Alan
E. Mann, AG
alan.familyhistory@gmail.com Accredited
Genealogist
March 2008
What’s New
in Family History
on the Internet
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 keep
find 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
3. The
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
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genealogies and imaged historical documents for the Metis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 affordable. 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 hosting the long awaited access to Family History
Library microfilm records online. It is called Record Search and is available at
http://search.labs.familysearch.org.
The new service has a mix of records, some of which are images only, some are
indexes only, and others have both. The records to browse are listed on the
right, and those indexed are listed on the left. Your search can be limited to
a single record collection or include all records that have been indexed. The
image viewer has many options and controls. If you haven’t seen it yet, try it
out. It requires an email address, but registration is free.
World Vital Records (www.worldvitalrecords.com)
has a rapidly growing collection of data. While this site has been around for 2
years, the site has recently added considerable data in its worldwide
collection. It is also available at Family History Centers at no charge. It is
important to know this collection includes many items which are available
elsewhere. The advantage of including them in WorldVitalRecords
is they will be included in search results. Check out the list of databases
available at http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/contentlisting.aspx
(NOTE: you can resort this list by category or title or limit the list by
country).
Footnote.com is another site
which has shown recent development and which is also available at Family
History Centers at no charge. Check out their databases at www.footnote.com/browse.php#All.
http://naturalizationrecords.com/sitemap.shtml - Naturalization
Records in
New Technology or Concepts
For several years, we have
heard lectures about proper searching, from trying to help individuals use
search techniques more effectively to designing better search engines. For
example, see www.myheritage.com/research. There has been
considerable progress on both fronts, but we yet have to see either a true
semantic genealogy search or a search devoted to genealogy which learns from
the user. There are many personalized searches (which look at your personal
searching habits and rearrange search results based on your perceived
preferences) and some social searches (which rearrange search results based on
your friends’ searching preferences). Both of these fail to directly address
the need to refine searches within a particular discipline. One tool which
claims to be able to learn from a community of searchers in a particular
discipline is www.toppersearch.com.
For other examples of
technology application to genealogy, see my syllabus material on New and
Emerging Technologies, also available online at www.alanmann.com/articles/newtech308.htm.
New Products and Services
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
FamilySearch.org affiliates
program. 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.
Those interested should consider checking out the “New FamilySearch” track at
the BYU Computerized Genealogy Conference held 14-15 March 2008.
Family History Magazine –
download the first issue free from www.discoveringfamilyhistory.com/.
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 your 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.
·
See http://tech.lds.org/
(note forums link near top, list of blogs under community)
·
Participate in or read Genealogy Blogs (http://genealogyblog.com,
www.genhelp.org,
http://genealogysites.blogspot.com,
www.dearmyrtle.com,
www.randomgenealogy.com,
http://genealogy.about.com,
or others.
· Subscribe to blogs, podcasts, and searches via RSS (see www.rssgenealogy.com, or The Bluster about Blogging
).·
Review
Wikis (www.eogen.com) and similar items.
·
Attend
conferences & institutes like this one. Check both speakers and vendors.
·
Use
search tools and directories, such as
o Linkpendium (www.linkpendium.com)
o
Search
Systems (www.searchsystems.net)
o Genealogy Sleuth (www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthb.htm)
o Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com/primary.htm#Online)
o Genealogy Links (www.genealogylinks.net)
©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.