I didn't learn much today, but I did learn this:
1) The www.WeRelate.org wiki has added a GEDCOM export capability. That's great. After visiting the site, I notice that I need to upload my ancestral database too. I only have the Seaver database there.
2) DearMYRTLE pointed me to www.GeneARTogy.com which can create ornamental family trees for a price.
3) The ProGen folks attending the SCGS Jamboree this weekend will have identifying ribbons to display. And we will gather together at the Facebook Friends meeting on Friday evening before dinner. I need to remember this!
Like I said, nothing too earth shattering today.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
What I Want in a Family Tree Program
Many of my readers know that I've been working in Family Tree Maker 2009, Legacy Family Tree 7 and RootsMagic 4 for the past few months. It is difficult to sort out which program is "best" for me. All three do most things well, but one or more programs do some things better than the others.
To help me decide, I made a list of features that I want to have in my software program and I can then judge each program on a rational basis. The list of features:
1. File management
* Able to import and export GEDCOM files
* Able to import from databases created in other programs
* Able to have several databases open at once
* Quickly opens and closes databases (like under 15 seconds for a 20,000 person tree)
2. Data Entry
* Input birth and and death dates/places in one search box
* Input spouse's name and marriage date/place in one search box
* Input additional Facts for each person
* Able to create one or more Sources for each Fact
* Use Evidence! Explained type Source templates for Facts and Media
* Use Source Quality Ratings (for Information, Sources and Evidence)
* Attach Media (image, video, audio, document) to Persons, specific Facts and Sources (from host computer files or Internet)
* Create narrative notes for Person, with basic formatting capability (font choice, font size, italics, underlining, centering, bullet points, symbols, spell check, etc.)
3. Data Views
* Person view (shows all Facts with Source and Media indicators)
* Family view (including parents, siblings, spouse(s), children)
* Relationship view (persons related to the specific person)
* Pedigree view (at least 4 generations, number selectable by user)
* Descendants view (indented)
* Timeline view of Person and Family
4, Navigation
* Intuitive menus, icons and tabs
* Minimize number of clicks to input and edit data fields
* Uses name index to navigate to selected person
* Uses pedigree chart to navigate to selected person
5. Indexes and Searches
* Persons (including birth and death dates, and spouses names and marriage dates)
* Locations
* Search for person names, and person/spouse names
6. Features
* Mapping feature that accepts alternate county/state /country locations (because places changed counties, states and countries over time)
* Relationship calculator for two specific persons
* Problem alerts for names, dates and relationships
* Day of the month/year and age calculators (able to calculate birth date from death date)
* Web search on selected database sites (with ability for user to add more)
* Ability to easily capture images from online sites
* Create web pages (or complete website) from genealogy database
7. Reports and Charts
* Ahnentafel list (names, BMD dates and places)
* Ancestor and Descendant narrative reports (with Register and NGSQ numbering systems)
* Create a narrative book with front pages, Table of Contents, Index (in HTML, PDF or MSWord format with embedded field codes) and basic formatting capabilities
* Place reports (people and events) with sources
* Source reports (with options to show Facts and Media for each)
* Media reports (with options to show Facts and Media for each)
* Custom reports (user selects fields and persons to include)
* Birth, death and/or marriage Calendars for selected persons
* Ancestor (boxes, fan), Descendant and Hourglass or Bowtie Charts (multi-pages if necessary) with basic formatting capabilities
* Charts with scalable background images with basic formatting capabilities
I think that encompasses most of my requirements (wants?). I know that I don't know what I don't know about the current software programs! There are so many bells and whistles on them that they can be bewildering to a novice and often confusing to an advanced user.
There are software comparisons at the Top 10 Genealogy Software Review. There are user reviews of many programs - both desktop programs and online applications - at Louis Kessler's GenSoftReviews site.
After this weekend's discussion of Genealogy in the Cloud here and here, I will also use this list to evaluate the readiness of online genealogy software applications to accept my precious genealogy databases.
If you have other "must-have" or "want badly" criteria for genealogy software, please let me know in Comments to this post.
UPDATED: 6/24, 9 a.m. Added words to some lines - changes in orange.
Thank you all for good comments - many I didn't consider.
Louis - I planned to make a comparison table for my list and then try to check them off for each program.
Tracy - I included the image upload in the Data Entry section.
Darlene - why stop at four colors? I agree with you, but for me it's a "nice to have"
Scott - maybe I didn't think the "multiple databases open at same time" item through clearly. It's a leftover from PAF 2 where you could have only one open at a time, so I have many databases, some with same information. I could merge them all, but would need time to do the merges. If I received a GEDCOM file I would want to have that file open to compare to my own database without merging them.
Scott - I want to attach media to Facts and Sources like Census records, Military records, City directories, cemetery records, etc. I changed the wording in the list a bit. Media to Source to Fact is OK with me - it covers more than one source for a fact that way.
Geolover - thanks for good example of reasons for multiple databases, and will have to check out your cousin marriage problem.
Eileen - good additions. Let me think about them a bit. I have no time invested in attached media because of export issues. This needs to be standardized somehow if we are going to put our databases in the Cloud. Longitude and latitude should be in mapping function output, right? Maybe they just need to be printed out. Or did you mean you want to input a long/lat? Why - a grave location, a birth hospital, or residence?
To help me decide, I made a list of features that I want to have in my software program and I can then judge each program on a rational basis. The list of features:
1. File management
* Able to import and export GEDCOM files
* Able to import from databases created in other programs
* Able to have several databases open at once
* Quickly opens and closes databases (like under 15 seconds for a 20,000 person tree)
2. Data Entry
* Input birth and and death dates/places in one search box
* Input spouse's name and marriage date/place in one search box
* Input additional Facts for each person
* Able to create one or more Sources for each Fact
* Use Evidence! Explained type Source templates for Facts and Media
* Use Source Quality Ratings (for Information, Sources and Evidence)
* Attach Media (image, video, audio, document) to Persons, specific Facts and Sources (from host computer files or Internet)
* Create narrative notes for Person, with basic formatting capability (font choice, font size, italics, underlining, centering, bullet points, symbols, spell check, etc.)
3. Data Views
* Person view (shows all Facts with Source and Media indicators)
* Family view (including parents, siblings, spouse(s), children)
* Relationship view (persons related to the specific person)
* Pedigree view (at least 4 generations, number selectable by user)
* Descendants view (indented)
* Timeline view of Person and Family
4, Navigation
* Intuitive menus, icons and tabs
* Minimize number of clicks to input and edit data fields
* Uses name index to navigate to selected person
* Uses pedigree chart to navigate to selected person
5. Indexes and Searches
* Persons (including birth and death dates, and spouses names and marriage dates)
* Locations
* Search for person names, and person/spouse names
6. Features
* Mapping feature that accepts alternate county/state /country locations (because places changed counties, states and countries over time)
* Relationship calculator for two specific persons
* Problem alerts for names, dates and relationships
* Day of the month/year and age calculators (able to calculate birth date from death date)
* Web search on selected database sites (with ability for user to add more)
* Ability to easily capture images from online sites
* Create web pages (or complete website) from genealogy database
7. Reports and Charts
* Ahnentafel list (names, BMD dates and places)
* Ancestor and Descendant narrative reports (with Register and NGSQ numbering systems)
* Create a narrative book with front pages, Table of Contents, Index (in HTML, PDF or MSWord format with embedded field codes) and basic formatting capabilities
* Place reports (people and events) with sources
* Source reports (with options to show Facts and Media for each)
* Media reports (with options to show Facts and Media for each)
* Custom reports (user selects fields and persons to include)
* Birth, death and/or marriage Calendars for selected persons
* Ancestor (boxes, fan), Descendant and Hourglass or Bowtie Charts (multi-pages if necessary) with basic formatting capabilities
* Charts with scalable background images with basic formatting capabilities
I think that encompasses most of my requirements (wants?). I know that I don't know what I don't know about the current software programs! There are so many bells and whistles on them that they can be bewildering to a novice and often confusing to an advanced user.
There are software comparisons at the Top 10 Genealogy Software Review. There are user reviews of many programs - both desktop programs and online applications - at Louis Kessler's GenSoftReviews site.
After this weekend's discussion of Genealogy in the Cloud here and here, I will also use this list to evaluate the readiness of online genealogy software applications to accept my precious genealogy databases.
If you have other "must-have" or "want badly" criteria for genealogy software, please let me know in Comments to this post.
UPDATED: 6/24, 9 a.m. Added words to some lines - changes in orange.
Thank you all for good comments - many I didn't consider.
Louis - I planned to make a comparison table for my list and then try to check them off for each program.
Tracy - I included the image upload in the Data Entry section.
Darlene - why stop at four colors? I agree with you, but for me it's a "nice to have"
Scott - maybe I didn't think the "multiple databases open at same time" item through clearly. It's a leftover from PAF 2 where you could have only one open at a time, so I have many databases, some with same information. I could merge them all, but would need time to do the merges. If I received a GEDCOM file I would want to have that file open to compare to my own database without merging them.
Scott - I want to attach media to Facts and Sources like Census records, Military records, City directories, cemetery records, etc. I changed the wording in the list a bit. Media to Source to Fact is OK with me - it covers more than one source for a fact that way.
Geolover - thanks for good example of reasons for multiple databases, and will have to check out your cousin marriage problem.
Eileen - good additions. Let me think about them a bit. I have no time invested in attached media because of export issues. This needs to be standardized somehow if we are going to put our databases in the Cloud. Longitude and latitude should be in mapping function output, right? Maybe they just need to be printed out. Or did you mean you want to input a long/lat? Why - a grave location, a birth hospital, or residence?
"Genealogy in the Cloud" Program Summary - Part 2
Gary Hoffman presented "Genealogy in the Cloud" at the Computer Genealogy society of San Diego (CGSSD) meeting on Saturday, 20 June. The talk description was provided here. My Part 1 review of the program is here.
"Computing in the Cloud " refers to Internet based software and web sites where the user does not use genealogy software on their "at home" or "away-from-home" computer, but uses software applications on the Internet (such as Google Docs, Gmail, Internet browser, investment management, photo management, music management, video sharing, social networks, online family trees, gaming, etc.). What else do you do with a computer?The "Internet cloud" is represented by this graphic (which Gary used):
"Computing in the Cloud " refers to Internet based software and web sites where the user does not use genealogy software on their "at home" or "away-from-home" computer, but uses software applications on the Internet (such as Google Docs, Gmail, Internet browser, investment management, photo management, music management, video sharing, social networks, online family trees, gaming, etc.). What else do you do with a computer?The "Internet cloud" is represented by this graphic (which Gary used):
In the second part of his presentation, Gary discussed how genealogists can, and are, and will, do genealogy research in the Cloud.
Today, most genealogists use genealogy software, purchased from a software vendor, on their desktop and laptop computers. From the software programs, users input names, dates and locations, write research notes, create source citations, upload photos and images -- it's all well organized in a super database controlled by the user. The user can create charts, reports and even books using this software.
In the Cloud world, genealogists will use online family tree applications such as Ancestry Member Trees, Geni.com and FamilySearch Family Tree to add, store, and update their genealogy information, including photos and images, source citations, research notes, etc. He mentioned GenerationDB based in India and a Chinese company that has family trees in Chinese characters as up-and-comers in family trees.
Where will your data be in Cloud computing? The data will not be stored on your computer - it will be stored in data centers provided by the host company of the application. Gary made the point that the hosts will probably be located in places with cheap electric power (think hydro-electric and nuclear).
What are the issues, and what are the pros and cons of Genealogy in the Cloud?
Pro: There are no files to lose, they will always be backed up.
Con: Ownership of information is uncertain.
Pro: Users can share information instantly, and collaborate with other researchers.
Con: Other researchers can change the information - what if it's wrong?
Pro: Information can be linked to documentation and records
Con: How long will the information be available?
Pro: Family tree can be added to and shown on any computer platform
Con: Who pays? There are three business models:
* Subscription - think Ancestry.com, OneGreatFamily, etc.
* Advertising
* Corporate sponsorship - think LDS church for FamilySearch
There is another option - to create your own web site with genealogy software like that provided by The Next Generation of Genealogy Software, PHPGedView and PedigreeSoft. The user purchases the software (if required) and buys hosting space for the web site and uploads their current data to the web site.
Gary noted that there are currently three types of genealogy family trees on the Internet:
1) Collections of family trees - examples are Ancestry Member Trees, GenCircles, and Rootsweb WorldConnect. Each tree is maintained as a separate entity and not merged with others.
2) Linked Family Trees - an example is Ancestry's One World Tree, where information in submitted trees are linked together but not automatically merged.
3) Collective Family Trees - examples are One Great Family and Geni where everybody works on one online family tree. FamilySearch Family Tree will be in this category.
For the linked and collective trees, the major issue is how to connect trees together correctly. Resolving duplicates is being done by:
* Automatically merging data - used by OneGreatFamily.com
* Manual tree merging -- used by Geni.com
* Combining without data loss -- used by FamilySearch Family Tree (no data loss, information can be separated at a later date if necessary)
Gary finished the presentation by demonstrating how Ancestry.com Member Trees, Geni.com and FamilySearch Family Tree deal with one person in his family tree - Effie Ann Nutt. He said that he uses Ancestry.com to do research and find records to support his research, and that he uses Geni.com to share his research with his family. He showed a screen for FamilySearch Family Tree where each person will have "folders" of records, photographs, notes, etc. in addition to the names, dates and places for their life record. FS Family Tree sounds like a wiki-type of environment to me that encourages collaboration and discussion.
He said that new FamilySearch is in version 0.9 - available only to most LDS members. Version 1.0 will extend access to non-LDS members. Version 2.0 will permit links to records sometime in the 2010-2019 period. Software vendors have been invited to connect to new FamlySearch so that the data on your computer syncs to the Cloud database in FS Family Tree. Software programs such as Family Insight, Ancestral Quest and RootsMagic 4 will do this now, and other software programs will do it later.
There are, of course, other software programs and family tree sites than those mentioned here.
I do have some comments of my own about this, and will put them in a separate post later.
Note that Dick Eastman had a good article last March titled Computing in the Clouds that covered the software issues very well.
Monday, June 22, 2009
My Daily Three - 22 June 2009
I learned several interesting things today...here are three of them:
1) Family Tree Maker 2010 is available for pre-ordering on www.Amazon.com. There is a FTM 2010 Platinum for $99 on www.Amazon.ca (six month subscription to ancestry.com) but not the USA for some reason. Looks like FTM 2010 will be introduced at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank at the Bloggers Breakfast on Sunday. Found all this by Googling "family tree maker 2010"
2) Some Roman Catholic church records for Baja California and Baja California Sur are available on the FamilySearch Record Search site. They are for selected churches, are images only, and incomplete for record years. Still better than microfilms!
3) Watch for the www.DiscoverGenealogy.com website to add a lot of content for ethnic groupds - African-American, Native American, Hispanic, Asian, etc. The site looks promising.
That's my three - what did you learn today? Did you write about it?
1) Family Tree Maker 2010 is available for pre-ordering on www.Amazon.com. There is a FTM 2010 Platinum for $99 on www.Amazon.ca (six month subscription to ancestry.com) but not the USA for some reason. Looks like FTM 2010 will be introduced at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank at the Bloggers Breakfast on Sunday. Found all this by Googling "family tree maker 2010"
2) Some Roman Catholic church records for Baja California and Baja California Sur are available on the FamilySearch Record Search site. They are for selected churches, are images only, and incomplete for record years. Still better than microfilms!
3) Watch for the www.DiscoverGenealogy.com website to add a lot of content for ethnic groupds - African-American, Native American, Hispanic, Asian, etc. The site looks promising.
That's my three - what did you learn today? Did you write about it?
"Genealogy in the Cloud" Program Summary - Part 1
Gary Hoffman presented "Genealogy in the Cloud" at the Computer Genealogy society of San Diego (CGSSD) meeting on Saturday, 20 June. The talk description was provided here.
"Computing in the Cloud " refers to Internet based software and web sites where the user does not use genealogy software on their "at home" or "away-from-home" computer, but uses software applications on the Internet (such as Google Docs, Gmail, Internet browser, investment management, photo management, music management, video sharing, social networks, online family trees, gaming, etc.). What else do you do with a computer?
The "Internet cloud" is represented by this graphic (which Gary used):
Users are connected to networks in the "cloud" to access their work and they don't really care about software downloads, where their data is stored, or how it gets to their computer to use - only that they can access it immediately and start up from where they left off.
There were two major parts to Gary's presentation about the future direction of genealogy - first about hardware and then about software. This post will discuss the hardware aspect and another post will discuss software.
Gary took the audience of about 70 on a fast trip down memory lane - from the first PC in 1981 and first Mac in 1984 with outrageous prices, to the present where our desktop machines have RAM and hard drive memory in the gigabytes, and high screen resolution all for a price of around $800 - more bang for the buck packed in about the same size case as 25 years ago.
But a counter-trend has developed - the Netbook. It's not really a computer, but a portal to the Internet without a hard drive (with flash memory so few moving parts), which sells for $200 to $400. It's lightweight, with a 9-10 inch screen, a relatively slow processor, a long battery life (goal is trans-continental 6.5 hours), wireless/cell network communications, running a light version of Windows, Linus or Mac OS X. You can read more about Netbooks on Wikipedia - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook.
Remember the buzz several years ago when the government announced a goal of one laptop per child for $100? This is essentially it. Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Asian manufacturers are making them now. One of the people in the audience had an Acer model that she bought at Costco for $330. There is a smaller profit margin for the hardware manufacturer because of the relatively low price.
The market is the millions of people in Asia, poor people subsidized by governments, and wealthy people who treat them as toys, throwaways or hand-me-downs when the better one comes along. Gary said that cell network providers in Japan are giving away Netbooks with provider contracts for $30 per month. Is this the future in the USA? Probably!
The "winners" in the Netbook market are the cheap manufacturers, agile websites, savvy content owners, customers, and the telephone companies with wireless and cell services.
The "losers" are traditional hardware manufacturers, traditional software and operating systems vendors, slow-to-adapt content owners, and newspapers and books.
In summary, Netbooks don't run programs, they run applications on the Internet. They need wireless and cell networks to run effectively. The next generation of users wants it now.
Where is all of your data with a Netbook? On the Internet, protected by passwords, rather than on your desktop computer with hard drives that fail regularly.
What does the future hold for genealogy users? We'll discuss that in the next post, along with Gary's experiences with doing genealogy in the cloud.
FYI - Dick Eastman had a good article last March titled Computing in the Clouds that covered the software issues very well.
"Computing in the Cloud " refers to Internet based software and web sites where the user does not use genealogy software on their "at home" or "away-from-home" computer, but uses software applications on the Internet (such as Google Docs, Gmail, Internet browser, investment management, photo management, music management, video sharing, social networks, online family trees, gaming, etc.). What else do you do with a computer?
The "Internet cloud" is represented by this graphic (which Gary used):
Users are connected to networks in the "cloud" to access their work and they don't really care about software downloads, where their data is stored, or how it gets to their computer to use - only that they can access it immediately and start up from where they left off.
There were two major parts to Gary's presentation about the future direction of genealogy - first about hardware and then about software. This post will discuss the hardware aspect and another post will discuss software.
Gary took the audience of about 70 on a fast trip down memory lane - from the first PC in 1981 and first Mac in 1984 with outrageous prices, to the present where our desktop machines have RAM and hard drive memory in the gigabytes, and high screen resolution all for a price of around $800 - more bang for the buck packed in about the same size case as 25 years ago.
But a counter-trend has developed - the Netbook. It's not really a computer, but a portal to the Internet without a hard drive (with flash memory so few moving parts), which sells for $200 to $400. It's lightweight, with a 9-10 inch screen, a relatively slow processor, a long battery life (goal is trans-continental 6.5 hours), wireless/cell network communications, running a light version of Windows, Linus or Mac OS X. You can read more about Netbooks on Wikipedia - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook.
Remember the buzz several years ago when the government announced a goal of one laptop per child for $100? This is essentially it. Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Asian manufacturers are making them now. One of the people in the audience had an Acer model that she bought at Costco for $330. There is a smaller profit margin for the hardware manufacturer because of the relatively low price.
The market is the millions of people in Asia, poor people subsidized by governments, and wealthy people who treat them as toys, throwaways or hand-me-downs when the better one comes along. Gary said that cell network providers in Japan are giving away Netbooks with provider contracts for $30 per month. Is this the future in the USA? Probably!
The "winners" in the Netbook market are the cheap manufacturers, agile websites, savvy content owners, customers, and the telephone companies with wireless and cell services.
The "losers" are traditional hardware manufacturers, traditional software and operating systems vendors, slow-to-adapt content owners, and newspapers and books.
In summary, Netbooks don't run programs, they run applications on the Internet. They need wireless and cell networks to run effectively. The next generation of users wants it now.
Where is all of your data with a Netbook? On the Internet, protected by passwords, rather than on your desktop computer with hard drives that fail regularly.
What does the future hold for genealogy users? We'll discuss that in the next post, along with Gary's experiences with doing genealogy in the cloud.
FYI - Dick Eastman had a good article last March titled Computing in the Clouds that covered the software issues very well.
Access to California Vital Records Indexes
I posted information about California Assembly Bill AB 130 for a brief time this morning, based on an analysis by Susan Park that was distributed to the California State Genealogical Alliance mailing list.
I received an email from Susan with more information this morning that seemed to make her comments moot, so I took the information down until I could analyze it myself.
The latest version of AB 130 is posted online here, effective 15 June 2009. It says that it is:
"An Act to amend Section 509 of the Family Code, and to amend Sections 102230, 102231, 103525, 103525.5, 103526, 103526.5,and 103527 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to vital records."
The California Family Code sections are available here, and Section 509 deals with obtaining a certified copy of a confidential marriage.
Sections of the Health and Safety Code 102230-102231 are printed here, and Sections 103525 to 103527 are here. They deal with obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates. There may be other Code sections that apply to Vital Records but are not being modified by AB130.
The existing law in the Codes need to be reviewed and compared to the AB 130 bill in order to determine what the changes are and what they mean.
The genealogy community needs to understand what all of this means and come to a consensus opinion that reflects the best outcome for genealogy researchers.
The Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) of FGS usually review bills of this nature and formulate a position. The last information on the RPAC page is from February 2009, so it's not clear if RPAC is aware of this issue or if they are working on it. I hope that they are aware of it and are working on this case.
UPDATED 4:15 p.m. completely revised this post again rather than post erroneous information.
I received an email from Susan with more information this morning that seemed to make her comments moot, so I took the information down until I could analyze it myself.
The latest version of AB 130 is posted online here, effective 15 June 2009. It says that it is:
"An Act to amend Section 509 of the Family Code, and to amend Sections 102230, 102231, 103525, 103525.5, 103526, 103526.5,and 103527 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to vital records."
The California Family Code sections are available here, and Section 509 deals with obtaining a certified copy of a confidential marriage.
Sections of the Health and Safety Code 102230-102231 are printed here, and Sections 103525 to 103527 are here. They deal with obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates. There may be other Code sections that apply to Vital Records but are not being modified by AB130.
The existing law in the Codes need to be reviewed and compared to the AB 130 bill in order to determine what the changes are and what they mean.
The genealogy community needs to understand what all of this means and come to a consensus opinion that reflects the best outcome for genealogy researchers.
The Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) of FGS usually review bills of this nature and formulate a position. The last information on the RPAC page is from February 2009, so it's not clear if RPAC is aware of this issue or if they are working on it. I hope that they are aware of it and are working on this case.
UPDATED 4:15 p.m. completely revised this post again rather than post erroneous information.
Footnote.com Subscription Rate Increased, but there is a deal
I received an email from Justin Schroepfer at Footnote.com saying that:
"I wanted to let you know of an upcoming change in our Annual Membership fee. On August 1, 2009, the cost of a Footnote Annual Membership will increase by $10 (about 83 cents per month). This slight increase will help us to continue to add more valuable content to Footnote and make things easier to find and use.
"To help our current Footnote Members with this transition, we are offering a window from now until the end of July where they can take advantage of a reduced price of $59.95 (a $20 discount off the new price). This will be a great opportunity for those that have not joined Footnote, or are currently a Monthly Member, to upgrade to an annual membership. Our Annual Members can also take advantage of this special offer by extending their current membership for another 12 months at this discounted rate.
"I would appreciate if you would let your visitors and members know that they can get this special offer by going to: http://go.footnote.com/loyalty/. We will be announcing this on Monday, June 22. Please don’t post anything before that date."
The special offer is a 25% reduction in subscription cost from the new price. If you are a current subscriber, then this is a pretty good deal for new or returning subscribers. I've been very happy with my Footnote.com subscription this year and will probably add a year before the deadline at the special offer price.
Frankly, I wish every subscription service offered a reduced price for renewals!
"I wanted to let you know of an upcoming change in our Annual Membership fee. On August 1, 2009, the cost of a Footnote Annual Membership will increase by $10 (about 83 cents per month). This slight increase will help us to continue to add more valuable content to Footnote and make things easier to find and use.
"To help our current Footnote Members with this transition, we are offering a window from now until the end of July where they can take advantage of a reduced price of $59.95 (a $20 discount off the new price). This will be a great opportunity for those that have not joined Footnote, or are currently a Monthly Member, to upgrade to an annual membership. Our Annual Members can also take advantage of this special offer by extending their current membership for another 12 months at this discounted rate.
"I would appreciate if you would let your visitors and members know that they can get this special offer by going to: http://go.footnote.com/loyalty/. We will be announcing this on Monday, June 22. Please don’t post anything before that date."
The special offer is a 25% reduction in subscription cost from the new price. If you are a current subscriber, then this is a pretty good deal for new or returning subscribers. I've been very happy with my Footnote.com subscription this year and will probably add a year before the deadline at the special offer price.
Frankly, I wish every subscription service offered a reduced price for renewals!
"Did They Really Come on That Ship?" CVGS Program on 24 June
The next Program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society is Wednesday, 24 June, at 12 noon in the Auditorium of the Chula Vista Civic Center Library (365 F Street in Chula Vista).
After a short business meeting, Joan Lowrey will present "Did They Really Come on That Ship?"
Joan Lowrey has been researching her family since 1957, and has been a professional genealogist since 1990. She specializes in Germany and the U.S., and does extensive research in San Diego County. She has a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in German from Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, and worked with analog and digital computers as an engineer in the guided missile department at RCA in New Jersey.
A charter member of the German Research Association, Joan served as president 1989– 1992 and editor of its quarterly newsletter, The German Connection, 1989–1993.
In 1986, she started a Personal Ancestral File user group and in 1988 founded the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego, of which she is a past-president. She led the PAF User Group in CGSSD until 2000, and was editor of CGSSD’s quarterly newsletter, COMPU.GEN for 13 years.
Joan’s first book, The Green Family - the Descendants of Barzilla Green and Susan Elizabeth Boyt, was self-published in 1971. She was the author of the Personal Ancestral File Users Guide (1990–1997), co-author of A Guide to Selecting Genealogy Software, and co-author of the Guide to Genealogy Software.
Since 1985 she has compiled the “Family History—Upcoming Events, Classes, Opportunities” column for the San Diego Seagull, distributes a monthly flyer with this information, which is also posted online at http://www.cgssd.org/.
Joan is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and numerous local genealogical societies. She speaks on German genealogy and computer genealogy topics nationally, and makes presentations at genealogical societies in Southern California.
CVGS welcomes and encourages guests and visitors to all society programs, which are free to attend. Please enter through the Conference Room in the east hallways in order to sign in, pick up handouts, and have a snack before the meeting. There will be refreshments after the meeting also.
After a short business meeting, Joan Lowrey will present "Did They Really Come on That Ship?"
Joan Lowrey has been researching her family since 1957, and has been a professional genealogist since 1990. She specializes in Germany and the U.S., and does extensive research in San Diego County. She has a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in German from Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, and worked with analog and digital computers as an engineer in the guided missile department at RCA in New Jersey.
A charter member of the German Research Association, Joan served as president 1989– 1992 and editor of its quarterly newsletter, The German Connection, 1989–1993.
In 1986, she started a Personal Ancestral File user group and in 1988 founded the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego, of which she is a past-president. She led the PAF User Group in CGSSD until 2000, and was editor of CGSSD’s quarterly newsletter, COMPU.GEN for 13 years.
Joan’s first book, The Green Family - the Descendants of Barzilla Green and Susan Elizabeth Boyt, was self-published in 1971. She was the author of the Personal Ancestral File Users Guide (1990–1997), co-author of A Guide to Selecting Genealogy Software, and co-author of the Guide to Genealogy Software.
Since 1985 she has compiled the “Family History—Upcoming Events, Classes, Opportunities” column for the San Diego Seagull, distributes a monthly flyer with this information, which is also posted online at http://www.cgssd.org/.
Joan is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and numerous local genealogical societies. She speaks on German genealogy and computer genealogy topics nationally, and makes presentations at genealogical societies in Southern California.
CVGS welcomes and encourages guests and visitors to all society programs, which are free to attend. Please enter through the Conference Room in the east hallways in order to sign in, pick up handouts, and have a snack before the meeting. There will be refreshments after the meeting also.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
"New Genealogy Websites" SIG meeting at CGSSD
During the first hour of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meeting on Saturday, I attended the "New Genealogy Websites" Special Interest Group moderated by John Kracha. There were about 25 in attendance.
John was online on Gene Powell's computer and visited a number of web sites that he had selected before the meeting, including:
* The San Diego Public Library Digital Library Collection has an obituary index from the San Diego Herald newspaper for 1851 to 1860 and The San Diego Union newspaper from 1868 to 1915. The first page of the site is here. I could not figure out how to get there without the aid of DrWeb who commented on my post yesterday! This is a great resource for early San Diego obituaries. The Union obituaries are also on microfiche for the newspaper at several libraries, including San Diego downtown and Chula Vista and probably others too.
* The Biblio web site at www.biblio.com has used, rare and out-of-print books available. This site has over 50 million listings and is used by used book dealers and store owners. A check of "genealogy" in the Subject field revealed over 31,000 matches, many of them for $1.
* The American Battle Monuments Commission at www.abmc.gov has burial locations for World War I, World War II and Korean War service people killed in action. The site says:
"The ABMC commemorative mission is reflected in 24 overseas military cemeteries that serve as resting places for almost 125,000 American war dead; on Tablets of the Missing that memorialize more than 94,000 U.S. servicemen and women; and through 25 memorials, monuments and markers. "
* Prey - a simple and lightweight program that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen. It works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but also completely free. Download it at http://bootlog.org/prey. One person at the meeting said he had it and it works well.
* The California Digital Newspaper Collection at http://cdnc.ucr.edu/ has over 200,000 pages of California newspapers spanning the years 1849-191l:
** the Alta California, 1849-1891;
** the San Francisco Call, 1893-1910;
** the Amador Ledger, 1900-1911;
** the Imperial Valley Press, 1901-1911;
** the Sacramento Record-Union, 1859-1890;
** the Los Angeles Herald, 1905-1907.
Additional years are forthcoming, as are other early California newspapers: the Californian; the California Star; the California Star and Californian; the Sacramento Transcript; the Placer Times; and the Pacific Rural Press.
* The Association of Public New York State Historians has a list of town historians for all of the New York towns in 12 regions - see http://www.aphnys.org/associations/7653/historiansearch.cfm.
* The Internet Archive at www.Archive.org provides access to digital library collections - you can search for digitized books, audio, images, video, etc. It also hosts The Wayback Machine where you can view web sites from the past.
At this point, John opened the discussion for suggested web sites. I mentioned www.FamilyHistory101.com and the County Boundary Maps there, and another person suggested www.Linkpendium.com for links to surnames, localities and topics.
This SIG is very useful and helpful to the attendees.
I will discuss the "Genealogy in a Cloud" presentation by Gary Hoffman in a future post.
John was online on Gene Powell's computer and visited a number of web sites that he had selected before the meeting, including:
* The San Diego Public Library Digital Library Collection has an obituary index from the San Diego Herald newspaper for 1851 to 1860 and The San Diego Union newspaper from 1868 to 1915. The first page of the site is here. I could not figure out how to get there without the aid of DrWeb who commented on my post yesterday! This is a great resource for early San Diego obituaries. The Union obituaries are also on microfiche for the newspaper at several libraries, including San Diego downtown and Chula Vista and probably others too.
* The Biblio web site at www.biblio.com has used, rare and out-of-print books available. This site has over 50 million listings and is used by used book dealers and store owners. A check of "genealogy" in the Subject field revealed over 31,000 matches, many of them for $1.
* The American Battle Monuments Commission at www.abmc.gov has burial locations for World War I, World War II and Korean War service people killed in action. The site says:
"The ABMC commemorative mission is reflected in 24 overseas military cemeteries that serve as resting places for almost 125,000 American war dead; on Tablets of the Missing that memorialize more than 94,000 U.S. servicemen and women; and through 25 memorials, monuments and markers. "
* Prey - a simple and lightweight program that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen. It works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but also completely free. Download it at http://bootlog.org/prey. One person at the meeting said he had it and it works well.
* The California Digital Newspaper Collection at http://cdnc.ucr.edu/ has over 200,000 pages of California newspapers spanning the years 1849-191l:
** the Alta California, 1849-1891;
** the San Francisco Call, 1893-1910;
** the Amador Ledger, 1900-1911;
** the Imperial Valley Press, 1901-1911;
** the Sacramento Record-Union, 1859-1890;
** the Los Angeles Herald, 1905-1907.
Additional years are forthcoming, as are other early California newspapers: the Californian; the California Star; the California Star and Californian; the Sacramento Transcript; the Placer Times; and the Pacific Rural Press.
* The Association of Public New York State Historians has a list of town historians for all of the New York towns in 12 regions - see http://www.aphnys.org/associations/7653/historiansearch.cfm.
* The Internet Archive at www.Archive.org provides access to digital library collections - you can search for digitized books, audio, images, video, etc. It also hosts The Wayback Machine where you can view web sites from the past.
At this point, John opened the discussion for suggested web sites. I mentioned www.FamilyHistory101.com and the County Boundary Maps there, and another person suggested www.Linkpendium.com for links to surnames, localities and topics.
This SIG is very useful and helpful to the attendees.
I will discuss the "Genealogy in a Cloud" presentation by Gary Hoffman in a future post.
Best of the Genea-Blogs - June 14-20, 2009
Several hundred genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.
My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.
Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:
* Bing vs. Google by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog. Pat tested Bing and Google side-by-side and had some interesting results, and had some useful comments.
* Give Dad the gift of an organized life by Larry Lehmer on the Passing It On blog. Larry has a great idea for helping your Dad with his "stuff" and spending quality time with him too. Frankly, I hope my daughters don't do this... but it's a great idea for non-genealogist fathers!
* Loveland Colorado Family History Expo by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet really enjoys meeting people at conferences - here is her summary of the Loveland Family History Expo. Great pictures, too!
* Online Death Indexes and Records - Latest Additions and Updates by Joe Beine on the Genealogy Roots Blog. Joe has added quite a bit to the http://www.deathindexes.com/ site recently - one of my favorites!
* Sheri Goes To Samford - Sophomore Year, Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog. We could hardly wait to read about Sheri's exploits at IGHR in Samford this year... and are entertained and informed by her first four posts about her week in Lloyd Bockstruck's class. Some pictures too! In her last episode, she went off campus for fun...
* Home Sweet Home! by Ernie Marheim on the Ernie's Journeys blog. Ernie has started posting himself after his surgery and recovery - welcome back, old friend! I hope that I have this spirit when I'm 88 (I gotta be more optimistic about life).
* The Carnival's In Town - 14th Edition of Smile for the Camera - Belle's Wedding by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. There were 31 entries in this carnival about pictures of June weddings.
* How to Find a Loyalist Ancestor by Lorine Schulze on the Ask Olive Tree Genealogy a Question blog. I love Lorine's question and answer blog, even more so when it really helps me understand how to research something I can relate to. This one does!
* The Brick Wall–Did We Really Knock It Down? by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig continues his search for Richard Gines in the records...and doesn't know if he found him or not. Stay tuned!
* Janice Brown Is Lost In The Puckerbrush and We Miss Her by footnoteMaven on the footnoteMaven blog. fM's touching tribute to Janice who "walked away" from her Cow Hampshire blog last year. We haven't forgotten.
* Carnival of Genealogy, 74th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There are 34 entries for the Swimsuits! edition. The topic for the next COG is Justice and Independence.
* How Do I Survey a Cemetery? by Stephanie Lincecum in her Graveyard Guru column in The Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal blog. Stephanie summarizes the methods to survey an entire cemetery based on Sharon Carmack's work.
* MyHeritage Genealogy and Translation Manager touring the US by Daniel Horowitz on The MyHeritage Blog. It sounds like Daniel really enjoyed his US tour, visiting libraries and companies, and meeting many bloggers and colleagues.
* Forbes Magazine: Genealogy doesn't exist by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog. Schelly highlights a recent magazine article that doesn't include genealogy as a hobby, and dissects it well. Several commenters said it was probably because it's an obsession and an addiction and not a hobby.
* California Bill AB 130 by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena publishes an analysis by Susan Park about a California legislature bill that will restrict access and information on California vital records certificates and indexes. This is important for genealogy researchers! The CA legislature is not getting this right.
* EVERYBODY’S GOT ONE by Tom Pearson on the MoSGA Messenger blog. Got what? A family tree, of course. See Tom's post for some interesting ones.
I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Bloglines, reader, feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.
Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 480 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.
Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:
* Bing vs. Google by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog. Pat tested Bing and Google side-by-side and had some interesting results, and had some useful comments.
* Give Dad the gift of an organized life by Larry Lehmer on the Passing It On blog. Larry has a great idea for helping your Dad with his "stuff" and spending quality time with him too. Frankly, I hope my daughters don't do this... but it's a great idea for non-genealogist fathers!
* Loveland Colorado Family History Expo by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet really enjoys meeting people at conferences - here is her summary of the Loveland Family History Expo. Great pictures, too!
* Online Death Indexes and Records - Latest Additions and Updates by Joe Beine on the Genealogy Roots Blog. Joe has added quite a bit to the http://www.deathindexes.com/ site recently - one of my favorites!
* Sheri Goes To Samford - Sophomore Year, Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog. We could hardly wait to read about Sheri's exploits at IGHR in Samford this year... and are entertained and informed by her first four posts about her week in Lloyd Bockstruck's class. Some pictures too! In her last episode, she went off campus for fun...
* Home Sweet Home! by Ernie Marheim on the Ernie's Journeys blog. Ernie has started posting himself after his surgery and recovery - welcome back, old friend! I hope that I have this spirit when I'm 88 (I gotta be more optimistic about life).
* The Carnival's In Town - 14th Edition of Smile for the Camera - Belle's Wedding by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. There were 31 entries in this carnival about pictures of June weddings.
* How to Find a Loyalist Ancestor by Lorine Schulze on the Ask Olive Tree Genealogy a Question blog. I love Lorine's question and answer blog, even more so when it really helps me understand how to research something I can relate to. This one does!
* The Brick Wall–Did We Really Knock It Down? by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig continues his search for Richard Gines in the records...and doesn't know if he found him or not. Stay tuned!
* Janice Brown Is Lost In The Puckerbrush and We Miss Her by footnoteMaven on the footnoteMaven blog. fM's touching tribute to Janice who "walked away" from her Cow Hampshire blog last year. We haven't forgotten.
* Carnival of Genealogy, 74th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There are 34 entries for the Swimsuits! edition. The topic for the next COG is Justice and Independence.
* How Do I Survey a Cemetery? by Stephanie Lincecum in her Graveyard Guru column in The Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal blog. Stephanie summarizes the methods to survey an entire cemetery based on Sharon Carmack's work.
* MyHeritage Genealogy and Translation Manager touring the US by Daniel Horowitz on The MyHeritage Blog. It sounds like Daniel really enjoyed his US tour, visiting libraries and companies, and meeting many bloggers and colleagues.
* Forbes Magazine: Genealogy doesn't exist by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog. Schelly highlights a recent magazine article that doesn't include genealogy as a hobby, and dissects it well. Several commenters said it was probably because it's an obsession and an addiction and not a hobby.
* California Bill AB 130 by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena publishes an analysis by Susan Park about a California legislature bill that will restrict access and information on California vital records certificates and indexes. This is important for genealogy researchers! The CA legislature is not getting this right.
* EVERYBODY’S GOT ONE by Tom Pearson on the MoSGA Messenger blog. Got what? A family tree, of course. See Tom's post for some interesting ones.
I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Bloglines, reader, feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.
Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 480 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
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