Rootstech 2018

RootsTech 2018 Theme: Connect. Belong.

The Return Trip

I have previously written about my trip to Rootstech/FGS 2015.

In February 2018 I shall be making another trip to Salt Lake City for the Rootstech conference.

I have taken time out since Rootstech started to watch the live streaming each year. However, after attending in 2015, I really miss the buzz of spending almost a week with other genealogists.

It is not just the conference with all the variety of learning sessions available. But the opportunity to meet up with online friends and make new ones.

I have registered to get the Early Bird Price and reserved my hotel room. I am in the process of arranging my flights and then there is travel insurance and ESTA to organise. So although it is almost five months away I have plenty to do in the meantime. 

I should arrive on Sunday evening and hope to get almost 2 days to research in the Family History Library. Getting there early means I can take advantage of the Tuesday check-in and not miss any of the four days.

This is a great theme, for only today I made a connection, to a fellow WikiTree genealogist. With all the divisions in the world, being able to connect and belong to one great community with a common goal, is the best feeling in the world.

Staying Active

No this post is not about exercise (not in the true sense of the word anyway). I might say it was about a different type of exercise, one that requires the use of the brain, writing blog posts.

This year has seen a dearth of posts on this blog. One can speculate as regards the reasons why this has happened. Basically though it is down to the simple fact that other things in life often have to take priority. For most of us genealogy is a hobby which we do in our "spare" time and the amount of time we can devote to pursuit of our family will depend on the circumstances of each individual and their passion for what they do. Professionals may have even less time to devote to activities which do not bring a financial reward (though many do participate as a way of getting themselves known to those who may require their services). That being said for many years the number of blogs about genealogy have been growing. Some months ago I read a post by Julie Cahill Tarr on this topic James Tanner wrote about this on his Genealogy Star blog and Amy Johnson Crow then did a nice follow on post . If you have not seen these take a look and check out the comments below each post.

So lack of posts is not specific to this blog. However this blog differs from most of the others in that it has posts from genealogists across the globe. 
As genealogists know with the growth of the internet it is becoming easier to do research for some records without having to travel but this can mean we are less familiar with the records or they need translating. Being able to approach others more familiar with those records or seeing them discussing that type of record can be extremely useful. This blog has the potential to be the place to come for collaboration from both a reader and writer perspective.

How can we get bloggers to contribute more?
Does this blog need support from Geneabloggers Tribe (Many of the contributors past and present are members of Geneabloggers Tribe and several are part of the admin team)?

I don't know the answer and ultimately it has got to be something that Julie Goucher who had both the idea and organised the set up of this blog is happy with since it is still her blog.

Please leave any constructive comments you might have as this blog is all about collaboration. I am sure that the other 4 bloggers that have posted this year will agree that we would love for more bloggers to be contributing.

Being The Bridge.

I have considered this before back in 2014, but due to circumstances of age, losing loved ones, and time, it has come to the forefront of my mind again.  My mom and her twin sister who are the last of their core family of 13 children are nearing 90 and in ill health.

My mother on the left. 

My mother had been the bridge for years in her family reaching out to her nieces and nephews as well as siblings. Now she can't communicate because of health; this caused me to look around and realize that a fractionated family would soon to lose all connection if intervention didn't happen. My first cousins, I was not so much worried about, but the future generations, yes, that concerned me.
Part of the awareness was, I had been pulling my father's family back together reaching back to descendants of my great great great grandfather because they had all lost contact up to the present generation. I started with one cousin and built upon that.
One of the ways I have taken action,was to begin by making private family groups on Facebook and adding the cousins to the family group as I found and collected them.  By sharing pictures and stories, I have been able to reach down to 3rd and 4th cousins that have felt the call to learn of their origins. Below is examples of my journey. I have shared before, but I am sharing it again in the hopes to see others find inspiration to reach out and be the bridge to hold their families together.
When I first began my genealogy blog Branching Out Through The Years, my purpose was to preserve the memories of my husband known on the blog as "The Hero"for our grandchildren.  He really wanted to know them and wanted them to know him.  His choice was taken from him by cancer.

The Hero and I with oldest daughter's first son.

After that, I decided to write the stories of my associations with my relatives, aunts, uncles, grandparents for my children and grandchildren because for the most part they never met or really knew any of them.  This grew to posts about ancestors I wanted to know about and sharing findings with those who were also interested.

Old letters scrapbooked are loved by future generation seeking to know about an individual

When I started on my mother-in-law's family, it was very exciting for her.  She shared her personal stories.  Many times I sat on the floor at her feet and wrote down as she told me.  My sister-in-law also had her write down her personal history so now we have it in her writing.  There is something special about seeing their story in their handwriting as opposed to a transcription or memory by someone else.

Every time I find a book, story, document about an ancestor, I will connect it to the FamilySearch Family Tree , which is a collaborative effort, as a source for others and myself to go back and read to learn more about that ancestor. Their stories make them real, not just a name.
I have used my blog and memes to writing some of my stories. I know, if you don't tell the stories, they are lost and if you find a story you need to share. I can't tell you how many times I look at at family name and wish I knew something of their story.  I have envy that I have to fuss at myself about, when others talk about their family journals.  My dad's family was closed mouth, and now I am recreating their stories.

A great grandfather and one of his sons belonged to the Anti Horse Thief Association. At least they weren't horse thieves. 

There has been research and studies done that shows how sharing your family history and stories shores up your family members when they have challenges, or even national trauma. It is called The Stories That Bind Us.
 I ask you to join in saving the stories for future generations, Be the catalyst in your extended families for sharing, caring, and reaching out to pull cousins together.

as a footnote: I apologize for missing a couple of months. I have an excuse, we had our first core family reunion, first time some of the family had met new members, and first time some had seen each other in 8 years. It was an awesome happening... The other excuse was my mother was sick. Hope that things are back on an even keel again and I will see you next month. Blessings wished for all ya'all from Texas, United States of America.

My First Impressions of Twile - Winner of The Peoples Choice Award at Rootstech 2016

This photograph is from the Twile Blog to find out more see the link below.

What is Twile?

Twile is a website which creates a timeline of your family memories that you can share with those in your family who may not be the avid genealogist that you are. 

Only the people you allow can see what you share but it allows us to share all those moments that we forget to record in our software programs.

Here is a link to why it was created and I shall leave you to explore their blog to find out more.

How I found the site

I first found out about this website when the semi finalists for the Innovator Showdown at Rootstech 2016 were announced and decided to sign up for the trial to see what it was all about. 

The Demonstration at Rootstech 2016

Life got in the way and I saw the video of the Innovator Showdown Semi-Final and decided I needed to get my GEDCOM file uploaded to the site so that I can start adding memories and sharing with my family. I know that many others are interested in this site as it won the vote from the audience including those watching online. Here is a link to the Innovator Showdown Finals 2016 if you have not had a chance to see it.

Exploring the website

I am only just starting to use this but I am impressed by the feedback from the team who run the website. They will be inundated with people wanting to join and try out the website. They are still managing to get back to answer individual queries and provide a solution in a timely manner.
Customer service is so important if you want the users to keep coming back.

Gedcom is up and working and I am adding profile pictures to my ancestors and adding living members. You can invite your family by email, and as the website can be accessed by tablets and smartphones, I expect it to be popular with the younger generations of the family.

The comment from my son after I sent an email invite  was " I received an email saying you added me to your family tree, I thought I was already a member! ". This sparked a conversation and I showed him the family timeline I am building which currently has only my side of the family and my husband. He looked at the date his grandfather died, knowing it was the same day that his cousin was born and the date the following week when we had the cremation, these are things that he remembers. 
He also asked if it was private so I told him that only the family could see this if I invite them. 
The more of them that join, even just the free part of the site, the better it will be for everyone. 
I love the timeline as it really helps to put things together in relation to each other in a way that those in the family, not "doing genealogy", can interact with and add contributions.
I like that you can add more than just the usual things like births, marriages and deaths. 
I have uploaded a few photographs from a couple of family get togethers today as milestone events.

From what I have seen so far I am almost certain I will sign up to be a premier member. 

We should all share in the mission to get the younger generations engaged, to ensure that the stories and memories we are creating today and have created or had passed on to us are saved, in a way that our families will want to share in the future. 
Photographs and stories are what inspire us to find out more. 
We have so many ways to record and store them but the best thing we can do is to share.

Just as I finish writing this there is more good news for Twile in this announcement. 
I already have an ongoing subscription with find my past so hopefully this will lead to integration between the sites.

The Slave Name Roll Project

February is Black History Month in the United States. It seemed an appropriate time to write about DNA matches to two fourth cousins twice removed, who happened to be African-American. Here's how it all came about.

Dad had a fairly extensive tree built out with no sources. I spent a couple of years working backwards just sourcing his research, correcting the few mistakes I found, and extending his research when possible until I got to the period of time just after the Revolutionary War. It's about this time frame in the U.S.when you need to rely on different record sets with which I was then unfamiliar. So I started learning about the types of records I would need to use to learn about my family before and just after the Revolutionary War. These are primarily wills, property deeds, estate inventory lists, court records (it was a surprisingly litigious society) and old books about family genealogies. I learned my ancestors owned land and grew tobacco or cotton as cash crops. I suspected I would come face-to-face with slavery, which was known by many as the "peculiar institution." 

Image of a watercolor entitled "Old Plantation (Slaves Dancing on a South
Carolina Plantation) circa 1785-1795 attributed to John Rose; courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons

Just as I was sorting through my feelings about finding slave owners in my ancestry, I received a message through Ancestry.com about DNA matches with two people, whose tests were administered by their cousin. He was the one who contacted me. He believed the unknown shared ancestor must be from Bedford County, Virginia. I looked at the DNA matches he referenced and agreed. The geographic "hotspot" was definitely Bedford County, which made it likely our shared ancestors were from my Beard or Mitchell lines. These lines intermarried frequently. I had researched my great grandmother's Beard line extensively. Her mother, my great great grandmother, was Barbara Ann Mitchell (1841-1890), and I had done no research on the Mitchell family.

Wood engraving entitled "The Inspection of a Negro" originally published
in Captain Canot circa 1854; courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I gave myself a somewhat successful lecture about not judging my ancestors by today's moral code and began researching my great great grandmother. As I worked backward to Barbara Ann's great grandfather, Robert Mitchell (1714-1799), the shaky leafs on my DNA results went nuts. Turns out, I'm loaded with Mitchell DNA.

The surprise was discovering William Armstead Claytor, a son of Barbara Ann's second cousin, Harvey Claytor (1800-1871). William was African-American and the likely son Harvey Claytor and the family's slave cook, Letitia. After the Civil War, William moved to Floyd County, Virginia, bought land, and raised a family of 13 children who all went on to become teachers and doctors. I was so moved by the family's accomplishments during a period when many laws were enacted which legalized discrimination that I started thinking about what I could do to help my African-American genealogy colleagues.

William Armstead Claytor and his wife with 10 of their 13 children;
courtesy of Ancestry.com member cclaytonarizona

At the same time I was thinking about how to help, Cather Meder-Dempsey, author of Opening Doors in Brick Walls, posted a story about her slave owning ancestor in three parts. Reading her story gave me a brainstorm (at least I think so). I would start a Slave Name Roll modeled on fellow Worldwide Genealogy blogger, Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project. Heather graciously gave me permission to steal her format and we were off to the races.

Slave Name Roll Project

The project was launched on the last day of February with links to named slaves of two people. I honestly had no idea how it would be received. I tweeted a link to the page and posted the link on my genealogy bloggers community Facebook page. As you can see by looking at the page nearly a month later, the response has been gratifying. And keeps me incredibly busy keeping up with the contributions. It's a good thing I'm retiring at the end of May! I hope you will contribute if you are able.

The success has started me thinking about the long-term future of the project. Am I the correct curator? Would another group or person be a more appropriate? What else should be done to the foster continuous collaboration between slave descendants and those with slave owners in our ancestry? I'd love your thoughts.

A Glorious GeneaYear

Over on my GeniAus blog at the end of each Geneayear I have asked my Genimates to reflect on their Geneactivities over the past year and respond to the Accentuate the Positive Geneameme. 

I usually post a compilation of links to the responses at the GeniAus blog but this year I will do something different. I am posting them here because the responses so far have come from all corners of the globe, they demonstrate that ours is truly a Worldwide Community. 

In a world where there is so much doom and gloom and in which people bellyache about not realising unreachable goals it is uplifting to read of the Geneatriumphs of our geneablogging friends. An added bonus for me is that I always get a response or two from geneabloggers who are new to me and so, with these new additions, my RSS feed becomes more bloated but my geneaworld expands.

It is not too late to add your post to this list of links so, if you have the time, please join in this activity and notify me of your post.

Here are the responses to date:

Pam Carter from the US: http://mymaineancestry.blogspot.com/2015/01/2014-accentuate-positive.html

Pauleen Cass from the Northern Territory: https://cassmob.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/accentuate-the-positive-2014/

Shelley from ACT: http://twigsofyore.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/2014-quality-over-quantity.html

Alex Daw from Queensland: http://familytreefrog.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/accentuate-positive-geneameme-2014.html

Sue Donaldson from Scotland: http://scotsue-familyhistoryfun.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/accentuate-positive-geneameme-2014.html

Dara from Ireland: http://blackravengenealogy.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/2014-in-review-accentuate-positive.html

Fran Ellsworth: http://branchingoutthroughtheyears.blogspot.com/2015/01/response-to-geniaus-accentuate-positive.html

Janet Few from England:  http://thehistoryinterpreter.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/accentuate-the-positive-geneameme-2014/ 

Jo Ann Fitzgerald from Australia: http://ofmyfleshandblood.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/accentuate-positive-geneameme.html

GeniAus from Sydney: http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/time-for-reflection-accentuate-positive.html

Kirsty Gray from England: http://family-wise.co.uk/atp-2015/
Kirsty Gray - Part 2: http://family-wise.co.uk/atp-part2/

Victoria Green from Victoria: ; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">http://campaspegenealogy.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/accentuate-positive-geneameme-2014.html

Rebel Hand from England : http://rebelhand.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/accentuate-the-positive-2014-2/

Shauna Hicks from Queensland: http://www.shaunahicks.com.au/accentuate-the-positive-geneameme-2014/

Iwikiwi from England: http://blog.iwikiwi.com/2015/01/my-genealogy-year-2014-accentuate-the-positive/

Tessa Keough from the US: http://keoughcorner.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/accentuate-positive-2014-edition.html

Fran Kitto from Australia: http://travelgenee.com/accentuate-positive-2014-geneameme/

Elizabeth Lapointe from Canada: http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/accentuate-positive.html

NikiMarie from the US: http://mypeopleinhistory.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/2014-in-review/

Shannon Thomas from the US: http://shannonmthomas.blogspot.com/2015/01/accentuate-positive-2014-geneameme.html

Memories - How do we keep them?

Are you a Memory Keeper?

This photograph is a group of nurses? who worked at a military hospital near Southampton, Hampshire 
Who knows who they were?

As we get older and we start to lose the older members of the family we realise that much of what we want to know about our ancestors has been lost. The official documents may survive but what happened to those individual memories have they survived. In most cases the sad truth is that much of our oral history dies with each generation.

Whilst today's generations may be more literate than their ancestors with the advent of computers are we changing the way in which we record our memories and if so how do we capture them for the generations to come.
This blog post by author Steve Robinson illustrates what I am trying to say Technology, and its impact on genealogical research.

Many genealogists own or have created scrapbooks containing pictures and mementos from their family, others have albums of photos and cuttings and other documents in paper or digital format. 
The organised amongst us have them carefully catalogued, but for many this is a project in progress. 
Most genealogists will be like me and have a pile of unidentified photographs that we will probably never identify.


So we already have plenty to keep us occupied surely just getting on top of the photos and documents is enough. 

Is this really all that we want to pass on to the next generation? 

Will they be interested in a bunch of photos and papers?

We can interview the family we are in close contact with but what about the more distant family?

Devon Lee in her blog post from the 10th October discusses about how we might inspire the younger family members to preserve the stories of today which is part of what I am trying to do with a project I am trying to set up.

If you have not been involved with Julie Goucher's Book of Me then I suggest you take a look at it, and ask as many members of the family as possible to participate with as many of the prompts as possible.
Don't forget to ask them to either send you a copy or let you know where they have recorded their memories and thoughts. This way you can provide your descendants with the opportunity to connect with other members of the family and their reflections. 

As many of the younger members of my family are on facebook, I am going to set up a secret group there, so that our family can share photos and memories and post anything they want to about their memories of the family. I will provide links to the Book of Me and any other sites that may help with ideas, and also provide suggestions on where and how to record anything they want to leave as a record, but not share with the group.

If I am in contact with family not on facebook I will create a pdf file that I can email to them to let them know what I am doing and request that they send me anything they want to add to the group.

The ultimate goal is to get as many of the family as possible involved so the whole thing needs to be flexible and hopefully the technology will work for us.

We all have our own memories and see events in our lives from our own perspective. Knowing more about siblings and cousins and their memories of the family will leave much more of a legacy for everyone.

FHISO is back in action. User input needed.

In the few weeks since the beginning of August, the Family History Information Standards Organisation (FHISO) has burst back into life after an apparent slumber.  This is good news for all genealogists.

The Prize

We live in a world where many things we take for granted have been made possible by technical standards.  For example, the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) standards underpin the technology behind this blog.

Imagine:

• online records that come with the citation and provenance data embedded in a format that is understood by any genealogy database you choose
• sharing your family history with other researchers, confident that no information has been lost or corrupted
• new tools that are compatible with existing software

FHISO’s goals are:

FHISO shall work transparently and collaboratively to identify, develop, disseminate, and maintain voluntary, open, consensus-based technical standards, including necessary supporting documentation and services. The standards shall be publicly available at no or nominal cost on a non-discriminatory basis. Anyone may implement the standards for any purpose, without royalty or license fees. These rights, granted to users or implementers, may not be revoked by FHISO.

The open nature of FHISO is important because no company or organization holds a monopoly or undue influence on technical developments.

Have a listen to the interview on FGS radio with Roger Moffat and GeneJ in December 2012 for a flavour of the possibilities.

A Short History of FHISO

FHISO was established in February 2012. Many genealogists had been frustrated with the shortcomings of GEDCOM for many years. Things came to a head in 2010, when DearMyrtle and Russ Worthington demonstrated that family history data did not transfer between programs properly, which resulted in the formation of BetterGEDCOM. Different programs interpret the current de-facto GEDCOM standard inconsistently, and implementations vary in the degree of compliance. GEDCOM was developed in the 1980s and the last widely implemented update (version 5.5.1) was in 1999, so a replacement that can handle modern research methods and cope with newly available tools is long overdue.  BetterGEDCOM lead to the establishment of FHISO.

Between May 2012 and May 2013 the following vendors announced support for FHISO: Ancestry.com
RootsMagic, Inc.
WikiTree.com
ourFamily•ology, Inc
Calico Pie Limited (produces Family Historian)
Coret Genealogie
brightsolid (now D C Thompson family history)
Mocavo (since purchased by D C Thompson)
Eneclann

In addition genealogy and family history society bodies on both sides of the Atlantic also announced their support:
The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) of the United States
Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) of the United Kingdom

An open call for papers issued in March 2013 remains in force.  To date over 50 papers have been submitted.  An initial flurry in the first 3 months was followed by a steady trickle.

In June 2013 Drew Smith’s appointment as chair was announced.  And then things went quiet. It has taken a long while to fill other positions. On 5 August 2014, the Technical Standing Committee (TSC) was announced and the board was announced on 15 September 2014. The TSC has proposed four initial exploratory groups that will start the process.

Two email forums for the Technical Standing Committee were launched on 12 August 2014.  The low volume read only list, tsc-announce is for announcements.  Much more interesting is the tsc-public for discussion.  This list has been active with lively discussion exceeding 500 messages in just over a month.

How users can contribute

Whether or not you are of a technical inclination, please do take a look at the papers and discussions. If you find the papers too technical or the forum discussions too lengthy, don’t despair. The discussions have already spawned 3 blog posts on sources and citations:

• Cite Seeing from Tony Proctor at Parallax View
• Genealogy Source Citations and FHISO - A Simpler Proposal from Randy Seaver at GeneaMusings
• Standardizing Sources and Citation Templates from Louis Kessler at Behold

A balance of contributions from genealogist users (that’s YOU) and technologists is needed for success. Please let them know about the many ways you do research in reality and how you use many kinds of programs and services that are not designed for genealogy. Tell them what is useful and what is not. Give them frequent reality checks and ask for explanations of anything in the proposals that is not clear to you.

Vendors and service providers also stand to gain from FHISO standards through meeting their customers’ needs.

Are YOU ready to join the collaboration?

Use FreeBMD postems to find new relatives

FreeBMD is an ongoing project to transcribe civil registration indexes of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to those transcribed indexes. FreeBMD is an immensely useful site, and I like it even more since it produced the unexpected bonus of contact with new relatives via 'postems'.

An excellent feature of FreeBMD (but one that is overlooked by many genealogists) is the ability to add a short message (250 characters maximum) called a postem to any entry in the FreeBMD database.

The postem can tell people how to contact you - or (in keeping with our 'collaboration' theme) if you buy a certificate that turns out to be for the wrong person, you can help other researchers by putting details from the certificate in a postem.

Here is a step-by-step example of how I used a postem.

I searched FreeBMD for the birth registration of Bertha OAKLEY, who (according to census records) was apparently born in 1895 in County Durham. This is the search screen.

The search result looked like this.

I clicked the 'Info' icon and added a postem with my contact details.

When someone adds a postem, an envelope icon appears beside the entry, as shown below. You click the icon to read the postem.

To my delight, a distant relative contacted me as a result of my postem! She had information about Bertha OAKLEY's grandfather, Benjamin PEACOCK, who was a brother of my great-grandmother, Mary HUDSON nee PEACOCK.

This was just one of several similar successes that I've had with FreeBMD. I now always add a postem for each index entry that is (or could be) for my family.

I also use the 'search postems' feature to quickly check whether anyone else has added one that may be relevant to me. Here is an example of a search...

...and the search result, showing two postems that fit the criteria.

If you have used FreeBMD to find births, marriages and deaths for your family, I urge you to:

1. Go back and add postems to all of those entries.
2. Include an email address that will be valid long-term, such as a free Gmail address from Google.
3. Check the text carefully before you click 'create', because postems cannot be changed or deleted.
4. Before you start, read the Postems Help page.

Have you benefited from using postems on FreeBMD, or used them in different ways?
~ ~
You might also like:

• CuriousFox: a gazetteer and message system


• Widen the Search: a Genealogy Success Story


• Finding Genealogy Data in an Unexpected Country


• Genealogy 2014 - 2015: Successes and Goals


• A Genealogy Indexing Addict in Australia

The Changing Face of Genealogy Collaboration

We talk about collaboration and telling the stories of our family almost as though it is something new. Surely this is the real reason why so many of us get interested in genealogy in the first instance. Whatever our age we all like to hear about things that have happened be it last week or last century.

This month I have decided to write about collaboration and how the perception of genealogy has changed due to the internet and our increasing use of what is available to connect with others.

When I first started researching our family history (I am also researching my husband's family) the internet was in its infancy and we were on dial up. This was expensive and you would go online pick up your emails and read them later.

Collaborating with others was difficult but not impossible and like many others I used some of the Rootsweb mailing lists of relevance to my research interests.

The only other way of communicating with fellow researchers was to belong to a family history society to find other researchers and contact them by post.

Research in those early days, even just finding a reference to order a certificate, meant heading off to record offices or local archives where you had to trawl through microfiche or film to find what you wanted. There were some indexes available mainly through local family history societies which did help you find the right roll of film.

Programmes like WDYTYA http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007t575 which is showing its 11th series in the UK have changed public perception and sparked interest in the hobby. Despite only a small proportion of the resources available being online, what is there has made a difference to the way we both conduct and record our research.

These changes have taken place over a relatively short space of time and it is true that there are those who have not truly embraced the changes.

There has been discussion on social networks about how family history societies may need to change to connect with the needs of their members. Some have been forward thinking and have reached out to researchers across the world by providing access to online education but this may not be an avenue that every society can or should copy.

The societies I belong to in England have changed some of the things they do but we must not forget that they rely upon volunteers. The direction that each society takes will depend upon who has the time and inclination to commit to the development of that society. This can lead to a society stagnating because none of its members has the inclination or time to commit to change. If you belong to a society which may be stuck in the past don’t forget to make suggestions, they may get ignored, but any society is only as good as its members are willing to make it.

What do you want from your society? Don’t forget to tell those who help run the society, you may find that others think the same.

I have mentioned discussion on social networks and these have become the equivalent of the mailing lists of the past but more. Facebook has groups for genealogy and Google+ has its communities. There are also others such as Twitter and Pintrest. Whereas we communicated by email and text in the past we now have a much more visual way of sharing. This has enhanced our ability to share our experiences but opened up more challenges when we publish online what might be copyrighted. Will these copyright challenges limit our experience?

We also interact using our blogs such as this one and many other individual blogs see Geneabloggers http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs/  maintained by Thomas MacEntee.

Whilst webinars http://blog.geneawebinars.com/ are an educational resource they can help provide pointers to things you may not be aware of and they are a great way to get information to those who may not be able to get to conferences or other genealogy events.

Video blogging using the Hangouts on Air on Google+ is becoming increasingly popular and allows genealogists from across the world to communicate by live discussion. They can also be used as a tool similar to webinars and a way to share how you do things.

To finish I would like to tell you about a Google+ community I am setting up to discuss how we get our genealogy software to work for us.

I will post on my blog http://masteringgenealogysoftware.blogspot.co.uk/ when I launch. I want this to be a discussion forum so that we can learn from each other, we all need to collaborate.

International Collaboration

Last month I wrote of my intention to join the Familysearch Worldwide Indexing Event, this is a followup post. 

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” - Helen Keller. 

I am rather proud of the new badge (right) that my personal blog is wearing. Although I am pleased to have made a small contribution to the Familysearch Worldwide Indexing Event I am proud because the Worldwide event highlighted the benefits of collaboration in the genealogy and family history sphere. Just as our blog Worldwide Genealogy brings together genealogists from around the world whose individual contributions combine to produce this blog as a resource for the Worldwide genealogy community the Worldwide Indexing Event brought together genealogists from around the workd to index digital resources from Familysearch.

The Familysearch blog reports that 66,511 indexers collaborated in this event and "While the focus for this challenge was on the total number of participants, a tremendous amount of indexing and arbitration work was accomplished as well. Here are the results for the number of records indexed and arbitrated.

Indexed: 4,682,746

Arbitrated: 941,932

Total Records Processed: 5.7 million"

If you have ever trawled through pages of unindexed Familysearch digital images you will appreciate the value of having more than 5 million new records indexed.

What made this event even more special for me was another collaborative effort, a Google Hangout on Air - GeneaSleepOver: Worldwide Indexing Event,  spearheaded by DearMyrtle and her Cousin Russ Worthington. (I will add links to the four Youtube videos from this event to the bottom of this post.)

I listened to and chatted to the hosts Myrt and Russ and other panelists from the US and UK while I indexed my few batches, at one stage the camera was directed to my computer screen as I worked on indexing one of my batches. That was quite a challenge for a newbie indexer. Myrt had also asked me to join and talk aboout a topic of my choosing, I elected to chat about Australian Royalty - those people who have and are proud of their convict ancestry. 

I watched and listened to the Hangout for around 8 hours of the 24, I was on the panel at the beginning and rejoined for the end. I was thrilled to chat with fellow Worldwide Genealogy bloggers, young Australian genealogist and new indexing volunteer Caitlin Gow and Hilary Gadsby from Wales who has blogged about her indexing experience.

 In Australia we talk about the Tyranny of Distance, being able to participate in the Hangout while participating in the Worldwide Indexing Event broke down the barrier of isolation we sometimes feel in Australia. Thanks to Myrt and Russ for organising this event.

GeneaSleepOver: Worldwide Indexing Event - Video (a):



GeneaSleepOver: Worldwide Indexing Event - Video (b):


GeneaSleepOver: Worldwide Indexing Event - Video (c):



GeneaSleepOver: Worldwide Indexing Event - Video (d):

CuriousFox: a gazetteer and message system

Logo on www.curiousfox.com

CuriousFox is a gazetteer and message system that connects genealogists and local historians. Collaboration between these two groups is immensely beneficial.

In CuriousFox, every town and village in the United Kingdom and Ireland has its own page. There is also a USA version, which I have not personally used.

Things I like about CuriousFox include:

• Exact map locations and historic maps.
• Free to join, add entries, and search by village or surname.
• With surname searches, finding relevant entries is easier because you can work at town / village level.
• You can search for 'nearby' entries.
• It is easy to edit or delete your entries.
• Google searches will find your entries (so 'new relatives' can contact you).
• No spam (your email address is not visible).
• Privacy (the system sends messages between members, and you decide whether to give a particular member your address).
• Advantages of being a paying member (about five pounds per year) include:
  • Contact and be contacted by all other members (free or paying).
  • Receive email alerts when people add entries for towns of interest to you.
  • Publicise your Web page or blog.

Entry screen for my ASHTON message

HINTS:

• Give some thought to the wording of your entries. They should be concise, with surnames (and only surnames) in capital letters. Specify dates, and use appropriate punctuation.


• For large towns with many entries and multiple pages, delete your entry every year and immediately resubmit it (updated if necessary) so that it reappears near the top of the list for that town. I did this recently, and within 24 hours a local historian contacted me and offered to send transcriptions of land records for that surname/town!

I hope you will try Curious Fox and share your success stories in a comment here. You might also like:

• Finding Genealogy Data in an Unexpected Country


• Use FreeBMD postems to find new relatives


• Widen the Search: a Genealogy Success Story


• Genealogy 2014 - 2015: Successes and Goals


• A Genealogy Indexing Addict in Australia

Criteria for Assessing the Quality of Genealogy Websites and Online Data

Academic researchers, commercial vendors and volunteer interest groups have produced a vast array of online resources useful to family historians and genealogists.  The quality of the websites and data contained in them varies hugely.  For this discussion, I will focus on websites that offer access to digital copies of original records.

Quality has nothing to do with the total number of records, or the number of collections or data sets.  Quality is unrelated to the cost of a website subscription or motivation of the provider.

Without documentation of all the processing of records and information in them a researcher cannot asses the reliability of records. We can’t change the imperfect state that the original records come to us in. Archivists work hard to preserve both the records themselves and the context of their creation and use, but online presentation is often performed by other parties. Digitisation, indexing, and search are just a few of the processes that happen before an online version of the record is presented. Presentation can have profound influence on how records are perceived and the conclusions drawn from them. Consequently, transparency is an ethical obligation.

What are the most important website features? How can they be assessed?

The following, in order of importance, are essential:

1. Catalogue
2. Transcript quality
3. Search facilities
4. Browsing facilities
5. Record quality

The quality of other features are also important, and a bonus if included.  Examples include analytical tools, user data (e.g. family trees, imported sources, research notes etc.), collaborative tools and social networks. But for now, I will discuss the basic five points above.

Collections with different histories or characteristics should be assessed separately. Only the catalogue can be assessed across a whole website.

Catalogue First

Yes, I really do mean that the catalogue is more important than anything else.

Genealogists use archival material, whether in the form of original records or some kind of derivative.  Genealogy websites are really a digital archive of such materials, so a genealogy website’s catalogue should share many of the features of an archival catalogue.

In her blog post The Value of Archival Description, Considered, archivist Maureen Callaghan recognizes researcher’s needs:

“getting to understand who created records, why they were created, and what they provide evidence of – really gets to the nature of research. These are the questions that historians and journalists and lawyers and all of the communities that use our collections ask – they don’t just see artifacts, they see evidence that can help them make a principled argument about what happened in the past. They want to know about reliability, authenticity, chain of custody, gaps, absences and silences.”

So, a catalogue is more than just a list of collections. Such a list might be the starting point for creating a catalogue, but falls well short of the sophisticated database that comprises an archival catalogue. It contains information about the collections, so serves a quite different purpose to search and browsing facilities.

A good catalogue answers questions about the website’s collections with no fuss:

1. Is the catalogue complete, including collections not yet digitised and indexed with a timescale of expected online availability? This information allows the researcher to make informed decisions using the database or seeking the records elsewhere.
2. What record collections does it contain? You want to know that relevant records are included before paying a subscription or spending precious time searching for records, don’t you?
3. Where did the collections come from? Typically records come from originals in an archive, or a publication. The barest minimum information for archival material is the archive and the archive reference, and for published information, the bibliographic reference. That allows the researcher to check the archive’s or bibliographic catalogues.
4. How do the collections relate to one another? Logical groupings of record sets by record type reflect original function of the records, whilst groupings by creator reflect the history or provenance of the records. Both are important for understanding how the records can be used. Were several types of record created by a particular process e.g. collection of taxes involved assessment of liability, record of payments and penalties for late or non-payment.
5. What is the structure of the data set?  How is the record set arranged? Is it by date, person or something else?
6. Is each collection or record set complete?
7. What is the extent of each collection and record set?  How many sub-sets, how many records in each?
8. Does the catalogue entry describe the records? Is a brief history of the original records creation and provenance included? Were the digital records an image of the original, or derived from a microfilm or transcript?
9. What information do the records typically contain?
10. Is a scholarly work on the record type referenced, or a critique on the strengths and weaknesses of the records included?

Transcript Quality

Transcription transforms manuscript and typescript documents into computer readable text, essential for creating searchable records. In evaluating the quality of computerized records consider if the website documents the following:

1. The completeness of the transcript.  A complete transcript captures the most information so is far more useful than an abstract or an index. 
2. Accuracy of transcription is influenced by how it was produced.  Optical character recognition (OCR) is commonly used for typescript.  Human data entry of manuscript or handwritten material depends on palaeographic and keyboard skills.  Typically, OCR and unskilled data entry yield less accurate transcripts.
3. Checking procedures should detect obvious gobbledy-gook, and common OCR and data entry errors.  Double data entry produces a con-census interpretation, but may not avoid common reading errors.
4. Have error rates been assessed?

Search Facilities

Good search rests on an accurate transcript, not algorithms or user added ‘corrections’.  Repeatable search, essential for confidence in the validity of results, requires a complete data set and stable search methods.  Search is not a simple operation, so inexperienced users need coaching and encouragement, not dumbed-down, limited functionality.  Consider the website’s documentation and functionality of the following:

1. Targeted search on individual data sets and collections as default. Choosing which collection or collections to search first is much more efficient than filtering out irrelevant collections.
2. Search on all data items in the record.  This requires a complete transcript.
3. Full text search, the ability to search everywhere in the record, also requires a complete transcript.
4. Complex search, the ability to specify ‘AND’, ‘OR’ and other operators.
5. Name matching algorithm choice.  Examples include soundex and metaphone, which perform phonetic matching for English-language names, and Daitch-Mokotoff, which is adapted for Slavic and German spellings of Jewish names.
6. Date ranges. Can start and end dates be specified, or a central dates with accuracy?
7. Are place searches restricted to place names? Is a proximity search based on distance included?
8. Wildcards, replacement characters in the search term that stand in for unknown possibilities e.g. Sm*th returns Smith, Smyth.
9. Separation of transcribed values and interpreted values with options to search on either or a combination. For example, the abbreviation ‘Wm’ or Latinised ‘Gulielmus’ can be interpreted as William. Standardised interpretations are known to librarians and archivists as authority control http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authority_control . User added ‘corrections’ are another kind of interpreted value.
10. Filtering of search results.
11. Optional ‘sticky’ settings and well-chosen default settings.
12. Result presentation.  Is it simple, clear and contain the information important to you?  Does it include the search terms used?
13. Result sorting on data fields chosen by the user. What does ‘relevance’ mean?
14. Result export in a variety of formats, ready for use by with software tools of your choice.
15. Logged searches that document research activity.

Browsing Facilities

Browsing is a tool for examining records in the context of the record set.  It should replicate the experience of turning the pages of the original.  The order of digital images should exactly follow the order of the original pages.  The structure of the record set and relationships between individual records contain subtle information about the creation and use of the original.

Browsing does not replace search. When used as a last resort when search fails, it is an indicator of poor search or transcription.

Record Quality

Original records are typically presented as digital images. Genealogists use the most original source available so they can be confident that the information is as reliable as possible. A digital image is not the same as the original, but can come acceptably close, provided that:

1. Good image quality that is legible.  Sharp focus, resolution, colour accuracy, and contrast all contribute to legibility. Digital image file types vary in the degree of data compression, which influences image quality.
2. Information that identifies the record portrayed included in the image file. That means all the information that you want in your citation, such as the archive and archive reference of the original, page number, record identifier, person of interest etc. A meaningful file name is helpful, but enough detail makes an unreasonably long name, as is human readable text added to the image. Potentially most useful is embedded citation information in the image file metadata, which is computer readable.
3. Technical camera or scanner metadata provides provenance of the image, including whether it has been modified.

Your Challenge – Review one data set

There is a lot to consider in assessing the quality of genealogy websites and the data they contain. Of course, we want all the features mentioned above in a user-friendly package, but I think there is quite enough to start with above. Have I omitted anything vital? Do you agree with these criteria?

Before we can hold genealogy data suppliers accountable, we need to fairly assess whether what they offer is of sufficiently good quality for our purposes.  What constitutes ‘fit for purpose’ is open to debate.  I think genealogy data consumers would benefit from setting expectations and demanding quality, and that suppliers would benefit greatly from carefully considered feedback.

In the interest of collaboration between suppliers and consumers, I challenge you to review one data set using these criteria.

Genealogical Culture Shock

Anyone who has been involved in international exchange or, traveled and lived in another country, will be well aware of the disorientation or culture shock experienced when negotiating a new and unfamiliar environment.  I believe that genealogists and family tree researchers can experience something similar to culture shock when they start researching an ancestor who has lived in a country that they are unfamiliar with.

At the end of last year  I discovered an obituary for my great great grandfather Donald McDonald.  I knew, from his death certificate, that he had immigrated to Australia in the mid 1850’s and that he was born in Williamstown, Ontario Canada and his father was Malcolm McDonald. 

Obituary Donald McDonald

I have been able to find considerable information on Donald’s  life in Australia, where he worked in the gold mining areas of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. However, until the discovery of his obituary, his life before arriving in Australia was a bit of a mystery.

The obituary has provided a number of clues and starting points to further research the earlier years of his life and family connections in Canada. These clues include:  family links with the early days of the Hudson Bay Company, his the family came from the Glengarry district and that he had traveled to the gold fields of California before making the trip with friends to Australia.  A transcribed copy of the Obituary can be found on my post, Sunday's Obituary, Donald McDonald 1834-1913.

With renewed enthusiasm I started to delve into the genealogical world of Glengarry, Canada and the Scottish immigrants, only to find I was way out of my depth. I discovered that trying to trace a Donald McDonald or Malcolm McDonald in the Glengarry district of Canada, was very similar to researching a John Smith or Richard Taylor in the United Kingdom.  There are numerous generations of McDonald/McDonell’s with the Christian names of Donald or Malcolm!  In a way it was exciting to see that there was so much history related to the McDonald Family in this area of Canada.  However, it was also little daunting. Where do I start!!

So many questions arose!  How do I research birth, death and marriages in Canada? Are there on line newspapers? Where do I find immigration records? What was the history behind the Scottish immigration to Canada, what was their role in Canadian history?  All that assumed knowledge and familiarity with country history, culture, language  and resources that I rely on when researching family in Australia and UK was not there!!!! It was all new and unfamiliar!!  It then dawned on me that I was in a way experiencing “genealogical culture shock”.  Yes, all the signs are there, new cultures, both Scottish and Canadian, new social structures, information overload, so much to read and get my head around, new languages, and understanding the different historical circumstances that my ancestors had lived in.

So I thought I would approach my new research project on Donald McDonald and his family in Canada with an awareness of the culture shock that I was experiencing and use this awareness to develop a sensible approach  to my new research project on Donald McDonald and my ancestors in Canada.

To start with identify the signs of possible frustrations:

-         Lack of confidence in my knowledge

-         Loss of familiar connections - i.e. familiar websites, genealogical societies and connection with    fellow researchers     

-         Lack of direction, all over the place with no systematic connection

-         Not sure how to approach the research in a new country or who to contact

-         Very limited knowledge of the relevant  history

-         Very limited knowledge of the geography of the area

-         Frustration and irritation with lack of research progress

-         Disappointment after the initial excitement of finding the obituary

-         Discovery of new and unfamiliar set of cultural values and practices

-         Frustration with having to research documents in another language

There are a number of options:  you could become frustrated, embarrassed by you lack of knowledge and understanding of the new research environment and give up on your research or you could approach the problem with acceptance, and slowly work your way through the difficulties. The diagram below demonstrates the possible options:

Genealogical Culture Shock

As the diagram demonstrates the researcher can move from frustration through to new discoveries, or become frustrated and hit a brick wall and give up on the research.  After some careful consideration here are some suggested ways to move through the genealogical culture shock:

-        Collaborate and call on the experience of fellow researchers.  They may be able to assist you with some of your stumbling blocks.

-        Be open minded and share any knowledge you have, and make notes of every little snippet of information you come across, as these may mean more to you once you have a better knowledge. and understanding of the area you are researching.

-        Break down your research into a systematic, step by step process.

-        Read!!  Try and read as much as you can (from Internet and books) on the history of the area and the culture and customs of the people who lived in the time of your ancestor.

-        Familiarise yourself with the geography of the area you are researching, look at present day maps and older maps if possible.  A knowledge of the surrounding towns, proximity to rivers, sea can all be helpful.  A map with pins marking towns and significant events can assist as well.

-        Establish a new research network in that area by contacting local libraries, archives and genealogy societies.

-        Use social media to link up with other researchers or people with interests in this area e.g. twitter, google+, facebook and pinterest.  This can be done by searching the district, town or surname or even if you know it the occupation of your ancestor.

-        Search for blogs written by people who are researching this area or family.

Now all I have to do is to put these action points into practise and see if I can discover more about my great great grandfather, Donald.  I would be very interested to hear how other researchers approach this,  i.e. when they find themselves in a totally unfamiliar area of research, and of course I will welcome any advice that anyone can give me on researching in this particular area of Canada. 

 _______________

Resources:

1913 'Death of an Old Identity.', The Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal (NSW : 1888 - 1954), 16 April, p. 2, viewed 23 February, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130422825