Alan E. Mann, AG

fhfair@alanmann.com Accredited Genealogist

www.alanmann.com/articles prepared January 2005

Publishing Your Family History

In High School Journalism, I was taught that reporting a story or writing something informative starts with 5 W's—Who, What, Why, Where, and When. My teacher then added “and sometimes how.” I can still recite the mantra without even thinking about it. I would like to suggest that the 5 W’s are good to keep in mind when planning to publish your family history. Let’s revisit the 5 W’s briefly in regard to family history publishing under the following headings:

Audience – WHO do I want to see/read my family history? There are different types of web sites. The author must decide whether the intended audience is:

· Worldwide - anyone with access to the Internet

· Only those who ask for it can see it

· Only individuals the author chooses or who belong to a certain group or society can see it

· Only those who buy it or visit a library with a copy can see it

· Only the author can see it, it’s just on CD or the Internet for access convenience & security.

Content – WHAT do I want to tell them?

· What information to include about whom? My family history (all or part), information about individual ancestors or families, research notes, conclusions & reasoning, or …?

· What content to include - Do I want to share names, dates, and places or do I want to include history? Should the history be just family history or do I want to mix in local/regional/national history and background?

· What approach/framework

o Do I want to start with me and go back in time?

o Do I want to start with an early ancestor and come down in time?

o Do I want an hourglass approach to the data (whether a chart or a narrative—the hourglass approach takes one couple and lists both ancestors and descendants)

o Or do I want to disregard time frame altogether and just present the linked data?

· What I want to tell them may dictate the format (ancestry, descendancy, etc.).

Objective – WHY do I want them to see/read my family history?

What you say should be directed by why you are doing it. If you can define the objective, the other decisions are easier to make. Possible objectives include:

· To have my data “out there” so when others ask, I just give them the Internet address.

· To have my data “out there” so others will see it and send me corrections and additions.

· To find people who have ancestors in common with me so we can work together.

· To get the “correct” data published so that people who copy their family history from published sources can at least get some right information.

Delivery – WHERE will they be able to get to my family history? (This could also be the HOW). If in book format, how many copies can I afford to print? If on CD, how do I distribute them? This is a strong motivation for publishing on the Internet. Web pages generally can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection. Then, when you are visiting a library or archive a thousand miles away, you will be able to check your family history even if you don’t have it with you—simply by connecting to your web site.

Timeliness or Timing –

· WHEN will they see/read it? Do you want them to see it once and then copy it, or do you want them to return to your web site whenever they want to check on the family? NOTE: If you allow copying via downloads, consider using GEDMARK.

· WHEN will my content be done? A frequent reason for publishing on the Internet is the ability to update the content frequently. I don’t have to decide when my work is done, I can just publish and update whenever corrections or additions are needed.

Format – HOW will I present the information?

Content format -

· Do I want to include charts (family group, pedigree, timeline, research log, other?)

· Do I want to include a narrative?

· Do I want to use New England Register or some other format?

· Should I include sources, and if so, as end notes or footnotes; linked or embedded?

· Should I include notes, and if on the Internet, embedded or linked?

· If I want to include photos--one per person or all (scrapbook); embedded or linked?

· If in book format, what chapters, headings and organization should it have?

· If on the Internet, what look and feel should any web pages have? Consider background, navigation bar, buttons, colors, and styles

· What sort of indexing do I want? Page numbers are great, but don’t work on web pages. Web links are good for web pages, but those who print it out will have a useless index.

Delivery format -

· Printed book – more costly, hard to update, requires shipping, costly for pictures (color even more), doesn’t allow audio or video, some people find it easier to read or to show.

· CD-ROM – requires computer to read, updates require republishing (but easy and inexpensive to do), requires shipping, not very costly, pictures can be included at no extra cost, can include audio or video, potentially more exciting

· Internet web page – requires computer to read (but can use one at school, library, or FHC), layout may vary on different computers, can be downloaded (good and bad), nearly free, updates nearly instantaneous, widely available, more readers (from search engines, other web site referrals), can include audio or video, potentially more exciting.

The answers to these questions help decide which program to use to create your family history.

Comparing genealogy software that publishes

To learn about programs that create genealogy web sites, see the Genealogy Home Page Tutorial at http://help.surnameweb.org/tutorial/gedcom.html. There are basically three types of programs that put your family names online:

1. Genealogy programs that in addition to storing your family data can create a web page. You will usually find this feature on any current genealogy programs. In addition to organizing you family data, it will assist you in building your web page.

2. GEDCOM to HTML programs. These programs do not store family data, but instead use your family data in GEDCOM format to produce a web page. You need a genealogy program to create the GEDCOM in the first place. If, however, you already have a genealogy program or prefer a genealogy program which does not create web pages, you can use that program to create a GEDCOM and then use a conversion program to create the web pages.

3. Programs that don’t use your genealogy program. While some have templates or fill-in-the-blank functionality, they don’t automatically pull information from your genealogy. General programs that will create web pages, but not automatically include your genealogy, include Front Page, Word, Word Perfect, HoTMetaL, and HotDog.

You can edit your web pages in a variety of software tools. There are html editing programs such as MicroSoft’s FrontPage (caution—bloating), and word processing programs such as MicroSoft Word (caution—bloating). In this specific use, Word Perfect is deficient—Word is simpler and more reliable for web page editing. You cou1d edit code directly in NotePad or another editor (ugh). There are many tools to test, validate, refine, and improve web pages.

Putting Your Family History on the Internet

The two basic ways to publish your family history on the Internet are to give your genealogy to another organization for them to place on the Internet for you, or to do it yourself. While using another organization’s web database, such as Ancestry World Tree, Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, One Great Family, or Kindred Konnections (Mytrees) may be simple, it really isn’t having your OWN web page. Thus, we mention this option only in passing.

There are other types of publishing, but most are minor variations of one or other of the two above methods. However, one is a hybrid of the two ways just mentioned. That is Family Tree Legends to GenCircles. This genealogy program automatically publishes your genealogy to the gencircles.com web site every time you use the FamilyTreeLegends program as long as you are connected to the Internet. FamilyTreeLegends becomes your genealogy database program, replacing PAF or Legacy or whatever you’ve been using).

Steps to putting your family history on the Internet

1. Research and document your pedigree. Until you have something to share, there isn’t much point to publishing. Some research can be done online, but much of it requires using traditional resources such as microfilm, certificates, and correspondence.

2. Enter your data into a database (including sources!). Pick a program that meets your needs (I recommend Legacy, PAF 5, FamilyTreeLegends or The Master Genealogist). If you want to publish a web page, consider whether the program creates web pages and what those pages look like.

3. Decide whether you want to create a web page yourself (and have control over it) or send your data to someone else to put on their web site. Use your genealogy program to create a GEDCOM of everything you want to put on the Internet (NOTE where you save it and what you named it!).For a simple way to publish, let someone else do it for you. Just skip to step 7. If you choose to create a web page that you have control over, go to step four.

4. Start the program that creates your web pages and make a few choices about who and what to include and how the data will look. The options vary, depending on the program you select to create your web pages. Once created, the web pages will be on your hard drive, but not on the Internet (see step 6). The adventurous may choose to use a program to edit the pages and make changes (add more pictures, etc.). Use .jpg or .gif format for pictures. Word ’97 or Corel 9 or later will do this, as well as many other programs.

5. Find a place that’s 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 rootsweb, tripod, and geocities. The price of free web space is allowing advertising on your web page (which generates revenue for the host). See part one. Take time to consider your options.

6. 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 (Geocities, Web1000, …). Some programs (FamilyTreeLegends) do this for you automatically. Others require you to use an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol) such as WS_FTP (a freeware program readily available), Cute FTP and CoffeeCup.

Once these steps are completed, you should proofread the text and validate the HTML (see if the coding is valid and 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 to promote 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, Genealogy SiteFinder, FamilySearch Internet, etc.), announcing on appropriate newsgroups and mailing lists, and notifying the search engines (Google, Altavista, Lycos, etc.).

Now that you have your own web page, decide if you ALSO want to send your data to a service that creates web pages for you. If so, go to step 7. If not, skip step 7.

7. Look at the various sites mentioned above (Ancestry World Tree, etc.) that accept submissions of genealogies to be published on the web. 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.

©Copyright 2001-2005 by Alan E. Mann, AG. 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.