My Top 10 Genealogy Tools

Back in August before I went other the surgeon’s knife I promised myself that I would respond to a post from Pauleen Cass in which she listed her Top 10 Genealogy Gateways.

Pauleen referred to previous posts by US bloggers James Tanner and Randy Seaver and wondered what other Australians would include on such a top ten list. So that I can answer without being swayed by Pauleen's choices I have chosen not to reread her list yet.

James and Pauleen took a broader view of the topic by listing both genealogy and nongenealogy tools. I noticed that a nitpicker criticised James for including applications that were not really programs. Randy put forward a broad definition of program that I will use " James used the word "programs" to mean applications that perform a specific task on the computer".

I am making two lists of five : Productivity Tools and Research Tools. I have a large suite of tools that I use regularly but these are the most heavily sed.

Productivity Tools

Blogging Platforms - Blogger and Wordpress. I use one of these each day these to maintain my personal blogs and two blogs plus a website for genealogy organisations.

Evernote - I don't use this tool for research notes but  to manage posts for the Geneadictionary and Geniaus' Gems, details of Genimates, for reminders and to store my lists of links.

Family Historian - The genealogy database program that is my workhorse. Here I store all my genealogical data plus lists, research logs, photos and documents. I share selected info online  from here using the brilliant TNG at http://www.geniaus.net.

Google Products - I'm a Google Girl so I use Chrome, Gmail, Google Docs and Google Drive on a daily basis for browsing, communicating, recording, sharing and making spreadsheets. I love that I can access this stuff from a variety of locations.

Inoreader - My choice of RSS tools Inoreader curates my feeds and keeps me in touch with what's happening in the blogisphere.

Research Tools

As a New South Welshman whose ancestors arrived in the colony from 1813 and didn't stray far beyond the State I use New South Wales and Australian resources most days. 


Ancestry Although I have subs to several online databases I find that I use Ancestry more often than  others especially now that I am finding DNA connections there. 

NSW Historical BDM Indexes 

State Records NSW

The Ryerson Index

Trove

As all the above  research tools are continually updated I need to revisit them on a regular basis. 
And now this is done I'm off to compare with Pauleen's post. 

What does your Top Ten look like?

Tree issues

James Tanner wrote in a post today, Learning from our mistakes,  about some of the errors he had made in his early research. This post was quite timely for me as over the last few days I have unearthed some errors I made in my early research. I have corrected these and uploaded the amended data to my family site. I imagine that I will continue to find errors as I recheck work done over 20 years ago.

James said " Sometimes we have to "put it out there" and let the critiques fall where they may. If we are wrong. We are wrong. Correct the information and move on."  I agree with James. If I  waited until I had it right I might never share anything.


My website is a work in progress; people who copy my data to their trees and take as gospel what I have inferred do so at their own peril.


My online tree, unlike a hardcopy document, is dynamic. It changes regularly as new resources come to light or helpful people who are searching for their ancestors find it and offer additions to or corrections of my misinformation. What is of concern is that several people have taken my data and published it in online trees on sites like Ancestry.com and never go back to review or amend their entries.

Be warned - I make mistakes. If you have copy from my tree please do so with caution and always check sources for yourself.

Alone in the Wilderness

As a Geneablogger I realise that I am in a minority in the larger Geneasphere. As I sit at the kitchen table, in my study or in the car and interact with my online pals I feel I belong to a supportive and friendly community. However, when I attend a face-to-face meeting at a genealogy society, a presentation in a local library or a genealogy show I realise that I am different.

I find that most other genealogists do not share my enthusiasm for blogging or social media; some of them do not even care about or want to know what blogs and social media are. I want to spread the word about the benefits of social media, blogging and collaboration to others in the world of genealogy but opportunities for this are limited especially in Australia.

There are only about two dozen active Geneabloggers in Australia, the rest of my blogging pals are from overseas. These are mainly from the United States with a few from the United Kingdom and a couple from Canada and Europe. Distance and country of residence do not affect the quality of relationships I have these blogging pals.

Nearly half of my readers come from the United States, around 40% come from Australia, about 5% come from the United Kingdom and the remainder from other countries. It is pleasing to see that some Australians read my posts.

This morning when I woke I found links to two thoughtful blog posts from my mates James Tanner and Randy Seaver in my RSS feed. In the first post "No Big Deal" James spoke about this topic; Randy followed up with "Are we Strangers in Genealogy Land? These posts generated many comments and thoughtful discussions. I suggest that you read the posts. In case you do not have time for this I am pasting the comments I made below.

James, 


You are a star in the blogging firmament. Just keep on doing what you do so well and eventually people will find and follow your light.


Interesting points, everyone, but I disagree that blogging is on the decline YET but newer and more exciting platforms will replace blogging in the future. 


Certainly people in the genealogy mainstream are not aware of the benefits of blogging and social media but are these the people we want to embrace? What about the younger people out there who are just dipping their toes into genealogical waters. What do they do? They put an ancestor's name into Google, find some links and then land and are hooked by the 'cousin bait' on our blogs. I find this happening on a regular basis.


I remember Curt Witcher's inspirational presentation at Rootstech 2011. He suggested we need to look to the future and think about genealogists of the future - they will not be turning up to local halls for face to face genealogy meetings and trotting down to the local library to use Ancestry etc. on the library's computers but using the tools they are comfortable with on their personal portable devices to interact with the genealogy community and its resources aywhere, anytime. If we keep collaborating through blogging and other social media tools we will be there to welcome them.


Randy, 


You and each of the people who have commented on this post have demonstrated the benefits of collaboration and the richness of dialogue that blogs can initiate and the warm relationships that can develop through them.


When I met Randy and James for the first time at Rootstech this year and Helen at the Australian Congress it was like catching up with old friends. I knew them already via social media. Yes, Diane, my relationships with fellow bloggers are richer than those with the people I see each month at genealogy meetings.


So what if we differ from the mainstream? We have chosen to go down a collaborative path while others are happy to do it their way. If we convert a few along the way then that is a bonus.


Let's keep on blogging and baiting cousins and enjoying the rich relationships we build up along the way.

Guilty as charged

One of my favourite bloggers is James Tanner of Genealogy's Star. James, a prolific blogger with a legal background, writes thoughtful and challenging posts.

Yesterday James posted a list "My top ten worst genealogy practices targeted in 2012" in which he outlined  common crimes committed by the genealogists with whom he comes in contact. James intends to write further on these misdemeanours in 2012. This post must have hit a raw nerve with some genealogists as I read a few tweets yesterday that obliquely referred to the post. I made a flippant comment in a tweet "Guilty as charged - but only on one". 


It appears that another genealogist was also offended by the tone of James' post as today James responded with, "Mean Spirited"  a lengthy defence of his previous post. James made it difficult for the reader of this second post to reread and view the first post comment he cited as he did not provide links back to them.  I don't have a problem with what James' wrote - he is entitled to publish his opinion as are the people who have commented on his post.

I agreed with 9 out of  10 of the crimes cited by James, however I am guilty of his number 3 crime: "People who copy information directly from an online compiled family tree without sources."

I wrote this lengthy comment on his original post:

"James, I am guilty of your number three crime - People who copy information directly from an online compiled family tree without sources.

I take unsourced information, add it to my tree and publish it. 

I expect that those who visit my website and find unsourced information (and I use that term loosely) will do as I do and seek out both print and online resources to verify the facts (?) I have published. 

My family site is dynamic, a work in progress, not the end point of a piece of academic research. 

I am not guilty of your crime number 4 - People who think (or claim) that their genealogy is done. My genealogy is not done - my website is my workhorse not a show pony. I choose to let people view my work in progress.

By publishing my far from perfect work I have made contact with a number of cousins who have been able to verify some of the unsourced facts I have published. On occasion people have contacted me to correct what I had published. 

If I had waited until everything in my tree was cited correctly according to genealogical proof standards my tree would be very spindly and I would have missed out on reaping the benefits that the digital age offers genealogists who use online tools to make connections.

My message to those who borrow from my tree is "Caveat emptor"."