James Tanner wrote No Big Deal today on his Genealogy's Star blog today, lamenting (?) that genealogy blogs really don't have a significant readership in the bigger Genealogy World. His experience at the Family History Expo Conference, and in his classes at a local FHC, pretty much mirror my own experiences when I make presentations at genealogy societies or teach a class. We often seem to be "Strangers in a Strange Genealogy Land."
If I'm lucky, perhaps 10% of the attendees at a presentation have at least heard of my blog, and maybe 5% actually read it regularly. New genealogists are at 0%. The group on the Legacy Family Tree cruise was at the 10% level too. I doubt that 10% of my local Chula Vista society, with 100 members, actually reads my blog. almost everyone knows I have one, and most probably think that I waste my time writing it.
It's even worse than that. I took a survey at my society meeting last week, asking who was on Facebook (about 20%), on Google Plus (about 10%), or on Twitter (about 10%). Only about 20% had a smart phone or a tablet mobile device, and only 10% said that they used it for genealogy research or education. My talk was on using mobile devices for genealogy, and most that I talked to afterwards said "I'll talk to you if I get one."
It seems to me that there is a small group of "tuned-in" persons (10 to 20%) who are into social networking, online research, and collaboration and a larger group of "occasional" persons (80 to 90%) who go to society meetings or check out online databases on a haphazard basis. Most of the latter group seems to have no real interest in genealogy conferences, or online collaboration. Some are either scared of, or intimidated by, or befuddled by, using computers for genealogy.
James Tanner and I, and most of our regular blog readers, are in that smaller group of "tuned-in" and first adopters, as are most genealogy bloggers, conference planners, conference and seminar speakers, and some conference goers. How big is this group? Based on my blog statistics, Facebook friends, Google Plus followers, conference attendance, etc., there are perhaps 5,000 persons who are really "tuned in." They write and read blogs and magazine articles, work in their local or larger societies, and attend conferences and seminars.
Because of this difference in participation, the idea of collaborating rarely gets adopted by the larger group. Many have done their research the old way with forms, pencils, photocopies and microfilms, and don't really take part in the online activities enthusiastically promoted by the smaller group. It's just how it is.
I receive a number of emails every week from people who have found my blog articles for specific family lines or persons, so I know that "blogging works." I try to respond to these emails with helpful information and perhaps a genealogy report in PDF format, and encourage the correspondent to add content to my database. Other geneabloggers have the same experience. For me, blogging has taken the place of the message boards and mailing lists, which all seem to be dormant (with some exceptions).
While Ancestry.com has 1.7 million subscribers, and there are millions of family trees on Ancestry with billions of persons (many are duplicates), I receive relatively few messages through their system - perhaps one a week. It seems like the average number of persons on an Ancestry Member Tree is about 100, and that indicates to me that most of the trees are relatively small and probably dormant. There are a number of persons with relatively large trees (mine is about 40,000 persons) and there is a good chance of finding common ancestry on those larger trees. But there is little real collaboration.
The inter-connected family trees on WeRelate.org and WikiTree.com have a relatively small number of submitters, but the number on Geni.com is larger. However, on Geni.com, the average number is probably about 100 persons submitted by a user since there is no GEDCOM capability.
The "next" big inter-connected family tree system is the FamilySearch Family Tree, where the hope is that significant collaboration will occur, discussions, documents and source citations will rule, and the Mother of all Genealogy Family Trees will blossom. IBIWISI - I'll believe it when I see it!
This post kind of meandered through a number of fertile fields, didn't it? I think that's it's not one of my best efforts, but I spent a lot of time doing it so I'm going to post it anyway! If anything, it can always be a bad example of a genealogy blog post.
Is our band of merry geneabloggers doomed to wander through cyberspace forever, or will thousands of new genea-readers suddenly appear from the rest of the Genealogy World?
What do you think?
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/06/genestrangers-in-strange-genealogy-land.html
Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver
Showing posts with label improving genealogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label improving genealogy. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Ancestry.com Quirk - 1930 Census Index
One of the most frustrating (for me) Ancestry.com quirks is the indexing in the 1930 U.S. census. Fewer fields were indexed for the 1930 U.S. census than were indexed in the 1920 U.S. census. For example, here is a list of the indexed and searchable fields in the 1920 and 1930 U.S. census records on Ancestry.com (differences in red):
* First Name - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Last Name - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Residence - indexed in 1920 and 1930 (state, county, city or town)
* Age - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Estimated birth year - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Birthplace - indexed in 1920 and 1930 (but not for minor children in 1930)
* Relation to head-of-house - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Father's birthplace - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Mother's birthplace - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Marital status - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Race - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Sex - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Year of immigration - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Able to read - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Able to write - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
There are several other fields in each census that were not indexed, such as occupation, military service, home ownership, etc.
The one that always trip me up is the birthplace for minor children. For example: If I put a last name = "Smith," residence state = "California," birth place of "California" and birth year = "1925 +/- 5 years" in the 1930 census database, I get only 240 matches. The 240 matches are listed as students, boarders, lodgers, inmates, etc. in the relationship column, but there are some entries with son, daughter, grandson, etc. If I take out the birth place - "California," I get 7,619 matches, including the 240 noted above. Granted that not all of the 7,619 were born in California, but it's probable that almost all of them were. Wouldn't it have been an easier indexing job just to put the birth place entry in the index field? What time or money could be saved by omitting the birthplace?
Is the problem that I am spoiled by the indexes for the 1920 and earlier census records? Perhaps, because I do feel spoiled by the Ancestry.com indexes. I think that my expectation for the 1930 census, when it was added to Ancestry.com, was that the indexing would be as comprehensive as the indexing of the 1920 census. Ancestry.com said some time ago that they would spend some funds and time to correct poor indexes - I hope they improve the 1930 U.S. census, if only to add the birthplace for minor children.
What about the 1940 U.S. census to be released in 2012? It's not too early to express the expectation that the indexing for that census will include all of the useful fields, including birthplace, father and mother's birthplace, immigration year, citizenship status, occupation, etc.
* First Name - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Last Name - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Residence - indexed in 1920 and 1930 (state, county, city or town)
* Age - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Estimated birth year - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Birthplace - indexed in 1920 and 1930 (but not for minor children in 1930)
* Relation to head-of-house - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Father's birthplace - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Mother's birthplace - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Marital status - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Race - indexed in 1920 and 1930
* Sex - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Year of immigration - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Able to read - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
* Able to write - indexed in 1920, not in 1930
There are several other fields in each census that were not indexed, such as occupation, military service, home ownership, etc.
The one that always trip me up is the birthplace for minor children. For example: If I put a last name = "Smith," residence state = "California," birth place of "California" and birth year = "1925 +/- 5 years" in the 1930 census database, I get only 240 matches. The 240 matches are listed as students, boarders, lodgers, inmates, etc. in the relationship column, but there are some entries with son, daughter, grandson, etc. If I take out the birth place - "California," I get 7,619 matches, including the 240 noted above. Granted that not all of the 7,619 were born in California, but it's probable that almost all of them were. Wouldn't it have been an easier indexing job just to put the birth place entry in the index field? What time or money could be saved by omitting the birthplace?
Is the problem that I am spoiled by the indexes for the 1920 and earlier census records? Perhaps, because I do feel spoiled by the Ancestry.com indexes. I think that my expectation for the 1930 census, when it was added to Ancestry.com, was that the indexing would be as comprehensive as the indexing of the 1920 census. Ancestry.com said some time ago that they would spend some funds and time to correct poor indexes - I hope they improve the 1930 U.S. census, if only to add the birthplace for minor children.
What about the 1940 U.S. census to be released in 2012? It's not too early to express the expectation that the indexing for that census will include all of the useful fields, including birthplace, father and mother's birthplace, immigration year, citizenship status, occupation, etc.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
IdentiFinders is online
I highlighted the Herman Rosenblat fraud story yesterday, and in the post I hoped that Colleen Fitzpatrick and Sharon Sergeant would share more details of the investigation that exposed the Rosenblat fraud.
Colleen, Sharon, Janessa Roberts and Andrew Yeiser have published a web site called IdentiFinders International at http://www.identifinders.com/. Their current front page has some information about the Rosenblat investigation, and Colleen told me in an email that more information will be published. The key paragraph on the page says:
"Identifinders ... focused on obtaining evidence on the location of Roma Radzicki Rosenblat's extended family during the Holocaust. The inconsistencies of Roma's part of the story were just as significant but not as prominent. "
You can see short biographies of the principals of this company at http://www.identifinders.com/services.html. Take a look at the Services offered tab at http://www.identifinders.com/services.html.
I hope that the IdentiFinders thrive. They seem to have found a niche market for forensic genealogy services - one that serves the general public and demonstrates the value of disciplined genealogy research techniques.
UPDATED 12/31: Deleted an extraneous comment from the post.
Colleen, Sharon, Janessa Roberts and Andrew Yeiser have published a web site called IdentiFinders International at http://www.identifinders.com/. Their current front page has some information about the Rosenblat investigation, and Colleen told me in an email that more information will be published. The key paragraph on the page says:
"Identifinders ... focused on obtaining evidence on the location of Roma Radzicki Rosenblat's extended family during the Holocaust. The inconsistencies of Roma's part of the story were just as significant but not as prominent. "
You can see short biographies of the principals of this company at http://www.identifinders.com/services.html. Take a look at the Services offered tab at http://www.identifinders.com/services.html.
I hope that the IdentiFinders thrive. They seem to have found a niche market for forensic genealogy services - one that serves the general public and demonstrates the value of disciplined genealogy research techniques.
UPDATED 12/31: Deleted an extraneous comment from the post.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
What records should be added to WorldVitalRecords?
Paul Allen gave a talk in Salt Lake City to the local Association of Professional Genealogists chapter and then blogged about it - his post is here. He took a survey at the start of the talk - did they want to hear about the early history of Ancestry.com or did they want to hear about the future of genealogy? Everyone voted for the latter, but he talked a bit about Ancestry/MyFamily anyway. Then he talked about the future, especially of www.WorldVitalRecords.com. He covered some of his thoughts in his blog post.
The most interesting part of his post is:
"We [WorldVitalRecords] will do some digitizing and indexing but it will be small in relation to these other organizations who make this their primary business. Our fundamental approach is to partner with content providers worldwide and to enable our customers to find records in their databases, whether we host them or not. ... Our business model is built on paying substantial royalties to content owners."
He also said that there is one seat on their Board of Directors reserved for an "industry expert." He suggested that there could be a "Genealogy Idol" series on Roots Television to select that person - one candidate gets voted off every week.
He ended with this:
"Anyway, in the coming weeks it will become more clear what place World Vital Records hopes to fill in the family/genealogy community, and how we will differentiate our products and services from those that are currently offered by the leading online genealogy companies.
"If you are into genealogy, I invite you to give me a list of the top 5 things you would do if you were running World Vital Records. I’m very interested in hearing from you. (But be careful–if your suggestions are too good, you might get recruited by the genealogy community to fill an open board seat!)"
Well now, that certainly is blog fodder for some of us, isn't it? I'll jump in:
1) STATE VITAL RECORDS. As many as possible. Ancestry.com doesn't have them all. Nobody has them all in one place online. The LDS has the best "collection" available to researchers but they're on microfilm. Births, marriages and deaths from as many states as possible over as wide a range as possible. Consider partnering with state vital records offices to digitize them, provide searchable databases and host the databases.
2) VITAL RECORDS IN OTHER COUNTRIES: Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America, Australia, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, etc. Partner with governments, genealogy and historical societies, churches, etc.
3) BIBLE RECORDS and OTHER FAMILY PAPERS: The DAR, NGS and other genealogical/historical societies have collections of these either online, on microfilm, in publications or moldering away in society file cabinets and garages. There are some online on web sites and blogs. Many local societies have "vertical files" of papers submitted by members or their estates. Organize local genealogy societies to find, collect, digitize and publish them.
4) COLLECTIONS OF PEDIGREE CHARTS: Many local genealogy societies have books chock full of pedigree charts submitted by members. My small society (80 members) has four books of them - maybe 200 charts. It's another project that could be organized for local genealogy societies to digitize and publish them. WVR did this with the large Everton collection - a good job!
5) CLEARING HOUSE FOR VITAL RECORDS: A one-stop shop for every country, every state, every county. Provide a list of what records are available on any media - paper, microfilm, online database, etc. Provide links to available online records (even to LDS and other commercial companies). Tell what is available on microfilm. Provide links to vital records offices for those unavailable on media.
There's my fave five. I'm pretty sure that WVR is considering things like these already. I hope so - they have smart leadership.
Read Paul's entire post - it touches on a lot of interesting topics. I can hardly wait to hear what the 12 mistakes that Ancestry made after he left them. Likewise, I'm interested in his vision for WorldVitalRecords and for the future of genealogy.
Shoot - never mind - I'm embarrassed by my lack of real vision - I make that list above and find out, by reading Paul's blog over the last year, that WVR is doing most of those things. Here are Paul's goals for 2007 - revealing. Oh well, a small mind on a small blog. That's why he's rich and famous and I'm stuck on 200 readers a day.
What do you think? Tell Paul - he wants to know! But read his blog first. Post your comments on his post here.
The most interesting part of his post is:
"We [WorldVitalRecords] will do some digitizing and indexing but it will be small in relation to these other organizations who make this their primary business. Our fundamental approach is to partner with content providers worldwide and to enable our customers to find records in their databases, whether we host them or not. ... Our business model is built on paying substantial royalties to content owners."
He also said that there is one seat on their Board of Directors reserved for an "industry expert." He suggested that there could be a "Genealogy Idol" series on Roots Television to select that person - one candidate gets voted off every week.
He ended with this:
"Anyway, in the coming weeks it will become more clear what place World Vital Records hopes to fill in the family/genealogy community, and how we will differentiate our products and services from those that are currently offered by the leading online genealogy companies.
"If you are into genealogy, I invite you to give me a list of the top 5 things you would do if you were running World Vital Records. I’m very interested in hearing from you. (But be careful–if your suggestions are too good, you might get recruited by the genealogy community to fill an open board seat!)"
Well now, that certainly is blog fodder for some of us, isn't it? I'll jump in:
1) STATE VITAL RECORDS. As many as possible. Ancestry.com doesn't have them all. Nobody has them all in one place online. The LDS has the best "collection" available to researchers but they're on microfilm. Births, marriages and deaths from as many states as possible over as wide a range as possible. Consider partnering with state vital records offices to digitize them, provide searchable databases and host the databases.
2) VITAL RECORDS IN OTHER COUNTRIES: Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America, Australia, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, etc. Partner with governments, genealogy and historical societies, churches, etc.
3) BIBLE RECORDS and OTHER FAMILY PAPERS: The DAR, NGS and other genealogical/historical societies have collections of these either online, on microfilm, in publications or moldering away in society file cabinets and garages. There are some online on web sites and blogs. Many local societies have "vertical files" of papers submitted by members or their estates. Organize local genealogy societies to find, collect, digitize and publish them.
4) COLLECTIONS OF PEDIGREE CHARTS: Many local genealogy societies have books chock full of pedigree charts submitted by members. My small society (80 members) has four books of them - maybe 200 charts. It's another project that could be organized for local genealogy societies to digitize and publish them. WVR did this with the large Everton collection - a good job!
5) CLEARING HOUSE FOR VITAL RECORDS: A one-stop shop for every country, every state, every county. Provide a list of what records are available on any media - paper, microfilm, online database, etc. Provide links to available online records (even to LDS and other commercial companies). Tell what is available on microfilm. Provide links to vital records offices for those unavailable on media.
There's my fave five. I'm pretty sure that WVR is considering things like these already. I hope so - they have smart leadership.
Read Paul's entire post - it touches on a lot of interesting topics. I can hardly wait to hear what the 12 mistakes that Ancestry made after he left them. Likewise, I'm interested in his vision for WorldVitalRecords and for the future of genealogy.
Shoot - never mind - I'm embarrassed by my lack of real vision - I make that list above and find out, by reading Paul's blog over the last year, that WVR is doing most of those things. Here are Paul's goals for 2007 - revealing. Oh well, a small mind on a small blog. That's why he's rich and famous and I'm stuck on 200 readers a day.
What do you think? Tell Paul - he wants to know! But read his blog first. Post your comments on his post here.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The Future of Genealogy - My Turn
At the CVGS "Genealogy Online" seminar two weekends ago, I was asked the question "What is the future of genealogy on the Internet?" I wish I could remember the things that I rattled off in my two minute response - it was at the end of my four hour stand-up stint and I was a bit fried. Having had almost two weeks to think about it, and having reviewed previous predictions by connected genealogy writers here and here, I'm ready to respond - and will muse on the next five years..
1. The future of genealogy research is limitless - genealogy will always be with us to the end of time because enough people will always want to know about world history, local history and family history. In five years, doing effective research may be considerably faster to perform due to the presence of more original documents on the Internet.
2. Genealogy research will always require working with original documents, derivative documents, government records, record indexes, family histories, locality histories, family trees, etc. "Every" document will not be imaged, digitized and indexed - there will always be records not available on the Internet.
3. More images of original and derivative documents will be available on the Internet every year. The number of document images has exploded in the last 5 years - to the benefit of all researchers. Effective use of the images requires accurate indexes.
4. More indexes of person names and locality names will be available on the Internet every year. Indexes are essential for finding of and the effective use of document images. The indexes need to permit sound-alike and wild cards, and specific phrases, in order to consistently find person names. Search engines will have these capabilities also.
5. Freely available records (mainly indexes and transcriptions) will proliferate on the Internet at sites like www.rootsweb.com, www.usgenweb.org and www.worldgenweb.org. There are many other sites with data posted by volunteers and organizations.
6. The LDS church effort to image, digitize and index the records by volunteers on over 2 million microfilms and over 1 million microfiche will continue at a fast pace and New FamilySearch will be used to access those records and images. In 5 years, New FamilySearch may have most of the US census records, many vital records indexes and many military records indexed and available - but there will be many records currently on microform left to be indexed - land, probate, tax, directories, etc. When the latter records have been indexed, then more research breakthroughs will occur. New FamilySearch will continue to collaborate with other libraries, societies and commercial companies to offer resources either online for everybody or on computers at the FHL and FHCs.
7. Commercial genealogy services (today exemplified by Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, GenealogyBank, etc. - there are many others) will continue to image, digitize and index records. These companies will continue to partner and collaborate with smaller database providers and genealogy societies. New companies may emerge to fill a niche, and companies may merge their assets. Competition will drive the industry to image and index more records. Genealogists will benefit from lower subscription prices resulting from more subscribers and more available records.
8. There will still be books and records that cannot be imaged and indexed due to copyright and privacy restrictions. "Public records" in cities, counties and states after about 1900 and before about 1980 are generally not available in books or microform except in person at a repository. There will be a massive effort by the LDS and commercial companies to image and digitize these records but it will take a long time, and coverage will not be uniform. I think birth and marriage records for living people will not be available for every state for a long time, if ever.
9. Family Tree data submitted by researchers past and present will proliferate and will always contain inaccuracies and outright errors. Online genealogy data sharing sites will also proliferate and will eventually coalesce into a smaller number of databases with large numbers. The challenge for every site will be to choose what data is "right" and to create the Mother of All Genealogy Databases (MOAGD). Will LDS scrap Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File? Will Ancestry scrap Ancestry World Trees and One World Tree? I doubt it - they will likely integrate that information into their new database formats somehow. There will not be just one MOAGD - there will probably be several or many.
10. Sharing between genealogy researchers will continue to grow through message boards, mailing lists, online family trees, genealogy societies and email. Wikis will proliferate on the Internet, but I don't think the majority of researchers will use them to share genealogy data.
11. Publication of compiled genealogies and family histories in book form or on digital media will be more "publish on demand" for family members and correspondents, rather than in traditional book publication. These e-books may not find their way into libraries or magazines.
12. Genealogy magazines in paper and digital formats will continue to provide readers with interesting and useful information. Magazines may go to a dual publication - in both paper and digital formats with a price break for the digital format. Digital magazines may break the mold of a semi-monthly or quarterly formal publication and go to a weekly distribution of timely articles and reviews.
13. Genealogy societies will start growing again as more researchers cannot find "everything" on the Internet. The emphasis will be on collaboration and sharing - "traditional" researchers helping "online" researchers understand and use the classical research process, and "online" researchers helping "traditional" researchers use the Internet effectively. Societies will also use a dual newsletter/journal publication method - on paper format mailed out or online in digital format. There may be more specialized genealogy societies rather than locality-oriented societies.
14. Genealogy societies will have to have an Internet presence - a web site to inform members and sell products, a blog and email list to communicate with members and prospects, and indexing/transcribing projects to provide local family history records. They will collaborate with free or commercial genealogy sites. For example, a society-generated cemetery index might be digitized and indexed and included in the FamilySearch or Ancestry search engine and database, but the inscriptions and photos of tombstones might be available only through the society for a small price.
15. Genealogy software will continue to gravitate to online storage of databases with user-selected access - accessible anywhere a researcher is on a computer (relative, library, airplane, etc) and not subject to a home disaster. Book-making capabilities within the software will improve, especially for constructing indexes, including images, etc.
I think I'll stop there. I realize that I'm hampered by not being on the "inside" of the industry. Reading this over I see that I am not very visionary in this list. It's pretty much "review the past," "glass-half-full" and "genealogy-and-apple-pie" with a dash of hopefulness.
I am really interested in what you think. Tell me where I'm right or wrong. What have I missed? Please blog about this, share your thoughts in comments to this post, or via email to rjseaver(at)cox.net. If you have visionary thoughts about the future of genealogy, and are willing for me to post them in a separate post, please let me know and I will do that with attribution or anonymity - your choice.
1. The future of genealogy research is limitless - genealogy will always be with us to the end of time because enough people will always want to know about world history, local history and family history. In five years, doing effective research may be considerably faster to perform due to the presence of more original documents on the Internet.
2. Genealogy research will always require working with original documents, derivative documents, government records, record indexes, family histories, locality histories, family trees, etc. "Every" document will not be imaged, digitized and indexed - there will always be records not available on the Internet.
3. More images of original and derivative documents will be available on the Internet every year. The number of document images has exploded in the last 5 years - to the benefit of all researchers. Effective use of the images requires accurate indexes.
4. More indexes of person names and locality names will be available on the Internet every year. Indexes are essential for finding of and the effective use of document images. The indexes need to permit sound-alike and wild cards, and specific phrases, in order to consistently find person names. Search engines will have these capabilities also.
5. Freely available records (mainly indexes and transcriptions) will proliferate on the Internet at sites like www.rootsweb.com, www.usgenweb.org and www.worldgenweb.org. There are many other sites with data posted by volunteers and organizations.
6. The LDS church effort to image, digitize and index the records by volunteers on over 2 million microfilms and over 1 million microfiche will continue at a fast pace and New FamilySearch will be used to access those records and images. In 5 years, New FamilySearch may have most of the US census records, many vital records indexes and many military records indexed and available - but there will be many records currently on microform left to be indexed - land, probate, tax, directories, etc. When the latter records have been indexed, then more research breakthroughs will occur. New FamilySearch will continue to collaborate with other libraries, societies and commercial companies to offer resources either online for everybody or on computers at the FHL and FHCs.
7. Commercial genealogy services (today exemplified by Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, GenealogyBank, etc. - there are many others) will continue to image, digitize and index records. These companies will continue to partner and collaborate with smaller database providers and genealogy societies. New companies may emerge to fill a niche, and companies may merge their assets. Competition will drive the industry to image and index more records. Genealogists will benefit from lower subscription prices resulting from more subscribers and more available records.
8. There will still be books and records that cannot be imaged and indexed due to copyright and privacy restrictions. "Public records" in cities, counties and states after about 1900 and before about 1980 are generally not available in books or microform except in person at a repository. There will be a massive effort by the LDS and commercial companies to image and digitize these records but it will take a long time, and coverage will not be uniform. I think birth and marriage records for living people will not be available for every state for a long time, if ever.
9. Family Tree data submitted by researchers past and present will proliferate and will always contain inaccuracies and outright errors. Online genealogy data sharing sites will also proliferate and will eventually coalesce into a smaller number of databases with large numbers. The challenge for every site will be to choose what data is "right" and to create the Mother of All Genealogy Databases (MOAGD). Will LDS scrap Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File? Will Ancestry scrap Ancestry World Trees and One World Tree? I doubt it - they will likely integrate that information into their new database formats somehow. There will not be just one MOAGD - there will probably be several or many.
10. Sharing between genealogy researchers will continue to grow through message boards, mailing lists, online family trees, genealogy societies and email. Wikis will proliferate on the Internet, but I don't think the majority of researchers will use them to share genealogy data.
11. Publication of compiled genealogies and family histories in book form or on digital media will be more "publish on demand" for family members and correspondents, rather than in traditional book publication. These e-books may not find their way into libraries or magazines.
12. Genealogy magazines in paper and digital formats will continue to provide readers with interesting and useful information. Magazines may go to a dual publication - in both paper and digital formats with a price break for the digital format. Digital magazines may break the mold of a semi-monthly or quarterly formal publication and go to a weekly distribution of timely articles and reviews.
13. Genealogy societies will start growing again as more researchers cannot find "everything" on the Internet. The emphasis will be on collaboration and sharing - "traditional" researchers helping "online" researchers understand and use the classical research process, and "online" researchers helping "traditional" researchers use the Internet effectively. Societies will also use a dual newsletter/journal publication method - on paper format mailed out or online in digital format. There may be more specialized genealogy societies rather than locality-oriented societies.
14. Genealogy societies will have to have an Internet presence - a web site to inform members and sell products, a blog and email list to communicate with members and prospects, and indexing/transcribing projects to provide local family history records. They will collaborate with free or commercial genealogy sites. For example, a society-generated cemetery index might be digitized and indexed and included in the FamilySearch or Ancestry search engine and database, but the inscriptions and photos of tombstones might be available only through the society for a small price.
15. Genealogy software will continue to gravitate to online storage of databases with user-selected access - accessible anywhere a researcher is on a computer (relative, library, airplane, etc) and not subject to a home disaster. Book-making capabilities within the software will improve, especially for constructing indexes, including images, etc.
I think I'll stop there. I realize that I'm hampered by not being on the "inside" of the industry. Reading this over I see that I am not very visionary in this list. It's pretty much "review the past," "glass-half-full" and "genealogy-and-apple-pie" with a dash of hopefulness.
I am really interested in what you think. Tell me where I'm right or wrong. What have I missed? Please blog about this, share your thoughts in comments to this post, or via email to rjseaver(at)cox.net. If you have visionary thoughts about the future of genealogy, and are willing for me to post them in a separate post, please let me know and I will do that with attribution or anonymity - your choice.
The Future of Genealogy - Part 2 (2004-5)
Other noted genealogy writers and speakers have opined on this subject over the years.
Dick Eastman made predictions in a 2002 article, and reviewed them in January 2007 on his blog in a post "Deja Vu: The Past Four Years of Genealogical Achievements." The predictions he made in 2002 included:
1) Transcribed information will continue to be popular for many years.
2) The present technology of CD-ROM storage of data will probably fade away within a few years. The problem is not a technology issue. Instead, genealogy CD-ROM discs will disappear because of simple economics.
3) The major growth of genealogy software occurred in the 1980s to the mid-1990s. I went on at some length to describe this growth and then stated that the growth had slowed.
4) Aligning with the growth of online usage, the greatest improvements will be in the area of Web integration. Genealogists will look to store and publish their data on the Web and compare their own internal genealogy database against the large online databases for possible matches and additions.
5) Today these [DNA] databases can only prove that two individuals are related in some manner. They cannot give the exact point where each individual's lineage meets that of the other person. Once the accumulated information reaches a critical mass, computers will be able to precisely match individuals who have similar DNA sequences and even to reconstruct the DNA sequences of deceased ancestors.
6) …the crystal ball reveals a global community of genealogists that's open to all. As fast as they can click a mouse, genealogists will scoop up transcribed and scanned original information online, from any location. They will confirm or disprove theories with irrefutable DNA records. The ease with which they will be able to assemble and polish accurate lineage reports will encourage many to add to this wealth of information and to collaborate with distant cousins. They may even gather in online 'virtual reunions' with webcams.
7) As boundaries of time and space evaporate, the opportunity to bring ancestors and extended families into clearer focus will emerge for this lucky generation of genealogists and those to follow.
In his 2007 post, Dick graded himself on his predictions. Go read his article for more context and details. He closed his post with these words: "Whatever method of data input we will use in future decades, I believe that the future of online genealogy collaboration looks better than ever. I am still convinced that this is a great time to be a genealogist."
DearMYRTLE also wrote an article in the 1998 time frame, and updated it in 2005 in "UPDATE 2005: The Internet, Genealogists and the Future." Her points included:
1) Smarter Export Capabilities of Genealogy Software, particularly where it comes to embedding the linked photos and scanned documents.
2) More Artificial Intelligence. “Artificial intelligence" is the up and coming tool for savvy genealogists. Our dining room tables aren’t large enough and our brains aren’t fast enough to correlate the dates/localities where our ancestors once lived with online genealogy databases and library catalogs. That’s where programs like GenSmarts http://www.gensmarts.com/ step in and evaluate our compiled genealogies.
3) Creative Tombstoning. How about an interactive tombstone, where you can download the photo and pages of family history of the deceased to your Thumb or laptop?
4) Computer Based Training. Combining online tutorials, interactive chat rooms and detailed genealogy research assignments, we’ll see more genealogy classes.
5) Ordering Microfilm Online to be Presented in Digital Format at FamilySearch.org. Once the film is digitized and placed on a website, it can be available to anyone else online as well.
6) More Source documents. Now, despite improvements in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, which work only on typed documents, we’re still at the mercy of indexers.
7) Wayback Machine Becomes Increasingly Popular. The webmaster explains “Browse through 30 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago.” All too often a smaller family history website closes down, making links to that source of genealogy data obsolete. Simply copy/paste the original URL from your source citation to the Wayback Machine to view the page in its original form.
Read the whole article for more details and context. DearMYRTLE ended her article by noting: "If genealogists can find online scanned images of the documents in great-grampa’s probate packet, does this mean an end of research in dusty old courthouse books or ancient parish registers? Probably not in my lifetime. "
These two experts in genealogy researching and communication, who were well tuned into the genealogy industry and community (and still are), were thinking fairly "inside the box." They had a good idea of what was to come and told us about it, and their predictions are fairly accurate.
Next up are my fearless predictions...and your chance to be clairvoyant too!
Dick Eastman made predictions in a 2002 article, and reviewed them in January 2007 on his blog in a post "Deja Vu: The Past Four Years of Genealogical Achievements." The predictions he made in 2002 included:
1) Transcribed information will continue to be popular for many years.
2) The present technology of CD-ROM storage of data will probably fade away within a few years. The problem is not a technology issue. Instead, genealogy CD-ROM discs will disappear because of simple economics.
3) The major growth of genealogy software occurred in the 1980s to the mid-1990s. I went on at some length to describe this growth and then stated that the growth had slowed.
4) Aligning with the growth of online usage, the greatest improvements will be in the area of Web integration. Genealogists will look to store and publish their data on the Web and compare their own internal genealogy database against the large online databases for possible matches and additions.
5) Today these [DNA] databases can only prove that two individuals are related in some manner. They cannot give the exact point where each individual's lineage meets that of the other person. Once the accumulated information reaches a critical mass, computers will be able to precisely match individuals who have similar DNA sequences and even to reconstruct the DNA sequences of deceased ancestors.
6) …the crystal ball reveals a global community of genealogists that's open to all. As fast as they can click a mouse, genealogists will scoop up transcribed and scanned original information online, from any location. They will confirm or disprove theories with irrefutable DNA records. The ease with which they will be able to assemble and polish accurate lineage reports will encourage many to add to this wealth of information and to collaborate with distant cousins. They may even gather in online 'virtual reunions' with webcams.
7) As boundaries of time and space evaporate, the opportunity to bring ancestors and extended families into clearer focus will emerge for this lucky generation of genealogists and those to follow.
In his 2007 post, Dick graded himself on his predictions. Go read his article for more context and details. He closed his post with these words: "Whatever method of data input we will use in future decades, I believe that the future of online genealogy collaboration looks better than ever. I am still convinced that this is a great time to be a genealogist."
DearMYRTLE also wrote an article in the 1998 time frame, and updated it in 2005 in "UPDATE 2005: The Internet, Genealogists and the Future." Her points included:
1) Smarter Export Capabilities of Genealogy Software, particularly where it comes to embedding the linked photos and scanned documents.
2) More Artificial Intelligence. “Artificial intelligence" is the up and coming tool for savvy genealogists. Our dining room tables aren’t large enough and our brains aren’t fast enough to correlate the dates/localities where our ancestors once lived with online genealogy databases and library catalogs. That’s where programs like GenSmarts http://www.gensmarts.com/ step in and evaluate our compiled genealogies.
3) Creative Tombstoning. How about an interactive tombstone, where you can download the photo and pages of family history of the deceased to your Thumb or laptop?
4) Computer Based Training. Combining online tutorials, interactive chat rooms and detailed genealogy research assignments, we’ll see more genealogy classes.
5) Ordering Microfilm Online to be Presented in Digital Format at FamilySearch.org. Once the film is digitized and placed on a website, it can be available to anyone else online as well.
6) More Source documents. Now, despite improvements in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, which work only on typed documents, we’re still at the mercy of indexers.
7) Wayback Machine Becomes Increasingly Popular. The webmaster explains “Browse through 30 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago.” All too often a smaller family history website closes down, making links to that source of genealogy data obsolete. Simply copy/paste the original URL from your source citation to the Wayback Machine to view the page in its original form.
Read the whole article for more details and context. DearMYRTLE ended her article by noting: "If genealogists can find online scanned images of the documents in great-grampa’s probate packet, does this mean an end of research in dusty old courthouse books or ancient parish registers? Probably not in my lifetime. "
These two experts in genealogy researching and communication, who were well tuned into the genealogy industry and community (and still are), were thinking fairly "inside the box." They had a good idea of what was to come and told us about it, and their predictions are fairly accurate.
Next up are my fearless predictions...and your chance to be clairvoyant too!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The Future of Genealogy - Part 1 (1998 version)
At the CVGS "Genealogy Online" seminar two weekends ago, I was asked the question "What is the future of genealogy on the Internet?" I wish I could remember the things that I rattled off in response - it was at the end of my four hour stand-up stint and I was a bit fried. Having had almost two weeks to think about it, I'm almost ready to respond.
I figured that somebody much more knowledgeable than I has already answered this question and posted it on the Internet, so I went looking for the deathless predictions of genealogy experts.
The first article I found was by Mark Howells (you know, he's married to Cyndislist) who has written many genealogy articles over the years. In 1998, he wrote "The Future of Internet Genealogy - Twelve Predictions." The twelve on his list were:
1) Putting your genealogy research results on the Internet will continue to become simpler and easier.
2) The resulting formats of web publishing will continue to improve.
3) The veracity of the information published on the Internet will continue to be variable but Internet genealogists will recognize and deal effectively with this variability.
4) More genealogically relevant information will be published on the Internet by public institutions.
5) More of our cousins will get "wired" into the Internet.
6) Interacting with institutions will become easier and a more common part of Internet genealogy.
7) Traditional genealogical societies will conduct more organized interaction on the Internet.
8) Genealogy interest groups and associations focusing on the technology of computers or the Internet will decline in prevalence as computers and the Internet increasingly assume their role as standard tools of the genealogist.
9) More collaborative efforts will emerge as a result of Internet-connected genealogists sharing their work towards common goals.
10) Civil registration authorities, archives, and the major genealogy libraries will enter the Internet genealogy marketplace with pay-for-use services.
11) Traditional genealogy societies will increase the number of their goods and services available for purchase over the Internet.
12) Major genealogy companies will continue to develop and sell Internet-provided products and services.
Please read all of Mark's article for more context and information.
I figured that somebody much more knowledgeable than I has already answered this question and posted it on the Internet, so I went looking for the deathless predictions of genealogy experts.
The first article I found was by Mark Howells (you know, he's married to Cyndislist) who has written many genealogy articles over the years. In 1998, he wrote "The Future of Internet Genealogy - Twelve Predictions." The twelve on his list were:
1) Putting your genealogy research results on the Internet will continue to become simpler and easier.
2) The resulting formats of web publishing will continue to improve.
3) The veracity of the information published on the Internet will continue to be variable but Internet genealogists will recognize and deal effectively with this variability.
4) More genealogically relevant information will be published on the Internet by public institutions.
5) More of our cousins will get "wired" into the Internet.
6) Interacting with institutions will become easier and a more common part of Internet genealogy.
7) Traditional genealogical societies will conduct more organized interaction on the Internet.
8) Genealogy interest groups and associations focusing on the technology of computers or the Internet will decline in prevalence as computers and the Internet increasingly assume their role as standard tools of the genealogist.
9) More collaborative efforts will emerge as a result of Internet-connected genealogists sharing their work towards common goals.
10) Civil registration authorities, archives, and the major genealogy libraries will enter the Internet genealogy marketplace with pay-for-use services.
11) Traditional genealogy societies will increase the number of their goods and services available for purchase over the Internet.
12) Major genealogy companies will continue to develop and sell Internet-provided products and services.
Please read all of Mark's article for more context and information.
For 1998, that was a really good list, wasn't it? Think back nine years - we had decent genealogy software, most people accessed the Internet through a dial-up modem, there were forum sites like Prodigy, CompuServe and AOL with genealogy communities, etc. But there were no large databases online yet, there were few images online, and Web 2.0/wikis had not been invented yet. I think Mark did a great job with his answer.
I'll look for more articles on this subject before I write my own response to the question. Please trhink about it and formulate your own predictions - and either post them on your own blog or as a comment on my last post.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Kids and Genealogy
At our CVGS meeting yesterday, one of the attendees asked the question: "How can we involve kids in genealogy and family history?" He is tutoring middle school kids and some of them seemed interested, or at least curious about it, and he told them that "hunting for ancestors is like being a family detective."
There are a number of books on this subject, and many magazine and online articles also. I found the article "Creating Future Genealogists, Suggestions and Resources" by Mindi Stevens in the May/June 2007 issue of Everton's Genealogical Helper that addresses this question directly, and provided an excellent list of methods of engagement, movies, internet links and a bibliography. The article quotes from these books:
* Ira Wolfman, "Climbing Your Family Tree," New York, Workman Pub. Co., 2002.
* David Weitzman, "My Backyard History Book," Covelo CA, Yolla Bolly Press, 1975.
There are 13 hits in the Ancestry Learning Center using the keyword "kids", including (these are all free to view, by the way):
* "Encouraging Future Family Historians" by Juliana Smith
* "More Genealogy for Kids" by Michael John Neill
* "Getting Kids Hooked on Genealogy" by Barbara Krasner-Khait
Our society colleague said that the word that made the teens pay attention was "detective." That sounds like fun, and if you combine it with "family history detective" and tell stories about your own life or the lives of grandparents or earlier ancestors, you may hold their interest long enough to ask them if they know any family stories or know who their great-grandparents were.
What other words might be helpful in stimulating interest in children and young adults? "sleuth" "hunt" "hunter" "investigator" "digger" "explorer" - those can be combined with words like "genealogy" "roots" "family" "ancestor" "ancestry" to create terms that kids might relate to.
The Mindi Stevens article notes two myths that need to be overcome - that genealogy is only for old people, and that it is boring. Her articles addresses these issues and suggests ways to involve young people in genealogy. Her devious methods of engagement include scrapbooking, talking about family skeletons and traditions, vacations and trips to ancestral homes, ancestry of famous people, collections and heirlooms, etc. She also has a list of family history oriented movies, from Disney's "Tigger" to "Roots" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" and many more.
What has worked for you to get children and youth interested in family history and genealogy? What has your local society done? What other books, articles or web sites do you recommend?
There are a number of books on this subject, and many magazine and online articles also. I found the article "Creating Future Genealogists, Suggestions and Resources" by Mindi Stevens in the May/June 2007 issue of Everton's Genealogical Helper that addresses this question directly, and provided an excellent list of methods of engagement, movies, internet links and a bibliography. The article quotes from these books:
* Ira Wolfman, "Climbing Your Family Tree," New York, Workman Pub. Co., 2002.
* David Weitzman, "My Backyard History Book," Covelo CA, Yolla Bolly Press, 1975.
There are 13 hits in the Ancestry Learning Center using the keyword "kids", including (these are all free to view, by the way):
* "Encouraging Future Family Historians" by Juliana Smith
* "More Genealogy for Kids" by Michael John Neill
* "Getting Kids Hooked on Genealogy" by Barbara Krasner-Khait
Our society colleague said that the word that made the teens pay attention was "detective." That sounds like fun, and if you combine it with "family history detective" and tell stories about your own life or the lives of grandparents or earlier ancestors, you may hold their interest long enough to ask them if they know any family stories or know who their great-grandparents were.
What other words might be helpful in stimulating interest in children and young adults? "sleuth" "hunt" "hunter" "investigator" "digger" "explorer" - those can be combined with words like "genealogy" "roots" "family" "ancestor" "ancestry" to create terms that kids might relate to.
The Mindi Stevens article notes two myths that need to be overcome - that genealogy is only for old people, and that it is boring. Her articles addresses these issues and suggests ways to involve young people in genealogy. Her devious methods of engagement include scrapbooking, talking about family skeletons and traditions, vacations and trips to ancestral homes, ancestry of famous people, collections and heirlooms, etc. She also has a list of family history oriented movies, from Disney's "Tigger" to "Roots" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" and many more.
What has worked for you to get children and youth interested in family history and genealogy? What has your local society done? What other books, articles or web sites do you recommend?
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Mother of All Genealogy Databases
Drew Smith sent me a link to this article, Coming Soon: The Mother of All Genealogy Databases by Mike Elgan in ComputerWorld magazine. There are two pages to it - be sure to read both pages.
The author apparently is bored by current genealogy methods and databases, and he projects out 10 years and thinks that Google, or some other outfit, will come up with a database that will:
"* Enter your unique ID info (probably your Gmail username) and that of any other person, and the site would trace you both back to the most recent common shared ancestor.
"* Follow a timeline that shows the locations and migrations of ancestors all leading up to the descendant that is you.
* Track down every living relative.
* Pick any year in history and see just how many of your ancestors were alive at the time.
* Genetic family relationships could be combined with Linked-In-type social networking friendships or business relationships to render the most direct connection with anyone else ("Hey, you're the brother-in-law of my former boss's wife!").
* And many other cool tricks nobody can even think of right now.
"Such a public database would also have profound social implications. For example, it would probably render meaningless the concept of race because we would see before our eyes that we're all a lot more like Tiger Woods than any of us thought.
"Second, the privacy implications would be enormous and obvious.
"Third, such knowledge might have legal implications, calling into question various people's right to inherit property or titles.
"The prospects of such a massive, public database are staggering, scary and, yes, exciting.
"Genealogy is boring. But tomorrow's genealogy -- with a million times better results with a fraction of the effort -- well, that's something our ancestors couldn't even have imagined."
I took quite a bit there, but I thought it was the meat of the article. It is an interesting set of premises and predictions.
So -- is it possible that this will be where the art and science of genealogy and family history will be in 10 years?
I have the following observations:
* I think that genealogy will be real boring if the above predictions come true in 10 years or even 100 years. The thrill of genealogy for me is the hunt for ancestors and their stories, not knowing names, dates and places.
* Logically, this isn't going to happen because there is a dearth of records in many places over long periods of time. While some people can get back to 17th century Europe with one ancestral line or many, nobody can get back to 17th century Europe (or Asia, Africa, Latin America) with EVERY ancestral line. The records just are not available. Even the best researchers have many brick wall ancestors that are nearly impossible to find. The exception, and the wonderful example, is Iceland ancestry, of course.
* Two of these items can be accomplished now if someone has a fairly well filled out family tree in a database back into the 19th century or earlier. You could create a timeline that shows your ancestors, their locations and family situation. Likewise, you could create a list or map that shows where your ancestors live in a certain year.
* DNA tests and results cannot deal with every member in a person's ancestry yet, and probably will never be able to. The Y-DNA study traces only the patrilineal line, and determines if the person matches some other person who has been tested; the test doesn't identify the actual ancestors - it only allows a person to determine if they have a common male ancestor generations earlier. The mtDNA study traces only the matrilineal line, and does not define the ancestral line, only the genetic haplogroup that the female line comes from. If a person has cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. tested, s/he may be able to define up to 8 ancestral lines, but not the other hundreds of ancestral lines. Perhaps if every person's genome were determined this dream scenario could be realized, but that's probably real expensive.
* If all of the world's genealogy research is completed in TMOAGD, what will the genealogy industry (commercial companies, databases, LDS, magazines, writers, editors, readers, speakers, conference planners) do in their spare time? I know - they'll be memorizing their own genome coding, after all it's only several billion characters!
Those are my "off the cuff" thoughts and analyses - what do you think? Please read the article and blog about or comment here your thoughts about TMOAGD (The Mother of All Genealogy Databases). Is it feasible? Will it ever happen?
Thanks, Drew, for pointing me to an interesting and challenging article.
The author apparently is bored by current genealogy methods and databases, and he projects out 10 years and thinks that Google, or some other outfit, will come up with a database that will:
"* Enter your unique ID info (probably your Gmail username) and that of any other person, and the site would trace you both back to the most recent common shared ancestor.
"* Follow a timeline that shows the locations and migrations of ancestors all leading up to the descendant that is you.
* Track down every living relative.
* Pick any year in history and see just how many of your ancestors were alive at the time.
* Genetic family relationships could be combined with Linked-In-type social networking friendships or business relationships to render the most direct connection with anyone else ("Hey, you're the brother-in-law of my former boss's wife!").
* And many other cool tricks nobody can even think of right now.
"Such a public database would also have profound social implications. For example, it would probably render meaningless the concept of race because we would see before our eyes that we're all a lot more like Tiger Woods than any of us thought.
"Second, the privacy implications would be enormous and obvious.
"Third, such knowledge might have legal implications, calling into question various people's right to inherit property or titles.
"The prospects of such a massive, public database are staggering, scary and, yes, exciting.
"Genealogy is boring. But tomorrow's genealogy -- with a million times better results with a fraction of the effort -- well, that's something our ancestors couldn't even have imagined."
I took quite a bit there, but I thought it was the meat of the article. It is an interesting set of premises and predictions.
So -- is it possible that this will be where the art and science of genealogy and family history will be in 10 years?
I have the following observations:
* I think that genealogy will be real boring if the above predictions come true in 10 years or even 100 years. The thrill of genealogy for me is the hunt for ancestors and their stories, not knowing names, dates and places.
* Logically, this isn't going to happen because there is a dearth of records in many places over long periods of time. While some people can get back to 17th century Europe with one ancestral line or many, nobody can get back to 17th century Europe (or Asia, Africa, Latin America) with EVERY ancestral line. The records just are not available. Even the best researchers have many brick wall ancestors that are nearly impossible to find. The exception, and the wonderful example, is Iceland ancestry, of course.
* Two of these items can be accomplished now if someone has a fairly well filled out family tree in a database back into the 19th century or earlier. You could create a timeline that shows your ancestors, their locations and family situation. Likewise, you could create a list or map that shows where your ancestors live in a certain year.
* DNA tests and results cannot deal with every member in a person's ancestry yet, and probably will never be able to. The Y-DNA study traces only the patrilineal line, and determines if the person matches some other person who has been tested; the test doesn't identify the actual ancestors - it only allows a person to determine if they have a common male ancestor generations earlier. The mtDNA study traces only the matrilineal line, and does not define the ancestral line, only the genetic haplogroup that the female line comes from. If a person has cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. tested, s/he may be able to define up to 8 ancestral lines, but not the other hundreds of ancestral lines. Perhaps if every person's genome were determined this dream scenario could be realized, but that's probably real expensive.
* If all of the world's genealogy research is completed in TMOAGD, what will the genealogy industry (commercial companies, databases, LDS, magazines, writers, editors, readers, speakers, conference planners) do in their spare time? I know - they'll be memorizing their own genome coding, after all it's only several billion characters!
Those are my "off the cuff" thoughts and analyses - what do you think? Please read the article and blog about or comment here your thoughts about TMOAGD (The Mother of All Genealogy Databases). Is it feasible? Will it ever happen?
Thanks, Drew, for pointing me to an interesting and challenging article.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Preview the New FamilySearch Life Browser
Dan Lawyer at the Family Search Labs blog invited users to go visit and play with the prototype Life Browser at the FamilySearch Labs web site. The sample life biography of Deodat Brewster is at http://labs.familysearch.org/lifebrowser/.
This is an interesting implementation. Note that there are links for the subjects wife, his children, his descendants and his ancestors at the top of the web page. There are a number of thumbnail images at the bottom of the screen - you can click on each one and see a larger version of the image in the middle of the screen. For this example, there are family pictures, homestead pictures, his obituary, census records, etc.
When the image is in the middle of the page, you can press the "Full Screen" button and see a larger image. From this screen, you can press the "Magnify" button and hold your left mouse button down over the image and see a magnification. You can drag the image around the page, and will be able to add notes to the image. You get back to the genealogy data by pressing the "Back to Details" button.
Many of the buttons and links don't work at this time because this is early in development. Therefore, it is difficult to comment on the whole implementation of the concept.
All in all, I like the setup, especially the ability to attach source documents to the person. If each person is properly annotated with source citations for each fact and document, then this concept has a real potential to be interesting and useful.
I'm guessing that this concept will be implemented at some point and genealogy researchers will be invited to provide the genealogy data, documents and source information for people in their database. As with other collaborative projects, the real critical feature will be how to combine data for a certain person from two or more researchers.
Go visit the prototype site and play with it a bit. And provide feedback to the development team using the Feedback button.
Keep up the good work at FamilySearch Labs, Dan!
This is an interesting implementation. Note that there are links for the subjects wife, his children, his descendants and his ancestors at the top of the web page. There are a number of thumbnail images at the bottom of the screen - you can click on each one and see a larger version of the image in the middle of the screen. For this example, there are family pictures, homestead pictures, his obituary, census records, etc.
When the image is in the middle of the page, you can press the "Full Screen" button and see a larger image. From this screen, you can press the "Magnify" button and hold your left mouse button down over the image and see a magnification. You can drag the image around the page, and will be able to add notes to the image. You get back to the genealogy data by pressing the "Back to Details" button.
Many of the buttons and links don't work at this time because this is early in development. Therefore, it is difficult to comment on the whole implementation of the concept.
All in all, I like the setup, especially the ability to attach source documents to the person. If each person is properly annotated with source citations for each fact and document, then this concept has a real potential to be interesting and useful.
I'm guessing that this concept will be implemented at some point and genealogy researchers will be invited to provide the genealogy data, documents and source information for people in their database. As with other collaborative projects, the real critical feature will be how to combine data for a certain person from two or more researchers.
Go visit the prototype site and play with it a bit. And provide feedback to the development team using the Feedback button.
Keep up the good work at FamilySearch Labs, Dan!
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Look on the brighter side
While we all appreciate the opportunity to access Ancestry.com at the FHL and Family History Centers over the past seven years (and for the next 9 days), we need to think about what will happen when that access is lost after April 1.
Why do people use Ancestry.com at the FHCs? Because it is there and they can access it for free, and they can get help from the FHC staff while they are using it. I believe that since the emphasis at the FHCs has been towards internet access, and away from using microfilms and microfiches, that the FHCs have suffered a loss in patronage.
The Internet is seductive - and some of us understand that not everything is online, and that serious research must include primary information documents, like deeds and probate records, that are not found online yet.
My opinion is that all is not lost! In fact, this situation may bring more casual users of Ancestry.com at the FHCs into local libraries that have Ancestry Library Edition (and to local societies that step up and offer help accessing ALE), and it might drive more regular FHC patrons to purchase a personal subscription. I think the biggest positive may be that it will drive more researchers back into the FHCs in order to do serious research in primary information records.
There is an opportunity here for the FHCs to increase their "business" - which has been and still is renting microfilms - so that researchers can find evidence that prove relationships. But there is a generation of FHC patrons who need to be educated in everything that the FHCs can offer - and it is much more than access to Ancestry.com databases.
The savvy genealogy researcher uses the resources that best solve his/her research problems - whether it is an Ancestry.com subscription, Internet web sites, local libraries and FHCs, or distant repositories. The main reason I go to the FHL in Salt Lake City is to be able to access the mass of microfilm (rather than have to order many films over many months at my FHC), not to access Ancestry.com.
Looking long-term, the LDS goal of digitizing all of their microfilms and microfiches in the granite vault in Utah will cover many of the databases lost when Ancestry.com withdraws access to the FHCs. However, the digitizing won't be completed for many years. Since Ancestry.com is allowing access to 1880, 1900 and 1920 census data, the LDS should prioritize the 1790 to 1870, 1910 and 1930 census indexing and digitizing. They are all on microfilm now, of course.
Perhaps this dispute between Ancestry.com and the LDS will be a catalyst that enables genealogy researchers to understand the role of online resources, the role and benefits of the FHL and FHCs, and the need to conduct serious genealogy research using all available resources, not just on the Internet.
Why do people use Ancestry.com at the FHCs? Because it is there and they can access it for free, and they can get help from the FHC staff while they are using it. I believe that since the emphasis at the FHCs has been towards internet access, and away from using microfilms and microfiches, that the FHCs have suffered a loss in patronage.
The Internet is seductive - and some of us understand that not everything is online, and that serious research must include primary information documents, like deeds and probate records, that are not found online yet.
My opinion is that all is not lost! In fact, this situation may bring more casual users of Ancestry.com at the FHCs into local libraries that have Ancestry Library Edition (and to local societies that step up and offer help accessing ALE), and it might drive more regular FHC patrons to purchase a personal subscription. I think the biggest positive may be that it will drive more researchers back into the FHCs in order to do serious research in primary information records.
There is an opportunity here for the FHCs to increase their "business" - which has been and still is renting microfilms - so that researchers can find evidence that prove relationships. But there is a generation of FHC patrons who need to be educated in everything that the FHCs can offer - and it is much more than access to Ancestry.com databases.
The savvy genealogy researcher uses the resources that best solve his/her research problems - whether it is an Ancestry.com subscription, Internet web sites, local libraries and FHCs, or distant repositories. The main reason I go to the FHL in Salt Lake City is to be able to access the mass of microfilm (rather than have to order many films over many months at my FHC), not to access Ancestry.com.
Looking long-term, the LDS goal of digitizing all of their microfilms and microfiches in the granite vault in Utah will cover many of the databases lost when Ancestry.com withdraws access to the FHCs. However, the digitizing won't be completed for many years. Since Ancestry.com is allowing access to 1880, 1900 and 1920 census data, the LDS should prioritize the 1790 to 1870, 1910 and 1930 census indexing and digitizing. They are all on microfilm now, of course.
Perhaps this dispute between Ancestry.com and the LDS will be a catalyst that enables genealogy researchers to understand the role of online resources, the role and benefits of the FHL and FHCs, and the need to conduct serious genealogy research using all available resources, not just on the Internet.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
The Best Online Genealogy Tutorial
In our Research Group today we started on our "Internet Genealogy Boot Camp" effort to introduce online databases and web sites to some of our less experienced members.
Of the 14 attendees today, only three of us had explored the SSDI and WorldConnect databases on www.rootsweb.com. The group had a range of experience, from beginner to long-time traditional researcher. All who attended have a computer, use email, and occasionally surf the web, but most do not use the web routinely for genealogy research. I believe that this is typical of many local genealogy societies with a fairly elderly membership (the exception being a computer-related genealogy society like CGSSD in San Diego).
We visited the web site http://www.learnwebskills.com/family/ today. This site has an online genealogy tutorial that is excellent for both beginner and veteran Internet researchers. The tutorial is in six modules:
I- Getting Started (Home Sources, Charts, Recording Information, Citing Resources)
II - Using Online Resources (Online Databases, Search Engines, Directories)
III - Gathering Key Records (Vital Records, Federal Census Records)
IV - Exploring Further (Probate Records, Church Records, Military Records, Newspapers)
V - Sharing Information (Discussion Lists, Message Boards, Software Programs)
VI - Quiz
We started in Module II, which provides tutorials for:
1) Social Security Death Index
2) Rootsweb WorldConnect Project Database
3) LDS FamilySearch Databases
4) Ellis Island Database
5) Ancestry.com (only the 1880 Census)
6) Google
7) Cyndi's List
8) USGenWeb Project
In each tutorial, there is a summary of the database or web site, and links for Demonstration or Practice.
If you click on Demonstration, you will get step-by-step directions in the left-hand frame for how to use the database of web site with examples shown in the right-hand frame.
If you click on Practice, then the step-by-step directions appear in the left-hand frame, the actual web site input boxes and results are in the right hand frame, and you can input your own ancestors into the databases.
It works beautifully. And it is free!
The whole tutorial can be used to provide a fairly complete course on how to effectively pursue genealogy research on the Internet. IMHO, it is much better than any static lecture course because the student can see a demonstration and then practice using the databases with the step-by-step directions on the screen.
If your local society is struggling to provide online genealogy research instruction to your members, this is by far the best online tutorial I have found.
We are going to continue to use this online tutorial in our Computer Lab classes because we see how effective it is in bringing hesitant researchers into the online genealogy world.
If anyone knows of other online tutorials with different or better qualities, I would appreciate knowing about them.
Of the 14 attendees today, only three of us had explored the SSDI and WorldConnect databases on www.rootsweb.com. The group had a range of experience, from beginner to long-time traditional researcher. All who attended have a computer, use email, and occasionally surf the web, but most do not use the web routinely for genealogy research. I believe that this is typical of many local genealogy societies with a fairly elderly membership (the exception being a computer-related genealogy society like CGSSD in San Diego).
We visited the web site http://www.learnwebskills.com/family/ today. This site has an online genealogy tutorial that is excellent for both beginner and veteran Internet researchers. The tutorial is in six modules:
I- Getting Started (Home Sources, Charts, Recording Information, Citing Resources)
II - Using Online Resources (Online Databases, Search Engines, Directories)
III - Gathering Key Records (Vital Records, Federal Census Records)
IV - Exploring Further (Probate Records, Church Records, Military Records, Newspapers)
V - Sharing Information (Discussion Lists, Message Boards, Software Programs)
VI - Quiz
We started in Module II, which provides tutorials for:
1) Social Security Death Index
2) Rootsweb WorldConnect Project Database
3) LDS FamilySearch Databases
4) Ellis Island Database
5) Ancestry.com (only the 1880 Census)
6) Google
7) Cyndi's List
8) USGenWeb Project
In each tutorial, there is a summary of the database or web site, and links for Demonstration or Practice.
If you click on Demonstration, you will get step-by-step directions in the left-hand frame for how to use the database of web site with examples shown in the right-hand frame.
If you click on Practice, then the step-by-step directions appear in the left-hand frame, the actual web site input boxes and results are in the right hand frame, and you can input your own ancestors into the databases.
It works beautifully. And it is free!
The whole tutorial can be used to provide a fairly complete course on how to effectively pursue genealogy research on the Internet. IMHO, it is much better than any static lecture course because the student can see a demonstration and then practice using the databases with the step-by-step directions on the screen.
If your local society is struggling to provide online genealogy research instruction to your members, this is by far the best online tutorial I have found.
We are going to continue to use this online tutorial in our Computer Lab classes because we see how effective it is in bringing hesitant researchers into the online genealogy world.
If anyone knows of other online tutorials with different or better qualities, I would appreciate knowing about them.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Tell Rootsweb what you think...
Rootsweb has requested input about their web site - it's databases and services. You can access the survey at http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/newsroom/?p=63
After the Rootsweb message board format revamp debacle back in November/December, this is pretty brave of them!
My humble opinion is that the www.Rootsweb.com suite of products and services are the best FREE genealogy resources on the Internet. I use the following all the time:
1) WorldConnect database - over 479 million names (some duplicated) in over 400,000 databases (some duplicated, all user-submitted, at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
2) Rootsweb/Ancestry Message Boards -- over 161,000 boards, with 17 million posts - at http://boards.rootsweb.com/
3) Social Security Death Index - 79 million names - at http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/
4) Free Web pages at Rootsweb - these include the FreePages (user-submitted), regional resources (including genealogy society) and other pages - at http://www.rootsweb.com/~websites/ There is a surname index when you click on a first letter range.
5) USGenWeb Archives searching - at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsearch.htm
6) Rootsweb Mailing List Threaded Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/.
7) Rootsweb Mailing List Search at http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl
8) Surname Resources at Rootsweb at http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/
9) US County Resources at Rootsweb at http://resources.rootsweb.com/USA/
10) The Rootsweb Guide to Tracing Famly Trees - articles at http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/
These are all very useful FREE resources that anybody, at any experience level, can use effectively to search for research performed by others. The USGenWeb Archives are the only resource listed that provides transcriptions of primary information, however.
Have you used the Rootsweb databases to their fullest? If not - try them out and you may be pleasantly surprised.
UPDATE: 20 February 2007 7 PM PST: Changed the link to the survey so everyone can use it! Thanks to Chris for the message.
After the Rootsweb message board format revamp debacle back in November/December, this is pretty brave of them!
My humble opinion is that the www.Rootsweb.com suite of products and services are the best FREE genealogy resources on the Internet. I use the following all the time:
1) WorldConnect database - over 479 million names (some duplicated) in over 400,000 databases (some duplicated, all user-submitted, at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
2) Rootsweb/Ancestry Message Boards -- over 161,000 boards, with 17 million posts - at http://boards.rootsweb.com/
3) Social Security Death Index - 79 million names - at http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/
4) Free Web pages at Rootsweb - these include the FreePages (user-submitted), regional resources (including genealogy society) and other pages - at http://www.rootsweb.com/~websites/ There is a surname index when you click on a first letter range.
5) USGenWeb Archives searching - at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsearch.htm
6) Rootsweb Mailing List Threaded Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/.
7) Rootsweb Mailing List Search at http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl
8) Surname Resources at Rootsweb at http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/
9) US County Resources at Rootsweb at http://resources.rootsweb.com/USA/
10) The Rootsweb Guide to Tracing Famly Trees - articles at http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/
These are all very useful FREE resources that anybody, at any experience level, can use effectively to search for research performed by others. The USGenWeb Archives are the only resource listed that provides transcriptions of primary information, however.
Have you used the Rootsweb databases to their fullest? If not - try them out and you may be pleasantly surprised.
UPDATE: 20 February 2007 7 PM PST: Changed the link to the survey so everyone can use it! Thanks to Chris for the message.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Best Family Genealogy web sites
Family Tree Magazine has a contest for the best family genealogy web site. The finalists are:
I checked them all out, and they are all very well done. The Kloosterman site is the most striking visually - check out the photo montage at the top of the page - each small photo has a caption - that's neat.
I like the sections with photos, documents, genealogy reports, pedigree charts, etc. - the visual effects are very informative and interesting.
They are all very different, also. I am always struck by web sites like this at the creativity and ingenuity of the authors and owners. There are lots of good ideas here for people like me who want to put a family web site together and are searching for ideas on design and content.
Family Historians
The Genealogy of the Kloosterman Family
John & Susan Howell's Family Trees
Kerry Kelley's Genealogy Web Site
Our Innes Tree and Tangled Branches
Check out the sites, then log on to http://www.familytreemagazine.com/poll.asp
and vote for the site you think is best overall. Multiple voting is allowed. Spread the word to friends, family, coworkers, casual
acquaintances and random people you run into so they can have their say, too. Voting ends Tuesday, Feb. 13 at midnight EST.
I checked them all out, and they are all very well done. The Kloosterman site is the most striking visually - check out the photo montage at the top of the page - each small photo has a caption - that's neat.
I like the sections with photos, documents, genealogy reports, pedigree charts, etc. - the visual effects are very informative and interesting.
They are all very different, also. I am always struck by web sites like this at the creativity and ingenuity of the authors and owners. There are lots of good ideas here for people like me who want to put a family web site together and are searching for ideas on design and content.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Web Sites for Genealogists
Do you have your own genealogy web site - with descendant reports, ahnentafel reports, photos, family Bible transcriptions, ancestral stories, and the like? I don't, but I want to have one. I do have some genealogy reports at a free site at http://www.genealogy.com/users/s/e/a/Randy-Seaver/ - I did it because I could control the formats and didn't have to submit a database, but I could still put my data out in a searchable format. But it isn't wonderful.
There is a web site for genealogists like me who want to put up a genealogy web site - at http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/. The site has advice and links on how to develop a genealogy web site, with tutorials and resources on different web pages. Check out her own research page at http://www.family-genealogy-online.com/. I think it is very well done, and I would like to do something similar.
Step-by-step planning and execution tips are on http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/planning-genealogy-website.html. Web page authoring and do's and don'ts are discussed at http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/resources.htm. Many authoring programs don't require knowledge of HTML or other languages.
She also has genealogy research links at http://www.family-genealogy-online.com/links.html which are useful.
All in all, I thought this web page suite was interesting and helpful.
There is a web site for genealogists like me who want to put up a genealogy web site - at http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/. The site has advice and links on how to develop a genealogy web site, with tutorials and resources on different web pages. Check out her own research page at http://www.family-genealogy-online.com/. I think it is very well done, and I would like to do something similar.
Step-by-step planning and execution tips are on http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/planning-genealogy-website.html. Web page authoring and do's and don'ts are discussed at http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/resources.htm. Many authoring programs don't require knowledge of HTML or other languages.
She also has genealogy research links at http://www.family-genealogy-online.com/links.html which are useful.
All in all, I thought this web page suite was interesting and helpful.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Necessary Computer Tools
The Family Matters blog (Tech Support for the Family Historian) aka "Moultrie Creek" has a nice list of computer software that are useful for the computer genealogist - see http://www.moultriecreek.net/family/2006/12/research_toolbo.html.
The recommended tools include the Firefox browser, Rojo newsreader, Yahoo, Flickr and Diigo accounts, Skype phone service, a screen capture program, a PDF reader/writer, a blog web site and a Lulu account. Go to the site to see his explanation of each and follow the links - it's a nice list.
I use Microsoft IE7 as my browser, Bloglines as my newsreader, Yahoo for several things, Flickr and others for pictures, "Print Screen" for screen captures to MSWord, CutePDF to create PDF files, and this blog. I don't use Diigo, Skype or Lulu - yet! At least I knew what they were!
It strikes me that, compared to say the year 2000, that everything we do is much more complex than it used to be. Using tools like these make the tasks easy to perform - it's just that we didn't do some of these things years ago! Are human minds evolving to be able to grasp these advanced concepts and complex tools, or are we just using a larger fraction of our gray matter? Methinks the latter (or maybe that's why I'm forgetting more as the years go by?).
The recommended tools include the Firefox browser, Rojo newsreader, Yahoo, Flickr and Diigo accounts, Skype phone service, a screen capture program, a PDF reader/writer, a blog web site and a Lulu account. Go to the site to see his explanation of each and follow the links - it's a nice list.
I use Microsoft IE7 as my browser, Bloglines as my newsreader, Yahoo for several things, Flickr and others for pictures, "Print Screen" for screen captures to MSWord, CutePDF to create PDF files, and this blog. I don't use Diigo, Skype or Lulu - yet! At least I knew what they were!
It strikes me that, compared to say the year 2000, that everything we do is much more complex than it used to be. Using tools like these make the tasks easy to perform - it's just that we didn't do some of these things years ago! Are human minds evolving to be able to grasp these advanced concepts and complex tools, or are we just using a larger fraction of our gray matter? Methinks the latter (or maybe that's why I'm forgetting more as the years go by?).
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Rants, Analysis and Gumdrops
Ranting has never been my strong suit. My post yesterday elicited an informative and patient response from Drew Smith, one of the Genealogy Guys who podcast weekly. I thank Drew for his explanations and appreciate his comments. I wonder "why didn't I think of that?" Oh well.
However, it got me to wondering why there isn't more analysis of press releases on the genea-news blogs - what does the released information mean to the genealogy community? In the political blog world that I observe, there is instant analysis (not all good, of course!) on every story. We don't have that sort of controversy in the genealogy world (yet?), but some analysis of press releases would be welcomed by most of us, I think.
On the Christmas front, the highlight of the day was "Gumdrops with Grandpa" - Lauren and I sat and watched TV for about an hour eating the leftover gumdrops and gumballs that didn't make it onto the gingerbread houses yesterday. She didn't eat much dinner, but we sure had fun sharing goodies. We opened gifts tonight and Lauren was very precious - lots of good pictures on laps, opening gifts and playing with her new toys.
However, it got me to wondering why there isn't more analysis of press releases on the genea-news blogs - what does the released information mean to the genealogy community? In the political blog world that I observe, there is instant analysis (not all good, of course!) on every story. We don't have that sort of controversy in the genealogy world (yet?), but some analysis of press releases would be welcomed by most of us, I think.
On the Christmas front, the highlight of the day was "Gumdrops with Grandpa" - Lauren and I sat and watched TV for about an hour eating the leftover gumdrops and gumballs that didn't make it onto the gingerbread houses yesterday. She didn't eat much dinner, but we sure had fun sharing goodies. We opened gifts tonight and Lauren was very precious - lots of good pictures on laps, opening gifts and playing with her new toys.
Saturday, December 9, 2006
More problems at Rootsweb message boards
I posted on Thursday about the more visible problems at the Rootsweb / Ancestry message boards. After two more days of random playing with the system, there are other issues - more than I noted before. And there are some things that are pretty good.
My new observations:
1) When you click on the post submitter name, you may get an email address (as an image) of a non-Ancestry subscriber. If the submitter is an Ancestry subscriber then you can click on the Public Profile link and see their profile and email, if they have chosen to let you see it.
I decided I would make a public profile on Friday - and I did, with a picture, some notes, lots of detail. I worked 30 minutes on it.
The damn thing is gone today at 10 AM PST - poof! My public profile is blank (Gee, maybe I am just a figment of their imagination? Heck, I paid up.). Humph. So I wrote their HelpDesk a nasty-gram. Now I'll never have a public profile, I fear.
UPDATE: At 10:52 AM PST, the Public Profile is there. Perhaps they were worknig on thier servers or something.
2) The list of recent threads on a given message board still takes up about 40% of my screen width. They modified the list of thread titles so you can see the entire subject line, rather than a truncated single line. And they fixed the user-selected number of threads to list - you can choose 10, 25 or 50. I chose 25.
3) On a given message board, the threads are listed by the date of the last post on each thread, rather than the date of the first post of the thread. I like this.
4) If you click on a thread list, you can choose to see "flat view" (which is the content of each reply) or "thread view" (which is just the title of the replies, indented as required. I like the "flat view."
5) I also input over 40 "favorite" message boards yesterday - and these were saved (go figure?). I input message boards for both surnames and localities - the ones I visit on occasion. Using this, I don't have to save a bunch in my Favorites list on Internet Explorer. However, my list of favorites is not alphabetized - they look randomly placed. The county boards are not identified by state. I would prefer that they be alphabetized by surname and then by state/county.
6) One of the major complaints I've heard is that you cannot, at this time, click on the post submitter and see what other posts they have written on all Ancestry/Rootsweb message boards. This was very useful to many researchers, as it provided more insight into the research capabilities and surnames that the person was searching.
Check Hugh Watkins blog for more observations about the Ancestry/Rootsweb changes.
In addition to the Rootsweb Newsroom blog I linked to on Thursday, there is also an "Ancestry Improvements" message board at http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/mb.ashx. There are many complaints there also, most of them valid IMHO.
My new observations:
1) When you click on the post submitter name, you may get an email address (as an image) of a non-Ancestry subscriber. If the submitter is an Ancestry subscriber then you can click on the Public Profile link and see their profile and email, if they have chosen to let you see it.
I decided I would make a public profile on Friday - and I did, with a picture, some notes, lots of detail. I worked 30 minutes on it.
The damn thing is gone today at 10 AM PST - poof! My public profile is blank (Gee, maybe I am just a figment of their imagination? Heck, I paid up.). Humph. So I wrote their HelpDesk a nasty-gram. Now I'll never have a public profile, I fear.
UPDATE: At 10:52 AM PST, the Public Profile is there. Perhaps they were worknig on thier servers or something.
2) The list of recent threads on a given message board still takes up about 40% of my screen width. They modified the list of thread titles so you can see the entire subject line, rather than a truncated single line. And they fixed the user-selected number of threads to list - you can choose 10, 25 or 50. I chose 25.
3) On a given message board, the threads are listed by the date of the last post on each thread, rather than the date of the first post of the thread. I like this.
4) If you click on a thread list, you can choose to see "flat view" (which is the content of each reply) or "thread view" (which is just the title of the replies, indented as required. I like the "flat view."
5) I also input over 40 "favorite" message boards yesterday - and these were saved (go figure?). I input message boards for both surnames and localities - the ones I visit on occasion. Using this, I don't have to save a bunch in my Favorites list on Internet Explorer. However, my list of favorites is not alphabetized - they look randomly placed. The county boards are not identified by state. I would prefer that they be alphabetized by surname and then by state/county.
6) One of the major complaints I've heard is that you cannot, at this time, click on the post submitter and see what other posts they have written on all Ancestry/Rootsweb message boards. This was very useful to many researchers, as it provided more insight into the research capabilities and surnames that the person was searching.
Check Hugh Watkins blog for more observations about the Ancestry/Rootsweb changes.
In addition to the Rootsweb Newsroom blog I linked to on Thursday, there is also an "Ancestry Improvements" message board at http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/mb.ashx. There are many complaints there also, most of them valid IMHO.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Rootsweb message boards have changed a bit
Hugh Watkins alerted us to the changes at Rootsweb message boards - they've changed the format of the boards - they look different - and they work a bit different too. Hopefully, some of the program "improvements" will be reversed, like the URLs in messages not being clickable.
I went and played a bit with some of the boards just to see how things changed. The major things I've noticed include:
1) You get a list of only 10 threads. If you try to get more threads (25 or 50 are offered), then you get a blank page - that needs to be fixed.
2) The "box" with the threads is only about 40% of the width of my screen, and the type is much smaller (increasing font size in IE7 View doesn't work on the font). This is cosmetic only, but may be a problem for those with vision problems.
3) When you click on a thread, you see the first message and a list of responses to the thread. The width of the text box limits how much you can see of many of the indented post titles.
4) If you click on the post submitter's name, then you can obtain the email address of the submitter, unless the submitter has not put a public profile on the Ancestry system. I haven't yet, but I will.
Hugh Watkins also called attention to the Rootsweb Newsroom page at http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/newsroom/. This was the first I've heard about this - maybe I missed an announcement some time ago. I wonder why they keep things like this secret?
The Rootsweb Newsroom says that the changes made include:
I went and played a bit with some of the boards just to see how things changed. The major things I've noticed include:
1) You get a list of only 10 threads. If you try to get more threads (25 or 50 are offered), then you get a blank page - that needs to be fixed.
2) The "box" with the threads is only about 40% of the width of my screen, and the type is much smaller (increasing font size in IE7 View doesn't work on the font). This is cosmetic only, but may be a problem for those with vision problems.
3) When you click on a thread, you see the first message and a list of responses to the thread. The width of the text box limits how much you can see of many of the indented post titles.
4) If you click on the post submitter's name, then you can obtain the email address of the submitter, unless the submitter has not put a public profile on the Ancestry system. I haven't yet, but I will.
Hugh Watkins also called attention to the Rootsweb Newsroom page at http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/newsroom/. This was the first I've heard about this - maybe I missed an announcement some time ago. I wonder why they keep things like this secret?
The Rootsweb Newsroom says that the changes made include:
** The RootsWeb message board URL is now http://boards.rootsweb.com/. The “old” URL’s will also still work.
** Registration is now required in order to post a message. This will help message authors keep their contact information
current and cut down on spam posted to the boards.** The “Community Guidelines” have replaced the “Board Rules” as the “rules” for participation on the Message Boards.
** “My Notifications” has been renamed “My Alerts”.
** The board “Links & Announcements” have been renamed
“Board Information”.** Clicking on a message author’s name will now take you
to their RootsWeb public profile (if they have one)
One of my "facts of life" is that "all progress requires change, but not all change is progress." Right now, this change doesn't seem like any progress, but I'm fairly confident that they will fix the problems that users will find. The message boards are still (IMHO) the absolute best way to find other researchers working on your surnames or families.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
New Online Genealogy Classes
A new opportunity for online genealogy classes on a variety of subjects is offered at http://www.genclass.com/. The setup is described as:
The classes scheduled for January and February are listed at http://www.genclass.com/schedule.htm. You can click on each class listed for the course description, teacher biography and the course outline. Genea-blogger Lisa Alzo is teaching the "Jump Start Your Genealogy," "Eastern European Genealogy Research" and "Writing Your Family History" classes.
If you are just beginning your research, or want a refresher, these online classes sound like a cost-efficient and relatively quick means to improve your research skills and knowledge.
Hat tip to blogger Schelly Dardashti (Tracing the Tribe) for this information.
Each four-week class includes a detailed course curriculum, online class meetings and more, for the low price of $29.95.
Each Class has its own web site. After signing up and paying with a credit card, you will receive a password to access your class web site. When the class starts you will find the first two lessons to download in the 'Digital Library' of your class web site.The teacher will cover two lessons a week. You can work at your own pace, treating your class as an independent study course. Each week an additional two lessons will be made available for downloading.
The classes scheduled for January and February are listed at http://www.genclass.com/schedule.htm. You can click on each class listed for the course description, teacher biography and the course outline. Genea-blogger Lisa Alzo is teaching the "Jump Start Your Genealogy," "Eastern European Genealogy Research" and "Writing Your Family History" classes.
If you are just beginning your research, or want a refresher, these online classes sound like a cost-efficient and relatively quick means to improve your research skills and knowledge.
Hat tip to blogger Schelly Dardashti (Tracing the Tribe) for this information.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)