Sharing Your Genealogical Material and/or Data With the Pennington Research Association and Other Researchers
The Pennington Research Association (PRA) encourages organizations and individuals to contribute genealogical material and/or data to the PRA.
The PRA always welcomes genealogical and family history information and material from researchers who are willing to share it with other researchers. We prefer material and/or data that is already in electronic format but will accept printed material and/or data.
The Pennington Research Association does not seek any rights to the material you provide.
We will publish and/or store data and material in an order/manner determined both by the difficulty in preparing the data for access and/or publication and/or storage and by how popular we believe the data, article, report or material will be.
Please Note: Be sure to remove information on living persons BEFORE you submit your genealogical material and data. Click here to learn more about the PRA's policy on copyrights and privacy.
There are four (4) ways to share your genealogical material and data with the PRA and Pennington researchers:
- Share a family group report/book. IF you are a PRA Member, login to the PRA Members-only website hosted by MyFamily.com. Then upload your family group report/book to the file section. Using a genealogy software program (such as RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker), create a family group report/book for the oldest known Pennington ancestor and ending with the most recent descendant. This is usually called a descendant's report. Be sure to check the box that removes information on living persons BEFORE you create the family group report/book. Click here to learn how to submit a family group report/book using a genealogy software program. If you are NOT a PRA Member, then submit your report to be published in the Pennington Pedigrees (see #3).
- Share a gedcom file. IF you are a PRA Member, login to the PRA Members-only website hosted by MyFamily.com. Then upload your gedcom file to the Family Tree section. Using a genealogy software program (such as RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker), create a gedcom file for the oldest known Pennington ancestor and ending with the most recent descendant. This is usually called a descendant's style gedcom file. Be sure to check the box to remove personal (dates of birth, marriage and/or locations for those events) information on living persons BEFORE you create the gedcom file. To learn how to submit this item, click here. If you are NOT a PRA Member, we can't accept your gedcom file. We suggest you check out other resources avaialble on the web where you can upload and share your gedom file (such as Ancestry.com).
- Submit an article to the Pennington Pedigrees to be published. You can send the family group report/book created in item #1 if you like, or you can shorten it if there are too many pages to be published. You can add an introduction to the article so readers know your relationship with the persons in the family group report/book. If you do not have a genealogy software program, you can still submit an article if it is typewritten BUT please contact the Pedigrees Editor FIRST.
- Donate your family genealogy and/or history information and any other material (pictures, wills, deeds, etc.) to the new PRA Archive/Library at Earlham College in Indiana. We encourage members and researchers to send copies, or originals, of their material to the Archive/Library so it will be indexed and placed in the archive so other researchers can access it via the Internet and/or through their local library lending program.
You can do any one (1) of the above options or you can do all four (4) or any combination of the four (4). We encourage researchers to contribute their family genealogy, histories and material to all of these projects.
How to Submit:
- To submit a family report/book, IF you are a PRA Member, login to the PRA Members-only website hosted by MyFamily.com. Then upload your family group report/book to the file section. Using a genealogy software program (such as RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker), create a family group report/book for the oldest known Pennington ancestor and ending with the most recent descendant. This is usually called a descendant's report. Be sure to check the box that removes information on living persons BEFORE you create the family group report/book. Click here to learn how to submit a family group report/book using a genealogy software program. If you are NOT a PRA Member, then submit your report to be published in the Pennington Pedigrees (see #3).
- To submit a gedcom file, IF you are a PRA Member, login to the PRA Members-only website hosted by MyFamily.com. Then upload your gedcom file to the Family Tree section. Using a genealogy software program (such as RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker), create a gedcom file for the oldest known Pennington ancestor and ending with the most recent descendant. This is usually called a descendant's style gedcom file. Be sure to check the box that removes information on living persons BEFORE you create the the gedcom file. To learn how to submit this item, click here. If you are NOT a PRA Member, we can't accept your gedcom file. We suggest you check out other resources avaialble on the web where you can upload and share your gedom file (such as Ancestry.com).
- To submit an article to be published in the Pennington Pedigrees, create the family group report/book in your genealogy software program and then save it as a rich text file (rtf) and then send it to the Editor of the Pennington Pedigrees as an attachment to your message, or, if you do not have a genealogy software program, you can still submit an article if it is typewritten directly to Editor of the Pennington Pedigrees. Or, you can shorten it if there are too many pages to be published. You can add an introduction to the article so readers know your relationship with the persons in the family group report/book. If you do not have a genealogy software program, you can still submit an article if it is typewritten BUT please contact the Pedigrees Editor FIRST.
- To donate your material to the PRA Archives/Library, click here to learn how to submit items to the PRA Archive/Library.
Publication:
With the author's consent, any material and/or data submitted will be retained for publication in the Pennington Pedigrees, published on our websites and/or published in other formats such as a DVD and/or a CD and on our blogs.
Authors and data providers must hold the copyrights to the material and/or data they provide, and they must be willing to grant genealogists the right to freely extract data and information from the material and exchange that data with other genealogists.
Click here to learn more about the PRA's policy on copyrights and privacy.
If you have any questions, please contact Gene Pennington, Research Director.
Consent to Publish Form
If the Pennington Research Association agrees to publish and/or use your material and/or data, the author will be asked to complete a consent form when they submit their material. The Research Director or the Editor of the Pedigrees will send you the Consent to Publish Form.
How to Create a Family Group Report
Family Genealogy Reports Created with a Genealogy Software Program
It is presumed you are using a computer program for your genealogy research. Most genealogy programs work the same way for the main reports they can create.
Select the oldest know Pennington ancestor as the "base" or starting point for the report/book and then select a descendants style report/book. Be sure to check the box that removes information on living personsBEFORE you create the report/book. Click here to learn more about the PRA's policy on copyrights and privacy. If you are presented with options for the report, be sure to include the basic events such as birth, marriage, death and select all the descendants (including spouses and their children) with at least 10 generations (which should bring you to modern times).
Please make sure you include your sources, notes etc. as part of the report/book. This should be an option you can select when you create the report/book.
This will generate a report/book with this person as the "base" and then show all of their descendants up to and including yourself or whichever person you choose. Basically, this is a "straight line" report/book from your oldest know ancestor to you (or the family member you are connecting with).
When you save it, you should have the option to saving it as an "RTF" (rich text file) file rather than printing the report/book. Save the report/book in "RTF" format. Be sure to note WHERE you have saved the file and what name you have used to save it as since you will need to know this to attach the file to your e-mail message.
Next, convet the report/book to Adobe Reader format (pdf). Most genealogy software programs offer you to capability to print your report directly to a pdf file.
Click here to learn how to submit your report/book.
Family Genealogy Reports Created Without a Genealogy Software Program
Please submit your report as follows: Typed, at least 10 point font, white paper, 1" margins on both sides if possible. Prepare your report/book in descendant style with your oldest know ancestor as the "base" (starting point). Be sure to remove information on living persons BEFORE you create the report/book. It is usually OK to say something lik e "Still Living" in place of the person's dates of birth, marriage and/or those locations. Click here to learn more about the PRA's policy on copyrights and privacy.
Make sure each page is numbered and each family group is identified clearly. Please make sure you include your sources, notes etc. as part of the report/book. For our mailing address, please contact Gene Pennington, Research Director.
How to Create a Family Group Gedcom File
You must use a computer program for your genealogy research to create a gedcom file. Please refer to that program's help section for more detailed instructions. For more information on gedcom files, click here and scroll down the page to the section titled "Common Sense Guides to Gedcom Files".
Most genealogy programs work the same way for the gedcom files they can create.
Select the oldest know Pennington ancestor as the "base" or starting point for the gedcom file and then select a descendants style gedcom file. Be sure to check the box that removes information on living persons BEFORE you create the gedcom file. Click here to learn more about the PRA's policy on copyrights and privacy. If you are presented with options for the gedcom file, be sure to include the basic events such as birth, marriage, death and select all the descendants (including spouses and their children) with at least 10 generations (which should bring you to modern times).
Please make sure you include your sources, notes etc. as part of the gedcom file. This should be an option you can select when you create the gedcom file.
This will generate a gedcom file with this person as the "base" and then show all of their descendants up to and including yourself or whichever person you choose. Basically, this is a "straight line" gedcom file from your oldest know ancestor to you (or the family member you are connecting with).
Click here to learn now to share your gedcom file to the PRA.
Be sure to note WHERE you have saved the gedcom file and what name you have used to save it as since you will need to know this to attach the file to your e-mail message.
Contact Gene Pennington, Research Director if you have any questions or need help submitting genealogical data and/or material.
