Alan
E. Mann, AG
alan.familyhistory@gmail.com Accredited
Genealogist
Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy
Producing a Quality Family Narrative
Internet Publishing Options
This session is about Internet publishing. According to Webster, to publish is to make generally known, to make public announcement of, to disseminate to the public, to produce or release for distribution, or specifically to issue the work of (an author). Thus, sharing your family history data via the Internet is publishing. First, I address issues of what to share and who to share it with, and then look at how to do it.
In High School Journalism, I was taught that reporting starts with the 5
W's—Who, What, Why, Where, and When. My teacher then added “and sometimes how.”
I would like to suggest that the 5 W’s are good to keep in mind when planning
to publish on the Internet. In modern journalism, we list publishing issues
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 group or society can see it
· Only those
who pay for it can see it
· Only the
author can see it, it’s on the Internet for access convenience & security.
Content – WHAT do
I want to tell them?
· What info
to include about whom? My family history (all or part), info 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 (whether a chart or a narrative—the hourglass approach
lists both ancestors and descendants)
o 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 I give inquirers the web site address.
· To have my
data “out there” so others 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 on the Internet so that people who copy from the Internet can at
least get some valid information.
Delivery – WHERE
will they be able to get to my family history? (This could also be the HOW).
This is a strong motivation for publishing on the Internet. It generally can be
accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection. For example, publish to a
web site. 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 download it, or do
you want them to return to your site whenever they want to check on the family?
NOTE: If you allow downloads, consider using GEDMARK.
· WHEN will your
genealogy be done? Internet publishing offers the ability to update the content
frequently. You don’t have to decide when your work is done, you just publish and update whenever corrections or additions
are needed.
Format – HOW
will I present the information?
· 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 so, embedded or linked?
· If I want
to include photos--one per person or all (scrapbook); embedded or linked?
· What look
and feel should the pages have? Consider background, navigation bar, buttons,
colors, and styles
· What sort
of indexing do I want? Page numbers
don’t work well on web pages unless you use PDF. Do you want the index to be
links? (if so, those who choose to print it out will have a useless index)
The answers to these
questions help decide which program to use to publish on the web.
HOW to Put Your Family
History on the Internet
Do your preparation first.
1. Research and document your
pedigree. Until you have something to share, there’s no need to publish. Some
research can be done online, but much of it requires using traditional
resources such as microfilm, certificates, and contacting others.
2.
Enter your data into a database (including
sources!). Pick a program that meets your needs (I recommend Legacy, PAF 5, Roots
Magic, pHpGedView 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. You may want to use GEDCOM to publish but a database manager to
input/store your family data.
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 with no
control, skip to step 7 to let someone else do it for you. If you choose to create a web page that you
have control over, go to step four. I interrupt our steps to publishing to talk
about these options here:
The three basic ways to
publish your family history on the Internet are
1.to give your genealogy to
another organization for them to place on the Internet for you (see step 7,
below)
2.use a software which
places your genealogy on the Internet automatically, or
3.do it yourself. (see steps
4-6, below)
While using another
organization’s web database, such as Ancestry World Tree, Pedigree Resource
File, One Great Family, or Kindred Konnections (Mytrees) may be simple, it
isn’t having your OWN web page. We mention this first option only in
passing.
For the second option, the
major programs which store your genealogy online are
1. PhpGedView, which
publishes from any GEDCOM-compatible program (see example at www.finlayfamily.org/genealogy/). Program
located at http://phpgedview.sourceforge.net
2. newFamilySearch will
store your database on the Internet, either by synching with your software on
your PC (using Family Insight, Ancestral Quest for PAF, or another future
product), or by just storing it on the FamilySearch web site.
3. Family Tree Legends publishes
to GenCircles. This genealogy program automatically publishes your genealogy to
the gencircles.com web site every time you use the 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.
Third option--Steps to putting your family history
on the Internet
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,
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, Genealogy Links,
etc.), announcing on appropriate message boards and mailing lists, and
notifying the search engines (Google, Yahoo, 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.
Choosing a program to publish
To learn about programs
that create genealogy web sites, see the Genealogy Home Page Tutorial at www.geocities.com/heartland/acres/7002/gc2gedcom.html and my
web page comparison at www.alanmann.com/articles/compare.htm.
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 application, Word Perfect
is deficient—Word is simpler and more reliable for web page editing. However,
there are a variety of tools. You can always edit the code directly in NotePad
or other simple editor (ugh…). There are also a variety of tools to test,
validate, refine, and improve them. For example, see www.mezzacca.com/cool/newpage5.htm.
No matter which type of
web site you choose, consider copyright and privacy issues. For more
information, see www.ngsgenealogy.org/comstandardweb.cfm.
©Copyright
2002-7 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.