Alan E. Mann, AG

alan.familyhistory@gmail.com                                                            Accredited Genealogist

Fresno County Genealogical Society 2008 Annual Seminar     www.alanmann.com/articles           

Saturday, 18 October 2008                                                                                      9:30-10:30 am

                                 

 

What’s New and What’s Coming

In Family History Online

This session looks at some new things on the Internet. There are so many new web sites we can’t possible begin to look at even 1% of what’s new. Rather, I would like to show you several new data sites, demonstrate some new technologies or concepts, examine some new products or services, and give you a few hints on how to ind more of the same on your own.

 

 

New Data Sites

 

There are thousands of other sites which are starting to put up imaged data. For example, here are several sites I found while preparing for this presentation:

  1. Old Upstate, Western & Central NY Newspapers - fully word-searchable database of 5.6 million images of NY newspapers from 1810-2005 (site says 1832, but many papers date back to 1810--see attached list in Excel format) - http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
  2. Great site for Oswego county NY documents online, but I can't find the "root" page which describes what's here or how to use it. http://fultonhistory.com/my%20photo%20albums/Oswego%20County%20Probate%20Records/index.html
  3. The New Bedford, CT Whaling Collection Archives is a comprehensive index of men and ships on whaling voyages from the New Bedford Customs District from 1807 through 1925. The database indexes crew lists and Whalemen Shipping Papers, written contracts with the crew, for the period from 1810 through 1860. The information here is a direct verbatim transcription of the information as it appears on the original documents. http://www.newbedford-ma.gov/Library/WhalingProject/Whaling.html.
  4. The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project is composed of The Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), The American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), and The Jewish Chronicle (1962-Present). This project serves as both an online reference source and as a digitized historical documentation of the Jewish community of Pittsburgh and its outlying areas. http://pjn.library.cmu.edu/
  5. Metis Nation Historical Archive - search or browse genealogies and imaged historical documents for the Metis Tribal Nation. http://metisnationdatabase.ualberta.ca/MNC/

Many more such sites will be found on the Internet. Even the rate at which new imaged data sites are appearing is increasing. Putting imaged data on the Internet used to require a big budget and was only done by governments and large companies. New services and new tools now make it possible for even non-profit societies to put up imaged and indexed data. For example, FamilySearch now offers the use of its FamilySearch Indexing to societies to make indexing possible for society members using nothing but an Internet connection. The price of equipment is coming down. For example, see www.stgenie.com. Finally, the cost of web storage and delivery space is getting cheap. All of these things lead to rapidly expanding addition of imaged data on the web.

 

In addition to these new sites (well, new to me, anyway), major sites continue to add new information. For example:

 

FamilySearchLabs is a great place to watch. Check it out at labs.familysearch.org. More about FamilySearch will be covered next hour.

 

World Vital Records (www.worldvitalrecords.com) has a rapidly growing collection of data. While this site has been around for over a year, the site has found recent success. I mention it here because it has a lot of recently added databases and because it is now available at Family History Centers at no charge. Databases worthy of note include the small town newspapers collections and a large collection of US Directories. Their International collection is getting started, as well. Check out the list of databases available at www.worldvitalrecords.com/genealogy-databases.aspx (NOTE: you will need to click on “see all databases in this category” or you will miss many of the databases they have available). They have combined with We Relate to work on a map version of the Family History Library Catalog.

 

Footnote.com is another site which has shown recent development and which is also now available at Family History Centers at no charge. I am impressed with the number of state naturalization indexes or records they’ve added as well as the unique collection of revolutionary war records. They have contracts with NARA to digitize a significant portion of the US national records. Check out their list of databases at www.footnote.com/browse.php#All.

 

Ancestry.com continues to add new data to their site. Subscribe to their newsletter or blog to be kept up to date on what’s being added daily.

 

 

New Technology or Concepts

 

Online programs are becoming better and more numerous. The Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) is working with the Library of Congress to make programs on history and genealogy available. See www.opal-online.org/archivegenealogy.htm for a list of past programs which are available through the audio archive. These programs include Writing to the Courthouse, African-American genealogy basics, and Irish in America.

 

FamilySearch.org affiliates program works in cooperation with archives, societies, and businesses, FamilySearch is partnering with others to provide access to data and coordinate the indexing of the data. This program is new and only Family History Centers have seen any new actual access to data thus far, but many new things are in development. For more information, stay for the next hour’s presentation or visit the web site https://devnet.familysearch.org/certification/affiliate-program/AffiliateCertfied.

 

Social Networking is a pervasive, significant development which has the potential to change our lives. Social network sites include MySpace, Facebook, and many similar sites. Now, there’s a social network for genealogists. Founded by Paul Allen, FamilyLink is off to a fast start. Check it out at www.familylink.com. 

 

 

New Products and Services

 

Here’s a variety of new products in the Internet marketplace. Which apply to family history?

 

  • www.spinbox.com - --speak your notes, then emailed to you
  • www.phonecasting.com – give a podcast a phone number, dial that number and get the podcast over the phone.
  • www.callwave.com – voice mail to fax
  • www.privatephone.com – get a voicemail box in any area code for free, then listen via phone or have emailed to you or texted to your phone.
  • www.utterz.com – phone in your blog posting.
  • www.SimulScribe.com  “utilizes cutting edge voice recognition technology to convert your voicemail messages into text. We deliver your transcribed voicemail, along with the original audio, to your mobile phone, PDA, and/or email account. This process streamlines communication flow, saving you both time and money.”
  • www.evoca.com – podcast from telephone including conference call (Podscope then makes it all full word searchable immediately at evoca)
  • www.tellme.com – interact with the Internet via voice (any phone or microphone-equipped PC) – get sports, directions, shopping, news, or whatever…
  • www.twine.com – “You are like a snowflake – you are totally one-of-a-kind. Twine recognizes what makes you special: your unique interests, personality, knowledge and relationships, to help you find and discover things, and be found by others, more relevantly. Twine provides one place to tie everything together: emails, bookmarks, documents, contacts, photos, videos, product info, data records, and more. And, because Twine actually understands the meaning of any information you add in, it helps you organize all your stuff automatically. Finally, you can search and browse everything and everyone you know, about anything, in one convenient place. Find and be found.”

 

 

How to Find More on Your Own

 

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

 

·        Read online newsletters, chiefly Dick Eastman’s newsletter (www.eogn.com). See www.cyndislist.com/magazine.htm#E-zines for a list of many others.

 

 

 

 

©Copyright 2006-8 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.