Alan E. Mann, A.G.
fhfair@alanmann.com Accredited
Genealogist
Family History Fair April
2004
Family History
Assistance on the Web
This summary reports the current availability of
genealogical research guidance information on the Internet. While I found many
examples of sites containing useful guidance information, I was disappointed in
my search for guidance provided at the time of searching and finding records.
In most cases, the only genealogy guidance provided when actually looking at
search results or records is a “help” or “FAQ” link. Most help and FAQ links,
however, link to information about how to use the web browser or other
technical functioning of the web site rather than guidance relating to the records
or genealogical principles or methodology.
While a great deal of information about records, their
content, how to use them, and where to find them is available on the Internet, very little guidance is provided
during the process of finding and examining a record. The ideal of intuitive,
interactive, integrated guidance does not seem to exist for genealogy.
The situation in 2003 was that an individual might read How to Begin? information to find out
where to start. Then he would find another how-to article to tell him what
records to search. Then, he would search for a how-to article about those
records and where they are located. Then he would go to Cyndi’s List and try to
find a web site with the right type of records. He would go to that web site and
read the search instructions for the site.
Then he would search, locate, and view the record. One of the articles
he already read may have also given some information about interpreting what he
saw, or he may have to click on a help
or FAQ link on the site where he
found the record to get any further guidance (which may or may not be provided
at the site).
The closest things to guidance on selecting and finding
records was Research Guidance at FamilySearch.org and the Family History
Library Catalog. The only other site
that had anything approaching true research guidance given the user (rather
than the user searching for it) was two features at Genealogy.com (see below).
Late in 2003, we saw several new guidance efforts, including
the addition of some guidance in genealogical software packages. Legacy, for
example, has added a template to help you properly cite your sources, even
automating some of the content of a source citation. The most notable recent
development in guided research, however, is GenSmarts
(www.gensmarts.com).
GenSmarts attempts to analyze your database
and make research suggestions. It does a surprisingly good job, although it
still has a long way to go. Not only does it suggest what you might do, it
actually will do it for you for some items that are available online. It works from several different file formats,
including PAF, Legacy, GEDCOM, and several others.
This does not rule out the need to mine research guidance
information from the Internet, however. The guidance information is often
available on the Internet, but in a straight text format that the user has to
locate rather than as interactive guidance. Nonetheless, guidance information
already on the Internet could be mined for use in a guidance system rather than
taking the time to create guidance information from scratch. I would highly
recommend that an effort be made to locate, identify, list and describe
guidance information in how to articles and other formats on the Internet.
Plans should then be made to utilize that information (by links, by requesting
permission to use, or as a source for those having to recreate guidance
information that can’t be linked or permission cannot be obtained to use).
Guidance
Tools
Another possible type of guidance is tools to improve the
functionality of someone else’s web site. This is not true guidance in that it
doesn’t help determine which site to use, but rather having made the decision
to use a particular site, a tool can make the site a little easier to use. Let
me give five examples.
1901
Census Extractor. The 1901 British census is available online. It is
fully searchable, but one must pay a fee to see the image of the census record.
The index does not give a page number, but just the town. A computer nerd
created a tool called a Census Extractor that takes the free search results,
looks at various tables and gives you the “piece number and folio number,”
which would enable you to go to the right spot on the right microfiche (see http://leedsindexers.co.uk/Main-Internet%20Tools.htm).
LDS
Companion. The LDS Companion downloads census, Social Security Death
Index, or vital record information from familysearch.org and creates a GEDCOM
in lineage-linked format. FamilySearch only permits downloads in unlinked
formats. It also has improved IGI download formatting (see http://www.archersoftware.co.uk/ldsc01.htm).
IGI Batch
numbers. The IGI batch number
site lets you select a place and tells you the batch number, then links you to
the IGI batch number search with the batch number already filled in. This makes
it possible to search the IGI by parish in
PAF
Insight. Paf
Insight searches the IGI online directly from your PAF database. It will find
information in the IGI, import temple ordinance data from the online IGI, and
do a number of database cleanup and comparison functions. It essentially makes
working with IGI easier and less time consuming (see www.ohanasoftware.com).
Major Web
Sites
Ancestry.com is one of
the major genealogy sites. The closest thing to guidance associated with
records is the narrative explanation of how to effectively search, which
appears underneath the search boxes for a general search. Guidance information
seems to be available primarily in how-to articles, such as What to do when there’s no probate, Irish burials before 1864, and graphics file formats explained. Ancestry features 6469 such articles divided
into twelve categories (How-to, Preserving Family History, Record Sources, Home
Sources, Family Origins, Religion, Technology, Genealogy Products,
Organizations, Current Events, Geography, and Historical Context ) as well as
charts and forms to assist (under Trees>Charts & Forms). They also offer
columns (eight listed, but I believe at least two are now defunct) and online
courses. The eleven online courses cost
$29.95 each with eight lessons delivered over two weeks. Enrollees are allowed
online chat sessions with the professional instructor. One of the lessons is
“how to use Ancestry.com.”
Genealogy.com is the
other major genealogy site. This site’s
Begin – 14
lessons
Internet –
31
Immigration
– 40
Researching
with Genealogy.com – 10
The final category is about how to use their site. There is
help (search tips that appear as a link on search screens) and FAQs that provide assistance, but only if you go looking
for it. Emphasis is given to a step by step approach in helps and in some of
the articles. Forms, glossary, and guidance for specific record types appears
under Reference. The Ask an Expert section allows visitors to submit
questions to Rhonda McClure or Michael John Neill (respected genealogists), but
the only answers that appears seem to be one selection each day (or week?). It
is not clear what happens to those questions that are not selected to be
featured on the site. When you conduct a search, the hits are summarized by
database that was searched and the words What’s This? appears after each
database. This links you to a descriptive help screen. Again, this might be a
good idea to incorporate in our future planning (describe database, show sample
records, explain strategies for use, etc. right after each item in the hits summary).
Bureau of
Land Management’s Land Record Office at www.glorecords.blm.gov/ could be a
good example of online records, but guidance is only indirectly associated with
the digitized records. A printout of their home page is attached. To look for
an ancestor’s record, you need to click on Search Land Patents under the title.
On the web page, this is in a colored background that is difficult to read. The
only help is to click on FAQ, which doesn’t tell you how to
start a search. The FAQ is reasonably detailed about the record. Once a search
is completed, you get a list of hits. If you click on a name in the list of
hits, you see a card. At the bottom of the card is a list of links on one line,
the last link being to help. The help is very good,
including an explanation of the various parts of the screen. Thus, you do get
help with interpreting the record, but only after you have located the record.
National
Archives has a lot of how-to information, but virtually none of it
is linked to the associated records. You must go looking for guidance before
examining records. The only links from the records themselves are help links
that try to assist with the web browser or other technical functioning of the
web pages. You can see a lot of guidance information, however, at www.archives.gov/research_room/genealogy/
and www.archives.gov/research_room/getting_started/getting_started.html.
Library of
Congress has catalogs, finding aids, and helps, but none appear to
be associated with the underlying records. You can make your searching more
effective by reading the detailed help screens, but any guidance on how to use
specific records appears in how to
articles rather than search or guidance screens along the way. To
effectively use their catalog, they provide links to a detailed explanation of
Boolean operators and how to use them in an LOC search. See www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/ to see
their attempt to provide front-end how-to information.
Civil War
Soldier and Sailor System (National Park Service - www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/index.html)
has no content-sensitive help system, and gives only minimal guidance that is
difficult to find (click on either system overview or researcher’s
toolbox on the bottom of home page graphic, or click on INFO
at the bottom of the graphic on subsequent pages). This site has an incredible
amount of information, but little of it is linked. Thus, you can search for a
soldier and have a link to his record (not online) and to a synopsis history of
his regiment, but you have to search separately for a prison record, cemetery,
medal, or other reference to the soldier. This is why Heritage Quest is
currently looking at a project to link all of the sources together for each
soldier.
Public
Record Office of
Forskningsarkivet
(www.foark.umu.se/english.htm), a division of The University Library in
Experts
who volunteer
There are both paid and unpaid sites for research help. The
best known of those offering to help for a fee is keen.com. Those There are,
however, thousands of people out there willing to help you with your search for
your family roots. Lookup volunteers in
organizations such as usgenweb.org (check the state and county in which your
ancestors lived) are only some of the many volunteer helpers out there. In
fact, Lookups & Free Searches by Volunteers is a category on Cyndi's List
that offers services to look things up for you at no charge.
Do you need to check something in a county courthouse but
you can't arrange to go there? Do you want to check out a reference to a CD-ROM
but don't want to spend the money to buy it? Do you want a photograph or video
of your ancestor's headstone? Most of these things can be arranged at no charge
using a volunteer.
Perhaps there's a volunteer that might help you out. Merely
click on the link for lookups & free searches at www.cyndislist.com/lookups.htm
and you will be transferred to the right category in Cyndi's List. Check out
the Genealogy HelpList, Ancestral Findings, the
Look-up Exchange, GenSwap, Random Acts of
Genealogical Kindness, or one of two dozen more such free services at Cyndi’s
List.
Society
services
The purpose of a Family History Society is to help people
with their family history while providing a structure encouraging cooperation,
collaboration, and social interaction. Why not give the society the opportunity
to do what it was created for by asking for help? Societies may have guides,
may answer research questions on the place or topic that is the theme of the
society, or may have members who are willing to help other members (please join
when requesting assistance—it’s only polite to do so).
The majority of societies are place-based. A society in the
place you live may help with social interaction, but you will usually be
looking for a society in the place your ancestor lived. Use a categorized
comprehensive web (cyndislist.com, genealogy.com/links, or familysearch.org/Eng/Search/RG/frameset_rhelps.asp)
or go to the web page of the umbrella organization for the area of the world
where your ancestors lived. Three major umbrella organizations are:
Federation of Genealogical Societies (
Federation of Family History Societies (
Federation of East European Family History Societies -- http://www.feefhs.org/.
Or, use Society Hall at http://www.familyhistory.com/societyhall/main.asp.
Interaction
with the staff
Most record repositories have email. Many have web pages.
Through email, you can ask questions and receive guidance from the staff at
that repository. My experience with email is that the answers you get are
prompt while being in general better or at least more in depth than the answers
you would get if you were there in person. Emailing a repository should be a
routine part of your research strategies!
To get the email address of a record repository,
• just type
the name of the repository into your web browser’s address bar (it will do a
search for that name),
• use a
categorized list such as cyndislist.com
• use
www.worldgenweb.org or www.usgenweb.org, or
• use a
central registry of repository information such as ARCHON for
There are people out there willing to help, and these sites
will help you find the ones that are willing to help YOU.
Web Sites
with How-to Information
The sites listed below are examples rather than a
comprehensive list. While I have attempted to list some of the best sites that
I know about, there are literally thousands of sites that contain guidance
information in raw, narrative format.
For example, the categorized list of web sites Cyndi’s List,
has six categories directly related to providing guidance information, namely:
How to
(links to 60 web sites) How
to Tutorials & Guides (146 sites)
Beginners
(links to 157 sites) Organizing
Your Research (71 sites)
Education
(59 sites) Hit
a Brick Wall? (19 sites)
In addition, there are many of Cyndi’s categories that link
to sites that contain some guidance information or how-to articles related to
specific record types, record collections, or archives (e.g., Handwriting &
Script, Oral History & Interviews, or Wills). All 512 sites in the six
categories above, as well as the major sites listed above should be a launch
point for an effort to list guidance information on the Internet that might
save us the time of recreating or at least give us direction in our efforts to
create appropriate guidance information.
Last of all, check out BYU’s
genealogy tutorials at http://ce.byu.edu/is/genealogy/.
Supplemental links
Some of
the best general “how-to” sites
About Genealogy (http://genealogy.about.com/index.htm)
Beginner's Guide to Family History (Desmond Walls Allen) - www.arkansasresearch.com/guide.html.
Societies
Federation of Family History Societies - www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Help/First.htm
Free
courses
BYU - http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/special_offers/freecourses.dhtm
Rootsweb - www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/index.html#GENERAL (31 lessons)
Heritage Quest - www.heritagequest.com/gen101/index.html
Multi-media
KBYU - http://www.pbs.org/kbyu/ancestors/
and http://www.pbs.org/kbyu/ancestors/firstseries/
Family History Radio (free demo) - www.xmission.com/~fhradio/lessons/t4c2l1/frameset.html
(nine tracks, each with at least five courses, and each course has five
lessons)
Private
“how-to” sites
Lineages' First Steps -
www.lineages.com/FirstSteps/Basic.asp
Treasure Maps How To - www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/index.html
Karen Clifford (http://www.graonline.com/cgi-bin/gra/getlesson?-1+0+English+education+graheader+gratrailer)
and
Alan Mann (e.g., www.alanmann.com/class/files/England.htm
or www.alanmann.com/class/files).
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©Copyright 2001-2004 by Alan E. Mann. All rights reserved. Written permission to reproduce all or part
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