census records found in Arkansas and from the interview with Ethel.

The citation for this census is:

1940 United States Census, Hunt County, Texas, population schedule, Quinlan, Justice Precinct #7, enumeration district (ED) 116-36, sheet 5A, dwelling 98, family #98, A, Eligh [Elisha] Ford household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 07 Apr 2013); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T627, Roll 4072.

My Immediate Ancestors

             Back row (left to right): Lola Wickliffe, William Ezra Ford, Daisy Ruth Ford

  Front row (left to right): Ethel Wickliffe Ford, Clay Franklin Ford, Arthur Elisha Ford

Arthur Elisha Ford (my grandfather) was born in 1896, the 5th of 6 children. His father, William Preston Ford, died in Arkansas when he was 12 years old. He moved to Quinlan, Texas with his mother, Sarah Elizabeth (Dodd) Ford and younger sister, Mary, when he was about 17 years old. There he met, and fell in love with, Ethel Wickliffe. They married on 14 Mar 1920 in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas.

Ethel Wickliffe, born in 1903 in Mountain View, Arkansas, was the oldest child of Richard Franklin Wickliffe and Estelle Lynn.  She had 4 younger sisters and a young brother who died when he was about four years old.

Ethel and Elisha had four children. William Ezra (1922-1950), Daisy Ruth (1925-2012), and identical twin boys Clay Franklin (1934-2010) and Clayton Richard (1934-1941). After Clayton died in 1941, Ethel struggled to overcome the depression. She would sit at the cemetery every day and cry. In order to help his wife, Elisha decided to move his family to south Texas to his sisters' ranch. They eventually settled in Corpus Christi, Texas.

As part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Elisha dug ditches for the government, and Ethel worked in a sewing room. They became members of the Pentecostal Church of God, 501 Cheyenne Street, Rev. CC Hurst, in Corpus Christi. Elisha started having numbness in his feet and eventually was paralyzed from the waist down. Ethel would put him in his wheelchair before she left for work, and he would wheel about the house, cooking, sweeping, and cleaning. Many different doctors checked him out, but couldn't come up with a medical diagnosis for him. He died two years later on 19 Oct 1946.

They are all gone now. I miss them all so much. I never knew my grandfather or my uncle, as they died before I was born. My grandmother’s stories about them and her life are what got me interested in doing genealogy. I never tire of searching for an elusive ancestor and I have several of those.