Friday, September 21, 2012

Follow-Up Friday - Helpful Reader Comments

It's a Follow-Up Friday, time to post useful reader comments to Genea-Musings blog posts.  Here are the most helpful reader comments, and my own comments, from the past week:

1)  On Answers to my MyHeritage Record Search Thoughts (18 September 2012):

*  Laurence Fuller noted:  "It seems to me that My Heritage is not what they say they are!!, A few months ago they promised me that they would let me have 3 Years free membership, as they had brought out another website, and offered some that had a lot of Pedigrees on the site, free membership, It as been almost a year now and no free membership."

Gilad Japhet of MyHeritage responded:  "Laurence, you are referring to the acquisition of BackupMyTree.com by MyHeritage. We promised its users a free 3-year subscription to MyHeritage. This was not forgotten, but was delayed due to our need to find a way to convert the trees in BackupMyTree to GEDCOM from their various native formats in order to import them reliably. This has been completed so you and the other BackupMyTree can expect to receive your free subscription during the next 2-3 weeks."

My comment:  Thank you to Gilad for explaining this.  Somehow I missed this announcement when it happened, and now I'm wondering if the tree(s) I saved to BackUpMyTree.com will be added as new trees on MyHeritage.  I really don't want them to be ... is there a way to opt out of this?  Or maybe I should add an updated tree to BackUpMyTree.com and get three free years of MyHeritage?

2)  On Dear Randy - Which Online Family Tree Do You Use? And Why? (14 September 2012):

*  Keith Riggle said:  "AncestorSync is out in beta now. It's supposed to work with Geni, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage, although I haven't tried it yet, as I'm still cleaning up my tree."

My comment:  Thanks for this, Keith.  I've let my Geni.com subscription lapse since I couldn't efficiently add data to it, and have not tried to use AncestorSync recently.  I'll have to go visit them again and see if it works with FamilySearch and MyHeritage.

*  Doris Wheeler said:  "I use most of the same sites you do and also Rootsweb's WorldConnect. I love the "almost interactive" feature that lets anyone zero in on his own relative in my tree and produce ancestry and descendant trees for that person. I also love that they promise to keep my tree online even after I'm no longer around. That's very reassuring."

My comment:  I also appreciate and use the Rootsweb WorldConnect family tree site, and think it is still the best online family tree site as far as navigation and reports.  I don't have a tree on WorldConnect because I didn't want to show my research notes (some copyright issues there!).  I know, I could export a tree without Notes but haven't done it yet.  One of the requests in my "When I die" instructions to my heirs is to add my tree to Rootsweb WorldConnect so that other researchers can benefit from my research.  I just hope that it's "done!"

*  www.HungarianFamilyRecord.org noted:  "It was interesting to look at your tree on Genealogy.Com ~ I forgot that I was even a member . It's interesting to see those trees at Genealogy.Com have no citation of sources anywhere . Is it still like that when one uploads ??"

My response:  My information there is in the form of genealogy reports created in 2005 using Family Tree Maker 16 and I chose not to display sources (true confession: I didn't have many in my database then!  Embarrassing!).  The www.Genealogy.com/Users/ site permitted a total of 10 megabytes of information, so I put as much up as I could within that limitation.  The http://FamilyTreeMaker.Genealogy.com/Users/ site permitted persons to upload their database and included navigation links between generations.  Many of these trees are still available online, and are searchable using search engines.

3)  On Engaging Genealogical Society Members (12 September 2012):

*  Pat Richley-Erickson noted:  "Absolutely right on, Randy! Real time conversations, meeting the needs of the attendees that day. If you held a similar session in six months, it would end up differently, because the participants will have done more research and will have a new set of questions.

"THIS sort of teaching is not about how smart the "presenter" is, but rather focuses on problem solving to leading participants from point A to point B, based on group discussions.  Thank you for being a confident, capable mentor."


*  Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith commented::  " You've got it. Pat is 'right on' as well, of course. As a university professor, I never 'lectured' - I engaged my classes. As a genealogist, the 'prepare a lecture' for a meeting - really turns me off! The 'presenter' is not the point! The 'student' has to do the learning, for you to be effective. This only happens with engagement, involvement, immersion - best of all. Thanks for sharing! Movement in the right direction!! ;-)"

My comments:  I'm not sure that I'm really good at this teaching stuff yet.  I tend to lecture in my presentations, although I've experimented with engaging the audience with hands up, soliciting ideas, exercising, etc.  I usually have "too much information presented too quickly" and am trying to fix that too (no, not with longer presentations!).  

In the CVGS Research Group setting, I moderate that and usually jump in too quickly with the "right answer" (IMHO, of course!).  I'm aware of that, and try not to do it, but the temptation is so strong sometimes...

4)  On Best of the Genea-Blogs - 9-15 September 2012 (16 September 2012):

*  Unknown said:  "We would love to have you mention the blog at http://www.facebook.com/RootsonomyGenealogy"

My comment:  OK, I mentioned it...and it looks really interesting.  I will try to use this service.  Has any Genea-Musings reader used it yet?  I'll blog about it if I use it.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/09/follow-up-friday-helpful-reader-comments.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

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