I was honored to be asked my advice for persons starting out in genealogy and family research by Bob Samil at Genoom (a family tree and social network site), which has a blog here.
They published their post today Starting Your Family Tree: Advice from the Pros with words of wisdom and experience from Dick Eastman, Debra Fleming and myself.
In retrospect, I should have added another sentence in the last paragraph to make the point that most genealogy resources, especially those that prove relationships like land and probate records, are still found in repositories in paper or microform. Oh well, I thought mine was too long as it was. Turns out it was comparable length to the other two.
What else would you have said? What advice would you give beginning genealogists, in one to three paragraphs? Tell me in Comments to the Genoom blog post, in Comments to this post, or in your own blog post.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Family Photographs - Post 65: Betty's Trike
I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.
This photograph is from loose pictures found in a box, probably from my grandfather's photo album, that I scanned during Scanfest in February:
I think that this picture dates from the 1922 to 1923 time frame. My mother was born in July 1919, and she looks like she is three or four years old in this picture. I really like this picture, because I have very few pictures of her smiling as a young girl.
I'm pretty sure that this picture was taken in front of the Carringer house at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego.
This photograph is from loose pictures found in a box, probably from my grandfather's photo album, that I scanned during Scanfest in February:
I think that this picture dates from the 1922 to 1923 time frame. My mother was born in July 1919, and she looks like she is three or four years old in this picture. I really like this picture, because I have very few pictures of her smiling as a young girl.
I'm pretty sure that this picture was taken in front of the Carringer house at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Finally! A Research Day
I actually ventured out of the Genea-Cave today to do some "real" genealogy research...
The San Diego FHC called about three weeks ago to tell me that I had two microfilms in the file drawer, and that they would be available until 1 August. I forgot, of course, with all of the excitement of Jamboree, Fourth of July, and Real Life (well, granddaughter visits).
So I went down there today lugging my bookbag with my Lamphier notebook in hand, and two trusty flash drives in my pocket (can't have too few megabytes free, you know).
I got the films out of the file, fired up the microfilm scanning machine, and went at it. The films were Estate Papers of Jefferson County probate records, for 1805-1900. I had found Lamphier/Lanphear/Lanfear/etc. entries in the index to these records back in March, and finally ordered them in mid-June.
These records were listed in an orderly fashion in the FHL Catalog - Film 0.527,035 had the index for the L names, and the Lamphier/etc. names were in Boxes L-6, L-7, L-8 and L-19. Boxes L-6 and L-7 were in Film 0,527,036 (Cases 17-59), and Box L-8 was in Film 0,527,037 (cases 60-104). I figured that these files were in alphabetical order on the microfilm...which was almost right.
When I loaded the first film, for Boxes L-6 and L-7, the first file was labelled L-17 for Herbert Loomis, and nine cases later there was L-26 was for Thomas Lynch, etc. I thought "what the heck?" and figured someone had stuffed the wrong film in the right film box. I was going to complain loudly to the desk, but thought I should look further on the film, and soon found that the label numbers were actually Case numbers and that the Box number was handwritten on the film. Names starting with LA were Cases L-27 and on. Crisis averted.
I had four names on my list for these two films:
* Allen Lanfear of Ellisburgh, died 1832, Case L-31.
* George N. Lanphear of Wilna, died 1870, Case L-47.
* Hiram Lanphear of Wilna, died 1862, Case L-52.
* Isaac Lanfear of Lorraine, died 1852 - Case L-67.
I finally found all of them. But I also found Jeremiah Lanphear of Wilna, Case L-46, who died 1862, and was not indexed correctly!
I copied 90 pages of Estate Papers to my flash drive to bring home and review.
After two hours, I ordered the Will Index (somehow I missed this when I reviewed the Estate Papers, Letters of Administration and Letters of Guardianship indexes) and came home.
When I got home, I transferred them to my hard drive, and renamed them, then read them. There is some great information in these Estate Paper files. Unfortunately, none of them mention my Devier Lamphier. Oh well.
I will post some of the information anyway because it may help some other Lamphier/Lanfear researchers. The list of heirs-at-law are really useful!
It was a fun day... I really need to order more films and do more research rather than mess around in online family trees and write boring blog posts. I need to update my master to-do list and actually pursue more research challenges if I want to publish books before I'm age 75.
The San Diego FHC called about three weeks ago to tell me that I had two microfilms in the file drawer, and that they would be available until 1 August. I forgot, of course, with all of the excitement of Jamboree, Fourth of July, and Real Life (well, granddaughter visits).
So I went down there today lugging my bookbag with my Lamphier notebook in hand, and two trusty flash drives in my pocket (can't have too few megabytes free, you know).
I got the films out of the file, fired up the microfilm scanning machine, and went at it. The films were Estate Papers of Jefferson County probate records, for 1805-1900. I had found Lamphier/Lanphear/Lanfear/etc. entries in the index to these records back in March, and finally ordered them in mid-June.
These records were listed in an orderly fashion in the FHL Catalog - Film 0.527,035 had the index for the L names, and the Lamphier/etc. names were in Boxes L-6, L-7, L-8 and L-19. Boxes L-6 and L-7 were in Film 0,527,036 (Cases 17-59), and Box L-8 was in Film 0,527,037 (cases 60-104). I figured that these files were in alphabetical order on the microfilm...which was almost right.
When I loaded the first film, for Boxes L-6 and L-7, the first file was labelled L-17 for Herbert Loomis, and nine cases later there was L-26 was for Thomas Lynch, etc. I thought "what the heck?" and figured someone had stuffed the wrong film in the right film box. I was going to complain loudly to the desk, but thought I should look further on the film, and soon found that the label numbers were actually Case numbers and that the Box number was handwritten on the film. Names starting with LA were Cases L-27 and on. Crisis averted.
I had four names on my list for these two films:
* Allen Lanfear of Ellisburgh, died 1832, Case L-31.
* George N. Lanphear of Wilna, died 1870, Case L-47.
* Hiram Lanphear of Wilna, died 1862, Case L-52.
* Isaac Lanfear of Lorraine, died 1852 - Case L-67.
I finally found all of them. But I also found Jeremiah Lanphear of Wilna, Case L-46, who died 1862, and was not indexed correctly!
I copied 90 pages of Estate Papers to my flash drive to bring home and review.
After two hours, I ordered the Will Index (somehow I missed this when I reviewed the Estate Papers, Letters of Administration and Letters of Guardianship indexes) and came home.
When I got home, I transferred them to my hard drive, and renamed them, then read them. There is some great information in these Estate Paper files. Unfortunately, none of them mention my Devier Lamphier. Oh well.
I will post some of the information anyway because it may help some other Lamphier/Lanfear researchers. The list of heirs-at-law are really useful!
It was a fun day... I really need to order more films and do more research rather than mess around in online family trees and write boring blog posts. I need to update my master to-do list and actually pursue more research challenges if I want to publish books before I'm age 75.
Using GenealogyBank - Post 4: More Databases
In Using GenealogyBank - Post 1: Getting Started, I described the GenealogyBank subscription site and started a search. Using GenealogyBank - Post 2: Seeing Search Results, described and demonstrated how the results look and how to save them and print them. Post 3:More Navigation Options showed easy ways to navigate within the Historical Newspapers collection.
In this post, I'm going to use the Navigation links on the left side of the Search and Results screens to check out the other collections. The America's Obituaries matches for Thomas Seaver is shown below:
The state, date of publication and newspaper title are shown with the link to the obituary.
Clicking on the "Historical Books" link in the left frame produces one match:
There were 40 matches in the "Historical Documents" collection, and these are provided with 10 matches per page:
The Social Security Death Index is FREE for anybody on GenealogyBank - and they claim that it is updated weekly and is the most up-to-date SSDI available. There were 5 matches for Thomas Seaver:
I clicked on one of the SSDI entries, and saw this summary:
In this post, I'm going to use the Navigation links on the left side of the Search and Results screens to check out the other collections. The America's Obituaries matches for Thomas Seaver is shown below:
The state, date of publication and newspaper title are shown with the link to the obituary.
Clicking on the "Historical Books" link in the left frame produces one match:
There were 40 matches in the "Historical Documents" collection, and these are provided with 10 matches per page:
The Social Security Death Index is FREE for anybody on GenealogyBank - and they claim that it is updated weekly and is the most up-to-date SSDI available. There were 5 matches for Thomas Seaver:
I clicked on one of the SSDI entries, and saw this summary:
The SSDI results obtained are similar to other websites:
* Name
* Date of Birth
* Date of Death
* Age at Death
* Last Known Residence (including state, county, city, zip code, latitude, longitude)
* Social Security details (state issued, SS number)
The SSDI page has a helpful box in the middle of the page - it says "Continue Discovering Your Family's Past" with links to obituaries, historical newspapers and a search of all GenealogyBank databases. That's smart marketing!
My Favorite FREE Genealogy Resources
I posted yesterday about Miriam Midkiff's Forum article on Genealogy Wise titled Your Favorite Free (or Low-Cost) Genealogy Resources, but I didn't list any of my own favorites. Maybe that's why nobody responded to my post! I hope they responded to Miriam's.
Here are my Favorite FREE Genealogy Resources, based on my own research needs:
1) San Diego Family History Center computer center. This local FHC has FREE access to Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, HeritageQuestOnline.com, Godfrey Library, Genline.com, and several other commercial databases. A genealogy researcher in San Diego can capture record images from all of these sites on their flash drive and use them in their research - all for FREE (except for the costs of getting down to the FHC in Mission Valley).
2) Carlsbad (CA) Georgina Cole Library. This public library has a wonderful collection of printed books and periodicals, plus the free access to Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, New England Ancestors, Heritage Quest Online, NewspaperARCHIVE, and several other commercial databases. This library is 43 miles away for me, so the travel cost is higher for me.
3) http://www.familysearch.org/. The FREE LDS FamilySearch site has their legacy databases - International Genealogical Index, Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, 1880 US Census, 1881 UK and Canada censuses, plus the Genealogy Research Guides, Family History Library Catalog, and more; the Record Search Pilot has all of the released Family Search Indexing projects, all for free access at home. More indexed and digitized databases are on the way over many years. The BYU Family History Archive is part of the FamilySearch "family" too. Family Search Labs is developing other FREE resources, including the Research Wiki.
4) http://www.rootsweb.com/. This FREE site has some online record databases, including Death Indexes for Social Security, California, Kentucky, Maine and Texas. The WorldConnect family tree database is valuable, and has the same data as the Ancestry World Tree. Other valuable resources on Rootsweb are the Mailing List Archives and the Rootsweb/Ancestry Message Boards. Ancestry.com hosts the Rootsweb sites without cost.
5) http://www.usgenweb.org/. There is a separate web page for each state, and for each county in each state, all with transcribed and indexed information pertaining to the specific location. There are several different projects (e.g., USGenWeb Archives, Tombstone Transcription Project), all created and maintained by volunteers.
6) www.FamilyTreeLegends.com/records/. This site has some records in vital records, military, land, court and probate, biography and history, geography and reference categories.
7) http://www.cyndislist.com/. Cyndi's List has the best organized collection of genealogy links on many subjects.
8) http://www.findagrave.com/ and http://www.interment.net/. These volunteer cemetery transcription and photograph websites are very useful.
9) http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/. Lorine Schulze has a fine collection of small databases and links to other free and commercial databases, concentrating on immigration, Canada and northeastern US states.
10) http://www.deathindexes.com/. Joe Beine has collected links for free and commercial online death indexes. He also has pages for online Birth and Marriage indexes, Military Indexes, Emigration and Immigration List Indexes, Naturalization Indexes, German resources, and several more.
That's my Top Ten - what's yours? What "really great one" did I not list?
Here are my Favorite FREE Genealogy Resources, based on my own research needs:
1) San Diego Family History Center computer center. This local FHC has FREE access to Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, HeritageQuestOnline.com, Godfrey Library, Genline.com, and several other commercial databases. A genealogy researcher in San Diego can capture record images from all of these sites on their flash drive and use them in their research - all for FREE (except for the costs of getting down to the FHC in Mission Valley).
2) Carlsbad (CA) Georgina Cole Library. This public library has a wonderful collection of printed books and periodicals, plus the free access to Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, New England Ancestors, Heritage Quest Online, NewspaperARCHIVE, and several other commercial databases. This library is 43 miles away for me, so the travel cost is higher for me.
3) http://www.familysearch.org/. The FREE LDS FamilySearch site has their legacy databases - International Genealogical Index, Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, 1880 US Census, 1881 UK and Canada censuses, plus the Genealogy Research Guides, Family History Library Catalog, and more; the Record Search Pilot has all of the released Family Search Indexing projects, all for free access at home. More indexed and digitized databases are on the way over many years. The BYU Family History Archive is part of the FamilySearch "family" too. Family Search Labs is developing other FREE resources, including the Research Wiki.
4) http://www.rootsweb.com/. This FREE site has some online record databases, including Death Indexes for Social Security, California, Kentucky, Maine and Texas. The WorldConnect family tree database is valuable, and has the same data as the Ancestry World Tree. Other valuable resources on Rootsweb are the Mailing List Archives and the Rootsweb/Ancestry Message Boards. Ancestry.com hosts the Rootsweb sites without cost.
5) http://www.usgenweb.org/. There is a separate web page for each state, and for each county in each state, all with transcribed and indexed information pertaining to the specific location. There are several different projects (e.g., USGenWeb Archives, Tombstone Transcription Project), all created and maintained by volunteers.
6) www.FamilyTreeLegends.com/records/. This site has some records in vital records, military, land, court and probate, biography and history, geography and reference categories.
7) http://www.cyndislist.com/. Cyndi's List has the best organized collection of genealogy links on many subjects.
8) http://www.findagrave.com/ and http://www.interment.net/. These volunteer cemetery transcription and photograph websites are very useful.
9) http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/. Lorine Schulze has a fine collection of small databases and links to other free and commercial databases, concentrating on immigration, Canada and northeastern US states.
10) http://www.deathindexes.com/. Joe Beine has collected links for free and commercial online death indexes. He also has pages for online Birth and Marriage indexes, Military Indexes, Emigration and Immigration List Indexes, Naturalization Indexes, German resources, and several more.
That's my Top Ten - what's yours? What "really great one" did I not list?
Monday, July 20, 2009
Susi Chats about Blogs, and more
My CVGS colleague, Susi Pentico, started a blog called Susi's Chatty Performances on Genealogy after being inspired at the Bloggers Summit at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree. I promised her that I would ask my readers to visit her site. So, if the spirit moves you, please read Susi's blog and put her in your blog reader of choice.
Her most recent post is titled Thoughts on Genealogy Research Sites and she ponders:
* Are the many blogs being written and read messing us up - are they time-wasters?
* Would our time be better spent working on volunteer genealogy sites like USGenWeb.org and Rootsweb.com?
My views include:
* Time management is the real issue here with blogs and other social networks. Some people read blogs using a Favorites or Bookmark system, others use a feed like Google Reader or Bloglines to organize their blog favorites and read them efficiently. I spent no more than 30 minutes a day reading the 508 blogs on my Bloglines list. There are probably 120 to 150 posts every day on my reader. On social network media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Genealogy Wise, I try to limit it to one or two visits a day - no more than 30 minutes total.
* Blogs have many roles - as a family history recorder (stories, photographs, diaries, documents, biographies, etc.) for relatives, a genealogy news broadcaster (press releases, commentary), database and website finder and tester (noting new or great databases and websites, demonstrating how to use them), commercial company interaction with customers, just to name a few. There is a place for all of these categories, and many more (I saw that Thomas just added over 80 categories of genealogy blogs at Geneabloggers!).
* Genealogy Blogs are, with two exceptions, totally free to read and comment upon. They provide an opportunity for every genealogist to share their research and their opinions - these opportunities used to be reserved for the elite genealogists that wrote and edited genealogy articles or columns. Blogs have democratized the discourse. They also provide a learning opportunity and proving ground for potential columnists and writers for traditional or online magazines.
* Blogs that don't post often, or are poorly written, or are offensive or wrong will quickly die off because nobody will read them. The voice of the blogger needs to be civil, constructively critical and accurate in order to gain the respect and attention of their readers.
* The emphasis back in the 1995 to 2005 time frame was on the volunteer sites like www.USGenWeb.org, www.Rootsweb.com, the Genforum message boards, the Rootsweb message boards and mailing lists. My observation is that the traffic and participation on many of these sites is way down - either they offer nothing new for users or new researchers are unaware of them. The message boards, in particular, are wonderful vehicles for finding distant cousins researching the same surname. The USGenWeb county boards seem stagnant, but that may be because they have collected just about everything that is available.
* I wonder if the diligence of FamilySearch and the commercial database websites (Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, GenealogyBank, NewEnglandAncestors, etc.) in providing indexed records in digital format has created a lethargy in both traditional and online genealogists. A counterpoint to this argument is that there are thousands of volunteer indexers working on Family Search Indexing and the Ancestry World Archives Project. Perhaps the volunteer efforts have just been oriented toward different projects.
* Like others, I have observed that the visitor count at local libraries and Family History Centers is way down from five to ten years ago. This is usually attributed to the myth that "it's all on the Internet now" that many of us hear or read about.
* Every genealogist has free will to do what they want in the time they devote to genealogical activities. I choose to blog, to read and learn, to network, to serve my local societies, to teach and present, to research online, at the FHC and at distant repositories, etc. I manage to fill a 60-hour week with all of these activities, plus my husbandly and grandfatherly duties. I do wish that I did more research and worked toward publishing my own ancestral books.
Well, I opined for awhile there, kind of in an organized stream of consciousness, eh? What do you think about these issues? Please tell me in comments or your own blog post, and please visit Susi's blog and comment on her thoughts too.
Her most recent post is titled Thoughts on Genealogy Research Sites and she ponders:
* Are the many blogs being written and read messing us up - are they time-wasters?
* Would our time be better spent working on volunteer genealogy sites like USGenWeb.org and Rootsweb.com?
My views include:
* Time management is the real issue here with blogs and other social networks. Some people read blogs using a Favorites or Bookmark system, others use a feed like Google Reader or Bloglines to organize their blog favorites and read them efficiently. I spent no more than 30 minutes a day reading the 508 blogs on my Bloglines list. There are probably 120 to 150 posts every day on my reader. On social network media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Genealogy Wise, I try to limit it to one or two visits a day - no more than 30 minutes total.
* Blogs have many roles - as a family history recorder (stories, photographs, diaries, documents, biographies, etc.) for relatives, a genealogy news broadcaster (press releases, commentary), database and website finder and tester (noting new or great databases and websites, demonstrating how to use them), commercial company interaction with customers, just to name a few. There is a place for all of these categories, and many more (I saw that Thomas just added over 80 categories of genealogy blogs at Geneabloggers!).
* Genealogy Blogs are, with two exceptions, totally free to read and comment upon. They provide an opportunity for every genealogist to share their research and their opinions - these opportunities used to be reserved for the elite genealogists that wrote and edited genealogy articles or columns. Blogs have democratized the discourse. They also provide a learning opportunity and proving ground for potential columnists and writers for traditional or online magazines.
* Blogs that don't post often, or are poorly written, or are offensive or wrong will quickly die off because nobody will read them. The voice of the blogger needs to be civil, constructively critical and accurate in order to gain the respect and attention of their readers.
* The emphasis back in the 1995 to 2005 time frame was on the volunteer sites like www.USGenWeb.org, www.Rootsweb.com, the Genforum message boards, the Rootsweb message boards and mailing lists. My observation is that the traffic and participation on many of these sites is way down - either they offer nothing new for users or new researchers are unaware of them. The message boards, in particular, are wonderful vehicles for finding distant cousins researching the same surname. The USGenWeb county boards seem stagnant, but that may be because they have collected just about everything that is available.
* I wonder if the diligence of FamilySearch and the commercial database websites (Ancestry, Footnote, WorldVitalRecords, GenealogyBank, NewEnglandAncestors, etc.) in providing indexed records in digital format has created a lethargy in both traditional and online genealogists. A counterpoint to this argument is that there are thousands of volunteer indexers working on Family Search Indexing and the Ancestry World Archives Project. Perhaps the volunteer efforts have just been oriented toward different projects.
* Like others, I have observed that the visitor count at local libraries and Family History Centers is way down from five to ten years ago. This is usually attributed to the myth that "it's all on the Internet now" that many of us hear or read about.
* Every genealogist has free will to do what they want in the time they devote to genealogical activities. I choose to blog, to read and learn, to network, to serve my local societies, to teach and present, to research online, at the FHC and at distant repositories, etc. I manage to fill a 60-hour week with all of these activities, plus my husbandly and grandfatherly duties. I do wish that I did more research and worked toward publishing my own ancestral books.
Well, I opined for awhile there, kind of in an organized stream of consciousness, eh? What do you think about these issues? Please tell me in comments or your own blog post, and please visit Susi's blog and comment on her thoughts too.
We're Related passes 50 Million Milestone, but ...
Have you read the press release from FamilyLink.com today concerning their We're Related application on Facebook? If not, Leland Meitzler has it in his post Surpassing 50 Million Users "We're Related" Proves Families are Popular on Facebook.
The basic claim is that there were 50 million Facebook members that have used the We're Related application, and they have posted over 300 million persons to the application. This is up from 15 million members back in January 2009.
I have written several times about We're Related, and none of it has been positive. My main complaint has been about the lack of a GEDCOM upload - at least they don't claim that "it's almost ready" anymore (like they did for over one year)!
I've tried to give it a good try, to the extent of loading by hand, one person at a time, back to my eight great-grandparents and my siblings and children. Plus some thumbnail images.
FamilyLink.com has added more to the We're Related platform on Facebook, and I thought that I would show them to you, since nobody else has (not even We're Related)! Here is the opening screen when you manage to find the We're Related application (check your Applications icon in the lower left-hand corner of the Facebook screen):
There are four tabs on the top menu (with the green background) - Family Stream, Find Relatives, Add Relatives and My Trees.
The "Family Stream" screen above shows the Facebook Updates of myself and My Relatives (all four of them). There are four tabs on the "Family Stream" page - for Add Update, Add Photos, Add Link and Add Favorite.
I clicked on the "Add Photos" link and added several photographs:
That was pretty easy, although it took up to 60 seconds to upload a 500 kb photograph.
Here is the "My Trees" screen after clicking on the link from the top menu on the first screen above:
You can see that I've added birth and death dates and places, and thumbnail pictures, to my direct family line. Doing the ten additional people a few weeks ago took over one hour.
Despite all of the publicity that FamilyLink.com puts out, my opinion is still that this Facebook application is worthless to genealogists and to persons trying to connect to distant cousins. My reasons for saying this include:
* It is v-e-r-y- S---L---O---W to use. I get frustrated by slow...
* The site has no way to navigate to siblings or children - I added my children and siblings, but cannot see their information.
There is no GEDCOM upload capability - without this it is difficult to find any relative past great-grandparents.
* I don't know if I can see the Tree or Photos of My Relatives. I have only four "Relatives" in my "Family Stream, and they have, apparently, not added a Family Tree or photos to their We're Related page. If they have, then I cannot see their Tree or their photos. I could add more "Relatives" from my Facebook Friends, but I don't want to put them through the agony of trying to use this application.
* We're Related has added another feature - the user can add a Family Pet to their We're Related page. How dumb is that? What's next - best friends? Cars?
* I could find no way to search for persons in other Facebook users' Trees - I think that that would be one way to lead me to relatives so I could share information.
* The recent announcement says "With features like photo sharing along with ability to communicate, organize communication, and keep everything private to a desired list of family members, We're Related makes perfect sense for keeping family together and learning about loved ones." This apparently refers to the Family Stream items, including photos.
Am I missing something? Is my problem here that I don't have enough relatives that have added photos and trees? If so, then would some Facebook Friend please invite me to be their Relative so I can see their Family Stream and Tree items?
As I've pointed out before, the 50 million We're Related users and the 300 million persons in Family Trees works out to about 6 persons per tree. That is not very many, and is probably indicative of the difficulty in using the We're Related application on Facebook. My guess is that 90% of the We're Related users use it once and give up on it. Others, like me, keep coming back in hopes that it has improved capabilities.
Previous Genea-Musings posts on We're Related application can be found here.
The basic claim is that there were 50 million Facebook members that have used the We're Related application, and they have posted over 300 million persons to the application. This is up from 15 million members back in January 2009.
I have written several times about We're Related, and none of it has been positive. My main complaint has been about the lack of a GEDCOM upload - at least they don't claim that "it's almost ready" anymore (like they did for over one year)!
I've tried to give it a good try, to the extent of loading by hand, one person at a time, back to my eight great-grandparents and my siblings and children. Plus some thumbnail images.
FamilyLink.com has added more to the We're Related platform on Facebook, and I thought that I would show them to you, since nobody else has (not even We're Related)! Here is the opening screen when you manage to find the We're Related application (check your Applications icon in the lower left-hand corner of the Facebook screen):
There are four tabs on the top menu (with the green background) - Family Stream, Find Relatives, Add Relatives and My Trees.
The "Family Stream" screen above shows the Facebook Updates of myself and My Relatives (all four of them). There are four tabs on the "Family Stream" page - for Add Update, Add Photos, Add Link and Add Favorite.
I clicked on the "Add Photos" link and added several photographs:
That was pretty easy, although it took up to 60 seconds to upload a 500 kb photograph.
Here is the "My Trees" screen after clicking on the link from the top menu on the first screen above:
You can see that I've added birth and death dates and places, and thumbnail pictures, to my direct family line. Doing the ten additional people a few weeks ago took over one hour.
Despite all of the publicity that FamilyLink.com puts out, my opinion is still that this Facebook application is worthless to genealogists and to persons trying to connect to distant cousins. My reasons for saying this include:
* It is v-e-r-y- S---L---O---W to use. I get frustrated by slow...
* The site has no way to navigate to siblings or children - I added my children and siblings, but cannot see their information.
There is no GEDCOM upload capability - without this it is difficult to find any relative past great-grandparents.
* I don't know if I can see the Tree or Photos of My Relatives. I have only four "Relatives" in my "Family Stream, and they have, apparently, not added a Family Tree or photos to their We're Related page. If they have, then I cannot see their Tree or their photos. I could add more "Relatives" from my Facebook Friends, but I don't want to put them through the agony of trying to use this application.
* We're Related has added another feature - the user can add a Family Pet to their We're Related page. How dumb is that? What's next - best friends? Cars?
* I could find no way to search for persons in other Facebook users' Trees - I think that that would be one way to lead me to relatives so I could share information.
* The recent announcement says "With features like photo sharing along with ability to communicate, organize communication, and keep everything private to a desired list of family members, We're Related makes perfect sense for keeping family together and learning about loved ones." This apparently refers to the Family Stream items, including photos.
Am I missing something? Is my problem here that I don't have enough relatives that have added photos and trees? If so, then would some Facebook Friend please invite me to be their Relative so I can see their Family Stream and Tree items?
As I've pointed out before, the 50 million We're Related users and the 300 million persons in Family Trees works out to about 6 persons per tree. That is not very many, and is probably indicative of the difficulty in using the We're Related application on Facebook. My guess is that 90% of the We're Related users use it once and give up on it. Others, like me, keep coming back in hopes that it has improved capabilities.
Previous Genea-Musings posts on We're Related application can be found here.
Favorite Free (or Low Cost) Genealogy Resources
Miriam Robbins Midkiff, author of the Ancestories: Stories of My Ancestors blog, started a Forum discussion on Genealogy Wise over one week ago and it is still going strong with 97 responses (to date).
The title is Your Favorite Free (or Low-Cost) Genealogy Resources. There are lots of great genealogy resources listed here! Check it out!
Which leads to my real question: What are YOUR favorite free (or low-cost) genealogy resources? Tell Miriam in her Genealogy Wise forum article, or tell me in comments to this post, or write a blog post of your own about it.
The title is Your Favorite Free (or Low-Cost) Genealogy Resources. There are lots of great genealogy resources listed here! Check it out!
Which leads to my real question: What are YOUR favorite free (or low-cost) genealogy resources? Tell Miriam in her Genealogy Wise forum article, or tell me in comments to this post, or write a blog post of your own about it.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
"FamilySearch - The Old, The New, The Future" with Ann Montgomery
The Saturday meeting of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego featured Ann Montgomery on the subject of "FamilySearch - The Old, The New, and the Future." There were about 80 in attendance at this meeting, with about 20 guests. You can see the summary of her talk and her CV here.
Ann's presentation combined a Powerpoint introduction to FamilySearch with going online to demonstrate all of the links, menus and tabs on the www.FamilySearch.org home page. This worked well because of the excellent wi-fi- signal at UCSD in the classrooms. Ann is a former schoolteacher, and currently teaches genealogy classes, so she treated the audience like eager students ready to learn - with lots of interaction through hand raising and questions and answers.
1) For The Old, Ann went across the menu tabs with dropdown menus on the home page, plus the links on the home page below the search box. She noted that it takes only one or two clicks to get anywhere in the website. The Family History Lesson Series, the FamilySearch News Releases, the Family History Library Research Series, the African-American and Jewish Resource pages, and the recently added Family History Library Catalog lessons were highlighted. Several of these were "new" to me.
Ann spent some time in the Family History Library Catalog, and in the classic Advanced Search (IMHO that is really a misnomer!) databases - the IGI, Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, the transcribed census records, etc.
2) The New part of the talk was mostly concerned with the BYU Family History Archives collection, FamilySearch Indexing and the result of the indexing - the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot site. Only a few in the audience were involved in the Indexing project, and a significant portion of the audience was not aware of the Record Search site.
Ann mentioned New FamilySearch, but noted that Gary Hoffman had talked about it last month at the CGSSD meeting, so she didn't show much on the site.
3) The Future portion of the talk was about the projects in the FamilySearch Labs site. She said that FamilySearch Alpha will probably be the new "face" of FamilySearch - using the Search link there goes right to the Record Search Pilot site. There are Forums on the Labs site to discuss research and new FS, but you have to have a username. In the Research Wiki, she mentioned finding research articles, but not finding information about countries, states and counties - too bad, because it would have impressed many attendees (but then, many states and counties are not written up yet...).
Ann logged into the Family Tree portion of new FamilySearch and showed us around a bit, noting that it, like new FamilySearch, is available only to LDS members at this time. The Standard Finder was briefly shown (and noted that it is a place to get Geocoding information). She said something like "Life Browser would be wonderful but is not on the current agenda." The Pedigree Viewer can be used to see how pedigrees in new FamilySearch will be displayed. They have sample charts, or anybody can upload a GEDCOM file to see what their pedigree chart looks like (they don't keep the GEDCOM files).
All-in-all, Ann's talk was full of information and I know everybody at the meeting took home something useful from it.
Ann's presentation combined a Powerpoint introduction to FamilySearch with going online to demonstrate all of the links, menus and tabs on the www.FamilySearch.org home page. This worked well because of the excellent wi-fi- signal at UCSD in the classrooms. Ann is a former schoolteacher, and currently teaches genealogy classes, so she treated the audience like eager students ready to learn - with lots of interaction through hand raising and questions and answers.
1) For The Old, Ann went across the menu tabs with dropdown menus on the home page, plus the links on the home page below the search box. She noted that it takes only one or two clicks to get anywhere in the website. The Family History Lesson Series, the FamilySearch News Releases, the Family History Library Research Series, the African-American and Jewish Resource pages, and the recently added Family History Library Catalog lessons were highlighted. Several of these were "new" to me.
Ann spent some time in the Family History Library Catalog, and in the classic Advanced Search (IMHO that is really a misnomer!) databases - the IGI, Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, the transcribed census records, etc.
2) The New part of the talk was mostly concerned with the BYU Family History Archives collection, FamilySearch Indexing and the result of the indexing - the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot site. Only a few in the audience were involved in the Indexing project, and a significant portion of the audience was not aware of the Record Search site.
Ann mentioned New FamilySearch, but noted that Gary Hoffman had talked about it last month at the CGSSD meeting, so she didn't show much on the site.
3) The Future portion of the talk was about the projects in the FamilySearch Labs site. She said that FamilySearch Alpha will probably be the new "face" of FamilySearch - using the Search link there goes right to the Record Search Pilot site. There are Forums on the Labs site to discuss research and new FS, but you have to have a username. In the Research Wiki, she mentioned finding research articles, but not finding information about countries, states and counties - too bad, because it would have impressed many attendees (but then, many states and counties are not written up yet...).
Ann logged into the Family Tree portion of new FamilySearch and showed us around a bit, noting that it, like new FamilySearch, is available only to LDS members at this time. The Standard Finder was briefly shown (and noted that it is a place to get Geocoding information). She said something like "Life Browser would be wonderful but is not on the current agenda." The Pedigree Viewer can be used to see how pedigrees in new FamilySearch will be displayed. They have sample charts, or anybody can upload a GEDCOM file to see what their pedigree chart looks like (they don't keep the GEDCOM files).
All-in-all, Ann's talk was full of information and I know everybody at the meeting took home something useful from it.
Best of the Genea-Blogs - July 12-18, 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:
* Blog Content Theft – How To Deal With Splogs by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. This is a real timely issue - Thomas has good ideas on how to deal with spam blogs that use your blog content.
* Tim's Report from Jamboree 2009 by Tim Cox on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Tim wrote from the exhibitor and Jamboree worker perspective and relates his experience at Jamboree. He shows off the iceberg chart again, too! I love that chart!
* A Report from Family History Kid’s Camp 2009 by Michael Melendez and Jean Hibben on the Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter blog. This is one of the events that set the 2009 SCGS Jamboree apart from other conferences. A tremendous effort made to ensure the future of genealogy.
* Researching, Blogging, Social Networking, and Finding Time by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog. This article really struck home with this Geneaholic - are there really only 24 hours in a day? Read the comments too!
* The Twig That Knocked Down A Brick Wall by Lee Drew on the FamHist blog. Lee tells an excellent research story that is a good lesson for all researchers.
* How Grandpa Zeke Collected a Bounty on Himself by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig sure has interesting ancestors and research problems! I didn't know about the Civil War Bounties for slave enlistments.
* My Genealogy Heartbreak by Jennifer Eklund on the Genealogy Wise blog. Jennifer tells a sad story about family pictures, and the lives of her grandfather and his family too.
* How Genealogists Use Social Networking by Gena Philibert Ortega on the WorldVitalRecords Blog. Gena asked geneabloggers the question, and uses four examples to describe how they use social networking.
* The music question I can't answer by Jean Wilcox Hibben on the Circlemending blog. Jean provides resources for historical American music.
* Why Cloud Computing Makes Sense for Genealogy by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter blog. This is an extensive description of Genealogy and Cloud computing, with lists of pros and cons. The commenters make good points too.
* Top Secret FamilySearch Project by The Ancestry Insider on The Ancestry Insider blog. This is a review of a recent Ron Tanner talk about Source Centric Open Edit features on the LDS new FamilySearch Family Tree. Maybe.
* To Group or Not To Group, That is the Question... by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia's question brought many excellent responses from bloggers who like the freedom of expression and lack of a formal organization, but still feel part of the group.
* Is A Lookup A Copyright Violation? by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. Another great question, and some interesting answers.
* The Carnival's In town - Finally! by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The theme for this Smile for the Camera carnival was "They Worked Hard for their Family." 31 writers contributed photos and descriptive material for this carnival.
* Five We Like: Another week of family history goodies by Larry Lehmer on the Passing It On blog. Larry lists some things he likes from the genealogy world.
* Sheri Goes To Samford - Sophomore Year - The End by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog. Sheri's humor is infectious, as is her zest for genealogy learning. She sure was busy at Samford!
* Carnival of Genealogy, 76th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. This 76th Carnival of Genealogy has 23 entries on the topic of "How I spent my summer vacations."
* Canadian Genealogy Carnival - 5th Edition Favourite Canadian Vacations by Kathryn Lake on the Looking4Ancestors blog. There were six entries in this monthly Carnival - read them!
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 500 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:
* Blog Content Theft – How To Deal With Splogs by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. This is a real timely issue - Thomas has good ideas on how to deal with spam blogs that use your blog content.
* Tim's Report from Jamboree 2009 by Tim Cox on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Tim wrote from the exhibitor and Jamboree worker perspective and relates his experience at Jamboree. He shows off the iceberg chart again, too! I love that chart!
* A Report from Family History Kid’s Camp 2009 by Michael Melendez and Jean Hibben on the Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter blog. This is one of the events that set the 2009 SCGS Jamboree apart from other conferences. A tremendous effort made to ensure the future of genealogy.
* Researching, Blogging, Social Networking, and Finding Time by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog. This article really struck home with this Geneaholic - are there really only 24 hours in a day? Read the comments too!
* The Twig That Knocked Down A Brick Wall by Lee Drew on the FamHist blog. Lee tells an excellent research story that is a good lesson for all researchers.
* How Grandpa Zeke Collected a Bounty on Himself by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig sure has interesting ancestors and research problems! I didn't know about the Civil War Bounties for slave enlistments.
* My Genealogy Heartbreak by Jennifer Eklund on the Genealogy Wise blog. Jennifer tells a sad story about family pictures, and the lives of her grandfather and his family too.
* How Genealogists Use Social Networking by Gena Philibert Ortega on the WorldVitalRecords Blog. Gena asked geneabloggers the question, and uses four examples to describe how they use social networking.
* The music question I can't answer by Jean Wilcox Hibben on the Circlemending blog. Jean provides resources for historical American music.
* Why Cloud Computing Makes Sense for Genealogy by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter blog. This is an extensive description of Genealogy and Cloud computing, with lists of pros and cons. The commenters make good points too.
* Top Secret FamilySearch Project by The Ancestry Insider on The Ancestry Insider blog. This is a review of a recent Ron Tanner talk about Source Centric Open Edit features on the LDS new FamilySearch Family Tree. Maybe.
* To Group or Not To Group, That is the Question... by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia's question brought many excellent responses from bloggers who like the freedom of expression and lack of a formal organization, but still feel part of the group.
* Is A Lookup A Copyright Violation? by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. Another great question, and some interesting answers.
* The Carnival's In town - Finally! by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The theme for this Smile for the Camera carnival was "They Worked Hard for their Family." 31 writers contributed photos and descriptive material for this carnival.
* Five We Like: Another week of family history goodies by Larry Lehmer on the Passing It On blog. Larry lists some things he likes from the genealogy world.
* Sheri Goes To Samford - Sophomore Year - The End by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog. Sheri's humor is infectious, as is her zest for genealogy learning. She sure was busy at Samford!
* Carnival of Genealogy, 76th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. This 76th Carnival of Genealogy has 23 entries on the topic of "How I spent my summer vacations."
* Canadian Genealogy Carnival - 5th Edition Favourite Canadian Vacations by Kathryn Lake on the Looking4Ancestors blog. There were six entries in this monthly Carnival - read them!
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 500 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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