Here is the press release sent out by the Chula Vista Public Library on 2 October for the 20 October seminar:
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BEGIN YOUR FAMILY HISTORY SEARCH AT FREE SEMINAR ON OCT. 20
Ever wondered when your relatives came to California or wanted to trace your ancestors back to their countries of origin but don’t know how to begin a search for the answers? Then don’t miss a free seminar titled “Discover Your Family History Online” on October 20 at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library, 365 F St. The seminar will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The seminar is intended for young-adults and adults who are interested in researching their family history. The focus will be on genealogy resources available on the Internet, including freely accessible and commercial genealogy web sites.
“Finding out about your ancestry is like a treasure hunt or a detective story---you never know what you will find,” said Randy Seaver, President of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society. “This seminar will give participants an opportunity to find out about web sites that are available to start their own family history search.”
In addition to this seminar, the Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) regularly meets on the last Monday of the month at 10 a.m. in the Civic Center Library auditorium. Additionally, a CVGS member is usually present in the library on Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon to assist people with their research. The meetings and assistance are free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Chula Vista Public Library and the Chula Vista Genealogical Society, this workshop is one of a variety of free programs offered for children, teens and adults at the library’s three branches. For more information call (619) 691-5069 or click on www.chulavistalibrary.com, or the CVGS website: www.rootsweb.com/~cacvgs2/. To contact the CVGS president Randy Seaver directly, e-mail rjseaver@cox.net or call 619-422-3397.
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We are hoping for a large turnout among San Diego area researchers. If you have that day free, please come attend our seminar.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Two days of making family history
I've been at my daughter's house in Santa Cruz for two days and I'm already too pooped to pop. Most of it has to do with sleeping arrangements and two little boys who don't sleep the night. The rest has to do with a family in the process of saying goodbye to the family patriarch.
I'm sleeping in the older boy's (age 4) , with the younger boy (age 19 months) in the bedroom. The older boy is sleeping with his mom. The first night, the little one woke up at 3:30 and I finally got him back to sleep at 4:30, but then when I tried to put him in his crib, he woke up. Mom came and took him and I went back for another fitful two hours before the older boy came and asked me to get him some breakfast at 7 AM.
We drove 150 miles north to the family home of my son-in-law's grandparents, sister and uncle. His grandfather has congestive heart failure, and has stopped eating. He received the last rites on Thursday, and thought that he would die immediately. Well... no. He's still lucid, but is not sleeping much, and really wants to pass away. His wife is tending to him 24 hours, which makes her a basket case also. Family friends are coming by, and all of the family in town comes every day to say goodbye again. I doubt if he will die for several more days. They won't move him to a care facility at this point.
I slept at the sister's house next door with the older boy in the room. He woke up at 1 AM and didn't go back to sleep until 2 AM. He wanted to go down to where his mom was in the dark. He woke up at 6:15 AM, and got his shoes on and was halfway down the hill by the time I got to the window. I went down and had breakfast, then came back to the sister's house and showered and then took a nap while she played with the boy.
We left at lunch time for home, and had lunch at a Quizno's place, then fought the traffic down US 101 to San Francisco (there was an air show on the Bay today). We stopped at the Ocean Beach and the boys and the dog (I didn't mention the dog did I - she pooped on the carpets in 3 places in 12 hours!) really enjoyed walking on the sand and running from the waves. They came home in their underwear. The little guy cried and cried most of the hour before the beach and the hour after the beach. We finally made it home by 4 PM.
I took them both for walks this afternoon with the dog, just along the path near the little house in the redwoods. It's so peaceful and quiet here. We checked out the blackberry bushes (pretty bare right now) and watched the dog follow her nose. At dinner tonight, the older boy said "I don't like broccoli" and I responded automatically "Come on, eat it, it will put hair on your chest." He immediately said "No, I have a diesel train on my chest" (on his shirt). That's the highlight of the weekend so far.
Needless to say, it's not been a fun weekend yet. But family history is being made. I know the older boy will remember his great-grandfather, and playing with his aunt, and the beach visit. We'll remember the maudlin scene and saying goodbye to a fine man, and the broccoli comment.
The above explains why I haven't posted much the last two days. The postings will be sparse until the time available increases.
I'm sleeping in the older boy's (age 4) , with the younger boy (age 19 months) in the bedroom. The older boy is sleeping with his mom. The first night, the little one woke up at 3:30 and I finally got him back to sleep at 4:30, but then when I tried to put him in his crib, he woke up. Mom came and took him and I went back for another fitful two hours before the older boy came and asked me to get him some breakfast at 7 AM.
We drove 150 miles north to the family home of my son-in-law's grandparents, sister and uncle. His grandfather has congestive heart failure, and has stopped eating. He received the last rites on Thursday, and thought that he would die immediately. Well... no. He's still lucid, but is not sleeping much, and really wants to pass away. His wife is tending to him 24 hours, which makes her a basket case also. Family friends are coming by, and all of the family in town comes every day to say goodbye again. I doubt if he will die for several more days. They won't move him to a care facility at this point.
I slept at the sister's house next door with the older boy in the room. He woke up at 1 AM and didn't go back to sleep until 2 AM. He wanted to go down to where his mom was in the dark. He woke up at 6:15 AM, and got his shoes on and was halfway down the hill by the time I got to the window. I went down and had breakfast, then came back to the sister's house and showered and then took a nap while she played with the boy.
We left at lunch time for home, and had lunch at a Quizno's place, then fought the traffic down US 101 to San Francisco (there was an air show on the Bay today). We stopped at the Ocean Beach and the boys and the dog (I didn't mention the dog did I - she pooped on the carpets in 3 places in 12 hours!) really enjoyed walking on the sand and running from the waves. They came home in their underwear. The little guy cried and cried most of the hour before the beach and the hour after the beach. We finally made it home by 4 PM.
I took them both for walks this afternoon with the dog, just along the path near the little house in the redwoods. It's so peaceful and quiet here. We checked out the blackberry bushes (pretty bare right now) and watched the dog follow her nose. At dinner tonight, the older boy said "I don't like broccoli" and I responded automatically "Come on, eat it, it will put hair on your chest." He immediately said "No, I have a diesel train on my chest" (on his shirt). That's the highlight of the weekend so far.
Needless to say, it's not been a fun weekend yet. But family history is being made. I know the older boy will remember his great-grandfather, and playing with his aunt, and the beach visit. We'll remember the maudlin scene and saying goodbye to a fine man, and the broccoli comment.
The above explains why I haven't posted much the last two days. The postings will be sparse until the time available increases.
Friday, October 5, 2007
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Hardly!
There is an intriguing article in the Irish Abroad online newspaper dated 13 September 2007 title "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
The gist of the story is:
"Bridget Kelly from Moyross in Limerick saw an advertisement in the Irish Independent newspaper looking for Irish relatives of an American gentleman by the name of Richard Riordan-Schalk. Kelly recognized some of the names that were listed as ancestors of Riordan-Schalk’s and called attorney Paul Lanzillota of the Manning and Murray law firm in Arlington, Virginia.
"However, Lanzillota told the Irish Voice on Tuesday there are another 160 possible relatives of the dead man.“At this point we have 161 names of people who might have been related to Richard Riordan-Schalk,” he said."
---- <> ----
"“The only heirs we can’t find are the Irish heirs. One half of this estate is going to the German side of the family and one half to the Irish,” said Lanzillota.“We found the Germans very quickly, some of whom were in Chicago and one in Massachusetts. But for Ireland the research went back as far as 1842.
"The difficulty now is proving that they are heirs,” said Lanzillota, explaining that another $300,000 of the estate has been given an individual to settle a lawsuit."
----- <> -----
"Anyone who can prove to be related to the following may be eligible, if proven, to claim part of the estate that Richard Riordan Schalk left behind: David Riordan, who was born in 1808 and died in 1865. Mary Riordan (nee McCarthy) date of birth and death not known. Both resided in Limerick.
"Bartholomew Daly and Mary Daly (nee Walsh) who married on March 28, 1852 in Freemount, Co. Cork. They emigrated to Chicago and had three children, Elizabeth Daly Riordan, (September 9, 1858 to July 7, 1932), Michael Daly (October 10, 1856-death unknown) and Eileen Daly (July 2, 1864-death unknown)."
It's interesting to see how others have reported this story. For instance:
* Dick Eastman on his blog posted "Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - Irish Edition"
* An obituary for Richard Riordan-Schalk appeared in the National Press Club newsletter for 15 April 2004 here.
* The Limerick (Ireland) Leader newspaper published a similar article titled "Search for Heirs of $1.9 Million Fortune."
So far, they have identified 161 heirs. It's unclear if these are all equal shares -- they probably aren't if the siblings of Richard Riordan-Schalk's ancestors way back when did not have the same number of kids. But if the shares were equal, the $1.9 million would be split into shares of 11,801.24. And that's before the attorneys fees finding these relatives and processing mountains of paper. Not much, eh?
I did a search like this for my second cousin several years ago - our great-uncle died without children but he left a will leaving his estate to charity and friends. My cousin wanted to contest the will, and asked me to investigate since I have records for many of the descendants of Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond (8 siblings had issue).
Assuming that the estate would be split evenly among descendants of our great-uncle's siblings, I figured that my cousin's share would be about $125,000 out of a $1 million estate (her grandmother had 1 child who had 1 child), and mine would have been about 11,000 (since my grandmother had 7 children who had 11 children). But we would have had to contest the will - our shares would have disappeared into legal fees in a flash if not sooner. But it was fun to pursue and think about!
The gist of the story is:
"Bridget Kelly from Moyross in Limerick saw an advertisement in the Irish Independent newspaper looking for Irish relatives of an American gentleman by the name of Richard Riordan-Schalk. Kelly recognized some of the names that were listed as ancestors of Riordan-Schalk’s and called attorney Paul Lanzillota of the Manning and Murray law firm in Arlington, Virginia.
"However, Lanzillota told the Irish Voice on Tuesday there are another 160 possible relatives of the dead man.“At this point we have 161 names of people who might have been related to Richard Riordan-Schalk,” he said."
---- <> ----
"“The only heirs we can’t find are the Irish heirs. One half of this estate is going to the German side of the family and one half to the Irish,” said Lanzillota.“We found the Germans very quickly, some of whom were in Chicago and one in Massachusetts. But for Ireland the research went back as far as 1842.
"The difficulty now is proving that they are heirs,” said Lanzillota, explaining that another $300,000 of the estate has been given an individual to settle a lawsuit."
----- <> -----
"Anyone who can prove to be related to the following may be eligible, if proven, to claim part of the estate that Richard Riordan Schalk left behind: David Riordan, who was born in 1808 and died in 1865. Mary Riordan (nee McCarthy) date of birth and death not known. Both resided in Limerick.
"Bartholomew Daly and Mary Daly (nee Walsh) who married on March 28, 1852 in Freemount, Co. Cork. They emigrated to Chicago and had three children, Elizabeth Daly Riordan, (September 9, 1858 to July 7, 1932), Michael Daly (October 10, 1856-death unknown) and Eileen Daly (July 2, 1864-death unknown)."
It's interesting to see how others have reported this story. For instance:
* Dick Eastman on his blog posted "Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - Irish Edition"
* An obituary for Richard Riordan-Schalk appeared in the National Press Club newsletter for 15 April 2004 here.
* The Limerick (Ireland) Leader newspaper published a similar article titled "Search for Heirs of $1.9 Million Fortune."
So far, they have identified 161 heirs. It's unclear if these are all equal shares -- they probably aren't if the siblings of Richard Riordan-Schalk's ancestors way back when did not have the same number of kids. But if the shares were equal, the $1.9 million would be split into shares of 11,801.24. And that's before the attorneys fees finding these relatives and processing mountains of paper. Not much, eh?
I did a search like this for my second cousin several years ago - our great-uncle died without children but he left a will leaving his estate to charity and friends. My cousin wanted to contest the will, and asked me to investigate since I have records for many of the descendants of Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond (8 siblings had issue).
Assuming that the estate would be split evenly among descendants of our great-uncle's siblings, I figured that my cousin's share would be about $125,000 out of a $1 million estate (her grandmother had 1 child who had 1 child), and mine would have been about 11,000 (since my grandmother had 7 children who had 11 children). But we would have had to contest the will - our shares would have disappeared into legal fees in a flash if not sooner. But it was fun to pursue and think about!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Carnival of Genealogy #33 - Weddings
The latest Carnival of Genealogy is posted at http://creativegene.blogspot.com/2007/10/carnival-of-genealogy-33rd-edition.html by Jasia. The topic for this issue is Weddings. There are many interesting stories here - please read them all.
The next Carnival of Genealogy will be about Halloween and the Supernatural! Lots of latitude with this edition... stories of haunted houses, ghosts, any superstitions, voodoo, stories of Halloween parties or traditions, trick or treating, good luck charms, curses, ... Was there a witch in the family? How about a black cat? Anyone have bats in the house? Is there a legend about a spooky place in your neighborhood? What was your favorite Halloween costume? Any funny scarecrow stories? Did grandma have a magic potion? Any stories of ancestors rising up from the dead to haunt people? What about bizarre happenings on the night of a full moon? Bring on your hauntings and horror stories, humorous and happy ones as well.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. The deadline for submissions is October 15th, 2007. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
PS. I arrived safely in Santa Cruz ... almost got knocked down by a 35 pound 4-year old greeting me at the airport, though - the kid's going to be a running back, I think. We went to our fave Chinese food place for lunch - he had tofu and noodles, I had almond chicken. Then we came home for a nap. Now I gotta go outside and play. See you soon.
The next Carnival of Genealogy will be about Halloween and the Supernatural! Lots of latitude with this edition... stories of haunted houses, ghosts, any superstitions, voodoo, stories of Halloween parties or traditions, trick or treating, good luck charms, curses, ... Was there a witch in the family? How about a black cat? Anyone have bats in the house? Is there a legend about a spooky place in your neighborhood? What was your favorite Halloween costume? Any funny scarecrow stories? Did grandma have a magic potion? Any stories of ancestors rising up from the dead to haunt people? What about bizarre happenings on the night of a full moon? Bring on your hauntings and horror stories, humorous and happy ones as well.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. The deadline for submissions is October 15th, 2007. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
PS. I arrived safely in Santa Cruz ... almost got knocked down by a 35 pound 4-year old greeting me at the airport, though - the kid's going to be a running back, I think. We went to our fave Chinese food place for lunch - he had tofu and noodles, I had almond chicken. Then we came home for a nap. Now I gotta go outside and play. See you soon.
Blogging will be light - I'm Making more Family History
I'm off on Thursday to visit my daughter and grandsons in the Santa Cruz area of California. With her husband deployed, the boys need some male attention and she needs some rest. So -- here comes grandpa - ready to fly airplanes, play in the woods, find banana slugs and pick blackberries with the little guys. I also plan to chase them around the house, and watch Thomas and his Friends, the Little Einsteins and the Wiggles on TV. I hope they let me watch the baseball playoff games and the football game on Sunday. I'll probably get to tickle their sides, feed them, bathe them, hug them, tell them stories, whisper ahnentafel lists, and everything else fun to do with little boys.
This is what I call "making family history" - instilling fun and happy times with grandpa in their memories so that they will appreciate me when I can't do it any more.
I will not take my laptop this time, but will have access to the Internet most evenings, so I'll post occasionally. I may miss a day or two if we go up to Petaluma to see the boys' great-grandfather.
I hope to return to San Diego on Tuesday next week. I will have to delay my "regular" feature posts - "The Best of the Genea-Blogs" and "Della's Journal" until I get back.
If you absolutely have to have a genealogy blog fix, then please go visit my colleagues on the blog roll to the right of this page. They are chock full of ancestral stories and genealogy tips and will greatly appreciate you stopping by and reading their work.
This is what I call "making family history" - instilling fun and happy times with grandpa in their memories so that they will appreciate me when I can't do it any more.
I will not take my laptop this time, but will have access to the Internet most evenings, so I'll post occasionally. I may miss a day or two if we go up to Petaluma to see the boys' great-grandfather.
I hope to return to San Diego on Tuesday next week. I will have to delay my "regular" feature posts - "The Best of the Genea-Blogs" and "Della's Journal" until I get back.
If you absolutely have to have a genealogy blog fix, then please go visit my colleagues on the blog roll to the right of this page. They are chock full of ancestral stories and genealogy tips and will greatly appreciate you stopping by and reading their work.
WorldVitalRecords has added some census records
WorldVitalRecords.com has announced that they have added 800,000 images and 32 million names from the 1790 to 1930 census records -- see the announcement here. The announcement sounds so good - that this is a real boon to genealogy research -- "You can now see census records at WorldVitalRecords.com."
But wait. I observe that:
* There are images from selected counties for each year. Not even whole states. If you are real lucky, you might find one of your counties included.
* There are no indexes for most of these records (they say 1790 is indexed), so you will have to page through them one at a time looking for your people. Deja vu here - remember cranking microfilm looking for your targets page-by-page? Now you can mouse-scroll at home rather than crank at the FHC.
* 32 million names sounds like a lot. I counted up the numbers on Ancestry some time ago, and came up with almost 600 million names in their indexes for 1790 to 1930 census records. So 32 million is like 6%. In other words, you have 1 chance in 16 of finding a record for a given person.
* Will there be more census images and names as time goes on? The announcement doesn't say. My guess is that AllCensus is working on it, but slowly.
* Will WVR or AllCensus really provide an every-name index? Ever? They say they will - but only time will tell.
Of course, Ancestry.com has all of the census records available already for 1790-1930, with an every-name index, for a US subscription cost, or for FREE at a library that subscribes to Ancestry Library Edition.
HeritageQuestOnline has all of the census images, but only certain years with a head-of-household index, available for in-home use if you have a library card for a participating library.
New FamilySearch will eventually have all of the census images with an every-name index sometime in the future - for FREE.
I appreciate that WorldVitalRecords is adding census records to their collection, but what they have added so far won't entice me to subscribe to their collection, since I can get much more in census records for free from other providers (although I have to go to a library to obtain them).
But wait. I observe that:
* There are images from selected counties for each year. Not even whole states. If you are real lucky, you might find one of your counties included.
* There are no indexes for most of these records (they say 1790 is indexed), so you will have to page through them one at a time looking for your people. Deja vu here - remember cranking microfilm looking for your targets page-by-page? Now you can mouse-scroll at home rather than crank at the FHC.
* 32 million names sounds like a lot. I counted up the numbers on Ancestry some time ago, and came up with almost 600 million names in their indexes for 1790 to 1930 census records. So 32 million is like 6%. In other words, you have 1 chance in 16 of finding a record for a given person.
* Will there be more census images and names as time goes on? The announcement doesn't say. My guess is that AllCensus is working on it, but slowly.
* Will WVR or AllCensus really provide an every-name index? Ever? They say they will - but only time will tell.
Of course, Ancestry.com has all of the census records available already for 1790-1930, with an every-name index, for a US subscription cost, or for FREE at a library that subscribes to Ancestry Library Edition.
HeritageQuestOnline has all of the census images, but only certain years with a head-of-household index, available for in-home use if you have a library card for a participating library.
New FamilySearch will eventually have all of the census images with an every-name index sometime in the future - for FREE.
I appreciate that WorldVitalRecords is adding census records to their collection, but what they have added so far won't entice me to subscribe to their collection, since I can get much more in census records for free from other providers (although I have to go to a library to obtain them).
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Check out AGES-Online
I received an email from Family Tree Magazine describing AGES-Online (AGES Stands for Advanced Genealogical Exploration Services) as a service that is "Saving Your Family History for the Ages" and offers "Fully Loaded For Your Genealogical Needs," listing the capabilities as:
* Build Your Family Tree Online
* User Friendly
* Easy Navigation
* Load Nothing on Your PC
* Access Anywhere, Anytime!
* Collaborate with Family and Friends
* Import Your GEDCOM
* Security (It's YOUR Data!)
* Unlimited Numbers of Individuals
* Extensive Events & Details
* Source / Citation Templates
* Reports
* Free Enhancements
The site claims:
"It's Your Data! AGES believes your family data is your data and not public domain. All AGES accounts are password protected and are only visible to you and your guests.
"Data Center Backups. Enjoy genealogy without the worries. Your records are backed up in multiple data center locations.
"Standard Templates. Enjoy our extensive templates for entering Events, Details, Sources and Citations. Templates created using Industry Standards."
After a brief look around the web site, it appears that this is a commercial web site designed so that a user can enter and store their genealogy data online. It is not a true social network site, although you can share information with other researchers of your choice.
In short, it is a substitute for genealogy software residing on your computer and genealogy data stored in a database on your computer. It would be available to the user any place you could access the Internet.
This site offers an Economy subscription as a 30 day Free Trial. The Economy subscription ($39.95 for an Annual subscription) includes full Family Tree Edit capabilities, Unlimited number of individuals, and numerous reports and charts.
There will be Standard, Enhanced and Deluxe subscriptions available later with more capabilities (no prices given). You can see all of the Features for each subscription type at http://www.ages-online.com/features.cfm.
You can click on the plus (+) sign next to each Feature type to see what each subscription offers. A drop-down list will appear when you click the (+) sign and you can see check marks to describe what each subscription level offers.
For example, the Economy subscription will offer only Family Group Sheet, Outline Descendant and Descendant Genealogy Reports in the Reports category. If you want a Custom Report, Source Usage report, a Citation Usage report and several other reporting capabilities, they will only be available in the more expensive subscription.
You can upload a GEDCOM file for all subscription levels. There is no indication about what will happen to User Notes or Facts uploaded in a GEDCOM. There is no Ahnentafel List or Ancestor Report offered at any level - these are standard reports with almost all genealogy software.
They offer a personalized web site in the Standard, Enhanced and Deluxe levels with an upload of a single picture for each individual.
There are many more features - go visit the site and read all of the information. I recommend using the Free Trial to see what information is uploaded and what report capabilities are provided.
For $39.95, I can make a one-time purchase of new FamilyTreeMaker 2008 software that will do nearly everything (and probably more) that this web site will provide. The obvious exception is the database would be online and accessible to the user anywhere they had access to the Internet.
This is an initial review of this web site, and I may have missed some valuable features. I have not signed up for the free trial yet, but will in a week or so. If someone has more comments, please write your own blog post or comment on this post.
* Build Your Family Tree Online
* User Friendly
* Easy Navigation
* Load Nothing on Your PC
* Access Anywhere, Anytime!
* Collaborate with Family and Friends
* Import Your GEDCOM
* Security (It's YOUR Data!)
* Unlimited Numbers of Individuals
* Extensive Events & Details
* Source / Citation Templates
* Reports
* Free Enhancements
The site claims:
"It's Your Data! AGES believes your family data is your data and not public domain. All AGES accounts are password protected and are only visible to you and your guests.
"Data Center Backups. Enjoy genealogy without the worries. Your records are backed up in multiple data center locations.
"Standard Templates. Enjoy our extensive templates for entering Events, Details, Sources and Citations. Templates created using Industry Standards."
After a brief look around the web site, it appears that this is a commercial web site designed so that a user can enter and store their genealogy data online. It is not a true social network site, although you can share information with other researchers of your choice.
In short, it is a substitute for genealogy software residing on your computer and genealogy data stored in a database on your computer. It would be available to the user any place you could access the Internet.
This site offers an Economy subscription as a 30 day Free Trial. The Economy subscription ($39.95 for an Annual subscription) includes full Family Tree Edit capabilities, Unlimited number of individuals, and numerous reports and charts.
There will be Standard, Enhanced and Deluxe subscriptions available later with more capabilities (no prices given). You can see all of the Features for each subscription type at http://www.ages-online.com/features.cfm.
You can click on the plus (+) sign next to each Feature type to see what each subscription offers. A drop-down list will appear when you click the (+) sign and you can see check marks to describe what each subscription level offers.
For example, the Economy subscription will offer only Family Group Sheet, Outline Descendant and Descendant Genealogy Reports in the Reports category. If you want a Custom Report, Source Usage report, a Citation Usage report and several other reporting capabilities, they will only be available in the more expensive subscription.
You can upload a GEDCOM file for all subscription levels. There is no indication about what will happen to User Notes or Facts uploaded in a GEDCOM. There is no Ahnentafel List or Ancestor Report offered at any level - these are standard reports with almost all genealogy software.
They offer a personalized web site in the Standard, Enhanced and Deluxe levels with an upload of a single picture for each individual.
There are many more features - go visit the site and read all of the information. I recommend using the Free Trial to see what information is uploaded and what report capabilities are provided.
For $39.95, I can make a one-time purchase of new FamilyTreeMaker 2008 software that will do nearly everything (and probably more) that this web site will provide. The obvious exception is the database would be online and accessible to the user anywhere they had access to the Internet.
This is an initial review of this web site, and I may have missed some valuable features. I have not signed up for the free trial yet, but will in a week or so. If someone has more comments, please write your own blog post or comment on this post.
Looks like Ancestry has discovered blogging
It's about time, isn't it? Shouldn't every commercial genealogy company have a blog capability affiliated with their web site in order to announce new databases, added capabilities, acquisitions and the like?
Of course, Ancestry has published a Weekly Ancestry News for years, and had a Daily Ancestry News for awhile, which was replaced by the 24/7 Family History Circle blog edited by Juliana Smith. A weekly email containing the blog posts comprises the current Ancestry Weekly News sent by email to subscribers for FREE.
It makes sense for The Generations Network to create a blog for each of its' major products. There are already blogs for:
* MyFamily.com 2.0
* Rootsweb NewsRoom
* Ancestry.com Blog
At the latter site, the introductory post on 25 September said:
"Welcome to the Ancestry Blog! We’ve created this Ancestry blog as the place to keep you connected with what’s going on at Ancestry.com. It’s a place to learn about new additions – our products, content, features and other services – as we develop them. Here you will read blog posts from the people who create and develop these products and features for Ancestry.com.
"You’ll find blog posts on all sorts of Ancestry.com topics: content and digitization, family trees and other site features. Learn the latest company news, see what the press has to say about the company, even offer your opinion in interactive polls. Read posts from the people who are continually working to improve Family Tree Maker, Ancestry Press, DNA Ancestry, Ancestry print publications and many other products. Chat with Tim Sullivan, president and CEO of The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com.
"And, we want to hear from you. We hope you’ll leave comments and offer your thoughts, ideas and other opinions. Share your ideas on what works, what needs to improve and what you’d like to see on the site in the future."
That sounds like a well-intentioned effort to try to communicate with the subscribers of Ancestry services. However, "the proof is in the pudding" as they say. Is a blog really the most efficient and user-friendly way to communicate between customers and providers? It may be, but it might not be.
Are they saying that TGN CEO Tim Sullivan is writing the blog? Or that users can somehow "chat" with him, presumably electronically? Perhaps that is in the near future.
To date, the Ancestry.com blog has 8 posts (over 25 days) concerning Ancestry Press, FamilyTreeMaker and DNA Ancestry products. There are a few congratulatory comments, but there are few real constructive or critical comments yet - probably because these blogs are new to the genealogy world.
However, there are three sub-blogs on the list at the main Ancestry.com blog - one for Ancestry Press, one for FamilyTreeMaker and one for DNA Ancestry. However, the main Ancestry.com blog has posts for all of them.
For Ancestry databases and FamilyTreeMaker, there are message boards for review and comment and they are well used by subscribers trying to figure out how to use the products or services. There are also lists of Frequently Asked Questions on each web site in an effort to communicate with users and subscribers.
It seems to me that using one blog - the Ancestry.com blog - to try to communicate with users and subscribers of all of The Generations Network products will not work out well.
If asked, I would have recommended creating separate blogs for each product with a unique blog name - a blog family, if you will. A separate blog for each of the Ancestry.com family - US, Canada, UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, etc. would probably work much better than one blog for all of Ancestry.com.
Likewise, a blog just for FamilyTreeMaker communication would probably be better than hiding the FTM light under the Ancestry.com blog bushel.
Of course, with blogs most of us know that CONTENT is everything. A blog requires constant care and feeding - often one or more posts a day - to maintain readership and to communicate with its readers. Will the developers of the different TGN products be able to regularly post development news and answer comments and questions from users?
Will The Generations Network really listen to the suggestions, comments and questions from their users and subscribers? After the public relations stumbles of the past 12 months, I wonder if they have the commitment to listen to the Voice of their Customers. If they have that commitment, then they need to demonstrate it. I sincerely hope that they will. If they don't, their competitors will gradually overtake them (I realize that it might be a very long chase!).
Of course, Ancestry has published a Weekly Ancestry News for years, and had a Daily Ancestry News for awhile, which was replaced by the 24/7 Family History Circle blog edited by Juliana Smith. A weekly email containing the blog posts comprises the current Ancestry Weekly News sent by email to subscribers for FREE.
It makes sense for The Generations Network to create a blog for each of its' major products. There are already blogs for:
* MyFamily.com 2.0
* Rootsweb NewsRoom
* Ancestry.com Blog
At the latter site, the introductory post on 25 September said:
"Welcome to the Ancestry Blog! We’ve created this Ancestry blog as the place to keep you connected with what’s going on at Ancestry.com. It’s a place to learn about new additions – our products, content, features and other services – as we develop them. Here you will read blog posts from the people who create and develop these products and features for Ancestry.com.
"You’ll find blog posts on all sorts of Ancestry.com topics: content and digitization, family trees and other site features. Learn the latest company news, see what the press has to say about the company, even offer your opinion in interactive polls. Read posts from the people who are continually working to improve Family Tree Maker, Ancestry Press, DNA Ancestry, Ancestry print publications and many other products. Chat with Tim Sullivan, president and CEO of The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com.
"And, we want to hear from you. We hope you’ll leave comments and offer your thoughts, ideas and other opinions. Share your ideas on what works, what needs to improve and what you’d like to see on the site in the future."
That sounds like a well-intentioned effort to try to communicate with the subscribers of Ancestry services. However, "the proof is in the pudding" as they say. Is a blog really the most efficient and user-friendly way to communicate between customers and providers? It may be, but it might not be.
Are they saying that TGN CEO Tim Sullivan is writing the blog? Or that users can somehow "chat" with him, presumably electronically? Perhaps that is in the near future.
To date, the Ancestry.com blog has 8 posts (over 25 days) concerning Ancestry Press, FamilyTreeMaker and DNA Ancestry products. There are a few congratulatory comments, but there are few real constructive or critical comments yet - probably because these blogs are new to the genealogy world.
However, there are three sub-blogs on the list at the main Ancestry.com blog - one for Ancestry Press, one for FamilyTreeMaker and one for DNA Ancestry. However, the main Ancestry.com blog has posts for all of them.
For Ancestry databases and FamilyTreeMaker, there are message boards for review and comment and they are well used by subscribers trying to figure out how to use the products or services. There are also lists of Frequently Asked Questions on each web site in an effort to communicate with users and subscribers.
It seems to me that using one blog - the Ancestry.com blog - to try to communicate with users and subscribers of all of The Generations Network products will not work out well.
If asked, I would have recommended creating separate blogs for each product with a unique blog name - a blog family, if you will. A separate blog for each of the Ancestry.com family - US, Canada, UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, etc. would probably work much better than one blog for all of Ancestry.com.
Likewise, a blog just for FamilyTreeMaker communication would probably be better than hiding the FTM light under the Ancestry.com blog bushel.
Of course, with blogs most of us know that CONTENT is everything. A blog requires constant care and feeding - often one or more posts a day - to maintain readership and to communicate with its readers. Will the developers of the different TGN products be able to regularly post development news and answer comments and questions from users?
Will The Generations Network really listen to the suggestions, comments and questions from their users and subscribers? After the public relations stumbles of the past 12 months, I wonder if they have the commitment to listen to the Voice of their Customers. If they have that commitment, then they need to demonstrate it. I sincerely hope that they will. If they don't, their competitors will gradually overtake them (I realize that it might be a very long chase!).
Revealing obliterated text on gravestones
The BBC News web page has an interesting article today titled "Scans Reveal Lost Gravestone Text" by Cristina Jimenez.
The lead paragraphs read:
"Illegible words on church headstones could be read once more thanks to a scan technology developed in the US.
"Scientists at Carnegie Mellon university are making high resolution 3D scans of tombstones to reveal the carved patterns in the stone.
"A computer matches the patterns to a database of signature carvings which reveals the words."
Later, the article says:
""This technology is expected to reduce guessing work in field inspection," said Dr Yang Cai, director of the Ambient Intelligence Lab at Carnegie Mellon Cylab.
"In recent weeks, Dr Cai's research team have been testing the new technique at a 200-year-old cemetery close to the university in Pittsburgh.
"The scientists have been scanning unreadable gravestones at Old St. Luke's Church to help its Episcopal pastor identify all the names on the cemetery's tombstones."
----------------------------------------
This will be especially useful in areas where gravestones have tremendous erosion and colorful blotches on them from coal and sulfur emissions. There are few graveyards in England that have readable stones from before 1900, in my limited experience in Wiltshire.
Now if they could only read the invisible gravestones that are lost to time - the ones that used to be on graves in cemeteries all over the world. We all know that the bare areas nearest the church used to have a field of gravestones that have been lost to weather, vandalism, etc.
The lead paragraphs read:
"Illegible words on church headstones could be read once more thanks to a scan technology developed in the US.
"Scientists at Carnegie Mellon university are making high resolution 3D scans of tombstones to reveal the carved patterns in the stone.
"A computer matches the patterns to a database of signature carvings which reveals the words."
Later, the article says:
""This technology is expected to reduce guessing work in field inspection," said Dr Yang Cai, director of the Ambient Intelligence Lab at Carnegie Mellon Cylab.
"In recent weeks, Dr Cai's research team have been testing the new technique at a 200-year-old cemetery close to the university in Pittsburgh.
"The scientists have been scanning unreadable gravestones at Old St. Luke's Church to help its Episcopal pastor identify all the names on the cemetery's tombstones."
----------------------------------------
This will be especially useful in areas where gravestones have tremendous erosion and colorful blotches on them from coal and sulfur emissions. There are few graveyards in England that have readable stones from before 1900, in my limited experience in Wiltshire.
Now if they could only read the invisible gravestones that are lost to time - the ones that used to be on graves in cemeteries all over the world. We all know that the bare areas nearest the church used to have a field of gravestones that have been lost to weather, vandalism, etc.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
PERSI is Updated
My colleague Susi passed this information from Curt Witcher at the Allen County (IN) Public Library, which was published in the latest Genealogy Gems newsletter:
"This past Thursday, the 2007 edition of the "Periodical Source Index" (or PERSI as it is often called) was loaded on the www.HeritageQuestOnline.com web site. This latest edition of PERSI brings the total number of periodical titles indexed to 6,652 and the total number of article citations to 2,038,494! PERSI is the largest and most comprehensive subject index to genealogy and local history periodicals published in North America and the British Isles.
"It really should be a must-check source for every family line and geographic location one is researching. If you've never used PERSI or don't believe you're getting the full benefit from the index, sign up for the "Using PERSI" program on Tuesday, October 22nd from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Main Library's Computer Classroom by calling (260)421-1225."
PERSI is described here. It is wonderful for what it does, and the Allen County (IN) Public Library (ACPL) offers a copying service for any article that a researcher wants to obtain - the order form is here.
It is very likely that key information that might solve many brick wall research problems is hiding in articles in genealogy periodicals and newsletters. Almost every state and many counties have regular genealogy publications, and local researchers have transcribed or abstracted millions of records and names.
There are also books and CDROMs that contain the PERSI index which can be found in libraries, but they are often dated. Online at HQO, you can search by surname, locality and keyword. However, the search is only on certain words in the title, author, locality or keyword list.
The problem with using PERSI effectively is that there is no "every-name" index such as there is on many genealogy web sites. The reason is obvious - the ACPL does not have digital archives for all of these periodicals, and if they did there would be substantial copyright issues with authors and publishers. I guess I've been spoiled in the last few years.
Here in the San Diego area, the Carlsbad Cole Library provides FREE home access to HeritageQuestOnline (HQO) to library members with a valid library card number. The card is free, but you have to visit the library.
Unfortunately, the last issue of Genealogy Gems at the newsletter archives page is March 2007. I'm sure that they will add the missing issues soon.
"This past Thursday, the 2007 edition of the "Periodical Source Index" (or PERSI as it is often called) was loaded on the www.HeritageQuestOnline.com web site. This latest edition of PERSI brings the total number of periodical titles indexed to 6,652 and the total number of article citations to 2,038,494! PERSI is the largest and most comprehensive subject index to genealogy and local history periodicals published in North America and the British Isles.
"It really should be a must-check source for every family line and geographic location one is researching. If you've never used PERSI or don't believe you're getting the full benefit from the index, sign up for the "Using PERSI" program on Tuesday, October 22nd from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Main Library's Computer Classroom by calling (260)421-1225."
PERSI is described here. It is wonderful for what it does, and the Allen County (IN) Public Library (ACPL) offers a copying service for any article that a researcher wants to obtain - the order form is here.
It is very likely that key information that might solve many brick wall research problems is hiding in articles in genealogy periodicals and newsletters. Almost every state and many counties have regular genealogy publications, and local researchers have transcribed or abstracted millions of records and names.
There are also books and CDROMs that contain the PERSI index which can be found in libraries, but they are often dated. Online at HQO, you can search by surname, locality and keyword. However, the search is only on certain words in the title, author, locality or keyword list.
The problem with using PERSI effectively is that there is no "every-name" index such as there is on many genealogy web sites. The reason is obvious - the ACPL does not have digital archives for all of these periodicals, and if they did there would be substantial copyright issues with authors and publishers. I guess I've been spoiled in the last few years.
Here in the San Diego area, the Carlsbad Cole Library provides FREE home access to HeritageQuestOnline (HQO) to library members with a valid library card number. The card is free, but you have to visit the library.
Unfortunately, the last issue of Genealogy Gems at the newsletter archives page is March 2007. I'm sure that they will add the missing issues soon.
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