Ives Family History Blog

The Mormons are Working on Genealogy Web 2.0

This is a cross post from my other genealogy blog, the Sharp Family in NC. I heard from my Fast Forward blog colleague, Paula Thornton, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been working on a project to provide is one and only one instance of every individual -- to be shared in a global representation of genealogy. This allows all work done by individuals to be shared in an open collective.

At first I was a little skeptical. Some of what the Mormons do is extremely helpful. For example, I when I did some family history research a few years ago, I was able to get microfilm of actual church records in England in the early 1600s. However, what they put on their web sites was simply user contributions with no fact checking. I saw the same mistakes repeated over and over again. If you treated the material as clues to validate with actual records then that was sometimes useful. But many people treated the material as facts and so much misinformation was being spread.

Now the Mormons were not unique in this spreading of misinformation, all the other genealogy sites also do no fact checking as far as I can see. I could see the same errors repeated across sites. So I would be very suspect of the data that is conveyed.

However, Paula made a very good point, and this is the potential of web 2.0. She said that the whole purpose of the 'shared' space is for such 'errors' to be shared and fixed collectively. Then we can also see what facts might need more research and run off and do it (or take related trips). This is the point of the genealogy forums but they seem awkward to use which is one reason I started my genealogy blogs. I am sure there will be controversies and perhaps edit wars (like in the wikipedia). However, progress should be made.

Here are some of the things that the Mormons are doing which can be found at the their family history research site.

Record Search - helps you identify your ancestors by letting you search millions of indexed records and by letting you browse images of records that have not yet been indexed.

The FamilySearch Family Tree is their effort to combine their Pedigree Viewer and the Life Browser and combine them into a more full-featured application. The current version updates the person page and adds an event map.

Standard Finder allows for a search for a standardized name, date or place based on your input. The Standard Finder will present the standards that will be used in future releases of new FamilySearch.

The FamilySearch Research Wiki forms a community of research experts and interested genealogists that share up to date information on how to research sources for information about your ancestors

The Genealogists, a FeedBurner Network

FeedBurner has launched a new service to give its publishers the ability to organize themselves into networks, groups of folks who publish similar content and want band together to leverage the power of many to cross-promote their content and attract more readers.

The Genealogists is a network comprised of feeds from genealogy blogs. I am pleased to recently join this group through my Ives Family History Blog. The Genealogists, a FeedBurner Network coordinated by Blaine T. Bettinger who writes the Genetic Genealogist. This blog examines the intersection between traditional genealogical techniques and modern genetic research. Thanks to Miriam Midkiff who writes the blog, AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors, for recommending me to this group.

I am also a member of the Enterprise Content Management Feedburner Network through my Portals and KM blog.

FamilyInHistory.com – a New Genealogy Tool

I recently heard from Dave Grow, CEO, FamilyInHistory.com. It is a genealogy tool that allows families to instantly create a website and social network around their family history. There is an administrator who decides which privileges to give each person who signs up for the website, including whether they can upload pictures, stories, timeline events and more to their ancestors' pages. It offers GEDCOM import to allow genealogists who already have their information on genealogy software to upload their database which works as the backbone of their family website.

They offer a free 30-day trial and then the family social networks/websites are a subscription service. After a lot of feedback from genealogists, they decided that most of people would rather pay a subscription than have their family website surrounded by advertising. The best way to understand the service is to watch their short FamilyInHistory.com demo. It looks very useful. Here is a sample site that uses the tool, the Jared Pratt Family Association.

SnapGenie - Share Stories Behind Photos

Here is another content sharing site that seems well suited for genealogy. This site allows you to share stories behind your photos with MyFamily.com SnapGenie. You can build narrated slide shows of your pictures. As the site says, "Upload up to 50 photos per show. Use a phone to narrate your slide show. Publish it and share with family and friends. With the click of a button you are ready to share your SnapGenie show." This looks like a good idea, especially for family history. Is this the next You Tube?

Genealogy and Web 2.0

The web is longer simply a source of information provided by organizations. Now millions of individuals participate, provide content, and exchange ideas through blogs, wikis, community sites, and other emerging means. And it not limited to text. Pictures get exchanged through Flickr, video through YouTube, audio through iTunes, and these are only a few examples. The combination of accessibility, transparency, and archiving that the new interactive web provides can also open new opportunities for genealogists to connect and exchange research. There are many aspects of Web 2.0. Blogs are one of the tools it offers and there are many new genealogy blogs. Other useful tools are wikis for the collective development of content and social booking marking sites like del.icio.us and Connotea for saving and sharing links to key sites. I will be writing more on Web 2.0 and genealogy. One of my other blogs, Portals and KM goes into Web 2.0 on much greater depth.

Promoting Visits to Your Genealogy Site or Blog: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

I have been studying search engine optimization (SEO) methods for several years. I do not claim to be a technical expert but I understand the basics. This is the way to get search engines to notice you and increase visitors to your genealogy site (or any other site). I find that most of my new visitors come through search engines, and mostly through Google. The first step is deciding what to get noticed for. In other words, what keywords you want people to find your through (e.g. the names of your family, the name of your site or blog).

Then you try to be consistent in your use of terms. However, do not do anything that does not make sense to your readers. For example, do not put keywords into sentences where they do not make sense. The search engines will catch on to this and not list you and your readers will not like it and not come back.

I recently came across this free SEO book by Jonathan Leger that I learned new stuff from. While, it is designed to get you to buy the guy’s software there were some good tips that made sense in the free text that do not require the purchase.

I like the way he explains keywords and how to set them up. In this context he introduces Digital Ponit’s free Keyword Suggestion Tool. It gives the relative number of searches on related terms so you can pick the most popular ways of expressing a concept. For example, there were 6 times more searches for genealogy than for family history. Various methods for optimization are covered, both stuff you do to your blog and stuff you do to promote in outside the actual blog. He explains some of the logic behind most search engines so you can see what might help and what might not. While, I do not agree with everything in the book, especially the idea of paid inbound links, you can sort through what is useful and what is not.

The book is consistent with what I know so the new stuff (to me) seems plausible. Here is a link to the book, Adsense SEO made Easy. It is not limited to Google Adsense seo help.

Disclaimer – if you use this link and if you actually buy the software through the links in the book, I get a commission. I get nothing for you getting the free book or if you buy the software in another way. I have not yet bought the software and do not know if I will so I cannot endorse it one way or the other. That is not the purpose of passing on the book but I did not want you to be surprised by the commission thing as it comes up in the book.

Hope this is helpful. Pleas feel free to ask questions in the comments section of this post.

Jill Fallon on Genealogy

Jill Fallon has the blog, Legacy Matters It has the tag line - "Because your life counts and what you leave behind is the evidence of the life you lived. Why not tell it your way." A few days ago she made some nice comments about my genealogy blogs and offered this quote, "genealogy is collecting dead relatives and an occasional live cousin." I have found both in my family history research.

Genealogy Blog Advice from Kimberly Powell

Here is a useful piece by Kimberly Powell on creating your genealogy family history blog. It is divided into seven steps. There are brief suggestions for each step and a link to more extensive tips. Examples of other genealogy blogs to use as models are found with the links. These steps are useful for any blog but Kimberly is a genealogist and offers tips specific genealogy blogs. I added a few comments after them.

1. Determine Your Purpose - no surprise the same as Lorelle VanFossen but it is always necessary to state as some many people skip this step.
2. Select a Blogging Platform – there are many low cost and free ones to choose.
3. Select the Format & Theme for Your Blog – be sure to build off the purpose
4. Write Your First Blog Post – but plan a series to get started with
5. Publicize Your Blog – there are many ways to do this. Look also at the work off Robin Good and Seth Godin
6. Keep it Fresh – yes but also go back and refine as you learn more – this is one difference with family history blogs

Listing of Genealogy Blog Directories

There are many genealogy blogs (see yesterdays's Introduction to Genealogy Blogs). Here is the start of a list of genealogy blog directories. I was actually expecting to find more given the popularity of the topic and number of genealogy blogs. I will be researching and writing about these directories more and will continue to add to the list in the side bar of this blog. Your recomendations for additions are welcome.

Genealogy Blogs and Newsletters- offers a “directory of online genealogy weblogs, journals, newsletters, and random writings selected by Joe Beine” as his favorites. The Accidental Genealogist (see yesterday) was one.

Blog Flux Genealogy Blog Directory also a long list including Coffee/Coffey Call on the family by that name and Southern Shades from East Point Georgia.

Cyndi’s List has a large number of genealogy blogs by categories.

Bloggapedia has a short list of genealogy blogs as does Best of the Web – Blogs. They were very similar.

The Open Directory Project has a long list of genealogy resources, many of those are blogs but they are not separated out.

The Linkpendium listed 5,654,053 genealogy sites a few days ago – 625,334 for localities in the US and 5,028,719 for surnames worldwide. It does not separate out by blogs but many of the sites are blogs.

Brit Blog has a list of genealogy blogs by their members

Great Genealogy Blog Guidance: Lorelle VanFossen

A number of helpful writers have contributed tips on starting and sustaining a genealogy blog. There are genealogy blogs that work like regular blogs and provide news and ideas on genealogy in general such as The Accidental Genealogist and The Genealogue. However, as I wrote in the overview, building a family history genealogy blog is different from a regular blog that posts on current events and shares ideas These blogs generally do not go back and makes changes to prior posts. They just move forward.

A family history blog is an online draft history that, in my case, I hope to continue to improve. I intend to continue to modify this document on an ongoing basis and welcome all comments, additions, and corrections. This includes going back and correcting material already posted when new evidence arrives.

This blog is primarily a family history blog but I will occasionally address common genealogy issues such as in this post. In this case I am cross posting on my other genealogy blog, Sharp Family in NC because of the common topic. I keep refining how these blogs work. I have added a number of side bars that I hope are useful to readers. Since I use my genealogy blog as my own research tool, these links are also added to help my own efforts.

Lorelle VanFossen has written a wonderful series of articles on how to write a genealogy blog. They include such topics as Starting With a Purpose and a Plan, What’s the Difference Between a Genealogy Blog and a Normal Blog?, and Determining What Features I Want in My Blog.

Her work includes some great advice. The first article, having a purpose and a plan, is the most frequent mistake I see in initiatives that use technology. As a consultant to organizations on how to use new technology for over 25 years, I have seen the adoption of technology for its own sake to occur over and over again. It usually ends in disappointment but it continues.

In my blog, I wanted to share the family history research I conducted several years and, until now, only gave to my cousins. I hope to learn from readers and meet new relatives. I also want to learn more about genealogy blogs, in general. I have written a blog, Portals and KM, on business uses of emerging technologies, including blogs for almost three years. It has a good readership and I have met many new people with common interest through my blog. Now I want to see what will happen with a genealogy blog. Lorelle’s advice was helpful to me as someone experienced in blogging but new to genealogy blogs. I am sure it will be even more helpful to people new to blogs.

She has a useful comparison between regular blogs and genealogy blogs. Some differences with genealogy include: Stronger Inter-linking and Relationships With Outside Resources and Content, more scanned Documents, and stronger use of footnotes and citations. I use citations on occasion and lots of footnotes in my series on Who was William Ives' Wife?

There is much more and I encourage you to look at her series.

Introduction to Genealogy Blogs

Here are just a few of the many genealogy blogs that have energed in the past few years. Some are family specific and others cover genealogy in general. In this blog focus mostly on the Ives family and related families but I will cover general genealogy issues on occasion as I do in this post. I will be researching and writing about more genealogy blogs. I will also continue to add to the list in the side bar of this blog. You suggestions and favorites are welcomed.

Accidental Genealogist – a blog for genealogists who like to write and writers who happen to be genealogists. The writer, Lisa Alzo is a genealogist and writer currently residing in New York. She is the author of five books and many articles. I liked her post on the Godfrey Memorial Library which is a great resource that I discovered on a business trip to Connecticut.

Genealogy Blog was “started by Joe Edmon and Leland Meitzler in 2003 as a place for genealogists to come and find the best the Internet has to offer for genealogists.” It is a group blog run by several genealogists. It has a lot of genealogy related news.

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog – related to the site by the same name, Olive Tree Genealogy. There is a lot of useful date on genealogy topics with lots of links like , Massachusetts Miscellaneous Data Online.

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter is a daily “newsletter for genealogy consumers, packed with straight talk - hold the sugar coating - whether the vendors like it or not!” It does seem to have good useful tips.

Steve’s Genealogy Blog - Steve Danko lives in San Francisco, California and has been actively working on his family’s history since 1999. It looks very weel researched and has illustrations of vital records which I know is not easy to do. Kudos to Steve.

Coffee/Coffey Call on the families by that name. Looks very thorough and well researched.

Southern Shades by E. P. Graves, Acting Vice President, East Point Historical Society (Georgia) and Member of the Board Of Trustees, East Point Ave. United Methodist Church. It starts with a Dylan quote and has great illustrations.

Town Down the River by Asher Abrams on the family of Ken McLintock and Stella Leonard Block. It is full of nice illustrations and personal stories such as Tales My Mother Told Me by Ken Mclintock. .

The Genealogue covers the topic in general and has an extensive list of humorous top ten items such as Top Ten Least Useful Ancestry.com Databases and Top Ten Signs You're Obsessed With Genealogy.

Genealogy and How provides a daily blog on “what’s new in genealogy” It was recently publishing CousinConnect queries sorted by last name. I did not see Ives or Sharp. There was also a post about how you can put a family photo on your Kleenix tissue box.

Brief Overview of Genealogy Web Sites

I will engage in general genealogy issues or provide summaries of genealogy sources on occasion. They will be found under the category, General Genealogy Issues. This is cross posted but a bit different from what I wrote on my other genealogy blog, Sharp Family in NC. Listed below are some of the main genealogy web sites. I will continue to research this and provide more later, as well as add them to the list on the side bar of this blog. I am going write a separate post on genealogy blogs.

I have found each of these sites useful. However, the family tree forums on most of them rely on information from many sources and there is no quality control or fact check on the information. So it is reader beware. I treat what they provide as clues, rather than facts, unless there is primary evidence to back up what is provided.

There is a tendency for people to copy what they see and accept it so misinformation gets spread around like virus and gets accepted as fact just by the sheer volume of similar content. This was the case when I looked into the name of William Ives wife (see Who was William Ives' Wife?: Part One) For example, a recent check of William Ives in the Ancestry.com family trees found many references to William Ives in many family trees. Almost all of them included Hannah Dickerman as his wife. While they may be right I have yet to see any record from the time that indicates this and some evidence against it. However, there is also no credible alternative to Hannah.

Having said this caution, clues can be a very useful starting point and I certainly made extensive use of these sites. You can also find access to primary documents through them and I have done this through Ancestory.com and Family Search.

Ancestry.com seems to be the most pervasive genealogy service that is not free. You can find some of the information for less expensive sources or even free ones but they bring it together. You can also access some of their services for free. But you cannot go far without paying.

Rootsweb is the free service of Ancestry.com and describes itself as the oldest and largest free genealogy service. There is also Access genealogy.com which showed up in Google searches for Ives family history. It says it is free but when you drill to get to actual records it takes you to the Ancestry.com site where you have to pay. You can access family trees that people have provided but like other free sites, there is no editing I looked at one for William Ives and found a number of mistakes including children born several years after he died. I do not think they had sperm banks in those days. I do not claim to be perfect either but things like this should be caught.

Family Search is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They do it as a free service for everyone because “they are motivated by love for their deceased family members and desire to serve them.” They also allow families to make covenants with their ancestors once they are identified. Whether you agree with their goals or not, they services they offer can be useful. I was able, for example, to order parish records of London parishes in the 1600s and in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England in the late 1500s and early 1600s as part of my research on William Ives and his wife. On the other hand, like many sites, there is no fact checking on the family trees you can access.

Gencircles is an online service where you can upload your family trees. They give you control on you work which is generally a good thing but like the other sites it means there is no independent fact checking on anything you see. I found it useful.

Geocities has not become part of Yahoo as I recently discovered. It was purchased by Yahoo in 1999 but I do not remember this connection being so prominent in 2004 when I spent more time there. They now offer a free web site or a free blog. But the free service is fairly basic. There are paid subscription options at reasonable rates that give you more options and storage. You read the history of geocities in the wikipedia.

Genealogy Search Help for Google - helpful tool to enhance Google searches for ancestors.

So here are a few of the basic sites. Family Chronicle has a list of their top ten favorites and none of the above are included except Rootsweb. Although almost half the links no longer work. Their top choice is Cyndi’s List. They describe it as “probably the most popular genealogy index on the web. Cyndi's site features over 16,800 links, categorized and cross-referenced, in over 60 categories, and is updated with impressive frequency.”

What are your favorites? I will publish updates in the future.