GenealogyWise Update

It looks like GenealogyWise has really taken off after the email received yesterday by several hundred genealogy buffs on the FamilyLink mailing list. There were several tweets about it by FamilyLink people yesterday afternoon, and I posted about it yesterday afternoon, and since then over 500 people have signed up to be members.

Not only that, but those (over) 500 people have started networking - making Friends (I'm up to 64 without much effort on my part), forming Groups (over 200 tonight), writing blog posts (26 tonight, all in one blog), writing Forum posts (15 topics tonight) on selected topics, Uploading Videos (131 as of tonight), and Chatting (seems to be ongoing, with ebbs and floods). Wow.

Every time you are accepted by a Friend, join a Group, or someone starts a discussion the Member gets an email informing them.

It's hard to decide who to ask to be your Friend, which Group(s) to join, to post on the Blog and/or the forum. I'm being selective right now, because I can see that this site may become a real time hole... and that's actually a good thing if it significantly helps me with my research. On the other hand, if I make everybody my Friend then I may gain more readers for Genea-Musings!

This setup is a little different from Facebook. You can see the basic information (name, location, photo, surnames of interest, localities of interest, research level, and more) of every member, not just your Friends. I'm really not sure why we have Friends... unless it's so we can see more of their submissions - blogs, photos, videos, etc.

I've already received several notes in my Email from other Members wanting to know about some of the surnames I posted. This is good! I looked to see if the Search function works for the Members' Surnames and it doesn't seem to. That's not good!

The Genealogy Search tab goes to www.WorldVitalRecords.com, for which the user needs a subscription.

I've been wondering if:

* This site is going to be the next big thing in Genealogy Research. Will there be tens of thousands (or more) researchers using the site.

* If so, I'm not sure that I can stand all of the emails. I received over 100 emails today from GenealogyWise today telling me about Friends, Groups, etc. They are easy to delete and most are of no lasting value.

* Will it drag all of the Facebook genealogy people over to Genealogywise? Or will everyone stay on Facebook too?

* Will GenealogyWise become too big too fast for FamilyLink to adequately support it with server space and support?

* Will there be a Family Tree application? FamilyLink already has two Family Tree sites - www.WebTree.com and www.FamilyHistoryLink.com - will they use these sites, or will they create another tree site with a wiki interface or some sort of collaboration?

* What about the We're Related application on Facebook and other social networks? Can it be integrated into the GenealogyWise social network?

That's about it for tonight, I have a time crunch right now with the granddaughters here and we're making family history, rather than blogging about it.

Family Photographs - Post 63: Betty and the Balloon (not a Squash)

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 my grandfather's photo album that I scanned during Scanfest in January:


This is a photograph of my mother, Betty Virginia Carringer, taken in late 1920 or in 1921 by her father, Lyle Carringer, probably in the yard of the house at 2054 Harrison Avenue in San Diego. Previous photographs in this series have shown the chicken coop in the background also.

I am unsure what it is that Betty is holding. It looks like a large gourd or a large squash, although it may be a balloon (since it is so smooth and uniform). What do you think?

UPDATED: Everybody thinks it's a balloon, and a close exam of the tip of it seems to show a tie, so I guess it's a balloon.

SDGS Meeting on 11 July - Annual Book Auction and Potluck Luncheon

The July meeting of the San Diego Genealogical Society is on Saturday, 11 July at St. Andrews Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Blvd, in San Diego, at Jackson Drive).

At 10 a.m., there are two classes:

* RootsMagic Users Group, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

* Beginners Class, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

The program, starting at 12 noon, is the Annual Book Auction and Potluck Luncheon. The description of this program is:

It is that time again for our ever popular book auction. This is your chance to get great bargains on genealogical books, journals, magazines and other items to improve your research. There will be LOTS of unique and hard-to-find items, so get there early to preview the collection and be prepared for spirited bidding. This is a great way to get those much-needed research tools while helping the Society raise money. So, bring lots of cash and your checkbook. We will also have book tables for direct sales.

Our auctioneer will be the Society's Past-President, Peter Steelquist. With over 20 years of genealogy experience, he will be sure that bidding is lively and that everyone has an equal opportunity to get in the highest bid. Having fun will be the prerequisite for the afternoon. Be sure not to miss it.

For our potluck, bring your favorite dishes. (The Society has some great cooks!) Last names beginning with A-H can bring main course and casseroles, I-R for desserts and S-Z to bring salads. Be sure to also bring serving utensils for your dish as well as a place setting for yourself. Coffee and beverage will be provided. Bon appetit!

Hmmm. I need to find my list of books and periodicals that I own and update it. Ah, it's on LibraryThing! Cool. I wonder what goodies I can pick up for the CVGS library too? We'll see.

Genealogywise = Facebook for Genealogists

It was bound to happen, and FamilyLink.com has done it. They started a dedicated "Facebook for Genealogists." I received an email today describing it,
which included:

"FamilyLink has created a new genealogy social network named GenealogyWise.com. It's like Facebook for genealogy, with member profiles, video sharing, forums, member blogs, chat, surname groups and more."

Of course, I had to try it out. [Note: there was no request to embargo this information...]

I found the web page at www.GenealogyWise.com and signed up for an account. Then I added my genealogy information (which can be edited) to create my page, and I was on the site.

Here is the home page:




On the home page, the member can check on the Latest Activity, read Blog Posts (apparently any member can post?), and deal with your account. The tabs across the top are Main, Invite (use your email client's address book? Um, not me!), My Page, Members, forum, Groups, Blogs, Video, Genealogy Search, Chat, Store, and More.

I changed the default template for "My Page to look like (two screens):

On this page, I can see my Friends, my Text Box, My Photos, and my Comments Wall.

This website sure looks more friendly than Facebook does, and it loads much quicker. Of course, there are not 200 million people on it yet to sort through!

Will this site work for the genealogy community? Only if a critical mass of members sign up and submit content. To me, a "critical mass" means tens of thousands, not hundreds, of active members. It's possible, I think.

Members on the site need "Friends" to share with, and so I invite my readers to be my Friends. The only way I saw to ask someone to be a Friend, other than submitting your email address book, or inputting individual email addresses, is to go to the Members page, clicking on each person's image, and click on "Add As Friend." The person will have to approve you as a Friend. You can search for a Member also, and after becoming their Friend, you can ask their Friends to be your Friend too.

I'm sure that I, and other bloggers, will have a lot more to say about this website. At first glance, it looks promising.

More SCGS Genealogy Jamboree Audio/Video

There were at least three genealogy audio and video providers interviewing guests at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree on 26-28 June in Burbank.

They included:

1) Roots Television - http://www.rootstelevision.com/ -- the interviews posted to date are:

* Paula Hinkel of SCGS, interviewed by Mathew Poe.

* Tukufu Zuberi of The History Detectives, interviewed by Dick Eastman

* Andrew Wait of Ancestry.com, interviewed by Dick Eastman

* Pat Richley, AKA dearMYRTLE, interviewed by Dick Eastman

* David Rencher of FamilySearch, interviewed by Dick Eastman

* Drew Smith of The Genealogy Guys Podcast, interviewed by Dick Eastman

* Thomas Kemp of GenealogyBank, interviewed by Matthew Poe.

* Katharine Hope Borges of ISOGG, interviewed by Dick Eastman

* Bennett Greenspan of FamilyTreeDNA, interviewed by Matthew Poe

* Jana Sloan Broglin, lecturer and writer, interviewed by Matthew Poe

* Bruce Buzbee of RootsMagic, interviewed by Matthew Poe.

* Christopher Child of NEHGS, interviewed by Matthew Poe.

* Eric Keith of Footnote.com, interviewed by Matthew Poe

* George G. Morgan of the Genealogy Guys, interviewed by Dick Eastman

* Tom Underhill of Creative Continuum, interviewed by Matthew Poe

* Illya D'Addezio of GenealogyToday and LiveRoots, interviewed by Matthew Poe

* Tony Burroughs, author, professor and genealogy expert, interviewed by Matthew Poe.

* Julie Miller, program chairperson of the 2010 National Genealogical Society Conference, interviewed by Dick Eastman.

2) The Genealogy Guys (George G. Morgan and Drew Smith) -- the video and podcasts posted to date (with videos to come later) include:

* Bruce Buzbee of RootsMagic, interviewed by Drew Smith (part of Podcast #176, near the end)

* Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems Podcast, interviewed by Drew Smith (part of Podcast #177, near the end)

* Tukufu Zuberi of the History Detectives, interviewed by Drew Smith (part of Podcast #178)

* Julie Miller, CG, interviewed by Drew Smith (part of Podcast #179)

* Maureen A. Taylor, the Photo Detective, interviewed by George Morgan (part of Podcast #180).

* Janet Hovorka of GenerationMaps and author of The Chart Chick blog, interviewed by Drew Smith (part of Podcast #181, about 15:30 on the counter). This interview is also on video here.

* Craig Manson, legal expert and author of the Geneablogie blog, interviewed by Drew Smith (part of Podcast #181, about 28:40 on the counter).

3) Genealogy Gems TV and Genealogy Gems Podcast (Lisa Louise Cooke) -- the video and podcasts include:

* Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings blog, interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke on the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel (also in Podcast #67 about the SCGS Jamboree).

* Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers blog, interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke on the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel (also in Podcast #68)

* footnoteMaven of the footnoteMaven and Shades of the Departed blogs, interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke (in Podcast #38 of the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcasts)

* Schelly Talalay Dardashti of the Tracing the Tribe blog, interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke (in Podcast #39 of the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcasts).

* Denise Levenick of the Family Curator blog, interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke (in Podcast #39 of the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcasts).

* Tony Burroughs, Genealogy Expert, interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke on her Genealogy Gems YouTube channel.

* Janet Hovorka, The Chart Chick (Generation Maps), interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke on Episode #28 of the Genealogy Gems Premium podcasts.

* Jana Sloan Broglin, lecturer and writer, talking about Probate Records (and her DNA connection), interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke on her GenealogyGems YouTube Channel.

I will add more as they become available.

UPDATED last on 23 September 2009.

Study Program for Genealogists

Several of my society colleagues have asked me "what do you suggest that I study to improve my genealogy knowledge and research skills."

My answer has always been a haphazard ticking off of several thick genealogy books, including Greenwood's Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, Mills' Professional Genealogy, and Mills' Evidence Explained, among others.

Elizabeth Shown Mills provided a 10-point blueprint that would provide solid grounding and enhanced skills for any genealogist. You can see the list on the Transitional Genealogist Forum mailing list here.

In my own case, I have every one of the books that Elizabeth recommends, except for The Source. I know our local library has it, so I'll start studying that too. Maybe it will help me write sources better? I'm involved in two study groups , one of which is using the Lichtman study method to discuss NGSQ articles, and the other is working through the Professional Genealogy book.

Perhaps the best aid for me has been the examples in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. In many articles, the case studies parallel my own research problems and can be used as a blueprint and provide research ideas for further research.

New Look for Ancestry.com Family Trees - Post 2

I started my review of the Ancestry Member Tree "improvements" last week in New Look for Ancestry.com Family Trees - Post 1. In this post, I want to look at the Person Pages and discuss them a bit.

In the previous post about the "Family Tree" page, I struggled to find a link to "View Profile" of a person. I finally found it as an icon on the "Family Group Sheet" and as a link in the "Pedigree View" and "Family View." When I click on "View Profile," I see (two screens):

The "Person Page" above shows the "Overview" tab information - the person's name, birth and death information, media gallery items (I have none at this time), Timeline of Facts (with number of sources noted), Parents, Spouse(s) and Children, Historical Records (I have none right now) and Web Links (I have none right now). The "Historical Records" area is where the downloaded records from Ancestry.com databases would be listed. The "Web Links" is where a user might link to a static web page or blog post.

There are seven tabs on the menu bar - from "Overview" on the left to "Edit Person" on the right. Let's go left to right on these tabs:

When I click on the "Facts and Sources" tab, the "Facts and Events" page shows:

The link for "Sources" shows:

The Source information reflects the information included in the source citations I input for each fact in my database. I can add another source on this page, and delete a source, or edit an existing source by clicking on the source citation itself.

The "Media Gallery" tab permits addition of photo images, text stories, and uploading of video and/or audio files. Uploading files is easy and fast. If I want other researchers to see my research Notes, I need to copy and paste them from the "View Notes" page.

The "Comments" tab permits other researchers to make comments on the information for this person in my family tree.

If I clicked on the "Hints" tab, I could see what records and other Ancestry Member Tree entries were found for my Person:

The next tab to the right is the "Member Connect," where the user can find others with this person in their family tree. However, this feature is still in work.

The last tab on the far right is the "Edit this person" tab, where the user can edit the birth and death information for the Person.

Clicking on the place name link on any of these pages takes the user to the Ancestry Maps Beta page with a map courtesy of Microsoft Maps Live Search. There are stick pins in the locations associated with the person and the places in the Facts and Timeline.

Back on the general Person Page (the first two screens above), there are other links in the box for the Person, including "Ancestry Hints," "Show immediate family," "View family tree," "Search historical records," "Print or publish," "View note" and "More options."

I clicked on the "Show immediate family" and saw this screen:

The "View note" link provides a popup box with the Notes that were in my genealogy database:

The user can edit or remove these Notes, but there are no editing tools (font type, font size, bold, italics, underline, justification, etc.). There is a message at the top of the Notes field that says: "Notes can only be viewed by the owner and by those invited to the tree as an 'Editor'."

In the "Print or Publish" link, the user can "Print" the page out, or choose to "Create book from your family tree" or "Create a poster from your family tree," using the MyCanvas publishing tool. The "Print" option provides a page with very small text (it must be a 6-size font - I need a magnifier to read it).

The "More options" link enables the user to "Create a military page," "Find famous relatives" and "Save person to another tree."

From the Person Page, the user can navigate to another person in the tree by:

* Clicking on the underlined (linked) name of another person on the Person Page

* Clicking on the "View family tree" link in the Person's box (just above the "Overview" tab)

* Use the "Home person" or "List of all people" links, or put the name of a person in the "search for a person in the tree" field.

This "Person Page" is pretty complicated, with Navigation and Information links and tabs mixed together. It might "look" better if all of the Navigation items were in one row (perhaps at the top?) and all of the Information items for the Person were in one row (perhaps at the bottom of the Person frame?).

The one "content" item I really don't like is the "View Notes" link which is hidden from other users unless they are an "editor." Why is this? It's supposed to be a "Public Member Tree." I can understand the need to keep anybody but an "editor" to change the notes, but they should be visible to the reader. If other researchers could read the Person Notes, they might be able to judge the veracity of the information provided, or know that they could add to it using a "Comment." All of my "Stories" are in my "Notes" field, and it would be a time waster for me to copy and paste each of them into a "Stories" Media item. I also think that the Notes should be able to be printed out as part of a genealogy report.

Genealogy reports? Well, there aren't any options here other than to "Create book from your family Tree" using the MyCanvas option. I've tried to do this several times and have been frustrated by the results and the limitations of the MyCanvas publishing tool. My suggestion is that additional text reports be formatted to provide an ancestry report (in Ahnentafel format) for up to 5 or 6 generations, a descendant's report for 5 or 6 generations, and a descendant's chart indented by generation; all with options to print Notes and Source citations (as end notes). These are the three most useful reports on the Rootsweb WorldConnect and Ancestry One World Tree databases.

This latest Ancestry Member Tree presentation is, in my judgment, a significant improvement. It seems pretty logical to me - with tabs and links to the different pages for each Person. However, I find that it is very difficult to navigate from one generation to another in these Ancestry Member Trees (too many clicks, takes too long to load pages, etc.), and it is very difficult to print out a useful and readable pedigree chart, family group sheet or genealogy report.

My Interview with Lisa Louise Cooke at Jamboree

Lisa Louise Cooke was a very busy interviewer and videographer at the SCGS Jamboree, along with her video producer, Lacey Cooke, Lisa's daughter.

I was fortunate to be one of the subjects of Lisa's friendly and easy-going interviewing style for one of her Genealogy Gems YouTube videos. My 12 minutes of fame (I guess I have three minutes left...) can be seen at (click on TV set):



Or click on the Play button below:




Well, what do you think? Like my shirt? My wife's shirt says "Geneaholic's Widow" for some reason. Lisa said I had a good "radio voice" - I wonder what she meant by that?

This interview was right out in the exhibit area at Jamboree so it is a little noisy in the background and there were some distractions of people walking by and talking to Lacey or Lisa without knowing what was happening.

I know that Lisa has many more interviews to show - I look forward to hearing and seeing them!

Thank you, Lisa and Lacey, for your hard work and fun efforts to bring genealogy video to your listeners and viewers, and to my readers too.

TGN ==> Ancestry.com: Ho hum

The official announcement of the name change from The Generations Network to Ancestry.com was released today. You can read the press release on Dick Eastman's blog here.

What does all this mean? A little job security for the sign makers, the lawyers and bankers, and all of the programmers that have to change the corporate logo and web pages to reflect the name change. They didn't add or delete any properties.

I think that they missed the chance to rename themselves as something really meaningful - such as:

* The Ancestry Network (TAN, it's really a network, right?)

* The Genealogy Network (TGN, hmm, tried that acronym already, but this is the most logical one, isn't it?)

* All Your Relatives Belong To Us (AYRBUS)

* Ancestry-Roots-Genealogy.com (ARG.com)

* Family-Roots-Ancestry-Genealogy (FRAG, sort of an All-in-One name, eh?)

Drat - I should have made this the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun topic over the weekend!

Can you help Ancestry.com (previously, The Generations Network, MyFamily.com, Ancestry.com and Ancestry Publishing) figure out their next corporate name? They'll need another one in three to five years, I think. Write your own blog post or make a Comment here.

There is some interesting information in the press release for Ancestry.com watchers like me:

"Ancestry.com is the world's leading online family history resource, with more than 4 billion records, proprietary search technologies and an engaged community of 950,000 subscribers and more than 3.5 million active members."

"Ancestry.com is the world's leading resource for online family history and has digitized and put online over 4 billion records over the past twelve years. Ancestry users have created over ten million family trees containing over one billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, and more than 8 million unique visitors spent more than 4 million hours on an Ancestry Web site in April 2009 (comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide)."

The bottom line is still that it is the biggest commercial player in the genealogy world, appreciated by many, reviled by some, and trying hard to improve their product. This company will continue to grow only if they continue to add database content, improve their indexing and search functions, take their online family trees into the Genealogy Cloud, and greatly improve their book/report creation capabilities.

Best of the Genea-Blogs - June 28 - July 4, 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:

* Online Digitized Collections for Genealogy by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James compiled this list of websites with digitized genealogy books. Great finding aid!

* 20th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy by Jessica Oswalt on the Jessica's Genejournal blog. There were three entries in this monthly Carnival, and the topic was a Carousel (any topic the autohr chose).

* Your Oldest Relative has Photos for You! by Craig Manson in his Appealing Subjects column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Craig points the way to http://www.usa.gov/ which has many photographs taken by and for government agencies. I didn't know this! Thanks, Craig.

* Is Google’s Search Really a Single Field? by The Ancestry Insider on the The Ancestry Insider blog. There are some interesting and useful tips in this post - but they aren't about Google per se - they are about other sites that do a better search than Google does!

* Comment: Successes and Failures of Genealogy Conferences by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. Dick opines about why some genealogy conferences are successful and others flounder. Good ideas and excellent commentary!

* Why Twitter is Great for Genealogists by Tina on the Tina's Genealogical Wish List blog. Tina has excellent thoughts about using Twitter for more than promoting your blog posts.

* Graveyard Rabbits Carnival – July 2009 by Julie Tarr on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There were 15 entries to this monthly Carnival on the subject of Obituaries - submitters were to find both a gravestone and an obituary.

* Preventing Identity Theft with the SSDI by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. This is a timely article by Dick that explains why the SSDI is helpful to preventing identity theft. [I know - I have two of Dick's posts on this list - but they are good!]

* Days Four and Five: Longford, Day 6: Belfast, Day Seven: Belfast to Dublin,
Day Eight: Dublin, Day Nine: Dublin, Day Ten: Dublin, and Day Eleven: Last Day in Dublin by Doona Moughty on Donna's Genealogy Blog. I've been following donna's research trip to Ireland over the past two weeks. It's a great look at how an Irish genealogy expert does research.

* A Critique of Genetic Ancestry Testing in Science Magazine by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Blaine discusses the support of government regulation of genetic testing endorsed by five leading bioethicists, and has some different opinions about the issue.

* Taking on your Brickwalls by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena has an outstanding list of ways to attack your brickwall research problems.

* Will They Appear Again? by Denise Levenick in the Penelope Dreadful column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Penelope writes another fascinating account - what a great picture too. Fiction? Non-fiction? Doesn't matter!

* THE "JUST MAKE UP SOME GENEALOGY LYRICS" GENEAMUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZA! by Bill West on the West in New England blog. Challenge geneabloggers to something and they respond! Here is Bill's summary post for 13 geneablogger posts about genealogy-oriented lyrics sung to well-known music. Enjoy!

* ThinkGenealogy Innovator Award #4 by Mark Tucker on the ThinkGenealogy blog. Mark awards his innovation award to RootsMagic's developer team for implementation of research analysis classification of sources, information, and evidence.in RootsMagic 4. (edited)

* The 75th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Justice and Independence by Colleen McHugh on the Orations of OMcHodoy blog. There were 19 submittals for this Carnival on the subject of Justice and Independence.

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.

UPDATED: 7:30 p.m. Mark Tucker emailed a correction my notes and I updated my item on his ThinkGenealogy blog post. Thanks, Mark.