Publish Your Genealogical Findings Quickly and Easily

Alan E. Mann, A.G.

alan.familyhistory@gmail.com Accredited Genealogist

BYU Annual Genealogy and Family History Conference Thursday, 3 August 2006

www.alanmann.com/articles 9:45-10:45 a.m.

prepared July 2006

Publish your Family History Research Findings

the Quick and Easy Way

This session looks at ways you can publish your research findings. What are your options? Which format should you use? Do you want to send copies of your data to relatives? How can you quickly and easily publish your own family history?

Basic Options

1. What do you want to publish?

· Put unspecific information on the Internet and ask others to contact you

· Share only limited information, at your discretion in individual cases

· Charts or narrative or both?

· Several generations (how many?) of ancestry; or of descendants?

· A single family unit with history

· A group of families in a specific area or slice of time

2. Who do you want to see it?

· Anyone can see it

· Only those who pay for it can see it

· Only those who ask for it can see it

· Only those you select can see it (even if it’s only you)

Many related issues are cost (both to you and to the recipient), software, computer skills required (yours and the recipient’s), control over appearance, preferred format, control over distribution, and more. No matter which method of sharing you choose, consider copyright and privacy issues.

Steps to publishing your genealogy

1. Research and document your pedigree. Until you have something to share, there isn’t much point to publishing.

2. Enter your data into a database (including sources!). Pick a program that meets your needs (I recommend Legacy, RootsMagic, PAF 5, FamilyTreeLegends, Ancestral Quest, or The Master Genealogist). In choosing a genealogy program, consider whether the program creates books and/or web pages and what format is available.

Now we need to make a decision. Do you want to publish to CD-ROM, book, or to the Internet. Internet publishing is a cost effective way to publish. The basic ways are:

Publish to the Internet to your own web site, where you have ownership and control over appearance
Give your genealogy to another organization for them to place on the Internet.
Use a genealogy program that automatically publishes to the Internet.
Publish to CD-ROM
Publish in printed book

3. Option B only (someone else’s site). First, use your genealogy program and export a GEDCOM of what you want to publish. Look at sites that accept submissions of genealogies to be published on the web. These include Kindred Konnections (www.mytrees.com), Pedigree Resource File (www.familysearch.org/Eng/Share/Preserve/frameset_preserve.asp), AncestryWorldTree (www.ancestry.com/share/awt/main.htm), as well as others. Follow the directions given on their web site to submit your GEDCOM to them. Which should you choose? It depends on your goals and feelings. Some submit to all, thinking that they don’t want to miss finding any possible relatives, while others prefer to be more selective. NOTE: World Family Tree is not listed here since it charges a substantial fee to see trees placed online. RootsWeb is not shown since it is now part of Ancestry World Tree. OPTION B – Completed.

3. Option C only (auto-publish). At present, the only good choice that does this in Family Tree Legends (see www.familytreelegends.com). If you use this program, all you have to do now is open you’re the program, select file options, mark “publish to Internet,” make your privacy selections, and you’re done. Your genealogy will be published at www.gencircles.com within minutes if your Internet connection is open. Smart Matches is a bonus – see http://www.gencircles.com/users/lorindam/1. OPTION C – Completed.

3. Options A, D, and E. Open the genealogy program you want to use to create what you want to publish. The program you use to publish may not be the same program that you use to record your genealogy. For help choosing a program to publish your genealogy, see www.alanmann.com/articles/comparison.htm. This site includes links to example sites showing various different publishing options. Make a few choices about who and what to include and how the data will look. The options vary, depending on the program you use to create your pages. Once created, the pages will be on your hard drive. The adventurous may want to use a program to edit the pages and make changes (add more pictures, etc.). Use .jpg format for pictures. Word or another word processor will allow you to edit pages.

4. Option D. Copy the web pages or book pages created on your hard drive to a CD-ROM using a CD-ROM burner (CD-R or CD-RW). Be sure to finalize (or “close”) the burn session. If you choose web pages, people will be able to read the CD-ROM using their Internet browser (all computers sold in the past five years or more have a web browser, even if they don’t connect to the Internet. Web browsers are also available free). If you choose another format, such as .rtf or .doc, you may want to include viewer software with the CD. OPTION D – Completed.

4. Option E. Open the book or web pages created on your hard drive in your Word processing program. Edit the book until you have just what you want. When ready, click on print, select a pdf printing program, such as Win2pdf or PDFMaker. This creates a file you can send to a publisher. You then send it to a vanity publisher such as BYU Press, or to Lulu.com. The difference is that Lulu will print the books one at a time for those who want it, while a vanity publisher makes you pay for all copies up front, then collect from those who buy it form you. OPTION E – Completed.

5. Option A. Find a permanent Internet site to store your data. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may include this in the basic monthly charge you’re already paying. Many others do this free, including Web1000, 50megs, GreatNow, RootsWeb, Tripod, and Geocities. Of these, only Web1000 does it without using advertising. The price of free web space is allowing them to place advertising on your web page. See Finding a Place of Storage, below.

6. (Option A only) Transfer the pages created from your hard drive to the storage site you chose. Some places that store web pages for you have a wizard that steps you through the process of transfer (50megs, Web1000, …). Some let you use an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol) such as WS_FTP (a freeware program readily available). FTP programs can save you a lot of time in uploading your web pages. OPTION A – Completed.

Once these steps are completed, you should proofread the text and validate the HTML (see if it works in any web browser), make sure that the links are working, and that your data is properly presented. Tools to help you do these things are mentioned at Preparing to Publish (www.geocities.com/UGAslig/PreparetoPublish.htm) or How to Publish on the Internet (www.geocities.com/UGAslig/HowtoPublish.htm). Once you are satisfied, you need let people know about your web pages. After all, the reason one puts them on the web is to make them available to people. You can do this by notifying key sites (CyndisList, Linkpendium, GenealogyLinks.net, etc.), announcing on appropriate newsgroups and mailing lists, and notifying the search engines (Google, Ask, Yahoo, MSN Live, etc.). Detailed instructions for these steps are included in the tutorials on various web pages or in a variety of books and magazine articles.

Now that you have your own web page, decide if you ALSO want to send your data to one of the services that create web pages for you. If so, go back to step 3, Option B.

Finding a Place of Storage

You have choices in where to store your web pages. Your Internet Service Provider (the company you use to connect to the Internet) may already be charging you for space to store your web pages--it's included in most monthly service fees. This is true of America Online, Earthlink, Comcast, and most local ISPs.

Some people prefer to use a separate host for storing their web pages. The advantage is that if they change providers (for faster, better, or cheaper access), they don't have to move their web pages. Also, they can edit their web pages from any Internet-connected computer. To publish your web pages, you log in to their site on the web and then transfer the pages to the free web site. Examples are web1000 and doteasy.

Examples used in the class:

www.alanmann.com/byu/ghtindex.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~yourfamilytree/

http://www.deloriahurst.com/deloriahurst%20pa ge/5026.html

http://www.familyorigins.com/users/m/a/n/Alan -E-Mann/FAMO1-0001/d2.htm

http://www.gencircles.com/users/lorindam/1/da ta/834

Summary

Once you have created your web pages, there are a variety of tools to test, validate, refine, and improve them. For example, help learning web design at www.killersites.com. This site helps you learn about good web page design. I would also recommend:

· www.cooltext.com (creates graphics with your text)

· Background Magic (www.boogiejack.com/backgroundmagic.html)

· Web Development Shop www.library.miami.edu/graphics/browser.html

· Hundreds of other sites with clipart, photos, and graphics that you can use (free or fee), such as clipart.com and arttoday.com.

For more information on how to create and improve family history web pages, and the choices involved, please refer to:

· Cyndi Howell’s web page construction kit (www.cyndislist.com/construc.htm)

· SurnameWeb Genealogy Home Page tutorial (http://help.surnameweb.org/tutorial/gedcom.html)

©Copyright 2005-6 by Alan E. Mann. All rights reserved. Written permission to reproduce all or part of this syllabus material in any format, including photocopying, data retrieval, or the Internet, must be secured in advance from the copyright holder.