Alan E. Mann, A.G.

Alan.familyhistory@gmail.com                                                                 Accredited Genealogist

BYU Annual Genealogy and Family History Conference                    Tuesday, 1 August 2006

www.alanmann.com/articles                                                                            9:45 am - 10:45am

                                                                                                                               prepared July 2006

                                 

 

What’s New in Family History on the Internet

 

While there are many promising great, new services and products in family history, many are still “coming soon.” More information about new products and technologies are covered in my session on Thursday at 1:30. What I want to show you this afternoon is new web sites and services for genealogy. These are:

 

1.      Actual Records Online - digitization

2.      GeoCoding genealogy data

3.      Blogs, RSS, and PodCasts

4.      Tutorials, webinars and video clips

5.      New ways to find web sites

6.      How to keep up to date

 

Actual Records Online (Digitization)

 

There are two basic categories I’m calling actual records. One is original records—scanned images of the original documents. The second category is indexes, transcripts, and abstracts. While not original records, I consider them actual records. Here are some examples from both such categories:

 

Digitized original records:

1681 & 1686 census of Wales - www.llgc.org.uk/drych/Notitiae/nll_s001.htm

BYU Family History Archive - www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/  (soon to accept donations)

Canadian Soldiers of the First World War (over 800,000 soldiers attestation documents) at www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020106_e.html

Digital Inter-Library Loan Library of Congress - www.loc.gov/rr/loan/illscanhome.html

Georgia Colonial Wills, 1733-1778 - www.sos.state.ga.us/archives/what_do_we_have/online_records/ColonialWills/searchKeywords.aspx

Oxford University Early Journals - www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/

Scotland’s People - www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

 

Indexes or transcripts:

Illinois databases - www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html

List of passengers arriving at Boston Jan 1848-July 1891 www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/PassengerManifestSearchContents.html  

New Jersey Court Case files - www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/supremedb.html

Oregon Historical Records - http://genealogy.state.or.us   

World War II Draft Registration – http://aad.archives.gov/aad/free-text-search-results.jsp?s=3360&cat=GP23&bc=sl%2Csd&q=Edward+Mann&btnSearch=Search&as_alq=&as_anq=&as_epq=&as_woq= 

 

 

Geocoding Genealogy Data

 

Geocoding is the process of assigning geographic identifiers (e.g., codes or geographic coordinates expressed as latitude-longitude) to data or map features. This allows for each piece of data so coded to be tied to a specific spot on the earth. Geocodes can be added to photographs, digitized documents, and a variety of things in electronic format.  GeoTagging is associating the geographic location with an item, such as a photo, certificate, or other digital record.

 

Two examples of early geocoding for Genealogy are WorldVitalRecords.com and  WeRelate.org. , a cooperative site that seeks to enhance good tools through individual participation. A sample geocoded database can be viewed by searching sources and clicking on the MAP button rather than the search button. Geocoding is an interesting idea, with a lot of potential for the future. Further links can be found in this syllabus in the article GeoGenealogy: Geography for Genealogists.

 

 

Blogs, PodCasts, and RSS

 

A great deal of the success of genealogy and family history in the past ten years has come from the growth of sharing information via email and websites.  For genealogists, blogging is a way of sharing knowledge and cooperating together for mutual benefit. A genealogy blog can inform us about the latest happenings, suggest new ways that we might use existing records, help us learn how to use a web site more effectively, put us in touch with others with common interests, or inform us about records or websites we didn’t know existed.

 

PodCasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet via a technology called RSS for playback on mobile devices and computers. The term podcast, like 'radio', can mean both the content and the method of delivery. Usually a podcast features one type of 'show', with new episodes released either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily or weekly. This allows for periodic shows on a theme. There are several genealogy podcasts, including Eastman’s Newsletter, The Genealogy Guys, and Genealogy Tech Podcast.

 

RSS is a way to automatically retrieve and summarize content from blogs, searches, and podcasts. For more information on blogs, podcasting, and RSS, see The Bluster about Blogging in this syllabus.

 

 

Tutorials, webinars and video clips

 

Increasingly, how to information is disseminated in slide shows, interactive remote sessions called webinars, and in video. Meaningful family stories are preserved in video.  Several tutorials are available at http://familyhistory.byu.edu/tutorials.asp. Lectures and presentations are preserved in audio, video, or webinar format.  For a sample video lesson, see www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/viewvideo.php?vid=20060517.

England’s National Archives has a great video clip on getting started in genealogy in the UK at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/familyhistory/films/puttingitalltogether.htm. Norfolk, England has a great set of local scenery and how to videos at www.nornet.com/~jcardiff/video/index.html. An idea of how to organize video clips can be seen at http://math.uww.edu/~mcfarlat/pictures/bmpextra/videos.htm.  Hopefully, we’ll be hearing (and seeing) more about this.

 

 

New Ways to Find Websites

 

There are thousands more such sites on the internet. It would be impossible to list them all here. Even if I could list them all, there would be more that weren’t listed by tomorrow! So how can you find more? In addition to the ever popular Cyndi’s List, try:

·        Linkpendium (www.linkpendium.com) is more than what its name implies—a simple list of links. It has two sections – US localities and worldwide surnames. When you pick a surname, it identifies genealogical or biographical web sites that contain that surname, provides a link, gives part of sentence containing the surname, and TELLS YOU where it came from. When you pick a locality, it subdivides that locality (pick U.S. state, then get a list of counties). It has millions of links and is growing rapidly.

·        Search Systems (www.searchsystems.net) is an extensive list of US state databases that are online. It lists many modern things such as bankruptcies, tax liens, and other matters of public record, but also lists many historic databases such as civil war data, deeds, or probate indexes. This list is a definite genealogist’s friend. 

·        Genealogy Sleuth (www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthb.htm) from ProGenealogists has some great, short link lists. It’s very useful for links to U.S. state vital records, passenger list indexes, and a few other useful items (there is also an international link list)

·        State Archive site list (www.sos.state.ga.us/archives/what_do_we_have/other_state_archives/default.htm) is from Georgia but seems to reliably connect you to the state archives for all fifty states.

·        Cyndi’s List of online primary sources www.cyndislist.com/primary.htm#Online

·        Genealogy Links (www.genealogylinks.net) has great resources for US states and most counties, and several other countries. It is particularly strong at listing U.S. county databases that you sometimes don’t find elsewhere.

·        Genealogy Site Finder (www.genealogy.com/links) is a free list of links from genealogy.com.

·        and many others

 

 

How to Keep up to Date

 

There’s a lot you can do to be aware of developing technology. I would suggest:

 in this syllabus).

  • Review Wikis (www.eogen.com) and similar items.
  • Attend conferences & institutes like this one. Check both speakers and vendors.
  • Participate in societies with technology topics or publications (such as Blue Chips, www.ucs.org/index.php and Utah Valley PAF, www.uvpafug.org).
  • Read industry publications such as Genealogical Computing, PAFology (www.uvpafug.org), and Internet Genealogy (www.internet-genealogy.com), and society publications--most include technology articles in current issues.

©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.