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Net Nerds
November, 1996 Climbing the Family Tree by Susan Ives, Alamo PC |
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Net Nerds
November, 1996 Climbing the Family Tree by Susan Ives, Alamo PC |
| When Bob Harris asked me to focus this month's Net Nerds column on
genealogy I told him, "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt." The January,
1996 article was wildly successful. I wanted to rest on my laurels
as one of the web goddesses of genealogy without exposing myself to the
very real threat of revealing the true depths of my ignorance. Bob persuaded
me to take a second look and I'm glad I did. Online genealogy has matured
in the past ten months and there are a slew of new and powerful resources.
Do take a look at the online version of the previous column, though...it
contains a lot of basic information that is still valid. I've dusted off
the file to make sure all of the references still work. As an aside, I
mentioned my maiden name in that article and a couple of long-lost family
members have found me in their web searches.
With the debut of Texas GenWeb, this has been an exciting year for Lone Star genealogists. GenWeb was the brainchild of visionaries in Kentucky who developed a state-wide comprehensive genealogy database. Their goal was to provide a uniform single entry point for all their counties. It worked, and the concept has gone international. Each Texas county has a web site, maintained by a volunteer and modeled on a standard template. You can post queries and browse through other people's wish lists. County volunteers will conduct modest searches of their own resources or of county records via e-mail. There is an archive of files and a comprehensive list of Texas research helps. Information input through the GenWeb sites is entered in a searchable national database. The Texas site is also hosting innovative online genealogy seminars. Two seminars on how to set up a county site are free. An introduction to genealogy, presented by Mike Basham of the Dallas Genealogical Society, costs $5.00. The site is recruiting Texas genealogists willing to develop more online seminars. Let's cut to the chase. Much to our collective chagrin, Bexar County has an "adopt me!" sticker attached. No one has stepped forward to coordinate our orphaned site. To maintain the honor of our county, if any Alamo PC member is willing to take on this project I'm willing to provide private web page design lessons and open up some space on the Alamo PC website to host the GenWeb data as a service of Alamo PC. Call me. If you're looking for a one-stop link list for Texas genealogy you won't go wrong with Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet. She breaks it down by state, and the Texas list alone runs to four printed pages. Another site that caters to Texas genealogists is Lone Star Junction, which has a section that accepts genealogical queries. If you're trying to unearth dead Texans in your lineage, there are two new cemetery sites that are fun to prowl. The Texas State Cemetery in Austin, the Lone Star State's answer to Arlington National Cemetery, is now on line, so you can pay your virtual respects to such notables as Stephen Austin and Barbara Jordan. The hook for genealogists is the master list of burials, which includes the graves of many Civil War veterans. There is also a sprinking of photos of the more memorable monuments. Another good cemetery site is The Political Graveyard, the web site that tells where dead politicians are buried. The cemeteries are listed by state and county as well as by a couple of dozen different categories, such as politicians who died in duels or elevator accidents. Two local sites, although not specifically designed for genealogists, contain useful data. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library is now on line and contains a list of genealogical references available to the public. This is a class site, well worth visiting. Texas Through Time Living History Foundation has embarked on an ambitious project to tell the story of our region in an opera. Part of their information-gathering process involves getting high school students to collect and write the story of Texas. This site should be a treasure trove of anecdotal historical information. Mark your calendars: two important national conferences will be held in the Dallas area next year. GenTech97, a two-day conference for genealogists using technology, will focus on practical applications of compter software, online services, photography and other technological tools. It will be held on January 24-25 in Plano. Those of you without Internet access can request a registration form by dropping a note to GENTECH, PO Box 28021, Dallas, TX 75228. The Federation of Genealogical Societies will be holding a four-day conference, "Unlock your Heritage" in Dallas on 3-6 September 1997. There will be more than 90 seminars, opportunities to conduct research at the Dallas Public Library and exihibitors displaying every genealogical product imaginable. You can drop them a line via snail mail at the Federation of Genealogical Societies, PO Box 830220, Richardson, TX 75083-0220. Two more Texas quickies. The Texas Historical Commission has put it's museum database online. You can search it by county and/or type of museum, including several genealogy museums. Our Spanish Heritage is a genealogy resource for South Texas and contains excellent information about the porciones. It offers a Spanish surnames information exchange, an excellent list of related links and a short but useful glossary of Spanish terms. Enough about Texas! Several new journals have debuted on the Internet. The Journal of Online Genealogy has been around since July. It focuses on the use on online resources in genealogy and family history. The articles are interesting and professionally written.The Digital Reading Room contains articles about genealogy and related computer subjects. Their article on "The Art of Scanning Graphics" is outstanding. In January, Richard Eastman, author of "Your Roots: Total Genealogical Planning on Your Computer" and the forum manager on CompuServe's Genealogy Forum, started a weekly online newsletter. It focuses on new items of interest to genealogists, including announcements about new software and products. The newsletter is sent to you via e-mail. To subscribe, send a message to roots@cis.compuserve.com. The message text should say only subscribe. Leave the rest of the message blank. It's free. Treasure Maps has also initiated a monthly e-mail newsletter; you can get subscription information from their site. The web site is a fantastic how-to resource. Among the current offerings are: There's been quite a buzz in the online genealogy community about the Social Security Death Index. It contains death information (mostly since 1962) for more than 50 million Americans who had social security numbers. It's fully searchable; I was able to find quite a few of my dearly departeds. The SSDI is maintained by Ancestory Search, who also offer several other searchable genealogy databases. Notable among them are the ROOTS-L mailing list archive, containing more than 133,000 names collected since 1986, and the GENNAME-L mailing list archive, containing more than 33,000 names compiled in the past two years. These databases are tricky for the first time user, so read the instructions first and save yourself some grief. The Ancestry databases were developed by InfoBases, a Utah firm that also runs the LDS Family History Network. They maintain a small but excellent section of links plus a "from the experts" section that contains excellent articles, including a great guide to genealogy books. Since I've been nattering about LDS, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has not yet put it's awesome databases on the Internet. However, signs are looking up. They've registered a domain name and promise that information will appear "at some time in the future." The major genealogy software companies are beefing up their Internet sites. Parson's Technology, who demonstrated their Family Origins and Family Atlas programs at an Alamo PC general meeting last year, has a nice site. They maintain a genealogy registry, offer software demos and a good list of links. If you own version 5.0 of Family Origins, watch this site to get the latest information about a free upload utility being offered soon. The Family Tree Maker site is more ambitious, and has created a stir among genealogists. Banner Blue gave users of their software the opportunity to submit their family trees to be included on CD-ROMs. The concept is great, but many contributers balked at what was perceived to be a high price tag placed on information donated by users. The basic data for the 19 million names in this World Family Tree is accessible online. My brother submitted his file, so I found my name. But that's it. To get more, I have to buy the CD. If you buy Family Tree Maker version 3.4, Banner Blue will throw in a free web page. You can download a demo version of the program from the site. They also have an excellent online magazine. Past issues focused on One final note. There are now dozens of excellent indexes on the internet that can help you find people. Members of the Internet Special Interest Group have been blown away by the Yahoo People Finder, which contains home addresses and phone numbers as well as e-mail addresses. Your phone CDs are obsolete! We have a short tutorial on the Alamo PC World Wide Web Page on finding people on the 'Net. My brother was able to find a Konschak in the former East Germany by searching for his last name in Alta Vista. Tino is coming to the States soon to do graduate work at Penn State, just a few hours' drive for my brother. They plan on getting together. Yet another genealogy success story! |