This help area is under construction, with future edits and additions to come. Once the database is more finalized, the images will be updated to reflect the current style and content.
Welcome to our genealogy pages. This Help page will give you a short overview of how to get around and get the most out of our site. It will hopefully give you the basic navigation tools needed to make your visit both enjoyable and informative without a lot of difficulty. Please keep in mind that this section is in no way a complete how-to guide, and you may have to be a registered user and logged in (use link above left) to see/use some of these features. Also, if you find any errors or want to make suggestions, you can learn how (see Editing/Correcting below).
Many of us use one genealogical program or another and nearly all of them have a very graphical look to them. You can see your family group sheets, display charts, etc. This website is much the same except that, instead of it being on your computer, it is on the internet. This walk-through will introduce you to the primary functions of the site. The bold, dark green links embedded on this page will open a second window (or tab); you can follow these steps in the new window/tab while referencing the steps here. In either case, the following link opens a new window (or tab) to our Home Page. Features of that page can be seen and the window/tab can also be used to explore the features discussed below.
On the home page you will see links to the various sections of the site, REVISE , and a Search box on the right side of the page.
To begin, click on any link and you will notice that every page (like this one) contains a set of four icons directly under the page header. The function of each icon link is quite straightforward:
Home – Takes you to the front page of the GGFA Genealogy database
Search – Takes you to the Advanced Search screen (see below).
Print – Prints the page you are on to your printer without all the menu items.
Logout/Login – Logout of your session or Log back in.
Some pages also have the 
Add Bookmark icon. This lets you keep a list of your favorite pages on this site.
In the search box (right side of home page), put “Goff” (without the quotes) in for the Last Name and “Abner” (without the quotes) in for First Name and press .
This will give you a list of the results that were found to match. On this list, click on the name of the Abner whose Person ID is “I1203” (Born 4 November 1782, Shaftsbury, Bennington, Vermont). You are now at his Individual Page, the header of which you see below.
Take a few minutes to orient yourself with the layout. This is the “core” display of the genealogy pages. The standard view shows all of the most pertinent ‘Personal Information’; the other views listed in the bar below the name limit information to a specific category. Note that the personal information is divided into three sections — the Individual selected, his/her Parents, and his/her Spouse and Children (if any).
In the Parents and Spouse/Partner sections of the page, if you hover the mouse pointer over the person’s parent’s or spouse’s name you get a pop-up window previewing that person’s parents, spouse and children; click on the name to go to that person’s page. To the left of the parent’s name there may be an ‘up-arrow’ (); hover over this to see a pop-up window detailing the person’s father, mother, siblings and father’s parents; click on the symbol to go to that parent’s page. To the right of the parent’s name there may be an ‘right-arrow’ () and a number, indicating the parent had more than one marriage:
Children are listed in the Spouse/Partner section and can indicate if the person has descendants (+) or if only a spouse ( ). Clicking on either of these symbols to the left of the child’s name will take you to their descendant chart. If you hover the mouse pointer over the child’s name you get a pop-up window previewing their parents, spouse and any children; click on the name to go to that child’s page:
An Event Map may be visible; click on ‘Load the map’ to display it if not. This shows the location of the main events in the life of the individual.
- Click on the Event Number pin to open the map in a new window. If you are using FireFox, you can right click and open in a new tab rather than a new window. On the map in the separate window, you can get driving directions to or from this location.
- Click on the Google Earth icon to view using the Google Earth desktop application once you have downloaded and installed the application on your desktop.
- Use the + (plus) to zoom in on the map and the – (minus) to zoom out, or you can use the slider to control the zoom. If the Google Map server returns a message that no map is available at that zoom level, then you must zoom out in order to get the map to display.
- You can also click the Hybrid button to view the map as a satellite picture with names.
- Click the pin number on the map to get the description, date, and location of the event.